White Wolf’s Curse

After I was done with my shift I changed my clothes, throwing the uniform in the bin. I wish I could contact Gray and get him to come to my rescue. I know Trey means well, but I don’t want him to be my knight. I don’t want to go on this stupid date, but as soon as I step out of the diner there is Justin. He is leaning against a sleek car. I could never have a car that expensive, but I think in this environment that car is completely impractical.

He smiles and stands. He doesn’t even talk, just opens the passenger door and motions for me to get in.

I hesitate for a minute before getting in. Once I am in I buckle up. He closes the door gently and takes the driver’s seat. “Well, are you ready?”

“Why are you even asking me? You know I didn’t want to even be here.”

He leans towards me. “Yeah, but by getting in this car you confirmed what I said earlier. Now everyone knows you are mine.”

“No, I’m not.” I state plainly.

He settles into his seat and starts up the car. “So, what makes you like this Gray so much?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Sure it is. If you aren’t willing to consider me then I have to know what I need to improve.”

“Stop being an asshole for starters.” I am watching where he is going and I am not pleased. It looks like he is taking me out of town. “Where the hell are we going?”

“Someplace special. You’ll love it I swear.”

“Not likely.”

He acts like I didn’t say anything. “Actually my sister told me about this place. Apparently it is where your boyfriend Trey used to take her when he thought he was going to get lucky.”

“Is that what you think is going to happen?”

“No, just making a point.”

“He isn’t my boyfriend either.”

“I know, I just wanted to see what you would say.” He smiles at me.

I am silent now, he doesn’t seem to take no for an answer. Maybe ignoring him a bit will be better. He seems to like attention. I look out the window watching where we are going. He turns off the main road and heads down a dirt road that I am sure is not making his car happy. It is going to be dirty as hell when we are done here. The dirty road is actually pretty smooth, considering. For about twenty minutes we bob along on the dirt road. I am starting to think he is taking me out here to kill me.

He parks the car on the side of the road in a cleared out section. “Alright it is a little bit of a walk from here.” He climbs out of the car and I sit and debate what I should do. Should I just follow him or make it difficult? I decided to go with the former, only because I was curious as to where he was taking me. I leave my bag and climb out of the car.

He is standing by the trees waiting for me. “Took you long enough.”

“Were you just going to wait for me?”

“I figured if you took much longer then you weren’t getting out of the car.” He reached over and took my hand. I pulled it back.

“I don’t want to be touched.”

He took my hand again. “Deal with me touching you.” He locked his fingers with mine. It’s a bit harder to pull it away now.

We walk through the trees for about thirty minutes in silence. I am pretty sure I am dying now. There is no way he would take me out here if he wasn’t. Maybe I committed some crime in his book I don’t know about. Finally he turns to me. “I want you to close your eyes.”

“Yeah, that isn’t happening.”

I shake my head. But he releases my hand and pulls a blind fold from his pocket. “I tried to do this the easy way.” I backed away from him but didn’t realize that he had put me in front of a tree so when I backed up I just hit the tree. He pins me to the tree with his body. “It’s just a blind fold. It doesn’t bite.”

“I changed my mind, I’ll close my eyes.”

He leans forward and whispers in my ear. “Too late.” He covers my eyes with the blind fold, tying it off before I can even think of what to say next. I am totally in the dark now. You know how usually with blind folds there is a little light from the bottom. Not this one, it completely blocks out everything. I reach my hands up to take it off but he grabs my hands. “Leave it alone Cassandra.” He has a warning tone.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I want to surprise you. I can’t do that if you peek.” He lets go of my hands and lifts me off the ground. I squeak. He chuckles but continues to carry me. “Wouldn’t want you to fall over now would we?”

He carries me for a couple of minutes, placing me down on soft ground. I can feel the moisture under my shoes on the ground. He turns my body a little. I feel the blind fold loosen and slip free. It takes me a minute to blink free the spots from my eyes, but when I do I gasp in shock. This place is beautiful. The leaves are just starting to yellow and look amazing surrounding what looks like an amazing pond. There are still some late season flowers along the shore. On the ground a little ways from the shore is a picnic set up on a blue blanket.

I feel a pair of arms wrap around me from behind and a chin rest on my shoulder. “Does this meet your satisfaction?”

“It’s very beautiful.” I can’t lie, it is. If I said anything else he would know I was lying.

“You are so stubborn, you know that.” He mutters.

“Then why do you want to go on a date with me?”

He lets go of my waist and moves so that he is facing me. “Because I love stubborn women.” He takes my hand and leads me to the blanket.

“So you’re saying if I would have agreed to the date in the first place you would have lost interest?”

Lifting my hand to his mouth he kisses the back of it. “No, it just makes you more interesting.”

“Ugh, I am not interesting. I am just a normal person. What is wrong with you people?” I plop down on the blanket like a five year old throwing a tantrum.

He sits next to me. I try to move away but he pulls my body back. “Stay.” Something in the way he said that sounded familiar. I can’t place it though. I do stay put.

He starts handing me things. A plate, a fork, a soda, chicken, potato salad, and a roll. It’s all hot. How is that possible, it took us almost an hour to get here and it had to be set up already for him to have it sitting here? “How is this still hot?” Curiosity you know.

He glides his fingers over my cheek. “I have my ways.”

I can’t imagine what he has in ways of ways. Maybe the basket has a thermal package in it and the food was in there. That would make logical sense. That was probably it.

I am debating on if I should eat the food or not when he doesn’t wait for me to start. He takes my fork and proceeds to try to feed me. He has it sitting in front of my mouth. “We can sit here all night until you eat.” Reluctantly I open my mouth.

After the fourth bite I stopped him. “I can feed myself.”

He looks like he is biting his cheek. “Yeah, but you weren’t, now I enjoy it, so you have to endure.” He took another forkful to my mouth.

I tuck the food in my cheek. Not very ladylike, I know. “This is really good. Where did you get it?”

“I made it.” He gives me another forkful not realizing that my mouth is still full. I quickly swallow and take the next bite.

“Really, are you sure?” I give him a skeptical look.

He laughs. “Yes, I made it. I am capable of doing things. I am not just an asshole.”

“Could have fooled me.” I mutter.

“Only because you are refusing to get to know me.” He takes the plate from me. It is only half empty and I am starting to miss it already.

That is until he shocks the shit out of me. He lays his head on my lap. I throw my hands up in shock. I’m not really sure what to do. I mean I could push him off, but that just seems like it would make this worse. I don’t want to touch him though.

“Um, what are you doing?”

He smiles and nestles into my lap. “Relaxing and enjoying the calm with you. I actually do really like it out here. It’s a shame that Trey found this place first. It is on my family’s property though, so it is ours. We still let him use it though.”

I put my hands behind me to lean back to put some space between us and give my hands something to do. “So, is this what you envisioned our date to be?”

“Not really, but it’s a start.” He’s laying with his head on my lap watching the sky. His hands are folded over his belly.

“So, what is it that you thought this would be?”

“I thought that maybe I could sweep you off your feet. Maybe at least find out what you like about this other guy so much.”

“Why? I mean you just met me yesterday. What is so fascinating about me?”

“I liked how you kept your cool with Kelly yesterday. You could have been a bitch just like her, but you didn’t. You kept calm when I was harassing you with my many requests. Most were bullshit by the way. You may be a hard ass but you’re not a bitch.”

I fidget around a little. I didn’t think he paid that much attention to me. “So, if you really want to know what I like about Gray, it’s that he is understanding when talking to me. He tries to get the whole story and find the facts. He doesn’t let what other people think about a person decide how he is going to treat that person.”

“Mmm.” I look down at Justin, because this just seems like an odd response. He has his eyes closed. When I fidgeted I wound up putting my hand on his chest. Absentmindedly I was playing with his hair with my other hand.

“I’m sorry.” I pull my hands away really quickly.

His eyes shoot open. “What?”

“I didn’t mean to do that.” I try to stand up. “I should probably get going.”

He sits up. “Wait, don’t feel that way. We are just relaxing.”

I stand and dust myself up. “I can’t do this.”

“What’s the problem?” He is on his knees in front of me.

“I was getting too comfortable with you. You don’t see things the same way I do. I am not dating you.” I shake my head profusely.

“Why? I mean this Gray guy isn’t doing it. Why not me?”

I sigh, “Justin, it’s complicated. He is older and he is waiting for my birthday. So, see, it’s not that he doesn’t like me, I am just a little short on age.” That sounds like a good excuse right.

“Well, are you sure that isn’t just an excuse?”

I pause. “What do you mean?”

“What if he just wants to string you along? I mean you aren’t that shy of your birthday. How much older is this guy?”

“He’s the same age you are. Or about there.”

“See, I don’t care, why should he? I really want you to give me a chance here.”

“No, I can’t. Not until after my birthday.” I stand my ground. I am not going to cave.

He stands up and grabs my waist. “You really are stubborn, you know that right?”

“So I have been told.”

He pulls my body close to his. “Fine, I will wait until your birthday. But when this guy isn’t who you think he is, I will be right here.” One of his arms wraps around my waist and his hand cups my face. “I don’t understand how he can wait. I want you in my arms, I want to kiss you.”

He leans in, I am sure he is going to kiss me. “Gray doesn’t like it when people kiss me. Well, specifically he said Trey but I am sure it is kissing in general.” I pull my head back.

“What Gray doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He leans in again.

“Only he will know. He just does. Plus I would know.”

“I already kissed you once. I am sure that one is going to count against you. Might as well have one that you enjoy.”

“Justin.” I groan. He is breathing on my neck and rubbing his nose against my skin.

“I told you it is really hard for me. I am sure Trey agrees. You are irresistible.” He is talking to me but his lips are sliding against my skin as he does it.

I grab a hold of his arms and pull him away from me. “I am not doing this.” I state as firmly as possible.

He chuckles. “Alright, until your birthday. Then I am giving you the biggest kiss of your life.” He pauses for a minute. “If I can wait that long.”

“Can you take me back now?”

He shrugs. “Sure. I guess. I mean you could stay for a little while longer. I promise to be nice.”

I eye him sideways. “How nice?”

“I’ll only kiss you if you beg me.” He smirks.

“Well, then we are safe forever, because that is never happening.”

“Never say never my dear.” He takes my hand leading me back to the blanket, walking backwards. “I will be a gentleman from here on out.”

“Alright.” I nod, biting my lip. I am pretty sure that I am going to regret this.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Only the rest of the day he just talks, we talk together actually. He asks about my life here, and my life before. I ask about what he is doing in college. He is learning about agriculture, but he’s not sure he wants to stick with it. He lays in front of me on his side facing me bracing his body with his elbow. I kind of match him, facing him. I don’t know why but the more time I spend with him the easier it is to talk to him. I feel like we should be tackling harder things but we started goofing off and telling funny stories and jokes. I guess not everything needs to be serious.

“You know I think you might kill me.” He says brushing some hair behind my ear.

“Oh, yeah, why is that?”

“I thought maybe if we got to know each other then I could move past you. But you really are not the type of girl I can do that with. I still really want to kiss you. Among other things.” He raises his eyebrows suggestively.

“Aren’t there girls in college that you could hit on?”

“Sure, but they aren’t nearly as fun as you.”

“Well, maybe you should try a few of those girls.” I suggest. I am sure there are girls that would be more suitable to him there. I just don’t feel like I am going to be on the market after my birthday. I don’t feel like I am on the market now.

“Yeah, maybe. But I’ll wait, see how this plays out.” He rolls over onto his back. “I should probably get you back. I am sure you have other things to do. Since I basically kidnapped you.”

“Yeah, my aunt is supposed to be coming to visit today. I am pretty sure I was supposed to be there for that.”

“I really don’t want to let you go though.” He smiles. “Maybe I could kidnap you until your birthday. Or at least until you fall desperately in love with me.”

“Why, you don’t love me, why would you want me to love you?”

“Because it would be so much easier to get you to do what I want.”

“Well, that isn’t happening. So, take me back please.”

“Alright.” He groans and stands, helping me up.

We are kind of quiet heading back. I have the feeling that he really just liked us being there. However I have enough to worry about with his scent all over me and meeting Gray later.