about the girl who died in the fire at Eton. What was Chance
not telling me? What was he so afraid of? “Why not?” I said.
“What's wrong with getting close to someone?”
“Because!” Chance threw up his hands, turning away
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from me.
“Because why?” I wasn't about to let him walk away
again. Chance had messed with my head one too many times
this weekend for my liking. I wasn't going to give him that
power over me anymore. And as much as his kiss made me
weak at the knees, I wasn't about to wait for him to decide to
give me another one.
“Because it's not for me – just let it go.” He was
growing angry now; I could sense it.
“Why not for you? When it's fine for everyone else?”
“It just isn't, okay?”
“Why?” I took a step closer.
At last he exploded. “Because it's too dangerous,
damn it!” He turned back towards me, and in his eyes I saw
something there I had not seen before. Not cruelty. Not
disdain. Not arrogance. Only pain – bare, unmasked,
vulnerable.
And I wanted nothing more than to soothe it.
“I'm not afraid,” I said, stepping forward. “I don't
scare easy, Chance. And you're not going to get rid of me that
easily. Whatever weirdness is going on between us – I want
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to see it through to the end. Properly.”
He wasn't going to call the shots anymore. I was.
I stepped closer and, before he could figure out what
I was doing, reached my arms around his neck and pulled
him close into a kiss. I could feel his lips parting beneath
mine; I could feel the heat of his tongue exploring my
own…his groan as he pressed his hard-on against my crotch,
grinding against me as I opened up to him. I could feel his
pulse quicken, his hands grow warm as he tightened his hold
on me.
And then he pulled away, leaving me frustrated.
“I did warn you, Miss Evers,” he said.
“Mac.”
“I'll warn you again.” Chance turned away from me
and began to storm off into the distance. “Stay away from
me, Miss Evers. For your own sake – and for mine, if you
want to live!” And with that, he vanished into the night.
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Chapter 10
I woke up Monday morning feeling more confused
than ever. The weekend had been an overwhelming one. I'd
hoped to start my senior year fresh – ready to make friends,
to have adventures, to get good grades, to maybe join a
sports team or two and start hunting for college scholarships.
Instead I'd kissed two guys and almost one guy in twenty-
four hours. My own body felt like a stranger to me.
Something kept taking over me – first at the flames at the
bonfire, then again in the woods – as if I had been possessed
by some unknown creature. I didn't have any control over
my thoughts anymore; my mind felt as if it had been
submerged in water. Fuzzy. Overwhelmed. I kept thinking
about Varun, Chance, and Brandon. Then Chance, Brandon,
and Varun, my thoughts flitting back and forth between them
all. I spent Sunday forcing myself to concentrate on my
homework, trying to forget Varun's sweetness, Chance's
passion, and Brandon’s promises but by the end of the day I
was a nervous mess.
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What was I doing? This wasn't me at all. It had been
years since I'd been interested in one boy – let alone three –
and it certainly wasn't like me to go after all at the same time.
Leading guys on, I'd always thought, was reserved for girls
like Haven, girls who didn't care who they were dating as
long as it gave them a better shot of making prom queen. But
here I was, thinking of Chance, Brandon, and Varun, wanting
them both beside me, wanting both sets of arms around me.
Varun was so kind, so warm – he knew how to make me
laugh. He knew how to make me feel calm, feel safe, even
in the midst of all my stress and troubles. And certainly
Chance made me feel anything but safe. With him I lost
control of my emotions; with him anger and desire melded
into a single blazing force. I wanted to slap him; I wanted to
kiss him. I wanted to make him feel as confused and out-of-
control as I felt now. Brandon…there was more to him than
his outrageous flirtatiousness too.
And somehow, it seemed, this all had to do with the
secrets of Aeros, the secrets I was only just beginning to
discover. What was the truth about what happened to Jana,
about Chance's secrecy, about the girl who died in England?
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Who were the men I had seen in the mountains, and why did
they really worship Chance as a god?
And what was it that he had said about a goddess?
Something was going on. I had felt it ever since that
first night at the luau, when Antonio Cutter had looked at me
so intently when talking about Chance. And now I knew that
Antonio Cutter was behind our family's successes – from my
scholarship to the fact that we were living on VIP property
instead of normal staff
