Hope walked up to the house, following two girls in short skirts.

In her little black leather dress and thigh high five inch heeled boots, bought special for the occasion, and her hair in perfectly formed curls framing her carefully made up face, she felt a bit overdressed, but oh, well. She was here now.

When they walked through the front door without knocking, she did the same.

Music pounded, reverberating through the floorboards, and all around her people talked at the top of their lungs. Alcohol and marijuana filled her nostrils with every inhale.

What was she thinking? Being around a crowd of intoxicated teenagers after being mostly alone for so long wasn't exactly the smartest thing she'd ever done. Maybe she should leave. Except she promised Ryan that she'd be there. So she may as well at least keep her word and show her face.

Squaring her shoulders, she searched through the crowd for the man who'd invited her.

"Hope!"

She turned and there he was, leaning against a counter, his hands braced against it.

"You made it!" He said it like he couldn't believe she actually showed up.

"I said I'd be here and when I make a promise, I keep it."

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to ditch the coworker."

"Oh, I dodged him hours ago by sending him on a wild goose chase for something." Nothing made Burr feel more important than thinking he could do something Hope couldn't and he'd jump on the opportunity to try to prove he was better any chance he got.

"You look sexy as hell." Ryan looked her up and down and gave her an impish smile as he looked at her from under his lashes.

She studied his face for a moment. "You're drunk."

"Just a little." He held up his thumb and forefinger as he grinned. "But still doesn't change the fact that you are by far the hottest girl in the building."

Grabbing her arm, he led her over to a table full of little cups of brightly colored… liquid.

"And soon, you will be too."

"What is this?

"Jello shots. Perfect for someone who's not used to alcohol. Which I don't think you are, considering you didn't know what they were."

"I keep a bottle of bourbon in my room at all times, so I'm not exactly unfamiliar with drinking."

"But do you take shots of it?"

"My father would have my head if he found out I did something so profane."

"So, Miss Marshall, allow me to introduce you to the concept of shots." Ryan picked two blue cups off the table and handed her one.

"Cheers." Hope raised hers in a mock toast then downed it quickly. "That felt so weird going down."

"But it's the perfect way to make cheap booze drinkable." At Hope's raised eyebrow, he explained, "There's no way in hell I'm spending my money on good liquor for kids who only drink to get drunk. I don't even keep any in the house because knowing Landon, when they run out of their stuff, he'll trying tearing my room apart to find more if he thinks I've got any in there."

"Smart man. Kids wouldn't appreciate the joy of sipping on a good bourbon after a long day. Hell, the smoothness of it would mean they'd finished the bottle without realizing they just finished off $100 of alcohol, at least."

"Exactly, especially when one of them is my brother who, managed to piss me off yesterday."

"What'd he do?"

"He was just acting like a dick when he found out I was talking to a pretty girl.

Hope downed two more shots, one right after the other.

"Why would he act like that?"

"Because I don't date much, nor do I text girls at all hours of the night while smiling like a fool."

"You smile when you text me?" Hope bit her lower lip, but couldn't hide the fact that she was grinning.

"I do." He caught one of her curls and twirled it around one long finger. "How could I not?"

"Where is he, so I can avoid him? I'm not interested in meeting people who might piss me off too when I'm not exactly sober."

"He's in the basement with his best friend. Rafael Waithe."

"Raf. You mentioned him once and I'm good with names."

"Yeah, and I haven't seen Raf's girlfriend in a while so she's probably with them."

Hope took another shot and Ryan raised an eyebrow at her. "If I'm going to be spending time around this many people, I'd better have something a little stronger than soda in my system."

"And that's is why I hit the bottle early. I'm not a fan of being around this many out of control people when I'm sober."

Hope downed five more shots in quick succession before her werewolf side could no longer keep up with the alcohol in her system and she started to feel buzzed.

"Keep drinking them like that and you'll end up drunker than I am."

"And that's a bad thing how?" Hope giggled. "Because damn, I feel good right now." Whenever she drank before, it was to forget, to cope, not because she wanted to feel good and never with anyone else.

Ryan grinned and then they did another shot together.

"Have you ever played beer pong?" Ryan asked.

"I've never had a jello shot. What makes you think I've ever played beer pong?"

"Then, allow me to introduce you to the filthiest clean drinking game out there."

"Lead the way."

Ryan guided Hope over to a table set up with two triangles of red cups on each end.

"Now you wanna get this ball," he held up a ping pong ball up, "into one of those cups. If you sink a ball, the other team drinks the cup. Bounced shots can be swatted and if a bounced shot sinks, however many bounces the ball gets, that's how many cups you can remove."

"This is so weird."

"I'll help you, if you want." He moved so that he was behind her and he guided her over to the table.

"We got ourselves a newbie!" a guy on the other side of the table shouted and the boy standing beside him started laughing.

A crowd gathered around them and Hope fought back a groan. Did they have to do that?

"Newbie goes first!" someone shouted and everyone else agreed with him.

"They're all staring."

"Ignore them," Ryan murmured as he ran his fingers down her arm so he could catch her hand. "Now, you take the ball like this."

Hope's heartbeat picked up as his long fingers guided hers around the ball and his breath stirred her hair. God, he smelled amazing. Cologne and something uniquely him. Her intoxicated brain couldn't figure out if he was human or not, but that didn't matter. He smelled good and he was holding her and to her less than sober mind, that was all that mattered.

Wait, he was trying to show her something. She needed to pay attention. Didn't she?

"And throw it into one of the cups."

As he guided her into throwing, Hope gave a little flick of her wrist as she released the ball. The ball bounced twice on the table and one of the guys on the other side tried to bat it away, but it sank into a cup.

"Nice one," Ryan cheered

"Beginner's luck!" one of the guys across the table shouted.

The other team took their turn, but Hope wasn't feeling up to playing fair for that comment. So, as the ball sailed towards the cup, Hope flicked her fingers and instead of going into the beer, the ball spun around the rim before falling onto the table.

"Oooh, tough break, man."

Hope could feel Ryan laughing against her back.

"Okay, Clarke, you're up."

"Here's hoping your luck rubbed off on me."

"You're pushing it, Ryan." Hope poked him and licked her lower lip as she smiled up at him. "Because that was bad."

"But you're smiling and that was the point. To make the pretty girl with the sad eyes smile." He traced his fingertip down her nose.

"Take the shot, Clarke!" a guy from across the table shouted, breaking the moment.

Ryan took a simple shot and landed it, then came around to stand behind Hope once more.

When it was her turn again, he wrapped his arms around her and held her against him as she prepared to take her shot. Hope didn't try to bounce it this time because it was all she could do to focus on what she was doing with him holding her the way he was.

"Some newbie," a guy in the crowd muttered, annoyed. "I was hoping for something funny to happen."

"You're telling me!" The next guy up picked up the ball.

He tried to make a bounce shot, but Hope automatically flicked it out of the way before it could land in a cup.

"Damn it!"

"She might be a newbie to the game, but I'd say she's a natural." Ryan winked at her.

When the game was over, Hope made a mock bow to their opponents and Ryan started laughing again.

"Come on. Those shots are wearing off."

After three more jello shots, Hope wrapped her hands around Ryan's arm, needing him close. Her entire body ached for his touch, but she didn't know how to ask him to do so without possibly pushing him before he was ready.

Nearby, she saw a pair of girls dancing and kissing, and suddenly, she felt brave. If tonight was her one opportunity to be a normal young woman daring to take a chance on getting closer to a hot guy, she'd take it.

"Dance with me." Someone put on a slower song and so she thought it might be the perfect song to learn to dance to.

Ryan studied her face as though searching for something.

"Please."

Brow furrowing, he trailed his long fingers down her arm and pulled her away from the drink table, then placed his hands on her hips. With the gentlest pressure, he guided her so that they were moving to the beat.

"You're a strange girl, Hope Marshall," he murmured.

"How?"

"You just are. And I like that about you. Because just when I think I've got you figured out, you do something to surprise me and I've got to figure you out all over again."

She wanted to warn him away from her, but the warmth in his eyes and the feel of his hands on her body stilled her tongue and she allowed herself to keep pretending. Tonight was about her letting go, for once in her life, and just being.

The song changed and the somber spell his words had woven over them was broken, but the beat had an element to it that made Ryan spin her around so that her back was pressed against his front.

"If you don't want this, just say the word and we'll do something else," he breathed against her temple.

"I want this."

That was all it took for him to guide her so that she was grinding against him in a way that if they were naked would have been totally obscene. As they moved together, Hope's breath caught in her throat. Maybe it was true about hands indicating other things about the male anatomy because what she felt pressed against her was by no means small!

Warmth pooled in her lower belly and she decided then and there that if he wanted this too, who was she to keep it from happening?

Turning in his arms, she brought her hand up so that she was cradling the back of his neck. Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her lips to his. For a few moments, he kissed her, encouraging her to move her mouth just so, as if he knew she'd never kissed anyone before and he was her willing teacher.

"Hope," Ryan whispered against her lips, "you wanna take this upstairs?"

"Only if that's the way to your bedroom."

Ryan linked their fingers and guided her towards the stairs. Down the hall, he paused next to a closed door.

"Are you sure about this?" Ryan asked, running his thumb across her lower lip.

"I want this. I want you."Going up on tiptoe, Hope kissed his lower lip.

Ryan opened the door and Hope followed him inside.