I glanced up at Alex. He’d been telling them about me?
Before I could ask what he’d said, he smiled down at me and squeezed my shoulders. “You nervous about a new school?”
I nodded quickly. What was the use in denying it. “Terrified.”
He laughed, as if I was joking.
I wasn’t.
“Don’t worry, Evie, I got you covered.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that no one called me Evie, but I clamped it shut again. He could call me anything he liked just so long as he didn’t leave me alone in this crowd.
“Where’s your locker?” he asked.
“Um…” I pulled out the welcome packet the registration lady had given me last week when my parents and I had come here to fill out paperwork. I started to flip through the pages but he took it from my hand and found the locker number easily. “It’s right by mine. Just down that hall over there and—Hey!”
I hadn’t even seen anyone approaching and I hadn’t heard him through the loud chaos that echoed around us. Before I could process what was happening, a big muscly arm wedged itself between me and Alex, snatching my welcome packet out of Alex’s hand in one quick move.
“Hey, man…” Alex protested. He stumbled back from the force but caught himself in time to whip around and face the newcomer.
He didn’t have to speak for me to know who it was.
I could feel Cooper’s presence looming over me from behind. The heat he gave off was like a calling card, that freakin’ scent of soap and Tide and him...I could recognize it in my sleep. As if that wasn’t enough, his oversized hand landed on my shoulder like a weight.
A possessive, overprotective, completely unwanted weight.
“I’ll take it from here,” his low voice said.
I just barely bit back a sigh as I turned to face my new tour guide.
Cooper.
There he was—the giant, scowling, behemoth himself. I braced myself against the flare of heat that I always felt when his attention was fixed on me like this—like I was the only person on the planet.
I used to dream of him looking at me like this. The only difference was, I used to dream that I had his attention because he liked me. I took in that icy glare as he stared down at me. He looked as if I were causing him pain. As if I were the annoying one here. As if I’d even asked him for help.
This time I didn’t bother to hide my sigh. “Hey Cooper.”
Chapter 2
Cooper
Eve didn’t look happy—but I didn’t really care. My head had been spinning a mile a minute ever since I’d seen Alex hovering over her like a vulture with its prey. I knew the kind of guy Alex was. I knew the kinds of thing that were swarming around in his mind—
I took a deep breath as my agitation level hit an all-time high.
If I allowed myself to continue with these thoughts, I was going to pummel him so hard he’d go flying through the wall and land in Mr. Parson’s chemistry class. And I couldn’t do that. Not when half this school already assumed I was headed down the path of my father and brother.
The path that had led them straight into twenty years in prison.
If I wanted a different life, I needed to act differently. And speaking with my fists instead of my mouth was the first path to change.
“Let’s go,” I said as I tightened my grip on Eve’s shoulder. I half dragged her down the hallway and rounded the corner. I didn’t stop until I was certain we were far enough away from Alex that there wasn’t a chance that she would run into him again.
We stopped and I dropped my arm from her shoulders and used my now free hand to push it through my hair. There was no avoiding her glare. It was threatening and so freaking adorable as she pointed it in my direction.
I was struggling with keeping my mind straight as she folded her arms across her chest and shifted her hip to the side as if that was all it was going to take to intimidate me.
It didn’t work. All I wanted to do was wrap her into my arms and hold her. Ever since I had been paired with her at the Academy, my feelings began to change—no matter how hard I tried to ignore them.
She was my best friend’s little sister for goodness sake. I wasn’t supposed to see her as anyone other than the annoying little girl who followed us around asking us to play Barbies with her.
But every time I touched her. Every time I looked at her. I wanted to know more. And it was in that desire that I was slowly losing my mind.
Hence dragging her down the hallway on her first day of school.
“What the heck, Cooper?” she asked as she blew out her breath and shifted away from me. She pushed her bangs off her forehead as she glowered at the wall in front of her. “Now I’m going to be pegged as the kid who needs a bodyguard.” She turned her gaze over to me and gave me a death glare.
“Alex is a jerk,” I grunted. I wasn’t a man of many words, but recently, I’d become more quiet. Especially around Eve.
Eve rolled her eyes. “Clearly.” She shifted her stance back to facing me, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “I mean, what kind of guy is nice to a girl on her first day of school?”
I glared back at her. She couldn’t be that naive to think that a guy like Alex was smiling at her like that, touching her like that, because he was nice. But then again, maybe she was. The girl was sheltered and ridiculously innocent. And this right here was why Trenton had made me vow to look out for her.
She huffed. “I don’t need your protection.”
It was cute that she had this much confidence. Cute, but exasperating. “You didn’t go to a school with boys. You don’t know them.” I straightened and my body towered over hers. I saw a flash of hesitation as she stared at me, but that only lasted for a moment before she regained her bearings and met my stance head on.
“Boys are all the same,” she said, but this time, a little less confident. I was wearing her down.
“No, they’re not. Boys have only one thought on their brain.” My entire body heated from my words. But I muscled that reaction down. No one was going to have that kind of relationship with Eve. Especially not me.
Eve’s cheeks tinted pink as she pinched her lips together. “Gee, what one thing is that, Dad?” she asked, her voice turning mocking.
I parted my lips but she raised her hand up to cover my mouth.
“I don’t need you to tell me. It was a joke.”
I shrugged. She’d asked.
Eve sighed as she lowered her hand and tucked it next to her body, folding her arms. “So is this how my junior year is going to go? Are you just going to stop any interaction I have with the opposite sex?”
Yes. Heck yes.
I chewed on her questions for a second before I grunted and nodded. “Until the right guy comes around, I’ll chase off anyone that’s not good enough.”
And no one will be good enough.
A muscle in my jaw clenched at the thought but I shoved it aside. It was my duty to protect her. Watch over her. This wasn’t about me and what I wanted. Who I wanted...
Eve’s expression turned to one of pleading. “Why? I thought I got rid of my bodyguard when Trenton left.”
At the mention of my best friend, my entire body snapped to attention. Trenton and I had been in the ROTC together when he was here and when he graduated, he enlisted, leaving me here to finish my last year. My plan was to join him once I graduated as well.