Destiny (Absent Shadows Trilogy Book 1) by S.M. Spencer Read Free Book Online Page B

laugh at me. In a good way,’ he said.
    ‘Do I? I mean … yeah, well … I guess so …’ I replied, not knowing whether to take his words as a compliment or not.
    ‘You do … and it’s just what I need. I know I can be rather … serious … and maybe even a bit intimidating at times.’
    ‘Intimidating? No … well, maybe … I mean … yeah, you seem to be very serious … and you … frown a lot.’
    ‘Maybe it’s the frown … but I know some women … girls … find me … scary,’ he said, now turning to look at me with a question on his face.
    I thought hard about it … scary? There wasn’t anything about him that frightened me, and I found it hard to believe anyone could describe him as scary. But then again, those intense eyes of his … and that frown … maybe that could be mistaken by some … maybe some might even find him … sinister? No … not that, but something.
    ‘Well, you don’t scare me … and I don’t mean to laugh at you … it just a way of, you know … breaking the tension.’
    ‘I’m glad that I don’t scare you. I do need to chill sometimes … try to be a bit more like Tom. He’s so not like me … he always enjoys himself … lives for the moment, as they say. I wish I could be more like him, but I have trouble … letting go … of things.’
    His confession made me feel like a real jerk. The man was in pain for some reason, and I’d been giving him a hard time, thinking it was all because he didn’t like me. Maybe, possibly, it had nothing to do with me.
    ‘You’re not scary, Sam. You do seem a bit … sad … sometimes, but we all go through rough times. If there’s anything you want to talk about … well, I can be a good listener.’
    He didn’t reply. We just walked on in silence and before I knew it, we were at the apartment.
    ‘Do you want to come up?’ I asked, hoping for the chance to spend more time with him.
    ‘No, thank you, not this time. There are a couple things I need to do tonight. Maybe another time?’
    So … he wanted there to be another time. That was promising.
    And then he did what I would never have expected … not in a million years. He put his hands on each side of my face, stared into my eyes, leaned forward, and kissed me. It was the most gentle of kisses, like little butterfly wings barely touching my lips. But it was enough to send electric shocks right through the core of me.
    ‘Good night, Lili,’ was all he said before he disappeared into the darkness.
    ~~***~~
    That night I wrote a long email to Mom and Raye, apologising for not writing every day like I’d said I would. I told them about my new job, and about the day I’d spent shopping with Debs. I told them about Claire, and how nice it was to have a friend my own age.
    What I didn’t tell them about was Sam. I couldn’t. There were no words to describe the way I felt about him. There was confusion and attraction and electricity all rolled up into one. And then there was that unexpected kiss. And of course there was the weekend we were about to have in Sydney. No, I wasn’t telling them any of that.

~ C HAPTER F IVE ~
    We arrived just before noon, and although it was overcast, it wasn’t as cold as Melbourne.
    It was a short taxi ride from the airport to our hotel, and we got there way too early to check into the room, so we left our bags at the reception desk and headed down to Circular Quay—to the ferry terminal.
    Claire couldn’t wait to get me onto the Manly Ferry. She’d talked about it the whole way up on the plane. As soon as we were on board she grabbed my hand and dragged me along the top deck as far forward as we could go. We perched ourselves there, and as the ferry pulled away from the dock I could see why she wanted this spot.
    I stared in awe at the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I mean, I’d seen them on TV on New Year’s Eve, and in movies, but they’d always seemed like they were a million miles away. Now here I was, and there was