Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (37 page)

Ariahna didn’t want to be owned, but she did want
to play. She wanted to run and feel free. She wanted to chase, and be chased.
She ran off
abruptly, glancing back to see
Rome rushing after her. There was
something so dangerous about how his
eyes glistened brightly in contrast to his jet black fur. He was strong, and
dominant, and seeing him like that was rousing her wolf. It was exhilarating – thrilling.
Rome tackled her suddenly, pinning her to the forest floor, and she shifted
back in a fit of giggles. His fur was soft and tickling her skin. “It tickles,”
she laughed. “Change back.”

Rome shifted back after a
moment, breathing heavily as he lay
naked above her. They were skin to skin, and the
touch was electrifying him. He wanted to kiss her and touch her – gently, intimately.

His wolf was practically screaming at him to take
her.

“Kiss me,” Ariahna whispered, sending a jolt of
pleasure rippling through Rome’s body. He didn’t move and she bit her lip,
dropping her eyes shyly. “You do want to kiss me, don’t you?”

“More than anything,” he said. It was almost
painful, lying with her like this and knowing he couldn’t be with her. “But
you’re drunk.”

“So,” she breathed, clawing slowly
up his sides. Rome
shuddered, pinning her
wrists
down. Ariahna liked that, a lot. “You can have me.”

A whimper crawled up Rome’s
throat, and then her lips were
pressing against his, shocking him and dragging him
under the weight of
her seduction.
“Ariahna,”
he whispered, barely pulling away from her mouth. He couldn’t stop himself from
kissing down the side of her neck, fingers gliding softly down her arms. She
was writhing beneath him, begging him to do exactly what he knew would be
wrong.

“We can’t… Not like this,” he said weakly.

“Do you want to do it the other way?” she said,
grinning devilishly. “You’d have to catch me first, and I’m fast. And even
then, my
wolf doesn’t like being challenged.
I’d fight you,” she whispered. “It could
be fun.” Ariahna shifted
suddenly underneath him, wriggling out from
under his
body and disappearing like a flash into the trees.

Rome scrambled to his feet, kicking up leaves as
he ran over to the nearest tree. He pressed his palm to the bark, leaning
against the trunk and staring off into the distance. He couldn’t change like
that. If he tried to keep up with her, he’d probably end up killing himself or
passing out.

“Aria!” he shouted.
He sounded angry, probably because his body
was already starting
to ache. Movement caught his eye, and he watched in awe as she ran through the
forest, quick and agile as a wolf one moment, and then carefree as a girl the
next. She was shifting every few feet to the point that it looked like an
illusion as she blurred through the trees. “God… damn,”
he whispered. She took a sharp turn, sprinting towards him and hopping
over a log on two legs. Aria stood before him
naked and smiling, her
chest heaving with every breath, and Rome hurried to cover himself as he felt
an unmistakable stirring between his legs.

“Chase me,” she said.

“I can’t,” he said in a
strained voice. He hated having to tell
her that. All he wanted to do was run after her.
“I can’t shift like that. It hurts.”

“Why?” she asked, strolling towards him as twigs
snapped softly
under her feet. “What’s wrong
with you? Are you sick?”
She smoothed a hand
from his forehead down to the side of his jaw. “I’ve never had someone
to play with before. Can’t we just run? I’m good at hiding. I bet you couldn’t
find
me.”

Rome was staring pointedly at
her face and trying to pretend he
didn’t have peripheral
vision. He was seeing entirely way more than a ‘friend’ ever should. She backed
away excitedly, trying to get him to follow, and he reached out and grabbed
her. “Aria, we need to find your clothes. I think you need to rest.” She
twisted out of his grasp, laughing, and he tried to scoop her up in his arms.
He ended up hugging her around the waist as she bent in half, trying to squirm
free. The proximity wasn’t doing him any favors.

“You can’t catch me if I don’t stop moving,” she
said.

The air around them grew
dense, and Rome inhaled sharply as all the hairs on his arms stood on end.
There was the sense of time slowing down, and then a sharp, loud snap as they
were flung out of the forest and through negative space. He blinked, and he was
on his back, staring up at the yew tree.
“What the fuck?” he whispered. “What did you
just do?”

“I forgot you could come
along,”
she smiled. The smile
disappeared
slowly. “But this wasn’t where I wanted to go…”

“How did you do that?”

“Transference,” Aria said. “I’m taking the class
this year. I already know how to blink, but I’m not supposed to,” she giggled,
pressing a finger to her lips. “It’s instantaneous travel.
Think of it like slingshotting yourself from one
place to another. Only you have to have really good aim, or…”

“Or you end up somewhere at random?” Rome
accused.

“I’ve done this at least a dozen times. This
wasn’t my fault.”

“Don’t do it again,” he insisted. “If we end up
somewhere naked…”

“We’re already somewhere naked,” she said,
prowling towards him. “Have you ever run all night?” she asked. “Vanished into
the wild world and slept naked under the stars? Have you ever just run as fast
and as far as your legs could carry you? I used to keep track of the farthest
I’d gone, the newest landmark I’d reached. It was
nice to pretend sometimes that I could just keep running
—
that I’d
never come
back.”

“…Do you want to sleep naked under the stars?” he
asked.

“Only if you’ll still be here when I wake up.”

Chapter 32

Birds
chirped happily overhead as they flitted through the clear September sky.
Ariahna opened her eyes, blinking at tall blades of grass
brushing gently against her nose. She was outside.
She had not been
expecting to wake up outside. Soft rays of sunshine shone
through the branches, and she found herself staring up at the towering yew and
the glistening lake beside her. The chill autumn air reminded her of her
nakedness, and a quiet groan startled her out of her thoughts. Rome was curled
up at her back, and although his eyes weren’t open yet, other parts of him
seemed completely alert.

“Oh
god,” she whispered. Rome’s arm tightened around her waist, and he pressed a
soft kiss to her shoulder. Flashes of last night started to echo in her mind,
but it was all a little hazy. She knew enough to know she should be
embarrassed. Rome had seen her naked. She’d seen him naked, and—

“Did
something happen? Did… did we…?” she stammered.

Rome
nuzzled his face against the softness of her skin, barely registering the sound
of her voice. “No,” he whispered. “Nothing happened.”
Aria tried to wiggle free
and he growled gently. It sounded more
like begging. “Don’t go.” He opened his eyes, leaning up on his elbow. “You
have nothing to be afraid of, or embarrassed for,” he said, tucking her hair
behind her ear.

“Yes,
I do,” she said, hiding her face behind her hands. “So, so many things. But right
now, the most compelling is… Please let go.”

Rome
didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but if he let her be embarrassed about
this, if he let himself be embarrassed, things were only going to get more
awkward between them. He leaned down, kissing along her neck. “It just feels
natural, holding you like this,” he whispered. “Just stay with me. We have
nowhere else we have to be. Can’t we just
pretend
together,
for a while longer, that we never have to go back?”

Ariahna
exhaled anxiously when he repeated her own words to her. “Rome, some of the
things I said last night—um, what I did—is there any way we could just forget
about it?”

“No,”
he said softly. “I don’t want to forget about it. I don’t want you to feel like
you have to hide from me. Last night you let me in. You showed me—told me
things I don’t think you’ve ever shared with anyone else. Why would I want to
let that go?”

She
let him roll her over to face him, covering herself modestly as he pressed a
sweet kiss to her lips, his fingers gently tracing the curves of her body. Her
heart was in her throat, beating so hard that it hurt. And all she could think
about was that the last time she’d done this, the last time she’d let someone
in, all she’d been left with was regret. She wanted to be able to trust
him, but she was afraid.
She was afraid of
getting her heart crushed again. But she was even more afraid that she wouldn’t
think it had been a mistake. That she might actually be able to love him,
and then he’d be
taken away from her.

“I’m
not ready for this,” she said.

Rome
caressed the side of her face, staring into her eyes with a soft smile. His
heart was heavy with the weight of what he was feeling.
He wished
she could sense how much he loved her, how much he cared
– how much it was killing him to hold everything inside. Because saying those
three little words seemed scarier than all of his worst fears combined.

“Ariahna,”
he whispered, “I…” He exhaled gently. “I can wait. I would wait forever for
you, if that’s how long it took to make it right, to make it perfect. I want
you
,
not…”

“I
think we should find our clothes,” she said. Rome nodded stiffly, pulling away
from her and getting to his feet as she looked away. She heard
him walking off, and then a second later a loud
splash startled her into
sitting up. He’d jumped right into the cold
lake water.

“Rome?”
she said in concern.

“I’ll
be fine, just… give me a minute… to cool off.”

Ariahna dressed quickly, tucking her shirt in and latching
the thin belt
around
her waist. Her shoes were missing, and she realized that she’d left them in the
clearing when she’d run off. The sound of splashing water drew her attention,
and she watched him walking out of the lake for a little longer than was
probably polite. She blushed and tossed his clothes towards him, turning around
to give him some privacy.

“How
did you find our stuff so fast?” he asked.

“Magic,”
she smiled, tipping her head towards him before remembering she wasn’t supposed
to look. “You can summon an item if you’re able to pinpoint its relative location
in your mind. The process is similar to conjuration.”

“I
think it’s going to take me years to figure all this stuff out, if I ever get
it at all. You can turn around, by the way. I’m decent.” He watched Aria turn to
face him, laughing when she averted her eyes.

“I
thought you said you were clothed?” she mumbled,
peeking timidly
at his bare chest as he toweled off his hair with
his shirt.

“No,
I said I was decent. Come on, stop being so shy. You’ve kind of seen it all
already.” He realized a little too late that the comment would do
nothing to lessen her embarrassment. “Here,” he
said, tugging his shirt on
over
his head. It stuck to his skin in an unpleasant
way. “It’s safe to look now.”

She
sighed quietly. “We should get back.
Take my
hand and I’ll blink
us back to my room – now that I know I can transport
the both of us.”

“Maybe…
we should walk,” Rome said.

She
smiled at him challengingly.

“Are
you afraid?”

“No,” he drawled, slipping his hand reluctantly into hers.
He snatched Kaleb’s jacket off the ground before that awful sensation of being yanked
back and then snapped through the air struck. They landed in Ariahna’s room,
uncoordinated and off-balance,
and promptly knocked each other over onto her bed.

“Sorry,”
she groaned from on top of him. “I can’t quite stick the landing while
transferring two people yet, it seems.”

Rome smiled at her lovingly, reaching up to touch her
cheek. There was a gnawing in his gut, a question consuming him, and he just
couldn’t hold
it back
any longer. “What are we?” he whispered. “Are we friends? Are we dating? Can I
hold your hand and kiss you in public?”

She
stared down at him sadly, breathing slowly through her mouth. “Rome,” she said,
wavering a little. His eyes fell away from her face at the tone in her voice. “I’m
scared,” she admitted. “I don’t want to let myself have something that I know
in the end is just going to be taken away. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Then
I’ll be brave enough for the both of us,” he shrugged. “
I know
we’re
cursed to fall in love, but I also believe in fate. I believe
in 
destiny,
 
and
 
choice. The choice to make my own
mistakes and live my life
the way I want it to be lived, however short
or long that may be. I believe that some things, that some people, were meant
to be. And at the same time I think that nothing is completely predetermined or
set in stone – unless you believe that it is. If all you believe is that we’re
cursed, then we’re cursed, and nothing more. But if you choose to believe that
we could really and truly fall
in love, then
we could have that, and nothing could take it away from us.”

“Has anyone ever told you how intense you are?”
she said, laughing nervously. Ariahna didn’t know how to respond to something
like that. The only thing that came out was, “I think… I might be in love with
you.”

Rome’s breath left his lungs on a shudder, and
he smiled at her happily. “I—” Insistent banging on her door startled him out
of what he’d been about to say. Scarlet was standing on the other side, calling
Aria’s name
in a worried voice. Rome held a
finger to his mouth
, gesturing for her to stay quiet. He didn’t want to
let the rest of the world come rushing back in just yet. He wanted it all to
stay away for just a little while longer. A crackling sound startled them, and they
sat on the edge of her bed, staring nervously at the door. It swung wide a
second later, colliding with the wall with a loud bang.

Aria grabbed his hand and blinked away. They
disappeared to the sound of Scarlet’s frantic voice, reappearing in the music
room. She was shaking slightly as they stumbled back over the piano bench,
catching themselves noisily on the keys.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled again. “I panicked.”

Rome was laughing.

“You never did tell me where you learned to
play the piano,” he said, looking down at the aged instrument. “Will you sing
me something?”

“Maybe we could sing something together?”

“Did you have anything in mind?” he asked.

“I want you to pick the song.”

Rome righted himself,
walking slowly towards the guitars as he tried to pick out something for them
to sing. As soon as she’d asked, a thousand different songs had risen up in his
mind. But he had to pick the right one. It had to be meaningful. He lifted an
acoustic off its stand, turning to smile at her.
“How about,
Just a
Kiss
?”

“The Lady Antebellum song?” she asked.

“Yeah, do you know it?”

“I’ve heard it a few
times,” she said with a small smile. Or a few hundred, she thought. “Sometimes
I think you’re a little too good to be true.” He sat down beside her with a
smirk and started strumming gently on the guitar. It was the perfect song for
who they were in this moment, for everything they’d been through and said to
each other. They didn’t have to be in any hurry. They could slow down and enjoy
this. Aria sang, gazing at him and pouring everything she felt into the song. She’d
never sung with anyone else before, and singing with Rome was more amazing than
all the magic in the world. It felt like their voices had been made for each
other. Before the song was over, her heart was racing. She felt like she was
sinking into his
deep blue eyes, getting lost beyond saving.

Ariahna never wanted to find her way out.

The last chord rung out in the air just as the
door to the music room was thrown open. Apparently they’d had an audience. Rome
was just about done with people interrupting everything. Was this part of the
curse?

“Well isn’t this heartwarming,” Dallas said. He
stepped into the room as a small crowd filed in after him – Christian, Jesse
and Scarlet. Kaleb stopped in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe.

“Meanwhile,” Dallas
continued,
“I’ve been going crazy trying to find you two.
Do you know where I’ve been? I drove all over town and back. I checked every
gas station and rest stop from here to Bansworth asking if anyone had seen a
redheaded girl or a crappy, beat-up car rolling through. I thought you ran
away!”

“You didn’t check the parking lot?” Rome asked.
“My car is still here. It’s been here the entire time.”

“Well… that thing’s so low… how am I supposed
to see it behind all the regular sized cars?” Dallas complained.

“You drive a BMW, my car is like a boat
compared to that thing.”

“Shut up.”

“You get stupid when you’re worried, don’t
you?”

“Why did you think we ran away?” Ariahna asked.

“You took off in the middle of the night and
never came back to your room. You’ve been gone half the day, and you left your
cellphone,” Dallas said, shaking the small device at her. “The whole purpose of
having a
cellphone is so that people can get
ahold of you. That’s why I said you needed
one, so we could avoid this.”

“Can’t you see they were
busy
serenading
one another?” Jesse smiled.

Ariahna was embarrassed to realize they’d heard
her singing.

“And about that,” Dallas said. “Since when do
you sing?”

“Dallas, how long have you known me?” Aria said
patiently.