An Autumn Dream

An Autumn Dream

By

Melissa Giorgio

Published by

Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC.

www.crushingheartsandblackbutterfly.com

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Text Copyright ©2013

All rights reserved

Published by

Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Edited by Elizabeth Anne Lance

Cover by
Rue Volley

To everyone who asked for more, this one’s for you.

A Sweet Treat

Rafe was kissing me in that way that made my brain stop functioning when he pulled away to ask, “Are you going to your school’s Halloween dance?”

It took a few seconds for my brain to click back
on, and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “What the hell made you bring that up?”

“Um
.” He looked like a cornered mouse who knew his minutes were numbered as a ferocious feline stared him down.

“Rafe
.” I, the ferocious feline, slid out of his lap and sat on the couch cushion next to him so I could properly glare at him. We were in my living room, waiting for Dad to come home with enough pizzas to feed an army, or, in this case, one extra hungry hunter and two equally hungry teenage girls. I had promised Dad we would be on our best behavior and watch TV or something equally chaste, and while the TV
was
on, I honestly couldn’t tell you what was playing. Who cared about a dumb talk show when there was some serious making out to do? Which we
had
been doing until Rafe decided to interrupt with a question about the school dance. What was wrong with this boy?

Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, “Normal people don’t think about lame things like a school dance when they’re kissing their girlfriend
. Unless you’re trying to tell me I’m horrible at kissing, and I suggest you don’t, unless you want my fist in your face—”

He laughed, taking me by the waist and
pulling me back into his lap. “I thought I was the bad kisser,” he murmured. “Since you kept falling asleep on me.”

“I had an excuse,
okay?” I showed him my fingers. “Saving your life is pretty exhausting. What’s yours?”

He ran a hand through his
wavy hair, stalling as he tried to come up with an excuse. “I just wondered what you normally did for Halloween.”

“Stay home and pig out on candy and watch
scary movies with Chloe.” I grinned. “Want to join us? You’re welcome to come, as long as you keep your hands off my peanut butter cups.”

“God forbid I eat your favorite candy,” he muttered
. “You might break my fingers.”

“Damn straight I would
.” I curled up against Rafe’s chest and batted my eyelashes. “Say you’ll come over? Pretty please? I’ll hold your hand during the scary parts!”

“I am
not
afraid of scary movies!” He combed his fingers through my loose hair and I resisted the urge to start purring under his touch. “You never go to the dance, then?”

The urge to purr was replaced with the urge to smack him upside the head
. “What is with you? Why are you suddenly obsessed with the stupid school dance?”

As Rafe avoided my eyes
, something clicked in my head and I plunged my hand down the pocket of his pants, extracting his phone. He let out a yelp and tried to stop me, but I danced away, scrolling through his texts and ignoring the flush on his cheeks.

“You were talking to Penny!” I accused
. “What the hell! The two of you are conspiring to get me to go to the dance!”

“Three of us, actually,” he said at the exact moment I spotted Harrison’s texts.

“They are so dead,” I growled. “Drive me to Pen’s house so I can kill them, Rafe.”

“Err, that’s kind of illegal.
”

I shook my head
. My best friend was seriously deranged. Not only did she love a good house party, but she also thought school dances were fun.
Fun!
What the hell was fun about dancing in the school cafeteria that smelled strongly of grease and was decorated with stupid paper ghosts and pumpkins that the student council bought at the dollar store? Did she like drinking lukewarm punch or enjoy having the teachers glare at us like we forced them to chaperone the lame ass party? Or listening to music that was popular ten years ago playing from crappy speakers that didn’t always work?

I went to the dances
. I went back when we were thirteen and stupid and thought the things were cool. I suffered through a year of them, thinking they would get better, but they didn’t. Being in high school didn’t change anything. The dances still sucked.

And yet here was Rafe, looking at me with an almost pleading expression
. Like he actually wanted to go. Why would he want to go? “Are you a masochist?”

“
What?
”

“No, wait
.” I frowned. “She’s bothering you, isn’t she?” I quickly counted the texts on the phone, stopping when I reached twenty. “She’s making your life miserable until you get me to say yes, isn’t she?”

“No, of course not,” Rafe said
. He took the phone from my hands and shoved it back in his pocket. Then he went back to holding my hands, looking me straight in the eye. “I actually want to go.”

“Again, are you a masochist
? I mean, you live with Evan, so you must be—”

“Gabi!”

I looked away. “I just don’t understand why you would want to go to something so stupid.”

“What’s so stupid about spending the night with my girl all dolled up and in my arms?” he asked softly.

My heart melted a little at that. Stupid, stupid heart, it could never say no to Rafe. Did it have any idea that it was ruining my reputation? “Dolled up? What are we, living in the twenties?” I suddenly had a great idea about costumes. Matching costumes. No! What was I doing? I wasn’t giving in! We weren’t going to this stupid dance!

Rafe tilted his head sideways
. “Mmm. I just want to go out on a normal date with my beautiful girlfriend and not have to worry about Boneless or Fishface—”

“Or Crotch Soda Boy—”

“Or Horny Boy—”

“
Horn
boy,” I laughed, smacking him on the shoulder.

“Right, Hornboy
.” Rafe’s green eyes twinkled with amusement. “I just want to spend the night with you. Doing stupid, normal teenage things.” His face colored when he realized what he just said. “You know what I mean.”

I gave him a suggestive smile
. “Yeah, I think I do. Just don’t let my dad hear you; he was sharpening his knives yesterday.”

Rafe swallowed hard
. “You know what I mean! Dancing and drinking punch—”

I rolled my eyes.

“And hanging out with your friends and just…no demons! No hunting! No dead bodies and heads and definitely no—”

“Green blood,” we said in unison
.

I placed a hand on Rafe’s chest, feeling his steady heartbeat through hi
s gray polo shirt. “Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend? I thought you lived for the hunt?”

He shook his head
. “Not anymore.”

“What changed?”

“I found something more important,” he said, locking his eyes with mine. Before I could respond with a sarcastic comment, he leaned in and kissed me deeply.

“Well,” I breathed after we pulled away, “at least you have your priorities in order.”

He kissed my cheek, and then started slowly, teasingly, working his way down my neck. “What do you say?” he asked between kisses.

“Uhhh
.” I was too busy melting into a pile of goo to answer him coherently.

He
kissed me a little lower. “Want to go to the dance with me? In costume?”

“Sure,” I said.

He froze with his lips on my collarbone. “Really?”

You know, it wasn’t fair that he was asking me these questions while he was kissing me
. I’d probably agree to anything at this point, like doing my geometry homework or working an extra shift or—

Going to the dance, apparently
.
Crap. Double crap.
And why was I sort of feeling excited for it? I grabbed a hold of his face and pushed him away from my neck, regretting the loss of lip contact immediately. “If we do this, and god, I cannot believe I’m agreeing to this, you can’t show up in a half-assed costume like your baseball uniform.”

Rafe looked crestfallen
. Wait, was that what he was planning on wearing? “Oh, okay,” he said, trying to smile. “Then what am I going to wear?”

I told him what I had in mind
. “What do you think?” I asked.

He smiled
. “It sounds like the cat’s pajamas.”

***

“Yay, I’m so excited you finally came to your senses!” Penny Lane, my overly excited redheaded best friend crowed, clapping her hands together. It was the next day and we were sitting in her bedroom, working on our English papers together. I mean, that’s what we had told our parents we were doing, but actually we were pigging out on chips and soda and apparently discussing this stupid dance.

Remind me again why I
had said yes? I fixed her with a glare. “You know, harassing my boyfriend is definitely not cool, Pen.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yeah? You conveniently forgot all about those twenty something texts you sent him?” I threw a chip at her. “I don’t like the idea of all of you ganging up on me.”

She popped the chip in
her mouth. “You’re being a little overdramatic. I may have threatened Rafe a few times—”

“
Threatened
him?” I asked. “That’s
my
job!”

“Well, yo
u’re not doing a very good job of it.” Penny flopped down on her side, propping her head up with her hand. “Look, Gabi, I just want you to have fun.”

“How the hell do you think going to that stupid dance is going to be
fun
?” I shook my head. “You and I clearly have different definitions of that word. Fun for me is having a good time. Fun for you is being tortured!”