Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel)
Page 32
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.
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…”
“…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 w
as 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.