Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  “A senior who wants to transfer? Whoa! You really reeled him in, huh?” I hollered. “This must be serious, Care.” I was excited for her. She was giddy for once and I loved it. Giddiness wasn’t an emotion Caroline displayed much.

  “Good. The long distance thing is going to be hard and if he likes it here, it’ll be so much easier.” I could tell she was glad at my reaction.

  “When is he going to be here?” I glanced over at the clock.

  “He’ll be here in an hour.” I wasn’t surprised and laughed to myself.

  She may be Miss Independent, but like I said, when Caroline wanted something, she made it happen.

  “Well, I suggest we get ready now so we can head over to Ashley’s early once Nick gets here. You can show off a bit yourself. I’m sure her new guy has nothing on Nick.”

  Chapter 2

  An hour later, Caroline introduced me to Nick. He was handsome, tall with a ripped, muscular frame, and had blond shaggy hair. We poured ourselves a drink and sat down in the living room to talk for a bit before getting dressed for the evening and heading to Ashley’s.

  Nick was not shy and had us all chatting away in easy conversation almost immediately. I could instantly see that he was exactly what Caroline looks for in her guys. The few crushes she admitted to having had all been the jock-type, but with intelligence. It was a nearly impossible combination to find. However, Nick seemed exceptionally bright when he spoke. I learned he played football at the college he was currently attending. He was the quarterback at a school further south, near Caroline’s hometown in Kansas. I hadn’t heard of his school before and barely remembered the name after he said it.

  His interest in transferring was already surprising enough when Caroline first informed me that he was in his last year, but learning that he was also the starting quarterback made this entire thing mind-boggling. Maybe Caroline really had cast a spell on him.

  We bonded over football for a bit and I filled him in on how hockey was the hot ticket here. He sounded like he really had his stuff together, plus he spent the summer employed full-time, which led me to believe he was hard-working, even in his free time. I know that is something Caroline values. Glancing over at Caroline every few minutes made me happy. She was glowing the whole time he was talking. That girl is a goner, I thought to myself.

  Caroline excused the two of us so we could get ready, telling Nick to make himself at home. She pulled me into her room, and shut the door.

  “So?” she questioned anxiously.

  “Two thumbs up.” Sticking my thumbs up to demonstrate caused the already large smile on her face to grow even more. She pranced to the closet and flung a silver sequin top and a pair of skinny jeans at me.

  “You know how I feel about sequins.” I looked at her disgustedly.

  “That’s what you’re wearing. It’ll look amazing, and since I’m the only one with any sort of fashion sense, it’s what you’re stuck with,” she said, as she flitted through the closet for her own outfit. When she turned, I brought my hand up to salute.

  “Aye-aye.” Turning, I headed to the bathroom to throw everything on. Before shutting the door, Caroline barked out another ensemble order at me.

  “Grab those black boots out of the front closet when we leave and you’ll be set.”

  “Have I told you how much I love you?” I asked, poking my head out of the bathroom door.

  “It’s obvious, now hurry up.” She shooed me in to change and I quickly pulled on the clothes she had picked out for me.

  The black boots were one of my many fashion enemies. It was like a wrestling match to get them on and up over the jeans, but Caroline would murder me if I wasn’t victorious. I had to admit, I did tend to feel prettier when I put some effort into it, or rather when Caroline put some effort into it. Once the boots were on, I ran back to my room to apply some light make-up and take one last look at myself. This is as good as it’s going to get, I told myself, shrugging at my reflection.

  We left the apartment and headed down the path behind our complex that led to Ashley’s place. She didn’t live in the same development, but there was a path through the woods that would take us directly behind her apartment building. In a small college town, none of us were really that far from each other. It made our get-togethers that much easier.

  We were early and the first ones to arrive for the night. Ashley acted excessively enthusiastic about meeting Nick. She got the death glare a couple times, from Caroline, when she reached out to touch Nick’s arm. Beyond that there was no drama between the girls. I walked into the kitchen before hollering back to the group, asking if anyone wanted a drink. Of course there was a resounding, “yes,” from all of them. I quickly grabbed some cups, filled them up with beer from the keg, and handed them out to everyone.

  It wasn’t long before more of our friends showed up. I squealed when I felt arms wrap around me and lift me up off the ground. I turned my head to see that I was in the embrace of Riley Blake. Riley was my best friend besides Caroline. He dropped me to the floor and grabbed a cup off the counter, then reached over to the keg to pour himself a beer.

  “Can you believe this is it?”

  “No! Don’t tell me you’re going to go all mushy on me thinking you’re never going to see me again after graduation.” I laughed, pushing into him playfully.

  “Please, you’d miss me too much if we never saw each other again. Now, how about a celebration kiss for your favorite guy before our time runs out here?”

  Riley was always trying to charm everyone around him. It usually worked, too, because he could sweet talk his way in and out of just about anything. Teachers, police officers, and even parking cops were no match for Riley. I’d seen him weasel his way out of almost everything in the past three years that I’d known him.

  Tall, dark, and handsome is how most people would describe him. He had hair that looked like a Ken doll’s, maybe just a shade darker. Each strand always sat perfectly on top of his flawless head. His eyes were the lightest green I’d ever seen, and they stood out even more because of his dark head of hair. Besides being quite handsome, Riley was also an amazing athlete. He played left wing on his intramural hockey team.

  He was one of the worst womanizers, though, yet he was one of my favorite friends. No girl ever really seemed to stick for him. He was always finding some reason why they weren’t good enough. They’d start dating, seem to be getting along great, and then he’d be over at our place, telling us he was going to end things. He was always asking our advice for the best way to let whomever it was down easily.

  I had a soft spot for the wounded-guys-turned-jerks like Riley. He came to college with a serious girlfriend, who’d cheated on him midway through our first year. Caroline and I were the ones he opened up to. Well, I can’t say he really turned into a jerk. He was never mean. He just went through women relatively quickly.

  I hit his arm at his kissing comment, knowing it was harmless, and changed the subject to his summer. After catching up, he noticed more people had arrived so he bowed playfully and went to make his rounds. I headed to grab another beer and found Caroline was refilling her glass, also.

  “Where’s Nick?” I asked, looking around.

  “He ran upstairs for a minute to use the bathroom. Isn’t he a dreamy? I’m so glad he actually came. I was worried, now that the summer was over, it might be the end for us. He is talking about other things to do, though, like fall and winter-themed type things, so at least he is still interested!”

  For a minute, it almost seemed like Caroline was trying to be overly convincing about her relationship with Nick, but I shook off the feeing as soon as it came. What purpose would that serve? Plus he’s here, what would she be making up? It felt strange having even thought of something like that about her.

  “Of course he is still interested. Why wouldn’t he be? You’re perfect. Also, I think that’s the first time you’ve used the word dreamy in a non-mocking Ariya tone. Are you drunk?” She stuck her tongue
out at me and stepped around to stand next to me.

  “Have you seen Ashley’s guy yet?”

  “No, but I’m sure we’ll be introduced the second he arrives. How does she meet all of these guys, seriously?” We started giggling and, as if on cue, Ashley walked up.

  “Hey gals! This here is Devon. He is new this year, just a babe sophomore. I thought it’d be fun to invite him over and show him around.”

  It took everything in me not to look at Caroline and burst out laughing at that moment, but I just shook the flavor-of-the-month’s hand and said, “Welcome to Kingsbrook.” He looked pleasant enough with his luscious lips, ruffled brown hair, and dark brown eyes. At first glance, he was fairly attractive. It seemed funny that he was only a sophomore. He looked much older than that.

  Something unsettling passed over me when he smiled at me and I scolded myself for making any kind of judgment about him before we’d even spoken. Just because he hopped on the Ashley Train didn’t mean he was a bad guy. Flashing a quick smile back, I turned to see if Caroline had noticed anything off as well. She was acting as normal as ever. Well, as normal as she ever acted around Ashley. It must have been just be me.

  “How’d you all meet?” Curiosity was getting the better of me. We had only been back a couple hours and already we were being introduced to someone new.

  “Oh, well, I met Devon hiking a couple weeks ago.”

  “Hiking?” Caroline and I said in unison. I couldn’t help the eye contact on that one. Ashley didn’t normally do outdoorsy things like hike.

  “Yep.” She smiled sweetly at Devon, who was smirking at me with an intensity behind his eyes that was making me a bit uncomfortable. Ashley seemed to notice.

  “We hit it off right away, right babe?” Devon’s eyes flicked back to her and his smirk turned into more of a devilish grin. He didn’t answer her, though.

  She clearly wanted to parade him around as much as possible. We didn’t even finish the conversation before she was dragging him away. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that Devon kept staring at me. Maybe this outfit looked strange or something. Ashley excused them.

  “Well, on to more introductions. I’m sure we’ll see ya’ll later.”

  “That was weird,” I whispered to Caroline wondering if she too had noticed the attention Devon had been giving me.

  “Huh? What was weird?” she replied a bit too quickly, which didn’t fit the casual tone she’d used in the question. Apparently, she didn’t think anything was off at all. I was probably losing my mind, or maybe the beer was getting to me. I shrugged it off and saw Nick walking back over to us. He kissed Caroline’s forehead and bent down to grab more beer. While he was leaning over, I saw Riley coming back towards us also.

  “Ariya! I’ve been looking for you. I wanted you to meet a friend of mine, James Rymer. He just joined the hockey team and I told him he had to meet our cheerleaders.”

  I made a face at him for the cheerleader comment before turning to see who I was being introduced to.

  If I thought Caroline and Ashley had handsome men on their arms, I couldn’t even think of a word to describe James. His light brown hair fell in his face ever so slightly and beautiful, light blue eyes with darker spots scattered throughout them looked back at me. I’d never seen eyes like his before. His skin was flawless and his jaw defined. He was taller than me by a good bit. I am five-foot, eight inches, but had to tilt my head back slightly to see all of him. He had to be well over six feet tall.

  James was wearing a black shirt that hugged his chest. I could tell he wasn’t overly buff, but he was defined, broad shouldered, and solid. My breath caught for a minute and I tried to recover swiftly.

  I reached out my hand, “Ariya Adams.”

  He smiled out of the side of his mouth, and just said, “James.”

  His voice was low and strong. It’s the kind of voice I imagine women think a man has when fantasizing about being whisked away by the guy off the cover of a romance novel. I tried to think of something clever to say, but my brain fogged. What was wrong with me? I’d never acted like this around a guy.

  “Are you new here?” I managed to pull myself together enough to start a conversation.

  “Sort of. I’ve been here before, but decided to come back and finish up my last year of school here.” His eyes danced like he had a private joke about just being here for his senior year. I was surprised at how many new introductions were taking place today. That’s two guys who transferred in, which in and of itself was weird, and now here’s another one thinking about it. For a small college I thought that was a lot, especially since I don’t think we’d met anyone new since we were freshman. So far, we appeared to be off to an exciting, final year.

  “Where were you before?” I continued, not wanting to stop the conversation with him. His voice was captivating.

  “I was working and just taking night classes in the city.” His answer was short, but since he wasn’t leaving the conversation, I assumed he was simply shy. What city was he referring to?

  “Neat.” Neat? I seriously needed someone to save me from myself. Fortunately, Riley spoke up, ever the lifesaver.

  “Yeah, James is going to play right wing on the team. We’re gonna be the dynamic duo on the ice this year. You should have seen him at practice this morning. He scored about three times on Johnny.”

  Johnny was their goalie and another friend from freshman year. He currently lived with Riley and was actually a pretty good goalie. They had high hopes going into this year since they had almost won the school’s intramural championship last year. Caroline and I made it a point to go to every game to support them. It was always fun to watch them play. Plus, with all our friends on the team, what else were we going to do Friday nights?

  “So, you’ve been roped into hockey, I see?” There was my inner social diva; I guess she just needed some encouragement.

  He raised his eyebrow at me causing my heart to start pounding so loudly that I was sure he’d hear.

  “I hadn’t really played much before, but it seems like the popular thing to do around here.”

  Caroline leaned over and introduced herself and Nick after that. We all stood talking for a bit before I decided I needed some air.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said, once I refilled my beer again.

  It only took a momentary touch on Caroline’s arm for her to tell Nick she needed some air too. We went out back on the balcony. I was surprised to find it empty, since this was usually the hot spot for partygoers to congregate. The keg was in the house, instead of back here, so that was probably the only reason we had it to ourselves.

  “Wow,” Caroline said. “I mean, you must think he’s something else, right?” As I turned towards her, she continued, “If there was ever a time for you to break your I-hate-boys phase, it’s now.”

  “I love that you knew that’s what I wanted to talk about.”

  “I haven’t seen you act that way around a guy in…well, ever, actually. Come on, you think he’s attractive, right?” She nudged my arm.

  “I’m in an ‘I-hate-boys’ phase, Care, I’m not blind.”

  “So, that’s a yes! I gotta say this is a nice change. For once you have a crush that I don’t have to convince you to like! Let’s get back in there and have some fun, shall we?” She held up her arm playfully. I hesitated, though.

  “You think I should go for it? Ashley might decide she wants an upgrade from Devon and pounce,” I said, rather bitterly.

  I wasn’t unattractive and I had enough self-esteem to get me through most days as a confident woman. However, when it came to guys, I felt I couldn’t really compete with Miss Southern Belle 2012.

  That was my one weak point. I could speak in front of large groups of people. I loved volunteering, and being involved in sports. I hopped right into everything and typically didn’t miss a beat. When it came to flirting and guys, I liked to think I was decent at it, but my track record in the dating department proved otherwise. So many nega
tive experiences can really mess with a girl’s head.

  “Oh, shut it with the self-doubt crap. You’re ten times the woman Ashley is! Be yourself. He's probably as stubborn as you are when it comes to the opposite sex." She looked amused at her comment and I frowned.

  "What?"

  "Nothing." Her face continued to look like she was laughing to herself about something, which boggled me.

  "All right, keep your secrets. Let's go."

  As the words came out, Caroline held up her arm again, like she was escorting me to a ball. After giving her a ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ look, we walked back inside. The boys were still talking by the keg right where we’d left them. When we walked back up, though, James said it was nice to meet us and that he was sure he would see us soon and walked away. So much for breaking the I-hate-boys phase.

  I pretended not to care that the meeting was over. Then I headed back over towards Riley and some other people I knew in order to give Caroline some alone time with Nick. After all, they were still newly dating, so I was sure they probably wanted it.

  After a couple more hours and a few more drinks, I decided it was time to call it a night. Snaking through the mass of people that now occupied Ashley’s apartment proved to be difficult. I finally ended up finding Caroline and Nick making out in the corner of the kitchen. Hearing me holler her name made her look up – glassy-eyed and smiling.

  “I’ll see you at home!” I yelled.

  She nodded and went right back to Nick. Riley was by the front door with James. At least I’ll get to say goodnight, I thought to myself. I reached into Ashley’s closet and tugged out my jacket. As I went to slip it on, I felt hands assisting me from behind. Then I heard Riley’s voice.

  “You’re leaving? Are you sure you can get home safely? You want me to walk you?” He finished helping with my jacket and flirtatiously propped himself up on the doorframe in front of my exit. He had a tendency to be even more of a ladies’ man while drinking.