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Back Of Curses and Kisses
Chapters (24)
  1. Cover
  2. Map of the Town of St. Rosetta
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHAPTER 1
  6. CHAPTER 2
  7. CHAPTER 3
  8. CHAPTER 4
  9. CHAPTER 5
  10. CHAPTER 6
  11. CHAPTER 7
  12. CHAPTER 8
  13. CHAPTER 9
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. CHAPTER 17
  22. CHAPTER 18
  23. Acknowledgments
  24. About the Author

The girl was trouble; he could sense it. Being alone and having to watch out for himself all these years had attuned Grey’s senses. He knew when someone was blowing smoke up his ass. And Jaya Rao definitely was. But about what? Either she was an incredible actress or she had no idea what the rose pendant represented. So what, exactly, was she doing here? And why was she so interested in him?

Grey had made a list in his notebook about all the things he knew about Jaya Rao and the things he suspected about Jaya Rao in an attempt to arrive at a logical conclusion.

Things he knew:

  1. She and her sister had come here senior and sophomore year respectively, which probably meant they were running from something.
  2. She was being overly flirty, strangely dismissive of the generations-long Emerson/Rao feud.
  3. She was wearing the ruby pendant that he was pretty sure was the ruby pendant.
  4. She was somehow in all his classes.
  5. She really sucked at archery.

Things he suspected:

  1. Jaya Rao was a sadistic mastermind, and she’d come here to torture him with the ruby pendant, eager to make him watch as each ruby fell.

Sure, it seemed far-fetched. But it fit why she was being so friendly. As for what she was running from? That he didn’t know. Unless… unless she was running to something. Specifically, him, to show him the pendant. But was that too bizarre, even for him?

They were walking across the impeccably manicured green to their last class of the day, Russian Literature. The sun hung lower in the sky, a bright, blazing ball that hurt his eyes.

They passed Alaric Konig walking with his henchmen, Lachlan and Martin, as usual, and all three glared at Grey. He glared back, unflinching, unblinking, until they broke eye contact.

“You haven’t told me yet why you’re here,” Grey said, once he was past their group.

Jaya adjusted her tie and frowned at him as if she were confused about something, but the laugh she produced was completely at ease. She was used to being a media darling back home, he supposed. “You know why,” she answered, batting at him with a small hand. “My parents wanted us to get the best education—”