Read Online Torrential by Eva Morgan - Free Book Online

name, he glances up with a startling degree of horror in his expression. It lessens when he sees it’s me, but only slightly. He snaps his book shut and begins to walk away.
    “Oh no you don’t.” I dash to catch up with him, jumping in front before he can proceed down the narrow pathway that leads out of the garden. “Where have you been the last two days? I haven’t even seen you at the pool.”
    “I’ve been swimming at night,” he mutters. The pool’s closed at night, so he means in the ocean. I groan.
    “I thought about checking the beach, but I figured you wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that again after what happened. Are you okay?” He looks almost worse than he did the night he practically drowned—pale and hunted-looking.
    “ Keep your voice down.” He flips up his sweatshirt hood so it conceals part of his face. “I’m avoiding someone. Not that it’s any of your business.”
    I sigh. At the club, Sebastian had been almost nice to me. It looks like the two days apart were enough for him to cool off. “I thought it was me you were avoiding. Who is it?”
    Before he can answer, there are footsteps on the pathway. Sebastian curses under his breath, then grabs me, yanking me with him behind a row of tall hedges. My head presses against his chest for a moment, and I hear his heartbeat—fast—before he lets me go. To hide the flush creeping up my neck, I say loudly, “What’s the big deal—”
    He claps a hand over my mouth. I resist the impulse to lick his palm, which is what I’d do whenever Tanner pulled that on me, and try not to focus too much on the feel of his body so close to mine.
    “Be quiet,” he hisses.
    The person entering the walkway is just some girl passing through, and apparently she’s not the one Sebastian is avoiding, because he releases me, slumping back against the hedge. He looks so stressed that I don’t even complain about the hand-on-mouth thing.
    “Tell me who it is. I’ll help,” I offer. “If someone’s bothering you, I’ll drive them off. I’m vastly intimidating, you see.”
    “You’re a vast pain in the ass,” he says, but I see the hint of a smirk. “This person wouldn’t be intimidated by you, even you were capable of being intimidating.”
    “I’m a gracious person, so I’ll let that slide.” I brush a few twigs off my shirt and smile. “ But if you don’t tell me, I can always spread the word about what happened on the beach the other night.”
    He gives me a dark expression. I wonder when he’ll figure out that I’m not planning on ever telling anyone about that night—it’s just the easiest way to get him to open up. I feel a little guilty, but mostly I desperately want to help. Sebastian’s the most intimidating person I’ve ever met, and I can’t even imagine the kind of person who’d be able to intimidate him.
    “ My stepmom,” he grunts. “I got a letter a couple days ago that said she was coming to visit. She has a particular talent for finding me when I don’t want to be found. I’ve been trying to stay out of sight.”
    I don’t know what I was imagining. Debt collectors, maybe, or a bunch of big burly someones. I scroll through my mental image of stepmoms, coming up with mostly hags from Disney movies and fairytales. Is this why Sebastian’s so reserved—he’s got a horrible stepmom? My imagination immediately flies into overdrive, picturing him locked in dark cellars or whatever it is evil stepmothers do.
    I snap my fingers. “Then you should go hide where she’ll least expect to find you. I know the perfect place. Tanner told me about it—I’ve been wanting to go.”
    He eyes me suspiciously. “Where would this place happen to be?”
    “I’ll take you.” I whip out my phone and text Tanner: new plans for lunch! bring Opal if she wants. I wanna go to that cute place you talked about. pick me up outside the garden?
    “I’m beginning to suspect that anywhere you want me to go is not a place I want to