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assure herself she was still alone, she typed in a quick search

and started browsing through sites.

The conference would be over in a couple days. What if that

wasn’t enough time for her to find Cassia? The woman she’d

seen across from her in a crowded hotel lounge. She’d

instantly known there was something different about the sad,

ethereally beautiful woman. She’d felt a bolt of attraction so

strong it was like getting hit by lightning. True to the clichéd

saying, she’d never been hit like that before.

She kept scrolling through page after page, trying to ignore

the stab in her gut about what she felt for the women and men

who had to put themselves through that. Lost innocence? Was

that what it was? Something about it tugged at her heart. She

was sure there were people who wanted to be doing what they

were doing, but how many of them didn’t really want to be

escorting? How many of them sunk deeper into the sex trade?

She didn’t honestly know much about it. While it was

powerful for some, it was probably more of a hard necessity

for so many others.

Cassia. Her name pulsed through Adalynn’s head, affecting

her like a drug. She could recall the jasmine of the other

woman’s perfume, just slight enough to be noticeable. She’d

&nbsp

; worn only light makeup, and her natural features were almost

pixie-like they were so delicate. It was easy for Adalynn to

believe Cassia had been a fairy, with her otherworldly beauty,

her tiny stature, her white-blonde hair. She might not have

been real at all.

She was real. I have to find her.

Adalynn couldn’t say why. She couldn’t say why it bothered