Why Are All the Good Guys Total Monsters? Read Online Free

muscles in his jaw tightened. ‘Depends on what value you
place on wealth.’
    ‘My mum’s a journalist and works hard,’ I said, defending
where my values lay. ‘She raised me without any help from anyone. We’ve never
been rich but we do okay.’
    ‘What about you? Do you contribute?’ he dared to ask, his
tone assuming that I didn’t.
    ‘The past couple of years I’ve earned money taking
photographs and writing features for magazines,’ I said, refusing to rise to
the bait. ‘I use the money to help pay for things I want, as spending money for
my trips to Edinburgh, and on clothes.’
    He smiled when I mentioned clothes, making me feel like I
was some sort of frivolous shopper which couldn’t have been further from the
truth.
    I continued under his disapproving stare. ‘I don’t earn a
lot but it makes me feel like I contribute and it is good experience which is
invaluable.’ Without giving him a chance to remark, I turned the focus back to
him. ‘Do you live in Edinburgh?’
    This question made him pause. What was so difficult about
it? Either he lived in the city or he didn’t.
    ‘I live near here,’ he said.
    His words lingered in the air, awkward, unfinished. What was
he hiding?
    ‘You sure about that?’ I said.
    ‘Quite sure.’
    ‘Okay.’ I sighed, reckoning this was the nearest to the
truth he was going to reveal. ‘What about Sabastien? What’s his story?’
    ‘You seem very interested in Sabastien. Perhaps you should
ask him yourself?’
    Unless I was mistaken there was a hint of jealousy in his
voice.
    ‘Maybe I will,’ I said, ‘if I ever see him again.’
    ‘Sabastien doesn’t give up that easily,’ he said in a
warning tone.
    ‘What’s to give up?’ I said.
    He looked at me that way again, like I troubled him. Then he
said, ‘You.’
    I laughed. ‘Me?’
    He nodded, staring at me with those intense grey eyes.
    ‘Sabastien doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him, unless
Orlaith’s wild assumption that I have a secret admirer is true.’
    Daire’s expression was unreadable. He looked like he’d shut
down his emotions and was giving nothing away.
    I couldn’t fathom him out, so I pressed him for a response.
‘Do I have a secret admirer?’ I felt that this was so exciting if it was true.
What girl in their heart of hearts wouldn’t want someone like Sabastien as a
secret admirer even if it was just a notion? A guy who would write a romantic
letter (come on, it could have been) in invisible ink that only she was meant
to read at midnight. My imagination was working overtime, but it was such an
exciting thought.
    He looked at me strangely.
    ‘Well, do I?’ I said, challenging him.
    ‘Yes, you do have a secret admirer.’
    ‘And . . .?’
    ‘And I’d better go now. Get some sleep. You look tired.
Things will look fine in the morning.’
    ‘I wish,’ I said.
    He looked at me and nodded.
    ‘Goodnight,’ he said, and I thought he was going to bow, but
stopped himself and hurried away. He didn’t leave via the house. He climbed
over the garden wall, jumping up, grabbing hold, pulling himself to the top as
if he was as light as air, and then disappeared into the night.
    I should have been relieved that he’d gone, but I wasn’t.
The atmosphere in the garden was subdued, as if he’d taken the energy with him.
    I stood there gazing out at the rain, shivering, trying to
unravel my thoughts.
    Moments later, a flash of lightning ripped across the sky. I
took this as a warning, and stepped inside.
    A warm shower, change of clothing, and cup of hot chocolate
made me feel less anxious. I’d secured the house to within an inch of its life.
I’d even set the old security alarm on the patio doors. Orlaith never used it
and I was surprised it was still working.
    Of course, I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t even attempt to go to
bed. It wasn’t that late anyway, and I was sitting on the sofa sipping my hot
chocolate when two things happened that were weird. The first was a