Page 11 of Merciless Prince
With that, he turned and walked away again. Cori twisted her lips in quiet contemplation as she watched him go. Then she hurried after him. “Hold on,” she said, waving a hand. “You’re new here, right?”
He stopped and turned to look back at us. “Yeah. How come?”
“We’re new too, so we were thinking of going into town to scope out the restaurant situation after we’ve settled into our dorms. Do you want to come and have dinner with us?” she asked. “I’ll pay, to make up for screaming at you.”
Cooper grinned and nodded. “Sure.”
“How about we meet right here at six? That gives us enough time to get a cab, explore a bit, and find a place to eat,” I said.
“Sounds good,” he replied, eyes lingering on my face. “I have a car, by the way, so I can drive us there.”
“Cool. We’ll see you back here at six.”
Cooper nodded and walked away. Cori turned to me. Her cheeks were still bright pink. “Oh my god. I feel like such a bitch,” she murmured. “I can’t believe I lost my shit on a random stranger like that.”
I raised a brow. “Yeah, you really went off on him. But I think you made up for it.”
“I hope so.” She let out a groan. “Please don’t ever let me do that again. Even if a guy totally deserves it.”
“I’ll try,” I said with a grin, grabbing my suitcase handle again. “But judging by what just happened, it won’t be easy.”
She let out a dry laugh. “That’s true. I’ll probably be in all the gossip columns by next Wednesday. What horrible nickname do you think they’ll give me?”
“Um… the Carlson Beer Diva? Wait, no… Beer-va,” I said, scratching at my chin. “Or Beer Bitch, maybe?”
“Oh my god, you’re the worst.” Cori shook her head and dissolved into cackles as we headed down the path.
I smiled, glad to see her in a better mood already. “Hey, I think that’s Rosewood Hall over there,” I said a moment later, dipping my chin toward a massive gray brick residential hall. “That’s where our dorms are, right?”
Cori nodded. “Yup.”
Maple trees lined the parking lot in front of the building. They’d left cherry-red leaves scattered all over the ground, which made satisfying crunching sounds as we wheeled our suitcases over them.
“We’re both on the second floor, right?” Cori asked as she pulled out her phone.
“Yeah, I think so.”
She scanned her phone screen and nodded. “Yup, you’re in 208 and I’m in 221. So we’re close-ish to each other,” she said. “Apparently all the freshman performing arts students are on this floor. A lot of the other drama department students too.”
I groaned. “I hope my neighbor isn’t a film theory major. If I have to listen to a guy constantly tell me why Tarantino films are superior to everything else, I’ll probably drop out in the first week.”
“I wouldn’t blame you,” Cori said with a light laugh as we lugged our cases up the stairs.
I found 208 a couple of minutes later and typed in the keypad code that Bellingham had sent to my email. The building had been modernized a few years ago, so there were no regular keys. It seemed like a bit of a security risk to me—what if someone saw you entering your code and used it to get inside?—but none of the student-run forums I’d found online had featured any complaints about the system.
The door swung open, revealing the space beyond. “Wow,” I murmured to myself, casting my eyes around to take it all in.
Most college dorms were tiny, but my new room was large and luxurious with soft pastel-colored walls and expensive-looking cherry wood furniture. The back window overlooked the lake and forest at the western end of the campus, along with some distant heavily-wooded mountains.
I padded over to take a closer look. The scenery was incredible at this time of the year, with oceans of gold, bronze, and orange all over the landscape, streaked with red that looked like streams of lava seeping down the mountainsides.
With a view like that, this dorm was better than most hotels. It was a shame about the thin walls and ceiling, though. A loud thumping sound was coming from directly above me, like heavy footsteps clomping around. There were faint masculine voices, too.
I pursed my lips and headed into the private bathroom to check it out. It was just as nice as the main space, with a big shower, marble vanity, sink with polished fixtures, and a toilet with an attached bidet. There were even chrome-coated towel-warming rails on the walls, which would be perfect for freezing winter mornings.
I turned around to properly check out the vanity. When I caught sight of the mirror above it, my eyes bulged, and a piercing shriek burst from my lungs. There was a message scrawled on the glass in large red letters.
I FOUND YOU.
