Read Online Amaranth by Rachael Wade - Free Book Online

only felt.” He
leaned in farther, placed his hand on the side of my face, pulling me toward
him. I didn’t flinch, as I so often did when Andrew touched me. Instead, I
welcomed him. I was fiercely aware that the instant his mouth touched mine, I
was no longer my own. He would love me or break me, the choice was his.
    He slid his hand underneath my hair around the back of my
neck. His fingertips glided over my skin, giving me goose bumps. Nope,
definitely not the same chills Andrew gave me.
    “Breathe, Camille,” he whispered. “I won’t bite.” He
chuckled softly. “But I would like to kiss you.”
    I let a small breath escape my unreliable lungs as I nodded.
The soft collision of his lips on mine shocked me with a jolt of pure
electricity. My thought of a moment before had been correct. There would be no
more war permitted in my mind’s battlefield, for I had surrendered to being
made his immortal captive.
    Our lips parted and I lifted my hand to graze my fingers
across the scar on his forehead. Looking into his eyes, my fresh existence
inhaled, desperate for its first breath of air.
    “Camille? You all right?” He sounded winded. No words yet.
    “Camille. Talk to me. Are you all right love?” He looked concerned
now.
    Still nothing.
    “Camille?” He grasped the sides of my face.
    Finally, an alien on a new planet, I made my attempt at
communication with the beautiful creature in front of me. “ What are you?” I gasped, my eyes locked on his.
    “Uh ... excuse me ? What?” His
look of concern turned to confusion.
    “No human being can possibly have this effect on someone,” I
repeated, still fascinated with my new discovery. “What are you?”
    He backed away slowly, leaned back in the driver’s seat.
“Camille, I didn’t know kissing you would ...” He hesitated at my smile, took a
deep breath. “I mean, I didn’t know a human being could have that effect
either.” He leaned back toward me, relaxed again. “You have no idea how good
this feels.”
    I laughed, more comfortable now with my foreign
acquaintance. “Believe me, you couldn’t possibly be more surprised than me
right now.”

     

CHAPTER 7
Tis Always Morning Somewhere in the World
    “Don’t you dare make me pump
you for details, Camille Hart.”
    Laughing, I put Audrey on speakerphone so I could rummage
through my closet for something to wear. Over the past few days, she’d left
massive numbers of frantic phone messages, checking up on me as promised. I
finally called her back, and now she was doing what she did best, talking my
ear off.
    “It’s about time he kissed
you,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if the guy was a monk or something.
Come on, how was it? What did he say? What did he do? Give me something .”
    My bruises had faded at last. I pulled my spaghetti-strapped
burgundy red dress that came to my knees off the hanger, pleased I could wear
it again. I wedged my feet into some black heels and held the dress up in the
mirror, making sure they complemented the dress. “I can’t really explain it....
It was like ...”
    “Amazing? Earth shattering? Intoxicating?”
    “All of the above, but ... more like an out-of-body
experience. If that’s what one feels like, anyway. More than the average rush
you get when you have your first kiss with someone you’re attracted to, ya know?”
    “No, but continue.”
    The dress went onto the bed and I swept my hair into a messy
up-do, sticking bobby pins randomly as I spoke. “Sobering. Sort of
metaphysical. It was so different. And my feelings for him are different . How was it kissing Gabe?”
    “Well ... nothing to that extent, I guess. But powerful.
I’ve never felt about anyone else the way I do about him.”
    “That’s what I mean about Gavin. Incomparable. And he has
this strange pull on me, like I naturally gravitate toward him.” I shoved the
last bobby pin into the pile of hair and started slipping into the dress. “So
the minute he kissed me, I just