Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) Read Free

awkwardly,
my mind whirling from the rush, I made my way up behind him. I was
surprised he knew how to ride a horse.
    He was dressed in black pants and a
t-shirt that clung to his thin, fit body. I was embarrassed to put
my hands on his waist, but I had no choice if I didn’t want to
slide off. My breathing was heavy as I tried to calm
myself.
    But in no time, we were galloping
toward the beach and I had to hold on tightly otherwise I’d fall
off. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He
smelled like the trees. I knew I smelled like fish and the ocean,
which should have been embarrassing, but I didn’t care. After we
were some distance away, he said to me, “Where am I taking
you?”
    I was extremely
uncomfortable that he was taking me anywhere as I thought of his
silver eyes. What did he want from
me?
    “ Thank you for saving me,”
I choked out, repulsed with my words and concerned about his
intensions. I couldn’t help but notice the feel of his muscles on
his stomach beneath his shirt as I held onto him.
    “ My pleasure.” He looked
back at me with a wry smile on his face that any other girl would
find charming. “Are you Ok?”
    I nodded. There was no denying it—he
was wickedly handsome—the kind of attractive that made your blood
boil with infuriating lust. My mind spun with so many
thoughts—thoughts of why I shouldn’t trust him, thoughts of why I
should.
    He couldn’t possibly have saved me
because he was attracted to me. I was dull looking with dry skin
and had a hump on my back. Maybe he had some sort of weird fetish
for that sort of thing? Possibly he had a deformed mother that I
reminded him of? A Freudian complex perhaps?
    I’m ashamed to say, I started
laughing. I know the timing was entirely inappropriate as it had
been with him just minutes before, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe it
was a way to avoid the survivor’s guilt I was feeling in the face
of so much death—a way to cover up my rage and unease. I didn’t
know why I found the situation funny, but I laughed
nonetheless.
    “ What’s with you?” he
asked, still looking ahead as he reached across my thigh to slap
the horse’s rear with the reins. A spark of electricity shot
through my body at his touch which just made me angrier causing my
laughter to subside.
    “ Oh, it’s nothing.” My
response was curt. The underside of my thighs were sweating against
my crumpled dress and the horse’s back.
    “ You shouldn’t be out in
the city. It’s too dangerous for a girl.” I noticed there was
something different about the way he spoke. The timbre of his voice
was almost musical. I started to wonder— is
this boy for real? He was just too
perfect.
    All I wanted to do was try to figure
him out, but my mind flooded with guilt and my thoughts shifted to
worry over my mother who was in critical condition. “I know. I
wouldn’t have gone to the city, but it was an emergency.” I rolled
my eyes, uneasy with the way his calm demeanor contrasted with my
edginess.
    I was surprised how well he rode
bareback on an unfamiliar horse. Most of the school boys I knew
before the downfall of the U.S. knew nothing about animals. They
were all city boys. My mother who grew up in the mountains had
taught me how to ride.
    He squeezed the sides of the horse
with his heels and legs to get it to run even faster. Then he made
a high pitched kissing sound with his lips, the kind that only
experienced riders used to command horses. “What happened?” His
silky voice was low and smooth.
    “ Um, well… while my mother
was gathering greens and other fresh edibles, a human stabbed her
and took her food.”
    “ Oh,” his tone was careful.
I could feel the vibrations of his body as I held onto
him.
    “ I have to give her these
antibiotics.” I tapped the plastic bag in my dress pocket even
though he couldn’t see what I was doing.
    He sighed. “People are desperate for
food. Life has become unimportant.”
    “ Tell me about it,”