Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy) by Anna Applegate Page A

out here with him, and suddenly I really did not like the idea.
    “You know , I feel like you don’t like me very much. Did I do something to upset you?” There was an edge to the tone of his voice, like he knew that he was creeping me out, but enjoyed the reaction anyway.
    He was staring intensely at me. I stammered in response, “No, uh, no. I just take awhile to warm up to new people. You seem great for Ashley.”
    Again I tried to keep walking , but was blocked. I could feel my heartbeat start to speed up, but tried to maintain my composure. What was he doing?
    “I’m not interested in Ashley and her silly games.”
    What? Now, I was incredibly disturbed. My skin was crawling and tingling like crazy. My legs felt like they were trying to propel me in any direction other than towards Devon. He took another step closer.
    “Is there any one else I would be great for, Ariya?”
    He was way too close. His movement forward brought him within touching distance. Those thoughts about hi m being attractive were fluttering out the window, quickly. He was attractive in an American Psycho sort of way at this point.
    “Haha,” I laughed , nervously, “Um, not right now, I don’t think.”
    I was taking steps back now just to get him away from me in any way possible. If forward wasn’t working , I would go backwards, although there wouldn’t be many places to run behind me if it came to that.
    “Hey!” I heard a shout and Devon jerked around. James was walking down the sidewalk towards us. “Ariya, I’ve been looking for you.” He surpris ed me by walking right up to me, taking my face in his hands, right in front of Devon. “I told you not to run off like that,” he said, lightheartedly. “I’m still getting to know everyone.” He dropped his hands from my face to my arms and just like that, the fear and tingling sensations that had been taking over me moments before were gone.
    I gave a small smile and said, “Sorry.”
    Devon said something unintelligible under his breath and stalked away. I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
    James immediately dropped his hands from me when Devon was out of sight. “Are you okay?” he asked. “He seemed to be bothering you. I figured that might scare him off.”
    “ Yeah, I’m fine. I can handle idiots. He just creeped me out.” I responded, gaining back the composure that I had lost during the encounter.
    “He should. Don ’t go off alone with him, okay?”
    I looked up at James. He didn’t look very happy and was still looking in the direction Devon ha d lurked off in. What a strange thing to say about someone you don’t even know.
    “Okay .” It was the only word I could manage while the various sensations that had been running through me calmed down. Of course I wasn’t going anywhere alone with him!
    James nodded at me in respo nse and we headed back inside. He didn’t say much on the walk back in. I definitely couldn’t read him. He was probably just overprotective of women. Perhaps living in the city made him feel like he could protect people, but how had he known where to find me?
    Caroline looked worried when I walked in and I immediately thought she and Nick had got ten into a fight. When she saw me, though, she smiled and seemed to snap back into chatting away with the people around her.
    My head started throbbing. After a bit more time standing around with everyone, I snuck into my room to grab some Tylenol. While tilting my head back to take the pills, an eerie, irritated voice reached my ears.
    “Be caref ul whose side you’re on, Ariya.”
    My head snapped back up. It sounded like a woman. I turned to look around and see who in the world would say that to me, but there was no one by my door. My window was still shut and locked and no one was in my room. I’m done drinking for the day , I thought to myself. I needed to lie down for a minute before heading back to the party. But, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was