I’ll Be True (Chapter 16)

Read Chapter 15 before you continue…

 

Madam Esmeralda truly appeared bewildered as she met Matthew’s gaze. “Hayden?”

Elaina was not fooled. She had visited Madam’s tent every year since she was a little girl with her friends to hear the old woman’s wild predictions. Esmeralda was not even her real name. When she was not moonlighting as a fortune-teller, the population of the county knew this old woman as the eccentric Widow Warren of Triple Axel, the adjacent town to Lainie’s Creek. It was true Widow Warren, née Mary Esme Smith, born and brought up in Lainie’s Creek, now lived in her deceased husband’s family home all by herself in the neighboring town, but she returned numerous times each year to take on her position as the county fair fortune-teller. Without any children of her own, the job afforded her an outlet to be around children and youths in the form of entertainment. She had seen all of Elaina’s friends and siblings grow up over the years and if she remembered Lainie Corey’s romantic misfortunes so clearly, she certainly was not going to forget the current Corey siblings in a hurry.

“Please don’t insult my intelligence by pretending not to know who Hayden is, Mrs. Warren,” retorted Elaina, dropping all pretense to the illusion of the role played by the older lady. “You know very well he is my brother just as I know you are no fortune-teller. Now fess up if he put you up to this.”

I’ll Be True (Chapter 15)

Read Chapter 14 before you continue…

Matthew practically jogged his way to meet Elaina. Partly because he wanted to put distance between himself and whatever daggers Brooke was throwing at his back. But also because he could not wait to see Elaina.

Last night was probably one of the best sexual experiences of his life. Elaina had been as open and honest with him in bed as she was with everything else. She had applied the same level of curiosity and sincerity to their love making that he had come to understand as her trademark for all aspects of her life. It had been intense and he was more than pleased to find out how healthy her sexual appetite was.

It was obvious that she was not practiced in the art of love making. But what she lacked in experience, she made up with enthusiasm. She was a quick learner and an adventurous one at that, eager to try her own things once she picked up on a few skills from him. After the few initial moments of hesitation, she boldly responded to his actions, often reciprocating the moves.

She wanted to please and he was still throbbing with pleasure.

Matthew quickened his steps. As he rounded the corner of the fair entrance and saw her standing by the fortune-teller’s tent as had been pre-assigned, he felt his heart skip. And when she turned around and spotted him, a smile brightening her already radiant face, he felt his heart swell at the thought that she was delighted to see him.

This was it, his brain informed him. He had found The One.