Silver Heart Read Online Free Page A

suggestion and slept around with a horde of well-endowed Stanford students,” she said, brightening. “And perhaps even some well-endowed professors.”
    “I didn’t have any time to sleep around.” I buried my flushed cheeks in my hands. “Studying kind of sucked up most of my energy.”
    “Are you planning to wait until you get your medical degree to have sex again?” she sounded genuinely concerned. “You know, you don’t actually need a license to bang.”
    I stretched out on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t need any distractions right now.”
    “Did Stanford force you to take some shot that makes you immune to men?” she asked, peering down at me. “Or is that just the side effect of having a sexless relationship with Preston?”
    “A little bit of both?” I shot her a dazzling smile, hoping to convince her that I wasn’t as much of a lost case as she imagined me to be. I was fine being single- ish .
    “From what I recall, your only genuinely good lay was all the way back in freshman year.” With her hand on her chin she reminded me of some kind of perverted sex therapist.
    “Why do you have to say such unbelievably twisted things?” I groaned. “And why do I even talk to you about any of this?”
    She pretended not to hear me. “Freshman year. That’s right. With that hot bartender who worked at the pub near your campus.” Maddie shot me a knowing smirk. She was going through a particularly dry spell in Africa when I shared my stories about Ryder, so the details stayed embedded in her memory for much longer than I’d intended them to. “Whatever happened to him?” she asked.
    “There was no chemistry between us outside of the bedroom,” I explained. “The guy couldn’t hold a conversation if his life depended on it.”
    Maddie groaned and loomed over me with her eyebrows drawn in so tightly her entire forehead rippled with worry lines. “There’s your problem. Looking for conversation.”
    “Shut up. You love talking to my brother.” I jabbed her with my heel. “And you know better than anyone else that not every hookup is meant to be.”
    My best friend prided herself on being wild and free, but she was extremely careful with both her heart and her body. She had five basic rules that ensured every single one of her hookups was always regret-free. She’d drilled them into my head every opportunity she had. I could practically recite them in my sleep: always use protection; don’t be anybody’s booty call unless he’s yours too; attached guys are off-limits; never sleep with someone if you’re unable to walk to his bedroom without stumbling; you don’t have to be in love with someone to have sex, but you have to be in a position where you won’t regret the experience even if you wake up the next morning and he’s no longer next to you.
    The last one was the most important rule of them all. It was also the reason I didn’t get laid very often. Not because I craved commitment from a one-night-stand, but because in order to be intimate and not regret it, I had to feel close and connected to someone. And I just couldn’t find that level of closeness. With anyone.
    The reason my sort-of-relationship with Preston worked was because we could pretend to be together without actually being in love. Or, for that matter, in lust. It was a good cover and it enabled me to put off searching for real love for as long as humanly possible. Because such a mythical thing didn’t exist. I’d only genuinely loved one guy in my entire life, and we hadn’t even been in a relationship.
    And he was long gone…
    Maddie shook my shoulders as if she’d read the S.O.S. signals sent out by my mind. “Listen up, Dee. Preston or no Preston, I’m going to make sure that your dry spell ends tonight,” she said. “We’ll scour all of Whistler to find the perfect guy who can not only perform well in the sack, but will also be able to fulfill your need for conversation.”
    Adam chose this