Shadow Season Read Online Free PDF

do.”
    “So promise me.”
    Sally, about two inches from his chin, “Only for you, Mr. Finn. Righteous?”
    “Sure.”
    “You want to walk with us?”
    He shakes his head. “I’m heading home for a while. I’ll meet you for dinner.”
    “Right on.”
    They move gracefully but without lifting their feet high enough. Their heels scuff the slate as they sort of skip-shuffle to the front doors of the building, called the Main House. He assumes they’re holding hands. His brain is fiery. No one ever told him what kind of details he’d hunger for.
    When he sees Sally Smyth, he sees a girl he once stood beside at the concession stand at Jones Beach when he was fifteen. It was a murderous summer, and he’d just gained another ten pounds of muscle, filling out pretty good by then, and the girl was a touch sunburned already, wearing a bikini with a T-shirt wrapped around her hips, copper hair in a ponytail, sunscreen a little too thick on her forehead and chin, but cute as hell. She was buying a soft-ice-cream cone covered with colorful sprinkles. The wafer cone had already softened and was dripping vanilla. She turned too quickly and accidentally tapped him with the tip of the vanilla swirl directly in the center of his chest. She smiled and apologized. He grinned and began to flirt, and within seconds a loudmouthed guy arrayed in tattoos rushed up and threatened to kick Finn’s ass. The beau glowered at Finn, flexing wildly and making his tribal ink ripple and flutter. As the girl drew her boyfriend off, Finn stood therewith his chest sticky, staring after her, surrounded by indifferent people shouldering past.
    When he sees Suzy Smyth, he sees the same girl.
    It’s Vi he has to worry about.
    Violet Treato is the princess of body brushes. She’s just shy of eighteen. She has a refined sense of flirtation and seems to genuinely want him. He’s never had the best impulse control, and in the dark she’s almost impossible to resist.
    A week into the fall semester he returned to his cottage and found her drinking his Glenfiddich. She could hold her liquor but was still pretty far gone. She brought her lips to his and tore open her own blouse, pressed her moderate tits to his chest and mumbled about his cock. She threw his cane aside and urged his hands between her legs. She’d already dispensed with the panties. Her voice coursed through him. She was wet and shaved. The freshness of her skin and the tremendous warmth of her cunt nearly threw him over the edge.
    He stopped himself and stopped her. He spoke in muted tones for over an hour and gave her a lot of coffee. When he asked if she understood his position she said, “Yes, of course, Finn, but you have to understand mine too. I’m not a little girl. I care for you. I want you. I won’t write our names inside hearts all over my notebooks. I won’t even bother you. I’ll prove myself to you though. You can’t force me to quit trying that. We’re going to be together. I believe that, and I believe in you.”
    It was the kind of speech you wait your whole life to hear, and it scared the piss out of him. Five minutes after Vi left Judith walked into his cottage without knocking.She saw the bottle of Glenfiddich out, the cups of coffee, maybe a blouse button on the floor. Finn later found two on the throw rug.
    She’d clocked Vi going out. He’d forgotten that bored, unhappy people were always inspecting everything. He had to start locking his door.
    Finn puts on his coat and steps outside. The snow is coming down roughly now, still hard crystal. He hears Murphy in the distance, scraping off one of the walkways with a shovel. Within an hour Murphy will have the snowblower out, clearing paths between the academy buildings and the cottages. Later on he’ll drive his truck with the plow out front across the main parking lot. If the blizzard is as bad as they’re saying, none of his hard work will matter much. Judith will go out and offer him hot chocolate at least