Malice by Amity Hope Read Free Book Online

to you.”
    He continued to lecture me but I stopped paying attention somewhere around the fifth or sixth sentence.
    Tristan had never had his arm around me before. His spicy, boy-scent distracted me from my current predicament. He was still holding me closely, keeping his body between me and the rest of the world. His fingers squeezed into my shoulder as his side pressed into mine. His breath fluttered my hair as he spoke to me. Never mind that his tone wasn’t entirely pleasant. His nearness made it almost easy to twist this situation around in my mind. It was almost easy to picture us walking as a couple. It would be almost easy to think he had his arm around me because he liked how it felt to have it there. It would be almost easy to stop, slide my hand up his chest as I looked into those soft, green eyes of his.
    “ Samara ,” he snapped. “Stop messing around!”
    I blinked at him, realizing that I had almost made a complete fool of myself. I’d slid my hand to his chest. I was gazing into his eyes, completely lost in what was slowly turning into a lust-filled fantasy.
    I felt my heart slam in my chest and my stomach lurched. He rarely called me by my full name. He was clearly fuming over what I’d done.
    Before I could snatch my hand away, he plucked it away himself.
    “Do you think this is funny ?” he demanded. “This isn’t funny. Why would you do that to her? What in the hell were you thinking? It’s not like she’s able to protect herself or retaliate.”
    His tone was in that odd mode, somewhere between a whisper and a yell.
    I took a step back.
    I hadn’t been thinking. Not then, clearly not now either.
    That was the problem. Lately, whenever Tristan was involved, I had a habit of completely losing my head.
    “ Why did you do that?” The whisper-yell had turned into a whisper-shriek.
    Why ? Because I didn’t like seeing them together. Because I wanted it to be my hand on his bicep. Because I was afraid he would start to feel things for Julie that he’d never feel for me.
    Why ? Simplified…because I was jealous.
    I couldn’t tell him that.
    So I said the only thing I could.
    “I did it because I can.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 5
    “He’s going to hate me for this,” I moaned into my hands.
    “Don’t be silly,” Daphne said. She dropped down onto the couch next to me, causing the cushions to bounce.
    “He might be mad at you right now, but he won’t stay mad at you,” Finola tried to assure me. “Tristan could never hate you.”
    “He’ll get over it,” Daphne said firmly. She’d just gotten back from scavenging in Mom’s kitchen. She popped the last bite of a lemon bar into her mouth.
    “I’m not so sure. You didn’t see the way he looked at me,” I argued. I grimaced as the scene played over and over in my mind. Tristan had taken a step away from me. I did it because I can. Then his face had gone completely blank. He looked at me as if he didn’t know me at all. Without another word, he’d turned and walked away. Julie had obviously followed us. She had been standing at the bottom of the steps waiting for him. He walked up to her without a backward glance at me.
    That was the last I’d seen of him today, his back to me as he left with Julie.
    “What were you thinking?” Finola asked. Her tone was curious, not the least bit accusatory.
    “She wasn’t thinking,” Daphne said with a knowing smile. “She was jealous and she was just reacting.”
    I scowled at her because she was right.
    “Enough about Tristan,” she continued with a smirk. “We have more important things to discuss.”
    Finola and I shared a knowing look. “More important things” typically revolved around Daphne’s love life. Which, at the moment, was surprisingly quiet.
    She wiggled around in her seat so she could face me. “Xavier wants to go out with you,” she said. She smiled beatifically at me, as though she were bestowing upon me the greatest gift of all time. To her,