Read Online Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy by Tracey Lee Campbell - Free Book Online Page B

risk it."
    Josie's was at the other end of town. We made small talk on the short drive, but my mind was still on the night before. I'd never had a chance on the way home, with Michael chatting animatedly in between us in the truck, to ask how he'd come to know Simon's secret.
    "That was pretty impressive, what you did last night," I finally said.
    Aric waited for a kid on a bike to move across the driveway, then he turned the steering wheel, edging into the car park at Josie's. He didn't offer any further comment.
    "So how did you know?" I asked bluntly.
    He switched off the engine. "About Simon wetting the bed?"
    "Yeah."
    He shrugged and unbuckled his seat belt. "Kids like that always have some deep dark secret. I hit on his. They're always secretly scared of something." He opened the car door. "Come on, I'm starving!"
    We sat in the same booth I'd been sitting in when I'd first caught sight of him. I showed him the most hygienic choices on the menu, and he ordered for us, sending the waitress into a fit of giggles and blushes.
    "Do you always do that?" I asked.
    "Do what?"
    "Make women, well, you know." I picked up the salt shaker and ran my fingers over the glass facets of the cheap container. "Make woman... go all gooey over you."
    He chuckled and held out his hands. "Only the straight ones!"
    "Well, that's obvious," I joked, "but maybe you underestimate yourself. If you can charm even the likes of Aunt Janet, then maybe you could turn the gay ones to the other side as well."
    "Are you saying you suspect your aunt is gay?"
    "No! I'm saying she doesn't like anyone much. But she likes you. I think she has the hots for you."
    "Maybe. To tell you the truth, I'm used to it and don't notice it anymore."
    If anyone else had said that it would have sounded conceited, but Aric made it seem like he thought it was an unremarkable fact of life his charm and good looks had an astonishingly captivating affect on any female. I supposed if charisma and good looks came naturally, you'd get used to it, even take it for granted. Aric obviously learned to live with it, and I was impressed he never seemed to use his charm to take advantage of anyone.
    I considered asking him if he had anyone 'special' he'd charmed, but he changed the subject.
    "This is where I first saw you. In Craigsville, I mean."
    I looked at the empty booth he'd been sitting in.
    "I know, and you kept staring at me. I was beginning to think I'd grown two heads or something."
    "Sorry. And I wasn't staring - I was admiring. There's a difference you know! I couldn't help myself - I thought - think - you're very pretty."
    My heart leapt, pleased with the compliment, and I knew I was blushing. I snorted to cover my embarrassment. Had he really thought I was pretty? I didn't think I was particularly pretty. Average maybe. My uncle and my friends often told me I was gorgeous, but I figured they were just trying to boost my self esteem. At most, I thought I would rate a six out of ten for looks.
    "I'd rate you ten out of ten," Aric said.
    I looked up sharply. He was looking at me with intense blue eyes.
    "Why'd you just say that?"
    "What? Ten out of ten? Because, I told you, you're very pretty, in fact, more than pretty - beautiful."
    "Yes, but why'd you just say you'd rate me ten out of ten? I was just thinking that I was... it's like you can read my mind."
    "You rate yourself ten out of ten? Great to see a girl with good self esteem!"
    I gritted my teeth. "No! I gave myself six out of ten, in my mind and then you... oh never mind."
    The waitress appeared with our order, and Aric slurped happily on his milkshake for a while, all the time, looking at me from under impossibly long eyelashes. This was the first time I'd been able to sit with him in broad daylight, face to face, the first time I had a proper excuse to submit to this compulsion to stare at him, study him. His eyes were a strange, deep shade of blue I'd never seen before - almost aquamarine, but not quite. They were