The Disappearing Girl by Heather Topham Wood Read Free Book Online Page A

affectionate in a natural way, making every excuse to touch me. He held my hand for most of the night, tracing small circles over my knuckles. Each caress made me envision what else he could do to me using his fingers.
    The night came to an end too swiftly. Brittany had her arm laced through mine when we were ushered out of the final bar on our pub crawl. Cameron and Kurt were behind us, bonding over their shared love of the New York Giants. Brittany and I were struggling to walk, both of us equally intoxicated.
    Brittany stage whispered, “He’s so freaking sexy, Kayla, you should totally go home with him.”
    I dared a look behind me and was met by a pair of glittering blue eyes. Cameron winked my way as he continued his conversation with Kurt. I hissed, “I’m not going home with him, I barely know him.”
    “That didn’t stop you from letting him perform mouth-to-mouth on you in the bar.”
    “Like you should talk,” I reminded her.
    Brittany giggled in response and spun around to face Kurt. She ran behind him and hopped on his back. He carried her down the road to the intersection where we were going to wait for the cab to pick us up.
    “Do you want a ride back to the dorm?” Cameron asked me while Kurt and Brittany charged in front of us. “I haven’t been drinking for hours.”
    My feet throbbed and my head was beginning to pound, and the thought of being chauffeured home by him was tempting. However, through the alcohol induced haze, I understood it would probably be best to stay with Brittany and take the taxi home. I may have been ready to kiss him senseless, but I didn’t want to wake up with regrets the next morning by allowing things to go farther than I felt comfortable with.
    “Thanks for the offer, but I should probably head back with my friends,” I said softly.
    “I was going to drive you all back,” he elaborated.
    “We already called a cab. Anyway, if you drove us home, I’d feel obligated to invite you up. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s pretty quick, considering we haven’t gone on a date yet.”
    “This night turned out much better than I expected. I thought I’d be at the bar all night, whining to my friends about the girl who never called me,” he said.
    We stopped walking and I began to shift from foot to foot to stave off the bitter cold. I shoved my hands into the pockets of his wool coat and smiled up at him. “Thanks for a memorable birthday.”
    The wind picked up and my hair was blown into my face. He smoothed my hair back and cupped my chin. His lips grazed mine, and I sighed in contentment. He drew back and then planted a gentle kiss on my forehead.
    “Will you call me this time?” The husky timbre of his voice was stirring up lustful images of the two of us in my head. I conceived of things he could do to my body to help me forget how much I loathed it.
    “Do you want to take my number just in case I lose my nerve?”
    He pulled out his cell phone and I relayed my number to him. Smirking, he quipped, “This is your actual number, right, Bella Swan?”
    “Yes,” I said, and I blushed. I hoped he would call but didn’t want to say it. The night brought out a side of me that had been dormant for a long time. I’d begun referring to that period as the before : Before my dad died and broke my heart, before I transformed into the calorie-counting maniac who abused her body for skinniness.
    When the taxi pulled up, I disentangled from his arms. I kissed his cheek, lingering for a second too long. I breathed in his scent, already addicted to the subtle masculine aroma. As I took a step backward, I hoped his smell lingered on my skin, reminding me of the incredible night I’d had. Cameron escorted me into the cab and leaned over for a quick peck once I was crammed into the backseat with Brittany and Kurt.
    Brittany kissed her palm and blew it in his direction. “Bye lover boy!” she exclaimed. Her dark curls fell forward, concealing her face, and she began to