Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (36 page)

It was pointing at Rome and wobbling slightly.

“Cheater,” Dallas accused.

“What?” Rome shrugged. “I
didn’t do anything… I don’t think.” Everyone was staring at him, and he
was
embarrassed that they all knew what
he’d
been thinking. Apparently he wanted it so bad he’d
made it happen
.

“Spin again,” Dallas said. “Aim for me,” he added
with a wink.

Ariahna shot him a nervous glance. “That’s okay.
It landed on him, so… I should just… I mean, those are the rules, right?”

“I am the game master,” Dallas said. “Spin
again.”

He was clearly a little drunk, which meant he’d
be even more
annoying to argue with. Ariahna
sighed before taking another turn.
The bottle twisted around and around,
slowing as it neared Christian. She
was knotting
her hands anxiously in the grass, praying it didn’t actually stop on him. It
eked just barely by him, and her eyes snapped up to
the person it was pointing to – Jason. She pushed to her feet, walking timidly
over to him and hesitating near his legs. She wasn’t really sure how to sit on
him. She didn’t want to sit on him at all, really. She was kind of hoping he’d
smile first and she wouldn’t
have to.

“Come on, I don’t bite,” he joked, managing to
keep a straight face. He made sure to stay completely calm as Aria settled
carefully into his lap, keeping her legs folded timidly to one side of his
body.

“Really?” Jason said. “You don’t want to straddle
this?” He was giving her a heated look as she did her best to ignore him,
continuing on with the game. Jason stared back at her for a prolonged amount of
time, not saying anything in reply, and not smiling. He wondered if he didn’t
say it if she’d just sit on him for the rest of the night. The thought almost
made him smile, and he finally decided to deliver his line before it was too
late. “Baby, I love you, but I just can’t smile,” he said in an even voice.

Ariahna exhaled gratefully
and crawled out of his lap, kneeling down in the grass near him on her hands
and knees to spin again. The bottle twirled around and around and around.

And then it stopped – on Jason.

“I get to spin again, right?”
she asked. Before anyone could answer, Jason grabbed her by the hips and pulled
her back into his lap. She blushed hotly at the way she’d ended up sitting. He
was slightly hard, and holding her down on him. Ariahna swallowed tightly. She
wasn’t even sure she could say her line. She was frozen for several moments
before the words finally came
tumbling out of her mouth.

Matt looked like he was laughing behind his hand.

“Baby,” Jason said, pressing his face into her
hair and smelling her sweet perfume. He was dragging every word out as his
hands slipped around to her waist, smoothing down over her skirt. “I love you,
but I just… can’t… smile.” She squirmed anxiously in his lap and he lifted his
hips up into her.

“Okay,” Ariahna said in an
unnerved, high-pitched voice, jumping
out of his lap and striding quickly across the
circle. She stood as far from him as she could, trying to hide her discomfort
as her skin flooded with heat. “Does someone else want to go? I’m alright
giving up my turn.”

“But I didn’t smile,” Jason said, raising his
eyebrows in amusement.

“Yeah,” Matt said. “I think you need to go
again.”

Aria crossed her arms and
uncrossed them, trying to shake the feeling of humiliation. Scarlet reached out
to touch her ankle and she startled,
beginning to feel a little bit surrounded.

“What are the odds it would land on him again?”
Scarlet said. “Just play along. How about this, I promise I’ll smile if you sit
on my lap.”

“I second that,” Jesse grinned.

Aria took a deep breath before spinning the
bottle for her third, and she hoped final, time. At this point, sitting in
Christian’s lap almost sounded like a picnic. The bottle followed the same
course, betraying her once again. She stood there frowning at it indignantly as
it swung around and stopped, pointing straight at, you guessed it, Jason.

“Okay, this thing is rigged,” she accused. “Do I
really have to do this again? Don’t I get a pass or something?”

“Them’s the rules, girlie,” Dallas said evilly.
“Although…”

“Although?”

“I’ll make you a deal. I won’t make you sit in
his lap, if you sit in mine for the rest of the night.” He raised his eyebrows,
trying his best charming smile. It was all seduction and impure intentions. The
liquor had definitely helped strip away any pretense of brotherly love. He kind
of just wanted to slip his hand up her skirt.

Ariahna frowned at Dallas.
That was a horrible deal, she thought.
She
wasn’t honestly sure what would be more awkward
. “Thanks,
I’ll pass,”
she
said. She’d rather just make it quick
and get it over with.

“What if I made that offer?” Rome said evenly.
His face was as hard as stone. He did not want her sitting in Jason’s lap for a
third time. He knew how aroused he was and it was pissing him off to no end.

“Game master says no,” Dallas grinned.

“I don’t really give a shit,” Rome replied. “If
she doesn’t want to sit in his lap, she shouldn’t have to.”

“But…” Dallas said, “I’m the game master. For
what I say goes.”

“I’m going to kill you, and then it’s going to be
game over.”

“Rome, it’s fine. I’ll just do it,” Aria said.

Jason watched her walk over to him with a
straight face. He was drunk off his ass, and he had no clue how he was pulling
this off. She paused in front of him and he bit back a smile. “The bottle is
trying to tell you something. Straddle me or you’re going to have to keep doing
this.”

“Fine,” Ariahna said, sighing in exasperation.
Maybe he was right, she thought. Was that possible? No. Yes. Maybe? She didn’t
know. She was too drunk. Logic was obviously not working, because logically, a
bottle should not land on the same person three times in a row. That was just
statistically improbable. If nothing else, she was tired of acting afraid of
him. If she had to do this, she was going to stare him in the eye and not back
down or show fear. She wasn’t going to let them make fun of her or think she
was weak. She placed her hands on his shoulders, lowering herself into his lap.
She could feel his erection pressing between her legs and against the thin
fabric of her panties. She blushed, trying to stare him down. It was really
hard.
The staring,
she thought, feeling embarrassed even in her own mind.

“We’ve got to stop meeting
like this,” she joked, trying to make him laugh. If he cracked, then she was
safe, and she definitely wouldn’t have to do this again. The whole thing was
filling her with anxiety, and for a person with
a nervous disorder,
anxiety was a dangerous emotion.

Jason stared up into Aria’s
deep green eyes. They were maybe the most gorgeous eyes he’d ever seen, and
when she started speaking, he barely even heard her words. That was a good
thing, because otherwise he might have laughed. “I know I’m not laughing, but
you are funny,” he said, “and fun.” Jason leaned in close to her ear, brushing
his lips teasingly along her neck. “Imagine what I could do with this control,”
he whispered hotly. “I could hold out all night long if you wanted me to.” She
shivered and he nearly smirked in response, pulling back to admire her. “Baby,
I think I might
seriously love you, but I still ain’t smiling.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls who wrap
their legs around you.”

“Only the ones who’ve stolen my heart,” Jason
grinned. Aria moved to stand and he pulled her back against him, groaning
softly at the contact. He gripped her chin in one hand, pressing his lips to
hers impulsively. She squealed in surprise and he smiled against her mouth,
curling an arm around her waist and grinding against her urgently. Right now,
he wanted nothing more than to rip her panties off and screw her in front of
all their friends.

Ariahna pressed shaking hands to Jason’s chest,
trying to push him away as his tongue slipped into her mouth. She’d never been
kissed quite like this. It was hard and seductive, and almost dirty. Or maybe
that was the frantic motion of his hips as he rubbed their bodies together. Her
lungs were burning and she couldn’t breathe. And the worst part was, the
painful throbbing between her legs was screaming that she liked it.

Strong hands yanked her away from Jason, cradling
her against a solid body. Ariahna was expecting to find herself in Rome’s arms,
but when she looked up, she was staring at Christian’s face.

“
Don’t
fucking touch her,” he seethed, holding onto her so
tight that his arms were shaking. “In fact, don’t even fucking look at
her. I’m not stupid
– you’re a cheater, and a fucking dick. And she
doesn’t need or want your damn tongue down her throat.”

Aria was frozen, utterly confused why Christian
was coming to her defense. He was so angry she thought he might burst a blood
vessel.

“Seriously man, I wasn’t cheating. Not that I
give a shit what you think. And by the way, you don’t own her. I think you gave
up the right to be pissed off when you went and told everyone about how you
popped her cherry.” Jason wasn’t afraid of Christian, and he certainly wasn’t
going to let him talk to him like that and get away with it – drunk or not.

Aria had had enough fun for one night. She pushed
out of Christian’s grasp, snagging his cup of beer before wandering off into
the trees.

Rome had almost been too
distracted to notice. He was busy lecturing
Christian and Jason,
and ended up finding out that Matt had been manipulating the bottle the entire
time.

“The three of you are going to apologize to her
the next time you see her,” he said, “and you damn well
better mean it. If you don’t—just trust me when I say you don’t want to
know
what I’ll do.”

Rome scanned the trees,
walking in the direction she’d stumbled off to. Thanks to Jason, she was now
drunk, alone, and lost in the middle of the woods. “Ariahna!” he shouted, catching
a flash of movement ahead. He followed her scent, standing baffled at the base
of a large tree. It wasn’t until
he looked down that he noticed her clothes on the
ground.

Is she really naked?
Rome
wondered. Or was it possible—

“What are you?” he whispered, listening intently.
He was blocking out the rowdy party that was now a good mile or better behind
him, trying to catch on even the most subtle of sounds.

If she could hear him, she wasn’t answering.

He took a few more calculated
steps, staying aware of his
surroundings.
A
soft growling caught his ear, and Rome turned his head
slowly towards the sound. A wolf emerged from the trees, staring back at
him with golden eyes and bared teeth. She had a beautiful solid white coat that
reminded him of snow in the dead of winter. They were polar opposites, yet one
in the same.

“Ariahna?” he said breathlessly. He knew it was
her, it had to be. It
was either that, or
this wolf had eaten Aria whole in a matter of
minutes. “Don’t even try
that with me,” he said calmly. “Stop growling. We both
know
you’re not going to hurt me.” She threw her ears back,
whimpering softly before darting off into the trees. “Damn it,” he bit out.

Rome practically tore his clothes off, jumping
and shifting
in the air. His paws collided
with the soft earth, and he bolted after her, enjoying the brisk wind blowing across
his fur. He was weaving around trees and jumping over bushes. He was worried
about her, but beyond that, his wolf was excited.
He
was excited. Rome
stopped suddenly, throwing his head back and letting out a blood curdling howl
into the night. He was calling for her, signaling his location. That howl would
have been heard for miles, and he could feel her
watching him from the
darkness.

Rome bent close to the
ground, ears back and paws padding at the dirt. She was close. What he hadn’t
been expecting was to see Ariahna standing
off in the distance on
two very gorgeous, very naked legs. He blinked, throwing a paw over his snout. When
he peeked out she was shifting back. He’d never done anything like that.
Shifting once was hard enough, but
transforming
back and forth—that was just insane. He had never even
thought to
attempt it. Ariahna was a wolf, but he knew for sure in that moment that she
was not like him. She was not a werewolf. He wasn’t sure whether to be
disappointed or happy about that.

Neither Rome nor his wolf really seemed to care.
She was enticing him with her presence, with her scent. Aria circled him
warily, taking slow,
tentative steps closer.
He stayed completely still, despite the urge to chase
her down. When she
got close enough, Rome sat up, letting her smell him. He wanted nothing more
than to rub his scent all over her. He licked
around
her eyes and over the side of her neck, attempting to bite down gently. She
pulled away before his teeth could connect, and Rome let out a frustrated
breath
through his nose.