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He kissed me on the cheek, and then he was leaving. It was a sight I was more than familiar with.
I watched him go, heart sinking. I had a horrible feeling I’d just dug my own grave.
Shit.
The New Year’s party was being thrown by Beckett Anderson, the only guy in town whose father was richer than mine. He was an Ice God, so therefore a bully and obsessed with hockey.
Selena drove us to the party. She liked to have her own ride there so she could leave at any moment. We pulled up at the gates of Cliff Point, a completely over-the-top mansion perched on top of an actual cliff. They swung in, and we drove inside. The party was already in full swing, with people all over the massive driveway and front lawn. The entire place was lit up like a Christmas tree. Considering that Colette Anderson, Beckett’s stepmother, had just passed away in a freak car accident a few months before, the party seemed in poor taste, but I’d never gotten the impression they were close.
Selena parked and jumped out of the car. I followed her slowly. I couldn’t get the conversation with Dad out of my head. He was expecting a dinner with a boyfriend in a few weeks. Not just any boyfriend. Asher.
Asher who hated me. Asher who I’d just gotten fired. Asher who seemed to take twisted pleasure in tormenting me. That Asher.
Inside the party, it seemed Beckett had pulled out all the stops. Or, more likely, he’d let his girlfriend, Eve, plan whatever she wanted. Eve Martino and Beckett Anderson were a match no one had seen coming, least of all Asher, but even I couldn’t deny they belonged together.
He’d even saved her from all that unsavory business with the rapist professor a few months ago.
The huge living room was packed with people. Music so loud it rattled my teeth.
“Let’s get a drink!” Selena shouted in my ear.
I nodded. I was going to need something to take the edge off life. We had just entered the kitchen when I saw him. He drew my gaze like a magnet.
He was standing with Beckett, the two of them talking, while Marcus, a third Ice God, set up a game of flip cup.
He was wearing a black T-shirt under a leather jacket. His dark, unruly hair was pushed back from his forehead, and his piercing dark eyes turned to mine and latched on, refusing to let go.
Sure, Asher was hot. Really fucking hot. The hottest guy in school, without a doubt, but he was clearly insane. You wouldn’t know it from looking at him. At 6’2”, with the build of a top athlete, his dark wavy hair and tanned skin, soulful brown eyes, and chiseled jaw would distract even the most astute observer. He drew eyes wherever he went, though, interestingly, had never been linked to any one girl. Gossip was low on Asher Martino, as far as the high school dating game had been concerned. The only Ice God whose conquests were gossiped about was Marcus.
Add in Asher’s dangerous aura of boy from across the tracks, the tattoos that adorned his arms and the backs of his hands, and his attitude — one minute, devil-may-care, the next protective and dashing — and he was a guy people hungered for gossip on. There wasn’t any.
His lip turned up at the corner as he took me in, gaze scanning over my forehead, searching for traces of his word. An annoying reminder of how he’d won our little tussle last night.
I held my middle finger up to him. It wasn’t a game I wanted to play with him, but I certainly wasn’t going to let him think he’d won it. He chuckled across the room, and I looked away and followed Selena toward the bar.
“Wow, a signature cocktail and everything. No one does New Year’s Eve like Beckett.” Selena sighed.
“I think this has Eve’s touch all over it.” I took one of the apple martinis and sipped it. It was perfectly tart and crisp.
“Seriously?” Selena wrinkled her nose and set down her fine-stemmed glass. “Lording her luck in the dating department over all of us.”
“Now, now, sour grapes don’t taste half as good as this drink,” I admonished. “Anyway, I think it’s more than dating…I’m pretty sure those two are endgame.”
“Whatever,” Selena muttered. She glanced down at her glass, seeming abashed for once. “I guess that’s nice for them. Eve’s set for life, and Beckett is punching above his weight, so…”
I knew she felt guilty for her part in what had happened to Eve at a party a few months ago. Selena had slipped a powerful laxative into her drink as a hazing dare, or so she’d thought. It hadn’t turned out to have the effect that she’d thought it would, and Eve had gotten sick. Luckily, Beckett had been on hand to keep her safe.
Selena was capable of a lot of things, but drugging a girl’s drink so something terrible would happen to her wasn’t one of them. Slipping her a laxative that gave her an uncomfortable night in the bathroom to get into Zeta Pi Nu — that was absolutely something she’d do.
Selena tucked her hair behind her ear. “I mean, really, I brought them together, in some ways.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath for the thank-you card,” I remarked dryly.
She nodded and looked over at the game the guys were setting up. “Let’s go and play.”
She took off before I could protest. Ugh. The last thing I was planning on doing was talking to Asher. I got another drink and found a barstool to perch on.
I was between a rock and a hard place. I had no guy friends, and I couldn’t trust just anyone with pretending to be my boyfriend so Dad wouldn’t set me up with Trent. I could just tell Dad I felt uncomfortable around Trent. I considered it for all of two seconds. Dad had already told me how much he liked him, his best friend’s son, and besides, then I’d have to confess to lying about the boyfriend. I hated to lie to Dad. It was the worst feeling in the world. I could just imagine his disappointment.
