Heartbitten (A New Adult Vampire Romance Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

near Jenny.
    "Yes?" Jenny said.
    "Hey loves. You're looking cute tonight," the guy said. His breath stunk like the cheap three-for-a-tenner gin and tonics that seemed to be ubiquitous in the pub.
    "We're just here to dance," Liz said. With her eyes she tried to message Jenny: No!
    "Then let's go dance," the other guy said, touching Liz on the elbow. Liz shrugged off his hand. Jenny was checking her phone, ignoring the guy next to her.
    "We're both staying here," Liz said, shooting a pointed glare straight into the face of the slouched figure against the wall. He got the message, straightening his jacket as he stood up from the wall.
    "You sure you two don't want to party?" the man near Liz asked. "We have things to party..."
    "No," Liz said. The word came out softly but fiercely, like the low hum in a lion's throat when she threatens to roar. She clutched her lab notebook to her chest as if to ward off the guys with her academic rigor. It worked surprisingly well.
    "Let's go," the man said, hitting his friend on the shoulder.
    "What? Okay, yeah." They walked away and didn't look back.
    "What was I saying?" Jenny put away her phone, seemingly oblivious to the guys who had just interrupted them. "Oh, right. Anyway, the director is kind of cute if you like that look."
    "What look is that?"
    "Billionaire playboy." She grinned.
    "Shut up."
    "No, but really. He's got like, harems of girlfriends."
    "Ugh, like Hugh Hefner in his mansion?" Liz said. "That's horrible. I would never date anyone like that."
    "Oh yeah? Who would you date?"
    Liz's ears burned red and she tried not to let the sudden scratching in her throat turn into a coughing fit.
    "Come on, Liz," Jenny said, poking her in the ribs. "What's your type?"
    "A-ahem," she stammered. "The academic type."
    "What, like a sexy professor?"
    "Yeah, sure," Liz said, relieved when Jenny finally turned her questioning to the kind of beer Liz was drinking and how it compared with the beers they had back in America.
    Liz really didn't know what kind of guys she would date. None of the guys at her undergraduate college had been interested in her, which was probably a good thing. They all seemed immature, wanting to party more than study. Liz had paid her own way through school, and she didn't have time for anyone who wasn't serious. And all of the serious boys were...well, they were too serious. It seemed like all of the cute and funny guys were on one side, and the studious, ambitious types were on the other, but there was nobody in between. No, the person Liz would date was nonexistent.
    After finishing her pint of ale, Liz begged out of the pub and found her way back to the small apartment by herself. She tripped over a pile of clothes on the floor on her path to the bedroom and cracked her head against the wall. She scowled, rubbing her head. She would have to talk with Jenny about being neater. A shirt on the floor was one thing, but Jenny was her lab partner as well as her roommate, and Liz did not want to spend the rest of the year working in a sloppy lab.
    Picking up the discarded outfit and slinging it over the back of the couch, Liz made her way through the tiny apartment to her room. She threw her notebook onto her desk.
    The first time she'd seen the London apartment, she was astounded at how tiny it was. The living room doubled as a kitchen, with the TV perched precariously on top of the microwave and the fridge shoved up against the back of the sofa for space. The fridge door, when opened, blocked the hallway to the bedrooms that were so small as to be closets.
    Jenny seemed to be used to living in such cramped quarters, but for Liz it came as a bit of a shock to see what a month's pay could rent you in London. But she was close enough to the university to walk, and that was what mattered most. She could get to her experiments at any time.
    In the morning, Liz woke up to a slight hangover. She swung her feet out of bed and gulped down some water from the bottle she'd left on