Focus (The Crescent Chronicles, #2) (3 page)

“
You scared everyone away.”
I looked directly at Levi as I spoke. He leaned back in his chair,
blatantly ignoring the blonde that was hitting on him.

“
Oh, heaven forbid we stop
guys from hitting on Levi’s fiancé.” Jared smirked, turning his
attention back to the girl next to him.

“
Fiancé? You’re engaged,
Allie?” Anne asked.

“
Not exactly.”

“
You’re wearing my ring.”
Levi looked back at me, challenging me to argue.

“
I can’t get it off.” At
least that part was true.

“
So you broke off the
engagement?” Tiffany looked back and forth at the two of
us.

“
We were never engaged.” My
fingers went to the ruby ring, more out of a habit than anything
else.

“
Then why are you wearing
his ring?” Anne shifted her weight between her feet. I’m sure all
of that walking in heels was wearing on her.

“
It was a
misunderstanding.”

“
A misunderstanding?” Anne
arched an eyebrow.

Hailey thankfully moved the
conversation off me. “We weren’t the only ones you messed with. You
screwed stuff up for our friends too.” She gestured to Anne and
Tiffany.

“
Oh, hello there.” Jared
turned back to us again.

“
The rules, Jared,” I
reminded him none to gently.

“
Seriously?”

He’d already turned his attention to
Tiffany. If I had any doubts before, I knew for sure that Jared
went for the blondes. I figured that’s where the girl currently
pawing Levi came from.

“
Are you going to join us
or stand there all night?” Levi asked.

“
There aren’t enough seats
available.” I nodded toward the blonde closest to him.

She smiled, inching closer.

“
My lap is always
available.” He grinned.

“
That again? I thought we
settled that a long time ago?”

“
A lot’s changed since
then.”

“
Yeah, the offer is less
appealing.” My purse started to slip off my shoulder so I fixed
it.

“
You can go now.” Jared
didn’t even look at the girls as he spoke. He was still eyeing
Tiffany.

“
He doesn’t want me to
leave,” the girl next to Levi cooed.

“
Leave.” Levi had moved his
attention from my face to my legs. He wasn’t even trying to hide
it.

“
Did you not hear the part
about this being his fiancé?” Owen asked the girl.

“
She said she
wasn’t.”

“
She is. It’s just a game
we’re playing.” Levi never took his eyes off me.

“
What?” I took a deep
breath, having this fight in front of my new friends wasn’t smart.
I already had a lot of explaining to do.

“
But what she can’t seem to
understand is that I always win games.”

In the weeks after tricking me into
becoming his mate, Levi had tried a number of tactics to get me to
forgive him. He tried being ultra-attentive and sweet, but we both
realized how horribly that act worked. Next he tried to be aloof
like he didn’t care, but he crumbled after about a day. I wasn’t
just a girl to him. His position as the king of The Society
depended on us being together. No pressure or anything.

“
Fine. This is boring
anyway.” The two girls got up and walked away. I realized they were
older than I originally thought, probably in their mid-twenties. I
guess Jared didn’t discriminate on age. I couldn’t help but feel a
little satisfied watching them leave. I might have been angry at
Levi, but I didn’t like the thought of him with anyone else—not
that he could be. Giving me his family ring and consummating our
relationship meant that if he as much as kissed another girl he
could lose everything. I had to admit he was taking it pretty
seriously.

“
Now you don’t have an
excuse. Sit down.” He gestured to the chair next to him.

We were still two chairs short. I
looked behind me and noticed two empty chairs at the table next to
us.

“
Are you using these
chairs?” I smiled at the guys at the table.

“
Nope, want to join
us?”

“
No, she doesn’t.” Levi got
up and pulled the two chairs over to his table, sitting down in
one. My friends had taken the rest of the open seats.

“
Thanks.” I sat down. “Was
that necessary?” I asked Levi.

“
Yes,” he whispered in my
ear. “Very necessary. My mate wasn’t going to be sitting at a table
with a bunch of blood suckers.”

“
What?” I turned back to
look at the guys. “Like literal blood suckers?”

He laughed. “Yes. I know how much you
wanted to see real vampires.”

I leaned into Levi without thinking. “I
had no idea.” I shivered.

“
You can tell by their
eyes. They all have a ring of color. It’s nearly invisible unless
you know what you’re looking for.” He put an arm around me and
leaned in close. “But you’re safe with me. Soon they’ll all know to
stay away from you.”

“
That doesn’t help my
friends.” Thankfully, Jared was happily entertaining Tiffany. Anne
seemed more than happy talking to Owen. I can’t imagine what they
would have thought of our conversation.

Levi shrugged. “It’s you I worry
about.”

“
How thoughtful,” I
grumbled.

He laughed. “So the party was a bust,
huh?”

“
You can’t do
that.”

“
Do what?” He took a sip of
his drink.

“
Tell everyone to stay away
from me.”

“
Yes I can, and I will.” He
tightened his arm around me. “I’m giving you time, but we’re going
to be together, Al. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“
Don’t ever doubt I can
change my mind in a second.”

He tensed. “Okay, we’ll back down, but
don’t do anything stupid.”

“
I should be telling you
that.”

“
You look great
tonight.”

Talk about a topic change. “Flattery
isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“
That’s the shirt you were
wearing at the beach, isn’t it?”

He was right. “You remembered what
shirt I was wearing?”

“
It’s the first time I took
your shirt off, of course I remember it.” He leaned in so close,
his lips brushed against my ear. “I also remember that black dress.
I’ll never forget that one.” He so didn’t need to be bringing up
the one and only time we’d had sex.

I yawned. It had been a long day.
“Okay, I’m kind of tired. Anyone else want to head
back?”

“
I’m ready.” Tiffany gave
me a sympathetic smile.

“
Same.” Hailey pushed back
her chair.

“
You coming,
Anne?”

“
Yeah. Nice meeting you,
Owen.”

Owen waved politely.

I went to stand up, but Levi put a hand
on my arm. “One of these nights you’re going to come home with me,
and it’s going to be soon.”

“
Keep telling yourself
that. Night, guys.” I waved.

As we passed the bouncer, he lightly
touched Hailey’s arm. “Find them?”

“
Yeah, we found
them.”

Hailey had some explaining to
do.

Chapter Three

Microeconomics at nine a.m. wasn’t my
idea of the best way to start the day, but when you register for
classes last you don’t have much choice.

Tiffany had a nine a.m. on the main
quad too, so we walked together after breakfast. We left Hailey and
Anne eating their cereal.

“
Do you think it’s going to
be really different from high school?” She played with the straps
on her backpack as we waited to cross the street.

I thought on it for a moment before
answering. “I honestly don’t know. I took loads of advanced
placement classes in high school, but I don’t think it’s going to
be the same.”

She took a deep breath. “I think you’re
right. Okay, I need to relax.”

I laughed. “You’ll be fine. And
remember, we’re going to celebrate surviving our first day
tonight.”

“
Pizza and chick flicks.
It’s a good motivation.”

When we reached the quad, I started
looking at the names on the buildings. I was about to give up on
finding mine when I noticed the sign. “All right, Tilton Hall, this
is me.”

“
I’m in Gibson. That’s the
big one, right?”

“
Yup. Good luck.” I’d been
in that building once to meet with admissions, but I’d been more
focused on not killing Levi or his father than anything
else.

“
You too.”

I pushed my tote bag up on my shoulder
and headed into the building. A burst of air conditioning hit me as
soon as I walked in the door. After checking the number outside the
door twice, I walked into the mostly empty classroom. I was
expecting a huge lecture hall, but it wasn’t all that big. The
tables were on risers but didn’t go too far up. I took a spot in
the middle row, pulling out a notebook and a pen. I knew a lot of
people would be using a laptop for notes, but I liked to do it the
old fashioned way.

“
Hi.” A guy with brown hair
took a seat next to me.

I looked around a little surprised he’d
sit so close considering the class was empty but didn’t really
mind. “Hi. I guess we’re early.”

“
I thought it might take me
longer to find the classroom.”

“
Same.”

The room started to fill, and I people
watched for a while. I didn’t recognize anyone else in the class,
but that wasn’t surprising because it wasn’t very big.

“
This seat’s taken,” a
gruff voice interrupted. I turned around and came face to face with
Jared.

“
Really? There are plenty
of seats.” The guy wasn’t so shy after all. Jared wasn’t exactly an
easy person to stand up to.

Jared moved a tiny bit closer. “Really,
move it.”

“
Quit being an idiot,
Jared, and sit down.” I gestured to the seat on my right, the
completely empty one. People were starting to stare.

“
Fine.” I didn’t miss the
glare he gave the still unnamed guy. I decided it was the perfect
time to introduce myself.

“
I’m Allie, by the way.” I
reached out a hand.

He accepted the handshake. “Brian. Nice
to meet you.”

Jared cleared his throat loudly. “So
tell me, Princess, why’d you sign up for a nine a.m.?”

“
I didn’t have much of a
choice.”

“
If you had let Levi take
care of your registration, you could have had anything you
wanted.”

“
I bet.” I wasn’t going to
let Levi do me any extra favors. Getting me in last minute was
plenty. “The real question is what are you doing here?”

“
Just doing my
job.”

“
Your job is to annoy the
hell out of me?”

He leaned in closer. “No, but if that’s
a side effect, I don’t mind. I’m protecting you. Levi would have
signed up for it himself, but he needs certain credits still to
graduate, so for two classes you’re stuck with me.”

“
Two? What other
class?”

“
Some sort of chemistry
thing. I don’t know.”

“
Organic Chemistry? You’re
taking organic chemistry with me?” I opened my notebook up to a
blank page.

“
Yeah, that’s it. I’m not
really into science so you better be ready to tutor me.” He
smirked.

“
That’s a joke, right?
Please tell me that’s a joke.”

He was prevented from answering when
the professor walked in.

Professor Talcom looked exactly the way
I pictured a college professor would look. With graying hair and
thick glasses, I had no doubt he knew a lot about
economics.

He made a quick introduction and then
started taking attendance. It didn’t take long before he got to my
name. “Allison Davis.”

“
Here.” I raised my
hand.

A guy and a girl in the front row
turned around and looked at me.

Somehow I knew the stares I was getting
had to do with Levi. I nudged Jared, but he ignored me, answering
with a loud “here” when the name Jared Florence was called a few
people later.

“
If you could all take a
look at your syllabus, we can get started.”

I got a pen ready and watched the
professor.

“
As you can see, the
majority of your grade will be determined by four exams and the
final. There will be one short paper as well.”

I made an asterisk next to the grading
section.

Jared snickered.

I nudged him and he stopped.

After discussing the syllabus and his
expectations for the semester, the professor let us out thirty
minutes early. The same kids turned to look at me before leaving
the classroom.