“Find it?” Liv looked up from her book and I snapped mine shut.
“Nope.”
I couldn’t even process this compulsion stuff right now. I just wanted to keep looking for more information on imprinting and forget I ever saw those two words.
After two hours, the grumbles of our stomachs forced us to go down to the cafeteria and get whatever was left over from Kenzley’s amazing lunch buffet.
As we turned the corner to the hunter cafeteria, Ricky Vasquez turned as well, nearly plowing into Liv. When he saw her, the smile slipped from his face.
Ric and Liv had been on-again, off-again dating since they were fifteen, but each time got more serious and they stayed together longer, making the breakup all the more painful. This time they’d been together two years and Ricky said he wanted to marry her before we found him screwing Daisy Hawkins in the rec room. He said her wanting to stay a virgin until marriage was too hard for him to handle.
Asshole.
“Olivia.” He used her full name, jarring me, because she was Liv to me.
“Vasquez.” She nodded professionally, continuing to walk right past him.
His hand snaked out and grabbed her upper arm. “Wait, can we talk?”
Her head snapped to the side and she stared at his hand on her arm. “Don’t. Ever. Touch. Me. Again.”
His face fell and he let go as Liv stormed off. I repositioned my walk to be closer to him. “Hey, dirtbag,” I muttered, and smacked my shoulder into his as I blasted past.
If you cheated on my best friend, then you were dead to me. There was no getting back together this time and I hoped he knew that. Vasquez said nothing, just watched as we walked away with his head hung low.
As we entered the cafeteria, Liv made a weird noise in her throat. A yip of surprise. I turned to her and noticed the shock marring her features.
“It’s a day for ex-boyfriends I guess,” she said, and I followed her gaze.
I scanned the crowd to see who was here, and my throat tightened a little.
Sterling.
Liv stepped in front of me, as if she could shield me from the fact that the love of my life was a mere twenty feet away. She searched my face for any indication of alarm, but I just smiled and smoothed my sweaty hair down, because he had already seen me and there was no leaving now.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, and she nodded curtly, moving to the side.
Sterling got up from one of the ten banquet style tables and walked over to me casually, like he didn’t throw my heart into a blender six months ago and move to New York City. I tried and failed not to let my eyes roam over every inch of him. When God made Sterling, he spent twice the time he did on creating me. The man was perfection. On a scale of one-to-ten, Sterling was an eleven: a pretty boy with perfect teeth, bronzed skin, blond hair, and piercing green eyes. Even his damn jawline was sexy. There wasn’t an inch to pinch on that man, he was all chiseled granite, rock hard.
“Hey, Aspen.” His deep voice caressed my skin like an old friend as I shook myself out of the trance he’d put over me.
Sterling was my first love, first kiss, almost my first everything. I’d wanted more out of our semi-casual relationship and his answer was to break up with me and move to New York. He lived in a New York City society house now, and had a new girlfriend from what I’d heard.
“Hey. You’re in town?” I tried to act nonchalant, but my hand shook a little as I reached for the pita bread and hummus that Kenzley offered me on a tray he was carrying. What law made you always run into your ex when you were dressed like a sweaty pig?
“Yeah, chasing a mark that fled,” he said casually, and reached onto my plate, grabbing a grape and popping it into his mouth like old times. I wasn’t sure if I loved the fact that he’d just done that or hated it.
I think I hated it.
“Those are fun,” I said. You got free first-class airfare on the society’s dime and got to hang with new hunters out of town. We had a society house in every major city in every country. My dream was to check out the Paris Vampire Hunter Society house one day.
There was an awkward silence and Kenz cleared his throat beside me. “Miss Aspen, I have taken the liberty of ordering you three evening gowns for the Hunters’ Gala. They will be delivered to your room by this evening so you can choose your favorite.”
God bless you, Kenzley.He was trying to make me look cool in front of my ex. He had done no such thing, because he knew I’d order my own dress.
“Thank you,” I told him, and he bowed slightly before walking away.
Sterling’s eyebrows lifted. “Wow. Maz is taking you? Senior hunter, then?” He sounded shocked. His gaze flicked down to my chest at the pin that was tacked on to my sports bra and I tried really hard not to stick my boobs out … and failed.
