Off Guard

OFF GUARD (A Friends Romance)

By Marian Tee

Copyright 2014 by Streak Digital Publishing

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

****

18-year-old Gabby has a date.
Finally.
But because of the sheltered life she’s led, she needs a chaperone of sorts. Enter Hadrian Bancroft,
the
hottest guy in uni – and her best friend. Or at least he was until he kissed her.

All eyes were on her as she stopped before Room 114, which was at the end of the hallway.
Everyone
here knew it was Hadrian Bancroft’s room, but
none
of them knew who she was.
 

      Not a surprise, Gabby thought, doing her best not to fidget, conscious of how everyone was still staring at her. Weren’t they going to look away?

      The seconds ticked by.

      
Shit,
she thought. She didn’t have time for this. She really didn’t.
 

      Slowly, Gabby took the key out from her pocket.

      There were gasps all around her – no one bothering now to pretend they were not taking in her every move. She almost winced as the people let out another gasp when the key worked and the door opened easily. Well, of course it would work since Hadrian had given her the key himself.

      The room was spacious and had its own en-suite bathroom – typical since this was the most luxurious dorm in campus. It was dark, though – and this was not typical since it was already
three
in the afternoon.

      She spied his supine form on the bed. After switching the lights on, she jumped on the bed and landed on her knees. “Hadrian!”

      Nothing.
 

“Hadrian,” Gabby growled, shaking her best friend by the shoulders –
hard
. “Wake up! I need you to drive me!”

      Hadrian grumbled something under his breath, flipping over to lie on his stomach. As if that was not enough, he also firmly buried his face in his pillow. His long muscular form was barely covered by the thin white sheet and because they had been friends for long, she knew he was naked underneath.

      The fact didn’t bother her, though. Women generally went crazy over Hadrian but not her – never her. He just wasn’t her type. He was simply Hadrian, her best friend for years.

      “HADRIAN!”

      He didn’t stir.

      She shook him fiercely until he was forced to open his eyes. “What?” he demanded grouchily. His blue eyes had an irritated glint to them, but it was barely visible under the dark brown locks of bed-mussed hair.

      If it had been anyone other than Gabby, he would have shouted, scowled, and said a few choice words that would have sent a grown man running away in tears. But he didn’t because this was Gabby – the only person who mattered to him.

      Making an effort to control his temper, Hadrian pushed himself up on his elbows. A little more awake now, he saw Gabby on her knees next to him in bed, hands on her lap as she stared at him, chewing her lip. She was the tiniest thing, with clouds of ebony black hair falling around her shoulders. She wore a pretty lacy frilly blouse, buttoned up to the neck, paired with a black skirt that had inched up, baring her silky long legs.

      He was tempted to let his gaze linger on those legs. In his dreams, he had those lovely legs wrapped around his waist as he sank into her and took her virginity.

      Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure at all it was possible for those dreams to become reality.

      “Well?” he demanded when she still didn’t say anything. “What is it?”

      “I…” Gabby released her lip then chewed it again.

      “Gabriela,” Hadrian growled.

      Instead of answering him, she threw herself on the bed next to him, lying on her back. He turned to her, leaning on his elbow as he lay on his side. Seeing the worry on her face, he demanded, “What the hell’s wrong?”

      “I…have a date.”

      His heart clenched. “I see,” he said evenly.
 

      She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s…one of the hottest guys in school.”

      He was not an arrogant man, but he also knew he was
the
hottest guy in school. The thousands of girls who came on to him every day couldn’t be wrong. But he also knew as far as Gabby was concerned, he was as sexy as an oversized teddy bear.

      “Who is it?” He tried not to sound disgruntled.

      She looked at him shyly. “Phillip.”

      He choked. “Phillip Blakely?”

      She nodded, shifting to her side so she could look at him directly. “Yes.” She searched his face for a clue about what he thought of her dating someone like Phillip Blakely, who was clearly out of her league.

      He took his time answering, playing with her hair, which he often did. He had a strange obsession about it.

      Hadrian was doing his best to calm himself. He should have been prepared for this. She was a beautiful girl – it was inevitable that some other guy would snap her up. But did it have to be Phillip Blakely, dammit?

      Phillip was an ass. There wasn’t any other fucking word that could better describe the other man. He was a stuck-up obnoxious trust fund brat who thought he walked on water and that his half-British bloodlines meant everyone should kiss his ass.

      He looked down at Gabby. She was chewing on her lip again, a clear sign that she was nervous. It made him think of biting her lip himself – and bite other parts of her body, for that matter.

      “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked suspiciously.

      Hadrian schooled his expression into something inscrutable. “I’m wondering what he saw in you when you’re such an ugly brat.”

      Gasping, Gabby snatched one of the pillows and hit him square on the face with it. “You always say such mean things!”

      When she tried to hit him again, he grabbed the pillow and threw it over his back, out of her reach.

      She pouted at him.

      He rolled his eyes.
 

      She kept pouting.

      Ah, the little brat knew he was a sucker for her pouts. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Where do I have to drive you?”

****

Less than two hours later, someone tapped Hadrian from behind, ruining his concentration. “I’m busy,” he said shortly. Girls had been hitting on him, doing their best to capture his attention while he played pool with the other guys. Normally, he would perhaps pick the most interesting of the bunch and give them both what they wanted but not now – not when he was still furious about Gabby dating another man – and he had let her.

      But then…how could he not?

      He took aim and made his shot. The white ball hit its target, pushing the other ball into the hole. The other guys groaned but he paid them no heed. He should be focused on taking his next shot, but all he could think about was what Gabby could be doing with Phillip Blakely.

      He had known Gabby since they were kids. Their moms had been sorority sisters and when his parents had died in a car crash, her parents had treated him like their own even though he had been fiercely independent.

      The loss of his parents had made Hadrian unwilling to open his heart to anyone, but Gabby had completely demolished his defences with her stubbornly sweet ways. She had forced him to care. She would act tough when she used to get into trouble with the other girls in school, but alone with him she would cry and demand that he comfort her.

      Without him knowing how or when, she had wormed her way into his heart – and had stayed there.
 

      Someone tapped him from behind again.

      “Will you quit it?” He turned around with a scowl but instead of some shameless bimbo, he got Gabby, eyes shiny with unshed tears and a shaky smile on her lips.

      Hadrian whitened. “What—”

      “I can wait,” she cut him off with an overly bright tone, her lips trembling even harder as she spoke.

      With a curse, he drew her protectively towards him, tossing his cue stick on the table. “Gotta bail guys, sorry,” he muttered to the others.

      “Sure, man. Take care of your girl.”
 

There was a note of pity in the other guy’s voice, and somehow that made Gabby want to cry more. She was so, so, so stupid! Why did she even think that someone like Phillip would be attracted to someone like him?

In a snap, Hadrian had them out of the bar and inside his SUV. “Baby?”

He used to call her that all the time – when she was a kid and scared out of her mind by thunderstorms.

But then one day – he had just stopped.

And now he was calling her ‘baby’ again, and it sounded so good to her ears, like a haven she had long been banned from and could now enter again.

The tears fell fast and silent. She didn’t want to cry but she couldn’t help it.

With a groan, Hadrian pulled on the hand brakes and hauled her into his lap. Curled up against his chest, her arms around him, she sobbed so hard that in seconds her tears had completely soaked his shirt.

“What happened, baby?”

She was all choked up as she spoke, the humiliating memory making her want to hide in his arms forever.

He listened silently, growing more and more livid as he learned how the asshole had made Gabby feel like shit. Gabby was clearly blaming herself, but he was fucking sure it had been Blakely’s fault. The ass had led her on, deliberately and without a doubt had taken pleasure in making her think he liked her. Blakely had surely taken even greater pleasure in then crushing her feelings by telling her that all he wanted was Gabby’s help in hooking him up with her roommate.

“I was so, so stupid,” she sobbed and hiccupped at the same time.

He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, wishing there was a way to take away all her pain – even if it meant he would have to suffer it tenfold. Better yet, he wished there was a way he could dish out the same pain to Blakely with his fists.

That asshole would pay. He would make sure of it. But for now—

“Baby, please stop crying,” he whispered.

Gabby nodded against his chest, and he could feel her physically struggling to control her tears.
 

“This isn’t your fault. He was an asshole who took advantage of you.”

“I
let
him take advantage of me,” she said bitterly even as she wiped away her tears.

He cupped her face and kissed her forehead gently. “It’s not your fault, okay? Tell me you believe me.”

She just gazed at him stoically.

“Gabby,” he growled.

“But I was a fool,” she whispered.

“You’re the nicest person I know and he took advantage of it like the fucking asshole he is.” He wiped a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb, wanting to lick it away but knowing he couldn’t…shouldn’t.