Whisper (Novella) by CRYSTAL GREEN Page B

heartbreaker
, I told myself as my pulse picked up speed.
    As he glanced around the room, that gaze landed on me and Diana in the corner, catching us staring right back at him.
    â€œOh, shit,” I whispered, looking down until my straight black hair hid my face.
    Diana only laughed as she said, “That’s Micah Wyatt. He hasn’t been in Aidan Falls much longer than you—just since the beginning of the year—but he’s sure making a name for himself. I don’t know a lot more than that about him except that he’s twenty-two and he moved in with his rowdy cousins, Deacon and Darwin.”
    I had no idea who Deacon and Darwin were, but I suspected that everyone else in this small-town room did, especially if they were one of many former football heroes who Aidan Falls worshipped. I was still getting used to all the pigskin fever in this place, even during the off-season.
    When I risked a glance back up, Micah already had two girls who’d brought him a plastic red cup of beer.
    â€œSomeone like that wouldn’t be interested in me,” I said.
    â€œWhat—a shrinking virgin in a corner?”
    Sometimes Diana could be so catty. I’d found that out immediately, after she’d popped in at my stepdad’s house to welcome me and Mom to the neighborhood. I wasn’t sure she had many friends, either. She said hers were off at Texas-U, leaving her behind at the nearest community college. I had to wonder if boredom was the only reason she’d been so eager to meet me.
    I blew past her comment. “I’m not a virgin.” But who needed to announce that when you were new in town? I had some experience with vanilla sex, and I was curious about a different kind, but I’d always been too shy to experiment. I’d also call myself a careful person who wasn’t sure of her place in Aidan Falls yet—if I had a place.
    The one thing I knew for sure was that I was tantalized by those TellTale posts.
    â€œWell,” Diana said, “you sure are acting like a virg. Give him a grin, would ya? Do
something
.”
    As she talked, Micah worked his bad-boy smile on those girls. If he’d been the one who wrote the TellTale posts about me, he sure wasn’t showing much interest in my direction. You’d think he’d be noticing me a little more already.
    â€œSo why do you think it’s him?” I asked.
    â€œCall it a hunch, but he’s supposed to be a game player, and posting on TellTale would be just his thing to lure in a girl. He’s a big ol’ honeytrap.”
    â€œA honeytrap?”
    â€œYeah—he loves all kinds of women and traps them with his charms.”
    â€œDiana, I don’t think that word means what you think it does.” I was pretty sure it had something to do with deceit or betrayal. I wasn’t totally sure, though.
    â€œOh, you know what I’m talking about.” Diana ran a finger around the rim of her cup while eyeing Micah. “They say he even seduces married women, but the ones I’ve heard he’s been with are those bored housewives who have shit for husbands and are on the way to a divorce, anyway. Those are the rumors, but I don’t know if they’re true. Mostly, though, I’ve heard he likes a challenge. He likes to seduce the supposedly unseduce-able.” Diana laughed. “That kind of leaves me out of the picture. You, though . . . You’re the mysterious new arrival who seems all quiet and sweet and untouchable. Sending a TellTale to catch your attention would be just the first step in reeling you in.”
    I slid her a glance. “So this is your evidence? That’s why you think it’s him?”
    â€œMaybe I just want it to be him.” She got a dirty smile on her lips. “Boy, can you imagine? Maybe we can get a game of Spin the Bottle or Seven Minutes in Heaven going here. You’d have a fine introduction that way.”
    The