Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (12 page)

I held her tightly against my body, and she
tried to push me away, but it was a halfhearted attempt.
 
I could feel her frantic heartbeat pounding
against my chest, and her breath was coming fast and short.
 
I pulled her a bit closer, and she melted
against me.
 
Too bad she still glared up
at me with hatred.
 
It was frustrating as
all hell, and all I could think of was wiping that look off her face.

I smirked at her and bent forward, brushing
my lips against hers lightly, teasingly, and she responded instantly, wrapping
her arms around my neck.

A primal need surged through me, crippling
me.
 
And before I could stop it, the
teasing kiss changed … morphed … into something close to savage.
 
Jade bit my bottom lip, sucking it between
hers.
 
She moaned and dug her hands into
my hair, pulling me closer, crushing me against her.

This
crush is going to be the death of me.

That’s all it was.
 
A crush.
 
Simple attraction.
 
Something to forget.
 
I knew that, I just wished my gut (and my
heated lips) would accept it, too.
 
She
had been doing just fine without my interference, but if I was being honest
with myself, I had only interfered for a chance to get closer to her.

“Aidan!” Dominic growled.

I didn’t want to stop.
 
I really didn’t want to let her go, but at the
sound of his voice, Jade jerked away from me.
 
I held on tight, keeping my arms firmly around her waist, and after a
second, she relaxed against me again.
 
She looked up at me through hooded eyes.
 
They were the sexiest eyes I had ever seen.
 
They had this bedroom quality, deep brown,
with full, thick lashes.
 
I brushed my
lips against hers, just a featherlike sweep, and let my hand travel slowly down
her silky smooth arm, entwining my fingers with hers.

“You have my keys, Dom,” I said, keeping my
eyes locked with hers.
 
“I’ll see you
back at the motel.”
 
I stepped back from
her then, giving her hand a little tug, and started walking.
 
I knew this was stupid, but I couldn’t let
go, not yet, so I said, “Trevor, the girls want ice cream.
 
You
coming?”

Trevor looked as if he had no clue what was
going on, and I bit back a laugh.
 
Dominic had said he knew what he was doing, but this was not what I had
expected.
 
He shook his head, as if he
was trying to clear it, and then grinned.
 
“Yeah, sure, come on, Mac.”
 
He
held his hand out to her, and she rushed over, grinning.

We had only made it a few steps when Jade
stopped abruptly, and spun back around.
 
“Dom, wait,” she called.
 
There
was desperation in her voice, and it lit my nerves on fire.
 
She tried to pull her hand away, but I didn’t
— wouldn’t — let go.
 
Not only did I not
want to, but Becca was already in the backseat healing, and the last thing I
needed was to try and explain to
Jade
why there was a
naked and very bloody girl in my car.

Dominic didn’t turn back.
 
He reached for the car door and swung it
open.
 
“Not now, Jade,” he said, and
climbed in, shutting the door quickly.

She stood still, watching him pull out of
the parking lot, as if she thought he’d stop.
 
He didn’t.
 
The car disappeared
down the road, and yet, she still watched, even after any shred of taillights
was gone.

“You okay?” I asked, as I took a quick
glance over my shoulder.
 
Trevor and
Marcy had already disappeared into the shop.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jade asked,
keeping her voice low.
 
She tugged on my
hand and started walking.
 
Her hand was
stiff in mine, and she made a point not to look at me, but she didn’t let go.

“Hanging out with
friends.”
 
That wasn’t really a lie, was it?
 
The pack was sort of my friends.
 
I wanted to tell her who I was so bad it hurt, but I just couldn’t do
it.
 
What if Dominic was right?
 
What if she hated me just because I was one
of them?
 
I didn’t think I could live
with that.

“They’re not your friends, Aidan,” she
snapped.
 
“Are you blind or just stupid?”

“Stupid,” I said, looking down at our hands
laced together.
 
“Definitely
stupid.”
 
But everyone needed to
be stupid once in a while, right?
 
What
fun would life be if I always played by the rules?

~ JADE ~

My mocha was
cold.
 
Not just cool, but freezing, and I
sipped it slowly, trying to make it last.
 
The coffee shop was busy.
 
The
chatter of students buzzed in the air.
 
Each one of the cracked up red, faux-leather booths was occupied, and
for once, not a single pack member was invading the space.
 
I fiddled with the saltshaker, twirling it
around, watching the tiny grains shift through the glass.
 
Marcy was talking about, well, I really
didn’t know, because I honestly wasn’t listening.

Once she started gushing about Trevor, I
zoned out, and well, I was too busy forcing myself not to look at Aidan again
to really hear what she was saying.
 
I
was really beginning to feel like a crazy stalker.
 
Aidan had been sitting in the booth a few
down from us reading for close to an hour now, and he still hadn’t glanced my
way.
 
It was maddening.
 
Never in my life had I been ignored as much
as he ignored me.
 
It had been almost two
weeks since we kissed in the park.
 
And
since then he had been more than a little distant.
 
He was always polite when I forced him into a
conversation, but that was it.
 
A
distracted politeness, as if he always had somewhere else to be that was more
important.

And that attitude made me want him
more.
 
He’d only been living in Dog
Mountain for a short time, but Aidan, had quickly climbed to the top of the
social ladder at school.
 
The pack loved
him, and with the pack’s endorsement, so did the rest of the students.
 
I figured, being popular in a small town
wasn’t all that hard.
 
It wasn’t as if
there was a ton of competition.
 
Except,
I knew that being popular in my small town was a challenge.
 
But Aidan hadn’t needed to even work at
it.
 
Even after standing up to Dominic,
he had managed to penetrate the ranks of popularity.
 
And he had done it with a cool detachment, as
if he didn’t care one way or another.

This was the first time in the last two
weeks that I had seen Aidan without Dominic or one of the other werewolves
flanking him.
 
It was also the first time
that I had seen something other than aloofness on his chiseled face.
 
His hair was spiky with gel and his brown
eyes were wide as he flipped the pages of his textbook, as if it was the most
absorbing thing he had ever read.
 
He was
gentle with the pages, letting his fingertips caress them delicately.
 
I got the impression that he was one of those
people who could read a book ten times without making it look like it had been
opened.
 
I didn’t know whether I liked
that about him, or if it was another thing that drove me crazy about him.

“I like him, Mac,” I said, still twirling
the saltshaker in my hands.
 
“Like really
like him.”
 
It seemed like such a stupid
thing to admit.
 
I hardly knew him.
 
How could I possibly know if I liked him or
not?
 
But my stomach didn’t seem to
agree.
 
Every time I saw Aidan, birds
took flight in my belly.

Marcy cocked her head to the side, looking
at me as if I was nuts.
 
She arched a
brow.
 
“Who?”

I tilted my head and jutted my chin in
Aidan’s direction.

She glanced over her shoulder, and then
turned back to me wrinkling her nose.
 
“Really?
 
But he’s …”

“Perfect,” I said, cutting her off and
shooting her a dirty look.

“Dominic is perfect.
 
Trevor is perfect.
 
He’s…,” she paused, and her eyebrows moved
together as she tried to find the right words.
 
She snatched the saltshaker out of my hand,
smacking it down on the table.
 
“Cold.”

I laughed.
 
I didn’t mean to, it just came out.
 
“He is not and Dominic doesn’t count in this.”

“Yeah, he kind of is,” she said, and her
frown grew.
 
“He’s barely spoken to you
since the park.”

“It’s an act,” I said defensively and with
a lot more conviction than I felt.

Marcy considered this, and as she did, a
sly smirk spread on her lips.
 
“Then go
get him.”

“I can’t.”
 
I sighed, looking down at the table.
 
What was it about him that made me lose my nerve?
 
Anyone else, and I wouldn’t hesitate, but
Aidan, he seemed so out of reach.
 
Above me.
 
As if he
was above us all.

“Why the hell not?
 
Who says you have to wait
for him to make a move.
 
We’re not in the
Middle Ages, Jade.”

I sighed.
 
“He hasn’t even noticed I’m here.”

“Wow, really?
 
When did that ever stop you before?
 
You want him, then get your skinny butt over
there and make your presence known.”
 
I
gave her a look and she grinned, her epic idea grin.
 
She leaned in across the table and dropped
her voice to a whisper.
 
“Remember back
in eighth grade, before Dominic came out, and you wanted his attention?” she
asked.

“Um, not sure …”

She cut me off.
 
“Yes, it’s perfect.”

~ AIDAN ~

Keeping a straight
face was a challenge.
 
Jade and Marcy sat
a few booths over from me, but I could hear them as if they were right next to
me.
 
Jade looked, well,
hot
.
 
But then, she
always did.
 
It wasn’t just her perfect
figure with all of those peaks and curves, or her glossy hair, or her full lips
that made her hot.
 
It was her confidence.
 
Even when she doubted herself, she was still
confident about it.
 
It was far from
conceit, though, nothing like Erika and the others.
 
Jade was a girl who knew exactly who she was,
and she let the world know it, too.
 
It
made her even more appealing, really.

Staying away from her these past few weeks
had been brutal.
 
But I didn’t really
have a choice.
 
Erika had taken down
another one of the challenging females and with only four of them left, it
wouldn’t be long before I was tied down to one of them.
 
There was absolutely no future for Jade and
me, and the sooner I accepted that, the easier it would be for her.
 
So far, Erika hadn’t caught wind of our
little moment in the park and she had forgotten the absurd idea that Jade was a
threat.
 
And I wanted to keep it that
way.

From the corner of my eye, I watched a
storm of emotions pass across Jade’s face before she settled on the confidence
that always burned in her eyes.
 
She slid
from the booth, stood up, and ran her hands down her thighs, smoothing out her
jeans.

“Okay, I’m going to do it,” she said,
looking at Marcy as if she wanted Marcy to stop her.

Marcy grinned and leaned back in the
booth.
 
“Good luck.”

Jade’s shoulders rose and fell three times
before she spun on her heels and walked up to
me,
or
marched was more like it.
 
Everything
about her said determined.
 
I had
expected her to say
hi
or slide into
the booth across from me but she didn’t.
 
She dropped down beside me and before I could even get a word out, she
grabbed the collar of my shirt, balling it in her fist, and yanked me toward
her.

Her lips were on mine before I could even
think.
 
They were soft, and warm, and
tasted like mocha.
 
They felt even better
pressed against my mouth than I remembered.
 
She worked her lips over mine with the same passion that she had for
everything else she did.
 
Urgent and hot.
 
My
lips parted as did hers, and as soon as they did, she flicked her tongue
against mine and suddenly, my hands were wrapped in her silky hair and …

“Sorry I’m late.”
 
Dominic.
 
At the sound of his voice, we broke apart, both of us breathing more
than a little heavily.
 
She looked at me;
her eyes were full of heated excitement.
 
She licked her lips as a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth.
 
“Jade?” Dominic asked in disbelief.
 
“Out of all the pack members in this town,
you go after him again!”

Jade made a sound.
 
It came from the back of her throat, a mix
between a gasp and a growl.
 
The heat
that had been in her eyes iced over and she leapt out of the booth.

“You’re one of them,” she spat.

I narrowed my eyes at her, searching her
over.
 
My brain was foggy, and my eyes
kept landing back on her swollen lips.
 
It
took a few long seconds for me to figure out what she was talking about.

“I’m not just one of them,” I said just as
nastily, and every muscle in my body tensed as I slid out of the booth and
glared down at her.
 
I had never had
someone look at me with so much hatred, so much disrespect.
 
“I’m the alpha.”

All the color drained from her face, and I
instantly regretted telling her.
 
For
half a second she looked as if she was going to pass out.
 
She wobbled a little and Dominic placed a
hand on the small of her back, keeping her steady.
 
He was smirking at me, a cocky smirk, and all
I wanted to do was punch him.

Jade rocked on her feet for another second,
and then, scarlet streaked up her neck, settling in her cheeks.
 
She spat on the floor, and wiped her mouth so
hard with her sleeve that her lips were burning red when she stopped.
 
“I feel sick,” she whispered.

~ JADE ~

I needed air.
 
Aidan was the alpha.
 
I kissed the alpha.
 
And I wanted to kiss him again.
 
So much so that it hurt.
 
He was staring down at me with cold eyes, and
his jaw was twitching as he clenched and unclenched his teeth.
 
Dominic was saying something to him, but I
couldn’t hear it.
 
My ears were ringing
too loudly, and my heart pounding even louder.

I swallowed hard, but it didn’t help to
move the bristly lump that was lodged in my throat.
 
I
kissed the alpha.
 
The birds flapped
in my stomach, begging me to move closer to him and do it again.

Suddenly, a montage of images invaded my
brain.
 
I saw Dominic.
 
His smile.
 
The way he held me in the
picture that sat beside my bed, as if I was the only thing that mattered.
 
The proud big brother.
 
The best friend.
 
Then I saw him as the beta.
 
The cold eyes.
 
The hatred.
 
The aggression.
 
His back facing me as he walked out of my
life.
 
And my irrational mind blamed
Aidan for it all.

I felt my face twist into a sneer, and for
a moment, I saw pain in Aidan’s eyes.
 
It
didn’t last long, and in a blink, he had his cold mask back in place.

Aidan didn’t see it coming, but then I
hadn’t either.
 
I took a step toward him
and slapped him with everything I had.
 
A
burning sting rushed through my hand.
 
Dominic chuckled, and I spun on him.
 
Whatever it was that he saw in me made him take a quick step
back,
and without even a small glance over my shoulder, I
left the coffee shop.