Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  "Are you sure you're coordinated enough for this stuff? It seems to require an acute sense of balance." He leaned in, speaking quietly, as if telling me a secret.

  His blue eyes were swimming with laughter and an involuntary shudder gave away just what having him lean in that close to me did to my body. His features darkened a moment and he moved back. Did he misinterpret my movement? It's not like I could control it.

  "That never happened, remember?" I attempted my most seductive voice, but it came out a bit weak after the shiver a moment before.

  “Oh, it did happen. I just promised to keep it a secret. There is a difference.” Although he was smiling again, it was a smaller smile and his tone was cautious. The darkness that had cloaked his eyes a moment before, though, was gone.

  I laughed at his comment, shaking my head. He must be a huge flirt. Time to save myself, I thought. I gathered myself to walk away.

  "Have fun in…" I paused turning towards the schedule hanging on the wall behind me. Pilates? No way. I slowly turned, not able to hide my smirk. "…Pilates."

  I turned and left James behind, smiling bigger this time. I'd have to figure out a way to bring that one up next time I saw him. He was probably the only guy in the class. Oh, maybe that was the point. He’d be in a room full of women who were sure to be staring at him. Maybe he was cocky, and that was his major flaw. I knew he had to have one. I'd figure it out and perhaps it would help me control these outrageous feelings. I chuckled to myself and headed home.

  I opened the apartment door after returning home almost two hours later. Nick was in the kitchen.

  “Good morning. Caroline said to tell you she hopped in the shower and your latte is ready.” He set it on the bar counter as I walked around and hopped onto one of the chairs.

  “Mmmm, she knows me too well.” Nick smiled in response. He went over to the stove and was working on something I couldn’t see. “What are you making?”

  “Chocolate chip pancakes. Want some?” I had a feeling he would grow on me quickly.

  “Of course! When it comes to anything chocolate, you don’t need to ask me if I want some. Is there enough?” I hoped I wasn’t interrupting his breakfast with Caroline.

  “Yes,” he chuckled. “I made enough for all of us.” His demeanor was likeable in general. I especially enjoyed that he seemed to make Caroline so happy. He had a way about him that made me think everyone he met got along well with him.

  “Did you have a good time last night?” I leaned over the counter, crossing my arms.

  “Yeah, everyone seems really great. You all have a good group of friends here.” That was good since, like Caroline said, they’d probably be people he would see a lot if he transferred.

  “The only one I’d say to watch out for is Ashley. She’ll try to steal you away.”

  Nick laughed quietly, “I don’t think so. She’s not my type.” Hmm, he was definitely growing on me. He piled some pancakes up on a plate and set it in front of me, smiling.

  “Bon apétit.” He kissed his fingers and flung them in the air, eliciting a laugh from me at his carefree attitude. I noticed he hadn’t taken any for himself.

  “Aren’t you having any?”

  “I already ate,” he said. Wow, that meant he was making the extras just for Caroline and me. That was really sweet.

  “If this is what I can expect, you’re welcome here every day!” He laughed.

  Caroline came out of her room and walked straight over to Nick. She pushed herself up onto her tippy toes and planted a kiss on his cheek.

  “My turn?” he asked. Caroline nodded, and Nick headed towards her room, leaving us alone.

  “Good night?” I winked at her. She nodded. She was on Cloud Nine. Her features shifted and she looked troubled for a minute, though. Or maybe I had just imagined it. She turned to look at me once she had some pancakes of her own piled up.

  “How about you?”

  “Did you get my text?” I questioned.

  “Yeah, hunnie, I’ve told you not to drink so much, and then walk home alone. That text made me think you were losing it. Tell me what happened. You saw a wolf?”

  I told her again what had happened and how I thought I had seen something resembling the wolf from the news story on my way home. When I threw in the blurry objects part, she frowned. Flushing, I quickly ran through the rest of the story where I was on my butt and James came and walked me home.

  “So, I’m guessing by your expression you don’t think it was as freaky as I thought?”

  I had been so convinced last night, but after sleep and a work-out that morning, it seemed absurd to even ask. Especially since it sounded so crazy now that I’d said it out loud. I even mentioned I thought the wolf was watching me. It had seemed eerily aware of what was happening, and that had freaked me out.

  Plus, Caroline should be freaking out a bit more, but she wasn’t. Her non-chalantness as she listened to my tale took me by surprise based on some of the other ridiculous things she had worried about in the past few years.

  “Well I’m not sure why it would just rush off after it was going to pounce on you, if it was really a menacing animal on the loose, you know?” Her tone was peculiar, could only chalk it up to a long night.

  She was probably still waking up. Caroline had never been a morning person.

  “If we see it again, maybe we’ll tell the boys to go hunting.”

  We laughed and I decided I must have just imagined the extreme qualities in the situation. It probably was not a wolf trying to attack me. The blurs were probably just my alcohol-impaired vision, and I had fallen on my own. Maybe the animal was just crossing the path and my tipsiness made me think more of the situation than what was actually happening. No reason to worry.

  She walked around from the kitchen and hopped up onto the barstool beside me. She took only a couple bites of her food before setting the fork down. I scarfed down all my pancakes and drank my latte.

  “Is everything all right with you and Nick?” I started tentatively. “I thought I heard you come in a little angry last night.” I was hesitant. How was I supposed to acknowledge that I had been eavesdropping and not actually sleeping?

  “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were asleep. Yeah, that was nothing. I got frustrated at…” she paused, then picked right back up again, “…a friend of ours from back home. No biggie.” Like that, Caroline had shrugged off the conversation. If she didn’t want to talk about it, then it must truly be no big deal. I trusted her to tell me if something was really the matter. We told each other everything.

  “Oh, guess what,” I started. She raised her eyebrows expectantly at me. “Guess who I ran into at the gym?”

  “Who?”

  “James. I literally ran into him. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking. Get this, he was heading into Pilates.” I laughed, thinking Caroline would join in, but she just gaped at me.

  Realizing that wasn’t the reaction I had expected, she quickly turned the gape into a smile.

  “I don’t believe it,” she said, again strangely, and not in the way I thought she would.

  I thought it was funny he was taking a Pilates class, but apparently I was the only one.

  “I just mean, he didn’t seem like the kind of person that would be caught off-guard and let someone bump into him.” She looked distracted as she finished her thought.

  “What’s on the agenda today?” I asked, changing the subject since the conversation had become bizarre when it was about James. “Is Nick going to hang out a bit more? What did he say about transferring?”

  “Wow, Twenty Questions much, Ariya? Since he has seen two apartments and none of the campus so far, I’m not sure he’s made a decision yet on transferring. We are going to head to campus for a walk around the buildings after breakfast.” She flashed me a grin and was back to her usual self.

  “I like him a lot, Care. He seems really, really great. I’m glad to have him here whenever. Are you all in need of some alone time o
r would you like my help as a tour guide?” I nudged her arm.

  She wrinkled her nose, and then retorted, “we had plenty of alone time last night. Jealous?”

  I was really going to miss this when we graduated. I didn’t want to think about not being able to spend so much time with my friends. Friends and family had always been important in my life. I had a tight-knit family. My dad and mom, and my grandfather, too, when he had been alive, did everything together. They were all at every sporting event, every volunteer activity. Each holiday was an event, and family was just important overall. When I wasn’t with them, I tried to get as much time in with my friends as possible.

  I enjoyed alone time, but I cherished being around people more. Since college, Caroline had become my best friend and an extension of my family. I had a pretty easy time with people in general. I liked listening when someone needed me and I loved helping people with their problems. My mom told me not too many people cared enough to help others with their problems and that it was something I should hold on to.

  Caroline let out an exclamation that brought me back to our conversation, “Oh! How about we throw a BBQ? We can play tour guides on campus, then stop by the store for supplies, and then everyone can come over here?”

  “That sounds perfect!” I beamed back at her.

  The first week of college is always the greatest. When you come back and classes haven’t started, and everyone has nothing to do other than spend time with each other all day, it’s hard to imagine anything better. It’s one of the greatest feelings to just be carefree and surrounded by people you love.

  “All right loser,” she said, “go shower – you’re disgusting. We’ll head out after campus to the store to buy some things. I’ll let everyone know.”

  “Ew, no need to be mean. You just wanna go keep Nick company in there.” I threw my napkin at her and ran back to my room.

  Forty-five minutes later, we were headed out the door towards campus. We toured around with Nick, taking our time and enjoying the weather. Our college campus was beautiful, so it was easy to take it slow on the tour, even if it was smaller school. It felt so old. It was almost like you were stepping back in time.

  There were stone buildings everywhere that gave it an elegant feel. The flowers were replanted every two weeks, so things always looked fresh. The Library was the newest building on campus. I thought about some of the other colleges I had visited during high school. They usually had huge, state of the art buildings and all the latest technology in every classroom. That’s how they would market each of their campuses. It made Kingsbrook look a bit behind the times. The computers had all been upgraded last year, and I think that helped a bit when students came to tour.

  Even with the old buildings and lack of technology, it still was a great place to be. It was unique, and you didn’t feel like another face in the crowd. It felt like home to me here. We showed Nick some of our classrooms, the Quad, which was the main area where people hung out during nicer weather days, the different dining halls (there were only three), and that pretty much completed the tour.

  We ended up at the edge of the campus where the woods began. Woods surrounded the little town on three different sides. The only place that wasn’t wooded was the entrance into town. It was almost as if the entrance funneled everyone in to the circle-shaped area. The trees looked as if they crept towards the buildings and might swallow us up one day. At night, it could be eerie, but once you got used to it, it wasn’t as scary.

  When we concluded our Kingsbrook PR session, Nick gave us a round of applause. “I’m impressed. You guys sure know how to give a good campus tour.”

  “Well, there are only a handful of things you have to remember. The rest is based on experience. Plus, we do it every year for orientation. It’s kind of our thing.” I wanted him to know Caroline was a social butterfly and well liked. He smiled at us.

  “I can see why they want you to come back each year. Now, I think that’s enough of the official tour guide routine. You girls can really sell this school, so I think I have all the information I need.” He paused, waiting for our reactions. “I’m in!” Caroline hollered and gave him a big kiss, and I clapped my hands. He didn’t waste any time refocusing on us. “Now, how about we get on with this BBQ?”

  I was taken aback for a minute that Nick had made his decision so quickly, especially since the year was about to start. Would he have time to register and get into any of the classes he would need to graduate this late in the game? Then I saw the way he was looking at Caroline. He must be serious about this thing with her. Plus, if he didn’t like the school he was at currently as much, I guess transferring really wasn’t that big of a deal to him.

  Caroline and I gave another cheer to his response as we headed over to the grocery store to get everything we would need. Caroline and I put together a game plan as we drove to the store. Once there, we headed to the meat department first. I leaned over the choices, having no idea which package to grab and was debating on whether or not I should just close my eyes and grab one. Wasn’t all meat basically the same? I went to pick up the package closest to me when a voice startled me, and made me drop the item in my hand.

  “Step away from the meat, Ariya!” I turned to see Riley making his way towards us. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what he was doing here. “I’m going to be picking up the goods for today. You girls can’t be left in charge of another BBQ or we’ll starve,” he finished.

  Riley was referring to an incident the previous year when Caroline and I’d had everyone over and realized we had gotten some vegetarian burger patties that all the boys hated, and then we ran out of buns. We were distracted by the Derrick drama at the time and were gossiping the whole shopping trip. It wasn’t our fault we didn’t grab the ‘right’ burgers or enough buns.

  “My knight in shining armor!” I pretended to faint and fell into him. “How did you know we were going to be here?”

  “Guilty,” Nick raised his hand. Apparently he and Riley had exchanged numbers last night. “When you girls sent out the text that we were having a BBQ, Riley asked me to let him know when we were going to the store. He filled me in on how you girls are great planners and decorators, but not so great when it comes to grilling. I had to promise to keep him in the loop as far as our time frame.”

  “Nicholas! You have such little faith in me,” Caroline teased.

  It was then that I saw James walking over from where Riley had come a moment before. My heart sped up a bit. Caroline looked over at me with a grin on her face.

  “Hey James! It’s good to see you again. You’ll come to the BBQ, too, right?” He smiled that gorgeous side smile of his and said Riley had roped him into it.

  “I’ve been instructed to do whatever it takes to keep the BBQ out of yours and Ariya’s hands.” He glanced at me and I felt my stomach drop. I needed to get a grip. Man, he was dangerously handsome. No guy is that great, and I’m sure he had some huge flaw and wasn’t interested anyway. I needed to chill out and stop acting so ridiculous.

  “James, good to see you again. How was Pilates?” I couldn’t keep the grin from my face as I spoke.

  “Oh, yeah, about that. I looked at the schedule wrong. Must have tripped up.”

  He emphasis of the words tripped up made me grimace at him. He just winked in response. I hadn’t realized it was possible for him to get sexier, damn him. We got what groceries we needed and Nick volunteered to get the drinks with Caroline.

  “Ariya, why don’t you head back with Riley and James to unload the food?” Caroline suggested.

  I smiled on the inside at how Caroline was trying to play Little Miss Matchmaker. I shook my head and smirked at her. Everyone agreed on that plan and we headed to Riley’s truck.

  Hopping up into the truck as I had done hundreds of times before should have been easy. For some reason, though, my body couldn’t function properly when James was around. My foot slipped from the grip on the side of the truck. I fumbled forwar
d and my hands landed on the cushioned seat.

  I jerked my head up to see if either of the boys had noticed. James’ face betrayed him and I saw him smiling as he rearranged the groceries in the truck bed. Of course he’d witnessed an awkward moment, again. You’ve got to be kidding me.

  Rolling my eyes, I scooted to the middle while the boys finished loading everything into the back. James climbed in next to me and I started playing with the radio to distract myself. Doing that allowed me to shift my focus off of him the whole ride and stay semi-cool. At least I hoped I had.

  We got to my apartment and as I went to climb out of the truck, James put his hand up. “You better take this,” he smiled, confirming he had definitely seen me miss the ledge of the truck earlier.

  My face turned beet red. I couldn't think of a single witty remark to make back at him. Instead, I grabbed his hand and let him help me.

  “Thanks,” I said, barely able to make eye contact. Just once, I would like to at least appear graceful in front of this man.

  The guys unloaded everything while I got them a drink. When they were done, we flopped down on the couch to wait for Nick and Caroline to come back. Riley snatched the remote out of my hand, claiming it was necessary. He didn’t even get the TV on before Nick and Caroline walked in, though.

  We’d told the rest of the group to come over a bit later. While we were waiting, we decided we were going to play some games on our own. Beer Pong was up first because Caroline had some crazy ability to have perfect aim and loved winning. We had an uneven number, which meant I had a 50-50 chance of getting stuck with James and not being able to breathe, or Riley and have him mock me at how horrible my aim was the whole time.

  Riley got up and offered to grill the food, making James my only option for a partner. Great, I’m going to make a fool of myself, I thought.

  “Ever played before?” I asked James. He looked at me in the strangest way. I chided myself, remembering that he was in some city before coming here, not on another planet.