Free Are You In The House Alone? (plus: Love Me) by Y.A. Love Page A

can I do?”
    A sardonic grin played on Griffin’s
lips as he eyed me. Then he lifted his chin and challenged. “Kiss me.”
    My stomach fluttered.
“Wh—what?”
    Griffin’s eyes twinkled. “You heard
me.”
    I stared at him. He had to be
kidding. Had to be. Only he didn’t look like he was kidding or sound like he
was kidding. He looked and sounded amused, teasing, but still, serious. Like it
was all funny to him—getting Aiden Hank’s girlfriend all worked up and
sweating—but he’d let Aiden off the hook if I did what he said. Those
were his terms. He had offered me a deal. Only … it was weird.
    “You,” I swallowed, feeling
slightly dizzy, like maybe this moment wasn’t really real. Like maybe I had
fainted from fright when I first started talking to The Griff and now I was
hallucinating or daydreaming or something. “You—you want me to kiss you?”
    He set his jaw, but he was still
smiling. “Yeah. Kiss me and I won’t kill your boyfriend.”
    A strange feeling washed over
me—a tingling combination of excitement and horror. I backed away and
leaned against the lockers behind me for support. I was all wobbly and sweaty
and shaking as I tried to get my brain to actually work—to think. “Um…”
    Really? That was all I had to do?
Kiss him and Aiden was off the hook? It didn’t seem possible. Or right. There
had to be more to it than that. After all, I wasn’t exactly Miss Sexy; far from
it. Boys didn’t even usually notice me. Not that I was ugly, I guess. Aiden
said I was “beautiful.” But then, Aiden was my boyfriend. And sweet. The Griff
wasn’t either of those.
    “I don’t understand.”
    Griffin shot me this adorable
lopsided grin. It got my heart all confused and fluttery. “Yes you do.”
    Mmmmm.
    My pulse convulsed into a wild
frenzy, my mind too. I bit my lip, trying to figure out the catch. There had to
be one. Had to. Though Griffin was known as a troublemaker at our school, he
was cute; adorable even. There was a certain “type” of girls that were always
hanging on him—a type that was not at all like me. They were loud and
forward and experienced with boys. I wasn’t like that. At all. And I wasn’t the
type of girl that boys pined after. I was “nice” and “caring” and sure, maybe
on a good hair-day, “pretty.” But that was about it. No way were boys lining up
to kiss me. I doubted they even thought about me. So no, I didn’t get it. What
was going on?
    It had to be something slimy.
    “That’s all I have to do?” I said
skeptically. “Kiss you—nothing more?”
    Griffin raised his eyebrows, his
lips curling into a grin. “You can do more if you want.”
    Jerk! Humiliated, I started to
slink away.
    But Griffin grabbed my arm, gently
pulling me back to him. “Geez, I was just messing with you, Grange.”
    Grange? He knew my last name?
    His eyes danced as he leaned in
close, close enough his warm breath tickled my neck as he asked, “So, we have a
deal?”
    I backed away from him, trying to
think. It would get Aiden out of trouble and it was just one little kiss. But …
it was with a delinquent.
    Then again, my best friend, Jazz,
was always saying I needed to loosen up and walk on the wild side. Of course,
Griffin Piper was way more wild than what Jazz had meant. Jazz had meant wear
bright purple rather than pastels. She didn’t mean date the school’s bad boy.
    But …
    But nothing! Aiden would get his
sweet little face smashed to bits by The Griff if I didn’t do this. I couldn’t
let that happen.
    I took a deep breath, terrified.
What would The Grief Master’s kiss be like? I was a little bit curious, but
mostly scared. I’d only kissed two boys in my entire life. I wasn’t experienced
by a long shot and I was still slightly nervous that I couldn’t trust The
Griff—that it wasn’t really just a kiss he wanted, though it did seem he
had only made the deal to make me squirm. I mean, he just seemed
entertained—like it would be fun either