17. Dangerous games
Chapter 17
Dangerous games
Luca
A riana and Lil have some weird ass reading competition against each other, and apparently, they spend a lot of weekends trying to add to their totals. I expected them to go to a party or on dates or… something.
“You are allowed to date, though, right?” I ask them after dinner as we’re playing darts in the game room. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I realize it’s a mistake because I don’t want to hear about Ariana dating anyone, but it’s too fucking late now.
“I mean, sure. But people are either usually freaked out by everything or want to wear it like a badge. Dating a DeVille is a big deal either way. And that’s not even factoring in this whole thing.” Ariana waves her hand between her and Lil, who laughs. “Like we get it, we’re a fucking lot to deal with. We know how we are, and we’re good with it, but most people don’t get it. If we don’t find partners who are okay with our weird, clingy, platonic life-and-soul-mate shit, then what’s the point?”
Lil nods. “We’ve tried double dating a couple of times just to put it all out there from the beginning, and it sucks.” She throws her darts, and two of the three shots end up in the wall instead of the dartboard. Groaning, she stomps over and retrieves them.
Ariana picks up her darts. “One time, both guys we were on dates with started making jokes about swapping or orgies, and shit got awkward fast.” She throws her first dart, and it hits just outside the bullseye.
“It hasn’t really gone better if my date is a girl. Just like any actual relationship I’ve tried to be in.” Lil rolls her eyes. Ariana’s second and third shots cluster around the first. “You’re holding back, Ari,” Lil accuses.
“I had my eyes closed.”
“Mmmhmmm… Anyway, dating people from school hasn’t panned out for shit, so we stopped even trying.” Lil shrugs and seems largely unbothered. “And the last time I went on a date that wasn’t someone from school, the guy could not stop looking at my tits and wasn’t listening to anything I said. I started asking him random shit, like if his mom was a good lay, and he nodded and said, ‘hell yeah.’” She drops her voice down a couple of octaves.
Ariana giggles and spits out the soda she just drank. It dribbles down her chin, and I can’t stop my dirty brain from imagining it’s my cum instead. I shift a little as my dick starts to harden. How can she be sexy and adorable at the same time?
“Jesus Christ, that guy!” It takes every ounce of self-control to keep the chuckle and smirk I feel coming on at bay—until she says, “When I got there, he started staring at my tits, too, so I threw a drink in his face and told him to keep his eyes to himself, or I was going to dig them out with a fucking melon baller and make him eat them.”
Fuck, I really might be in love with this girl.
And I need a list of every asshole she and Lil have been on dates with. Fucking disrespectful jerks.
A week ago, I was dreading coming here even though I knew I couldn’t stay home. Now, I can’t imagine not getting on that plane. Not making this change. Not meeting this girl. Now that I’ve seen what my life could be like in the sun, I don’t ever want to go back to the dark.
We’re debating what to do after Ariana beats the shit out of us at darts when Lil’s phone dings.
“Hey, Amanda wants to know if we’re up for a game night at her place tonight.”
“That depends entirely on who is there and what games are played,” Ariana says with a shrug of one shoulder.
“She says it’s just her, Katie and her boyfriend, April and her girlfriend, Lisa and her current fuckboy, then us if we go, and Luca.”
Ariana grins. “That would make for an epic game of Cards Against Humanity or What Do You Meme…”
“Well, I already told her we’d at least show up for a bit.” Lil looks at me like she’s expecting me to complain.
I want to. Fuck, I want to. But I’m not going to give her the satisfaction. So I don’t do or say a damn thing, and when Lil looks disappointed, I have to fight the urge to grin. Fucking hell.
“Fine. Let’s go then,” Ariana says.
“I can be the designated driver,” Lil wags her eyebrows at Ariana, who snorts.
“No. Fucking. Way.”
“Then, at least let Luca drive home so you can have more than a beer or two.”
“What if Luca wants to let loose?” Ariana asks like it’s an actual possibility.
I shake my head. “Nah, I’m good. They’re your friends, have fun.” I met their group of friends throughout the week in the cafeteria. They seem alright.
Ariana purses her lips and picks at her nail polish. “We’ll see.”
Half an hour later, Lil’s knocking on Amanda’s front door .
“Woo hoo, you’re here!” Amanda shouts when she opens it and lets us in. “There’s beer. Jimmy’s fake ID is pretty decent, so he hit the store. Not as good as yours, though, Ariana.”
She shrugs. “Whose is?” She and Lil both grab a beer.
“Luca, are you playing games or just holding up walls tonight?” Lisa asks with a wide smile.
“Oh, he’s playing games. What are we starting with?” Lil glares at me, daring me to refuse. Again, I’m not giving in and letting her win, so I guess I’m participating in fucking game night.
And that’s how I end up sitting next to Ariana, spending two hours playing Cards Against Humanity and laughing more than I ever thought possible. Everything is inappropriate and ridiculous, and everyone picks cards just to make other people say shit like ‘finding your dad’s pocket pussy,’ and ‘pooping in front of your brand new boyfriend.’
Ariana and Lil prove to be a fantastic beer pong team, but April and her girlfriend beat us all. As Lil disappears outside with most of the group to share a joint, Ariana leans her hip against the kitchen island and pins me with a hard stare as she crosses her arms.
Why the fuck does that make my dick hard?
“I don’t let people drive my car, Luca.”
“I know.” I resist the urge to rearrange myself, hoping my jeans hide what this woman does to me.
“I don’t normally drink much outside the house unless someone I trust is driving us home, and I can pretty much count all those times on one hand.”
“You don’t like to count.”
She chuckles. “You’re right, I don’t.” She slides the heart-shaped locket along the chain around her wrist. “You know how to get back home, right?”
I swallow the lump that forms in my throat at the word. At what it means to me now. Home. The DeVille house. It’s already more home than the one I grew up in ever was.
“Yeah, I know how to get home. And there’s this new thing, it’s called GPS. Really helpful if I get lost.” I’m rewarded with a bright smile, and fucking butterflies fill my stomach.
“You’re funny when you’re not being a grumbly asshole. Maps are one of the few things my brain likes. I can’t remember to do my laundry, but I can find a park I went to one time, like five years ago, without needing to look it up.”
“Not a bad skill to have,” I say.
“You say that because I’m not ordering you new socks after forgetting to wash all the dirty ones again.” She pulls her keychain out of her back pocket and places them in my hand, leaving rivers of pleasure as her fingertips slide across my palm slowly. Every time we touch, my body reacts. I swear my soul does, too.
She blinks up at me, and all I can think about is how she’s the perfect combination of tiny and thick. I wonder if she can hear my heart thumping in my chest. My fingers ache with the need to touch her. To dig into her flesh and pull her toward me. To curl around the back of her neck and kiss her.
Her lips part slightly, and the tip of her tongue darts out. My eyes are drawn to the split in her lip, not even a week old and still healing. Fuck. I can’t kiss her, not the way I would want to. And I shouldn’t kiss her, anyway.
As if she can read my thoughts, she drops her gaze to our hands and pulls hers away. Walking to the fridge, she pulls out a beer and a bottle of water.
“Thanks,” I say when she holds the water out to me. Wanting to lessen the tension between us, I nod toward the back door. “Not a fan?”
She wrinkles her nose. “Not really, unless it’s in edible form. You? ”
“I did it a lot in high school, especially the first few years. Not so much once I started fighting.”
“Lil’s convinced pot got you in trouble enough to get sent here,” she says with a little smirk.
I shake my head. “Nah, not even on the radar.” She’s silent, waiting, an eyebrow cocked. I could stare at her for hours, but that would be fucking weird. “My mom wants me to be a lawyer or a doctor or some shit. I hated school. I could learn my stuff, but putting it back down on paper never clicked. I never even thought about going to college after I graduated two years ago, but suddenly, she was trying to force me into picking a major. Dad suggested I come here.” I leave out the arranged marriage bullshit. I don’t want to think about it, let alone say it out loud to Ariana.
“Your mom sounds like a bitch,” she says, taking a drink from her beer bottle.
“She is.” I lift a shoulder.
“Makes me even more thankful for my mom. She’s always been supportive of us finding our own thing, you know?”
“What’s your thing?”
“Baking. I dabble in other stuff, but baking is a constant.”
“But you’re not taking classes for it?”
“Maybe someday, but I like to figure it out for myself. Classroom learning is Lil’s style, not mine.”
“Sometimes it amazes me when you two have something that’s not in common.” I raise an eyebrow at Ariana and realize I do that a lot.
“What, since we spend like 99% of our time together, it means we’re the same? We’re not the same person, Luca. We just don’t like to be apart for long. There’s a lot of stuff that’s different.”
“Like what?” A small grin breaks out on my face. There’s no stopping it. She’s adorable when she’s riled up.
She rolls her eyes. “Lil likes math, and I fucking hate math. We both like reading, but I like it a lot more than she does. I love baking, and she loves eating whatever I make. She likes flashier clothes and makeup than I do, but I’m a sucker for shoes.”
“That’s it? Doesn’t seem like a lot,” I tease. Well, that’s not like me at fucking all…
Her mouth pulls to one side as she narrows her eyes at me and my challenge. “Lil could live off mangos, but I think they’re gross.” She cringes at the thought. “The fucking texture. They smell so good, though.” Her fingers tug on the locket again as she chews on her lip, clearly trying to think of more things.
“Alright, I’m convinced.” I raise my hands in defeat, but she’s not convinced I’m convinced.
“Um... Oh, I like cats, and she likes dogs, and we’ve had so many fights over which we’ll get when we’re little old spinster ladies one day because there’s no way we’re each finding someone who isn’t only perfect for us, but can handle the other one being around all the time,” her voice hitches a little, but she keeps going. “So sometimes we think we’ll get something else, but then we can’t agree because then I want birds so I can teach them to say ‘fuck off’ and ‘eat a dick,’ and she wants… well, anything other than birds. Lil likes colorful cars, but I couldn’t care less about the color as long as it drives like a dream.”
God, she’s fucking cute right now, rambling like this, using her fingers to mark things off as she goes.
“You do like to drive.”
“I love to drive. Lil just likes being in the car and cranking up the music. And I like living, so I like Lil not driving.”
“Amen to that,” I say, just as Lil and the others come back inside, and we start another game.