The hard hand on my lower back skims over my bare skin. What feels like little bubbles start bursting in my stomach. It's like small snaps of electricity hitting my skin where his fingers are touching me. Staring up with wonder at the greenest eyes I've ever seen, I seem to float closer to him. His lips move saying something to me but the music is so loud and my head is so fuzzy, I don't understand what he says.

"Curls? I found you." A lopsided smile slips over his face and there's little creases in the corner of his eyes as his smile widens. That big hand on my back brings me against his chest when I stumble a bit getting my footing. "I've been looking everywhere for you this week."

"I'm so sorry. I can't keep my balance in these. The shoes are a punishment for me not staying home and studying tonight." I hold up the painful culprits showing him what I mean.

He looks at the shoes I'm holding up and humorously tilts his head to take a good look at the golden spike of the heels. My fingers lose their hold and I fumble the shoes. Dropping them to the floor, I quietly curse under my breath and try to bend over to pick them up. Spinning around with my back to the guy, I bend, tilting my hips back and into a warm body.

I can just hear him as my rear rubs against him. "Shit!"

Realizing the position we're in, I quickly try to get out of the way. In the process, I lose my balance again. There's immediately a big hand holding my hip to steady me. Then with his help shifting myself back up and around to face him. I stop fast against his chest but the room seems to keep moving on me.

Why do they have a moving floor in this place?

I look down frowning trying to figure out how to get the shoes without falling on my head but I'm bumped into and fall forward pressing tight against Mr Green Eyes. Gripping onto his biceps, I try to pull away but I've got no balance at all. He holds onto me, thank goodness, and brings me against his chest. Then with a soft laugh, sets his bottle of beer on the nearest table. Bending over, he scoops up the shoes and keeps hold of me while he does it.

"I got em." His voice is gentle against my ear as he tucks my hair away from my face. "Are you okay?"

"Bradford! I got her, don't worry, she just got away from me for a minute." Sebastian coolly steps up behind me and tries to take my arm. "Come on doll, let's finish our conversation upstairs."

Looking at the baseball stud, who thinks I'm willing to go with him, I take a small step then another closer to dreamy eyes. I don't think I want to go with him. A red flag seems to be screaming at me that this wouldn't be a good idea and I grab hold of the front of my new friend's shirt fisting the soft cotton in my hand and holding tight to the back of the same black T-shirt.

He seems to get the message when his arm tightens around me. My heart is pounding and my head feels like it's spinning in time to the music. The loud bass is pulsing through the bottom of my feet, I'm so hot and queasy. The hand touching my back firmly keeps me upright and against that very muscular, very hard chest.

"She's with me, Mattox." His voice calls over my shoulder. There's something icy in the look in those green eyes now that wasn't there a second ago. With a blink, he's looking back at me and those bright green eyes go soft again. "Right, Curls? We met last week in the quad. And I was hoping you'd show tonight."

His hand cups my face, lifting my chin so I have to look up at him, I feel his fingers rest just under the side of my jaw on my neck. My head is heavy as it falls back and I feel really tired. As he watches my face his eyes darken, those black brows lower over his eyes as he searches my face. I lick my lips trying to find my words but everything is fuzzy.

"Like I believe that, Bradford. We were having a nice talk in there. So excuse us, I'd like to continue it." As the baseball badass reaches for my arm, my protector pushes his hand away. "I saw her walk in alone. She was standing in there alone. She said nothing about meeting you here. Didn't even mention your name. Does that sound like she was looking for you?"

A growl rumbles and erupts from deep inside the hard chest next to my ear. I could feel it against the palm of my hand, hear it vibrate inside my head. It was animalistic and raw. Something turned slow in my stomach as I rested my head against his shoulder. I don't feel so good. It's then I felt that big hand stroke long and slow down my spine, soothing me until he finishes his conversation.

"Give me just a minute." He whispers to me and I nod slowly. "Do you remember me? My name is Aiden." I roll my head up to look at him and get lost for a second in those eyes. "I'll get you outta here in a second."

A sandy blonde guy is now standing next to us along with several other really big guys. All of them blocking Sebastian from going anywhere.

Lifting my head, I look around at all the eyes now centered on us. Girls who look on curious but ticked off about the interruption and guys that are ready to join in the conversation. No, this isn't just a friendly talk, these guys are mad. It's like a testosterone convention suddenly convened.

Woah, talk about walls of steel! These guys are huge!

Aiden shifts me over to his left. The guy reaches for me when Aiden says something to him. He then moves forward and steps up to Sebastian. He says something I don't hear but I don't think I need to. The expression says it all. Sebastian looks pretty mad and pushes against that big hard chest and Aiden, he doesn't even move.

"You get one free. After that I hit back." Aiden tells Sebastian who's fisting up his meat hooks for a fight.

"Hey! Not in the house!" I hear one of the other guys yell as he pushes through the crowd that gathered around us and steps over between the two that are about to rumble. "Knock it off! ....Aiden, Emery lost her roommate."

"I saw her first!" Sebastian yells as a couple of the guys hold him back from coming after the two talking. "You just want her because I primed her."

"Get him out!" The blonde guy holding me up tells the big hulk that has come over. "We don't allow that shit here Mattox, you know that!"

As the hulk and another guy grab Sebastian, Aiden comes back to me. Nodding to his friend and taking me out of his hands, pulling me to his chest. "Are you okay?"

"My head is..." I motion a circle with my finger. "Is it hot in here?" I wonder out loud if it's just me when he leans down to hear me.

"Can I take you upstairs? It's cooler and you can rest there. No one will hurt you, I promise." He assures me.

I nod, feeling safer with him than the one that's flipping out while they push him out the door. As I look over I can see that he's still yelling at us, swearing up a storm at the one's around him. Some of those words I don't think I've ever heard before.

I should look them up.

Taking my shoes out of my hand and passing them to the blonde guy, Aiden wraps his arm around my waist and takes on my weight. Stumbling, a bit on my wobbly legs, he manages to keep me on my feet and we bump our way through the bodies milling around to get across the room to the stairs.

The blonde, who has pushed my shoes to another guy, hurries out the back door. I watch as this one sets my shoes on a table and follows us over to the stairs. Stopping us at the first step, he gets our attention. "Aiden! The girls..."

"You can handle it, Landon! Fucking Mattox gave her something! Her eyes are dilated, her pulse is too fast and she can hardly stand by herself." Resting two fingers to the inside of my wrist, I check. Sure enough my pulse is rapidly throbbing against my fingers.

Well, that's not good

"You deal with the girls, I need to take care of her." Dismissing his friend and turning back to me. "I'm going to carry you up, okay?" Not really sure I can manage the stairs on my own, I agree.

Moving my arm back behind his neck, Aiden slides his arm tight around my back as he leans down. His thick arm hits the back of my knees and sweeps me up off my feet. If I didn't feel so horrible I would think this was actually really romantic of him. But with a little squeal, I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on for the ride. Quickly Aiden carries me up the looping stairs like I weigh nothing at all, moving around people and negotiating obstacles. We head down the hall to the end, where he turns a corner and goes down to the last door.

"This place is huge." I murmur, getting a chuckle out of him.

"You should see my grandma's house." Setting me on my feet, Aiden digs in his pocket, pulling out a key and plugs it into the lock. I lean against the wall and fascinated, watch him turn the knob. "How much did you drink tonight?"

"I don't drink." Rubbing the side of my head, I try to focus on the picture hanging lopsided across from me. "I don't like alcohol. It makes me feel horrible the couple times I tried it. He gave me some lemonade."

He stops opening the door and looks like he doesn't believe me. "Fuck!" The mutter was low but I caught it.

"It wasn't lemonade, was it?" My tongue feels thick and my words are slurring. And this is why I don't drink. I don't know enough to not take someone's word. It smelled like lemonade, it tasted like it. I should have known it wasn't.

"I should have stayed home." I look down at my pretty dress and pout.

"No, you'll be fine." He reaches over right when I start to slide down the wall. "No, no you don't. Not yet, just a little further. You can lay down inside."

He shifts me away from the wall and into his arms. My back rests against his chest as Aiden just begins to walk me into the room one of his friends is there next to us. "Mattox has been escorted out. He swears he didn't do anything to her."

The hulk is right behind him. "He's a lying sack too! You know he does that shit! He tried that shit last year with Colby, remember?"

Hearing angry voices arguing in a hushed whisper. I turn my head and see the two big guys talking to Aiden. "She said she doesn't drink, he had to give her something. Just get rid of the lemonade or whatever it is. He had to have messed with it. "

Once the two guys head off, we move into the room. Holding onto my waist he steadies me and a dim light is turned on beside us. Aiden guides me into the dim room and closes the door behind us.

Looking around my surroundings, I hold my hand over my forehead. I feel sick.

From the light casting shadows around us, I can make out furniture around the room. A dresser next to the door, a big desk and computer under the window and a big bed against the far wall. There's football posters and equipment piled in a corner. A stack of books on the nightstand and a teddy bear sitting on his pillow.

Letting my eyes adjust to the darkness, I hold onto the dresser to keep my feet under me. There's a couple pictures on it that catch my attention. The first is a huge group of people all wearing football jerseys. The big sign below them says Southern California Play 60. Aiden is sitting on the ground right down front with a baby in his lap and a bunch of guys, who I think are down stairs, around him. It looks happy and fun, everyone is smiling bright at the camera.

The other picture is completely different. So serious and elegant of him and a very sleek looking woman. They look like movie stars all dressed up. Him in a tux and her in a gold sequin gown. Hair the color of mink, eyes cobalt and skin as soft as silk. I don't think I could ever look like that.

It's then I get worried when I hear the distinct click of metal and I know he's locked the door. Looking speculatively at the door then at him, Aiden reaches out slowly for my arm.

"I'm just making sure no one comes in. You can go whenever you want. I won't hurt you, Curls." He points around the room to tell me where everything is. "Bathroom is right there if you need it. Go ahead and lay down, relax, no one but me will come in here. You're safe."

Holding my temper back is a real challenge right now. I didn't want Sebastian to be here. I didn't want to invite the baseball team at all but it's hard when several of the players live here. Wyatt, Ashton and Roan are cool. I've known them for years and they won't do anything stupid but Sebastian doesn't care.

So instead of doing what I planned tonight, I'm keeping an eye on Sebastian. I spent an hour roaming around, hanging back. I brushed off several willing and acceptable offers from ladies I wouldn't mind spending some time with, so I made sure some poor soul doesn't end up in Sebastian's web.

Then I screwed up. I got distracted by the little redhead that's been tailing me for the past week. She's persistent and with persistence usually comes reward. She's good at that, distracting me with kisses and tempting touches. She was wrapped around me and had my engine revving ready to race when I realized I lost Sebastian and the asshole had wormed away.

It took time to lose the redhead again, but I was back on the hunt, when fate decided to find me. The warm hands hit my back first and assuming it was my redhead playing again, I was ready to deny her my time. I turned around, expecting to tell her not now, when I met those chocolate eyes with the golden flecks.

Curls.

Her hair is different tonight, more waves than the ringlets I remembered from the week before. Those eyes though, there's something sexy about them that she's done with her makeup and those pouty lips are a deep sensual red.

Her body was pushed closer to me, as people moved and danced around us. Bringing her against my chest, my hand opened up spanning the base of her spine. Meeting soft skin with my fingers, I could feel the strange tingling sensation run up my fingertips and up my arm. Electric is all I can think it is.

But when I focus on her eyes, I can tell something isn't right. Her eyes are big, dilated, in the dim light in the room flashing to the music. Her balance is off, and she looks confused. Like she's not sure what's happening. I can't leave her alone like this, so I do the only thing I can, I hold onto her.

She's cute, drunk it seems, but so annoyed with some very high spikes in her hand. I never have been able to figure out how women walk in those things. Then she drops the damn things and POW! My dick is awake and at attention when she bends over rubbing against me and bringing me to life. The thing is I don't think she knows what she's doing to me.

I can't believe this. I've got the girl I was hoping would show tonight rubbing me hard as steel and I'm gonna stop her. Cursing under my breath, I hold on to her as I stand her back up. Helping her balance out and turning her to me, just as I see him from the corner of my eye.

Fucking asshole is lurking around.

When Mattox walked around the corner looking around and eyeballing her, it made my temper rise. Getting a little territorial, I glared at him when he approached us. Pulling her close, right when Mattox reached for her, I felt her tremble. Cupping her face to look at me, I could feel her pulse pounding against my fingers. As Mattox argues with me, her little hands grip my shirt tight in her fists and damn it, her face is flushed like she's overheated.

He wants me to just leave her alone with him. I don't think so. I don't trust Mattox with her. But I have to ask her permission. Uncle Blake drilled it into each of us, the girl has to tell us what she wants or it doesn't happen. So I ask and she can barely answer me.

He's messed with her already, I'm certain of it. Kicking him out is no hardship for me. I didn't want him here anyway. Now I can focus on her, maybe get her name now. I keep calling her Curls because I don't know what else to call her.

Landon and Sawyer keep telling me the girls lost their roommate. I don't have the ability to take care of her and them. Besides, I'm not the only family here. The girls have the others to help them find the roommate. Hell, I was told specifically to stay away from the roommate. I don't even know what she looks like, much less her name.

My focus stays right here.

She needs a bed. Mine preferably. Probably gonna heave too. I think quickly about the state of my room. Having planned on having company this evening, I did pick it up. The bathroom can always be questionable but I think it'll pass.

Curls can barely get across the room and there's no way I'm dragging her upstairs. She needs to lay down and rest. Hell, she'll probably get sick but that's okay. She'll feel better for it. Scooping her little body up was nothing. She is so tiny and light. I get her up the stairs easily, then working around people, back to my room and inside as fast as I can.

"Bathroom is right there if you need it. Go ahead and lay down, relax, no one but me will come in here. You're safe." I tell her hoping she knows I won't hurt her. I know the kind of shit that happens to girls and we swore that stuff wouldn't happen in our house. "What's your name?"

She looks from the pictures on my dresser to me. Her face is so pale now, it makes her big, dark eyes seem sunken in and huge. Seeing her lick her lips and the urge to kiss her blooms, I tamper it down. She's not feeling well, this isn't the time. I move over to my desk to put some distance between us and get out a bottle of water from the mini fridge below. That soft fragile look is getting to me.

"Riley." Her voice is soft and sweet when she answers me.

Holding the bottle out for her to take, I step towards her. She needs to stay hydrated and flush what's in her system out. I don't know what she drank but I know it's messing with her system badly. "Here you should drink some water."

She nods and starts to take it but turns making a mad dash into the bathroom. The door is left wide open as she falls to her knees by the toilet and hurls. I've been in that position myself many times and it sucks.

I give her a few minutes to empty out before I go to her. Remembering what my mom and grandma used to do for me when I was sick, I grab a washcloth and wet it down under the cool spray at the sink. Then lifting her long waves off her neck, I place the cloth on her skin. Gently wiping the back of her neck, her flushed cheeks and across her forehead.

"You're okay." I murmur as I brush the cloth over her neck again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it was alcohol. I'm sorry." She cries a little as she rests her head in her hands.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay." I try to help but I'm just not good with this. Give me a gash, bloody and nasty from a football tackle over tenderness. I can handle that better than this gentle care.

Slowly, she gets up and washes out her mouth. Taking the cloth to scrub at her face, she washes the makeup off then pats her face dry. I help her out to the bedroom and over to the bed. Her eyes look tired, drained and she doesn't have her balance yet.

"You want a shirt to sleep in? It might be more comfortable than that dress?" I offer knowing the girls are constantly borrowing a big shirt from one of us to sleep in at home.