Silver by Talia Vance Read Free Book Online Page B

softly that my heart nearly stops in its tracks. I can’t prevent the out-of-control feeling that follows, the high that comes from the perfect chemical cocktail of endorphins and adrenaline. I can’t let myself imagine his smile is for me. This is exactly the kind of thing I should be avoiding now that my crazy is back.
    â€œYou really don’t know?” He asks. “It’s hard to believe. Next thing you’ll tell me is that the fire was an accident.”
    Oh my God. I want to run. Yet the smile on his lips keeps me here. “The fire?” How does he know about the fire? It’s not like I told anyone. And the records were supposed to be sealed. Anyway, it was an accident. Sort of.
    He looks away. “We lost our house and everything in it.”
    The wildfire. He’s talking about the wildfire that burned through R.D. last fall. Not my fire. He doesn’t know.
    He steps closer. “You’re not even going to deny it, are you?”
    My legs shake, poised to run, but I hold my ground. “Deny what?”
    â€œThe fire.” His eyes find mine again, searching. “It doesn’t matter. We know it was you.”
    I had nothing to do with the wildfire. I was at a horse show with Marcy in L.A. But it can’t be a coincidence that two people suspect me of starting it. Mom, I get, because she knows about the fire I did start. But Blake doesn’t.
    â€œYou don’t even know me,” I say.
    He laughs, mocking me. “I know enough.”
    â€œWhat was the point of your coming out here? To call me a criminal, or to figure out why you can’t even look at me?”
    â€œThe latter. Just watching you for more than a few seconds is hard. It takes conscious effort, and a lot of it. Even when I try, it’s hard to see you.”
    Ouch. If his accusation about the wildfire wasn’t enough, this proof of my undesirability hits like a bucket of ice water against my skull. Bucket first. I step away from him.
    His hand catches my wrist, sending an electric shock of heat up my arm. “Let me explain.” He looks at me then, his eyes vulnerable.
    I feel myself melting. Please, no . I may have fantasized about him from afar, but if there was ever any doubt about why I shouldn’t be around him, it’s been confirmed to the hundredth power. He suspects too much. He makes me feel things I shouldn’t. Even as I think this, the heat from his touch is spreading to parts of my body that should not have a direct line to my wrist.
    â€œTwo minutes,” I tell him.
    â€œThe first thing you need to understand is that I do want you.” He closes his eyes. “The real you. Just the memory makes me crazy. But right now, it’s like you’re not even here. I mean, I can see a girl in front of me. I can even tell you’re pretty, but it doesn’t mean anything. Everything about you pushes me away instead of drawing me in.”
    I pull my hand away. “So I repel you.”
    â€œNot like you think. You’re a ghost of yourself. If I hadn’t seen you last night, really seen you, I never would have suspected a thing.”
    I swallow, instantly back in that frozen silver moment. I was so exposed in the stillness of the room, and then he turned and spoke to me. It’s impossible. The whole thing was in my head, a manifestation of a latent psychosis I thought I’d buried three years ago.
    He steps closer still. “Even now, it makes me question everything. But I know I’m not crazy.”
    â€œThat makes one of us.” I laugh at the irony of this statement.
    â€œHelp me figure this out, Brianna. Before last night, we’d met at the coffee shop, right?”
    â€œSeveral times.” Six, to be exact, not even counting the fifty-one times he came in without seeing me at all. “And we were introduced again in the living room at the party.”
    â€œSo something must have changed before you walked into