Whisper (Novella) Read Online Free PDF

rock music. As I took in the smell of musty rain, cigarette smoke, and old grain—was I only imagining that last part?—I saw planked floors, a staircase leading to a second level, hay bales, and even trucks with the tailgates open. Some of the red lights were coming from the vehicles, but there were strings of hellfire-colored bulbs floating everywhere. And the kids . . .
    They were dancing hip-to-hip, swaying and drinking and smoking. Some were lounging in the flatbeds of the trucks, making out, laughing while the red flares of their cigarettes burned. But from the smell of it, cigarettes weren’t the only things that’d been lit in here.
    I looked around, but I didn’t see Micah Wyatt. Instead, I felt gazes on me, the new girl.
    The stranger, once again.
    Pulse blasting, I decided to go to the upper floor to take a better look, so I climbed the stairs, feeling the creak of wood under the soles of my trendy club boots. As I peered down, I saw the blue-ponytail guy mingling with the other free spirits in here. These weren’t just nerds: it seemed like every person who didn’t conform in the entire county had gathered with their piercings and spiked hair and ragged clothes. Aidan Falls wasn’t too far from Austin, so maybe that had something to do with the bohemian vibe, too.
    After passing a girl with a shaved head and Betty Boop on her shirt, I arrived at the top of the stairs, the floor deserted, almost a haven. I let out the breath I’d been holding and leaned on a railing, not sure what to do next.
    Thank God for the phone.
    I took it out, realizing that my secret admirer might be waiting for me to tell him that I was here. And I did it in our special, strange way—via TellTale.
    I’ve finally stepped out of the shadows, too.
    I posted the words over a picture I’d taken of my opened bedroom door before I’d left the house. He would know that this meant I’d finally left my room—and my comfortable spot—behind, wouldn’t he?
    I waited. Waited some more. And just when I started thinking that Micah Wyatt might be laughing his ass off at me, knowing he’d gotten me to go where he wanted me to go and he’d won his game for the night, a TellTale swished over my screen from the ten-mile radius I’d set.
    What if she doesn’t like what she sees?
    It was posted over a new picture that only faintly resembled the old one—a silhouette, nearly visible this time, but not quite. He’d given me a little more of himself, too.
    The hint of a mouth with a full lower lip and a strong chin.
    I tried to remember if that was Micah’s mouth, but before I could decide, I heard a voice behind me.
    A low, smooth whisper that sent delicious tingles over every inch of my skin as his breath warmed my ear.
    â€œI didn’t think you’d be here, Carley,” he said.
    With a burst of curiosity and elation, I tried to spin around to see Micah. But when firm hands grasped my upper arms, the oxygen hitched in my lungs.
    And it wasn’t because I was scared.

5
    Words. That was all my secret admirer had ever needed to undo me, but even so, I also began to fall apart at the feel of his hands on my arms.
    One piece of me fell at a time: first my pride, which I’d been guarding ever since I’d been such a failure in school. Then my heart, which seemed to peek out of the shelter I’d stored it in. Then there was the hardened skin I’d decided to wear as a new girl in a new place, afraid everyone in Aidan Falls wouldn’t accept me. That skin seemed to be thawing at the heat of his touch, his long fingers branding me.
    Maybe I should’ve been afraid, mostly because we were in a darkened place and we were the only two people on the upper floor. Yet I
wasn’t
frightened. Or maybe I was just that stupidly persuaded by a few ardent posts from a guy who seemed to want to connect with someone as badly as I did.
    I talked