A Protector's Touch: A New Adult College Romance & Romantic Suspense Novel Read online

  Table of Contents

  Other Books By The Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

  The Alex Conner Chronicles

  (Urban Fantasy/Supernatural Suspense)

  Trust: The Alex Conner Chronicles Book One

  Truth: The Alex Conner Chronicles Book Two

  Forbidden: An Alex Conner Chronicles Novella

  Only: The Alex Conner Chronicles Book Three

  Eve of the Exceptionals

  (YA Epic Fantasy)

  The Dark Angel Series

  (Dark Urban Fantasy)

  A Darker Fall: A Dark Angel Novella

  Jake the Growling Dog

  (A Children’s Picture Book about Kindness, Diversity, & Friendship)

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  A Protector’s Touch

  Copyright © 2019 by Parker Sinclair.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Rawlings Books, LLC

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  http://RawlingsBooks.com

  Edited by

  Lia Fairchild & Amy Jackson

  Cover Art by Jessica Ozment

  Book formatting by Jessica Ozment

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Mobi Edition ASN B07PVPTG4S

  Paperback ISBN 978-0-9984053-9-1

  To those who helped me find my way out.

  Chapter 1

  Covalent Bonds

  ~

  Despite my best efforts using makeup that looked a little like cake batter, I’m positive everyone can still see the painful swirls of black and blue. I shouldn’t have come onto campus, let alone shown up to the class we have together.

  “I can’t go in there—not today. Just look at me.” I need to stop being afraid. But he told me not to come. Actually, it was more like an or else warning, but I’m sick of him and his threats. This time, he’s gone too far. More like off a cliff and into a black, suffocating abyss too far.

  “You can do this, April. Derrick needs to see that you aren’t afraid of him anymore.” Nia’s sweet voice floats across the short distance between us as her dark, almond eyes blink at me through her glasses. “He can’t keep you from living your life, and he definitely can’t keep you from your classes. Plus, your dad will flip if your grades slip, and you know it.”

  Nia is right. I can’t hide anymore. I didn’t see anyone all weekend with this damn shiner, courtesy of my jerk of an ex-boyfriend, but it’s Monday, and I can’t miss this class. Being absent from chemistry before a lab day is academic suicide, and I am not letting Derrick get in the way of school, or my life, any longer.

  “Do you need help with the door?” Yes, Nia and I are standing like two idiots blocking anyone else from getting into the theater-sized classroom for Organic Chemistry 201. Yet something else causes my skin to tingle, but I don’t dare turn around. Instead, I grab Nia’s arm and move out of the way with my head down.

  “What the… Okay, don’t pull my arm out of its socket. I’m coming. Oh, hi. Sorry. We’re just waiting for someone. Oh, thank you. That’s sweet.”

  Nia’s tinkling voice floats toward the guy holding the door open for us like it’s no big deal, but I can’t even bear to look at him fully. I mean, not like this—okay, not ever. I’ve never been able to stare at much more than the back of his head or the broadness of his chest and shoulders. Occasionally I drift off, staring at his Lacrosse stick, because staring at his face or risking a meeting of our eyes was always too dangerous with Derrick in this class, no matter how many times I felt Shan Carp’s eyes on me.

  “April. Earth to April. He was just staring at you and you couldn’t even—”

  My arched eyebrows stop my good friend, and killer study partner, mid-sentence.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I know you don’t want him to see it, but maybe he’d fight for your honor, you know, as in kick Derrick’s ass for you. That jerk deserves it anyhow, and then you and Shan could live happily ever after.”

  Her back is to me now, but I can tell the kissy noises she’s making, which serve as the soundtrack for her hands roving all over her back, are coming from her goofy mouth. She’s smart as a whip and funny as hell. I keep her around for both.

  “As hilarious as this all is, let’s go before I lose my nerve.” I let Nia lead, knowing she’ll follow our plan of moving as far away from Derrick as possible in the upper back row. It’s nice of her, considering we usually take a seat closer to the front—near Derrick—since she has a hard time seeing the board. I promised her I’d take good notes for the both of us.

  I lean into her as we walk. “Damn it, Ida is here.”

  Ida’s our lab teacher’s assistant, and it looks like she’s helping Professor Grady today. She always relies on Nia and me in lab, and she’ll know right away that we’re in an odd spot. Not to mention she’s more brains than couth and will probably blast us in front of everyone for sitting so far away. She means well, but tact is not her forte.

  “I’ve got us covered, don’t worry,” she whispers over her shoulder. “I texted her this morning—just in case. I told her you weren’t feeling well and needed to keep away from everyone. She’s so afraid of getting sick that she’s the one who told me where we should sit.”

  “Do you ever miss a thing? I mean ever?”

  It’s not an exaggeration. Nia remembers stuff from when she was two, I swear. But she’s like a gremlin at times. She cannot have more than one drink—or any drinks, for that matter: they go right to her head. Not to mention she also has to eat every two hours, or she gets the worst case of hangry I’ve ever seen.

  My comment stops her. She spins around, with stick-straight hair floating and then resting perfectly to brush the tops of her shoulders as she smiles while pushing her glasses onto her nose, before continuing our trek toward our seat. I’m so envious, with my out-of-control curls that loathe straighteners, or hair dryers and brushes, for that matter. Ponytails are my usual MO, and a necessity as part of the cross-country team. I tell Nia it’s practical; she says it’s lazy. Well, she wakes up with hair like that, so I don’t even want to hear it. Plus, I do primp. A little blush and mascara are more than some people do in college, thank you very much—especially those of us rolling into a 9:00 a.m. second-year chemistry class.

  Staring at her bac
k, I should have noticed when she stopped, but nope; instead, I smash my nose right into her shoulder, causing her to drop the bag with a loud thud. Our indecisiveness took so long that all eyes and bodies turned to us when my best friend’s book-riddled bag crashed to the floor like a sack of rocks as Grady moved toward the podium.

  Sinister laughter unleashes and my body tenses. It’s Derrick and his buddy Chas. I don’t even need to look over to confirm. Instead, I catch Nia’s withering stare in a direction behind and below me before we take our seats with our eyes trained on the professor.

  “Don’t even give him a second to think he got to you. He’s going to fail this class without you now anyhow, so maybe he’ll just drop it eventually.”

  We both know that isn’t going to happen. Derrick’s one of the star soccer players. Coach Mac will get a harem of tutors to keep him eligible. I had just been convenient, and an idiot—a convenient idiot at that.

  Thankfully, Ida walks toward my ex and his toady, shutting them up for good. She could be part giant, I swear. She’s even taller than my six-five father and wider than some of the football players. As an exchange student from Germany, she’s working her ass off on multiple degrees, hoping to have no problems securing a job and work visa.

  Nia chuckles. “Chas is such a dimwit. I wish you could have seen the look on his face when Ida came over. He may have even peed himself.” We both allow ourselves a well-deserved chuckle before settling in for a long and difficult lecture by Professor Grady.

  I can’t help my wandering mind at times; it’s an insistent pondering as to why I let things get this bad with Derrick. It has been an ongoing debate between Nia and me. Why does love have to make us so blind and stupid? Having thought of myself as a smart and even-keeled girl, I never thought I’d find myself in an abusive relationship, but it happened. After finally reading the books on female empowerment sent my way by my aunt and joining a support group, I found a way to end it for good. I know I’m not alone on how easily it can happen. I am just feeling fortunate to have gotten out before some of the horrific things others shared in group became my reality. I touch my face mechanically and wince—well, almost lucky enough.

  My zoning-out moment ends abruptly thanks to Nia’s pencil jab in the arm.

  “Do not space out on covalent bonds, please. We need good notes for this chapter. The textbook is crap.”

  She is right, and reading ahead, as usual. I can’t wait for the rant about our textbook later. I think Nia’s plan is to take over the world of textbooks someday. She’s never met one she likes. Must suck to be smarter than the massive brains that came together to create the learning tool in the first place.

  “It’s okay. I’m on it. Don’t worry.” Someone stands up to my left, and I look up in time to see Shan leaving with his phone gripped tightly in his hand. It happens every so often, and I’ve spent time creating reasons for it while falling asleep mere yards away in my dorm room twin bed. Fantastical ideas lead me to concoct his life as a secret agent when he is called away on occasion for the safety of our country. My other thoughts weave a tale of him being a big brother, and when his sister needs him, he will drop anything for her in a heartbeat. Lastly, and the one I hope isn’t true, is that the caller is his girlfriend. No, Shan doesn’t seem the type to leave class over something as trivial as a needy girl. He’s a good student and balances lacrosse and school. No, he wouldn’t miss class for something that isn’t urgent. Well, whatever it is, I’ve seen him talk to Grady from time to time, and I can tell they have an understanding; Grady even seems sympathetic. I hope it isn’t something awful like an ailing parent. Even though I’ve never met his eyes, or spoken a word to him, I care about Shan and don’t give it a second thought as I track his exit, hoping he’ll return soon.

  “Ha, Derrick, yeah suck it. She doesn’t have eyes for you anymore,” Chas hollers out despite Ida’s previous warning. He may be Derrick’s toady, but he doesn’t miss a chance to rile him up—something that goes both ways.

  Shit, I can feel Derrick’s eyes burning into me without even seeing them for myself. He was always incredibly jealous, of everyone, which is complete crap since he’s the one who cheated in our relationship. What they’ve said in group is true: they tend to control and unleash jealousy because they know what they’ve done, and if cheating was—is—easy for them, it must be for us, right?

  Derrick doesn’t know that I know about his other girls. I don’t want to risk him hurting anyone else, though I think the girl who told me is already scared of him, but she didn’t want to keep it from me if it pushed me to leave him. Kim was her name, a first-year theater student. Her short red hair beautifully reflected off the moonlight at the soccer house. She was nearly shivering when she spoke to me.

  “Derrick and I slept together,” she said in a choked whisper while adjusting her collar and looking around.

  The small bruises, Derrick’s trademark, could be seen despite her best efforts. He called them love stamps, but that’s not what they are. He likes to inflict pain, to mark someone as his for all to see. It’s just another form of control with a stamp of violence.

  If this had been the first five times I’d heard about Derrick’s treachery, I would have felt hot tears burst away from my eyes at her words, but not this time.

  “Are you okay, Kim?”

  “Am I-I okay? How can you not be pissed?” she asked. “After he threatened me not to tell you, I could tell he was a total dick, and no one deserves a boyfriend like that.”

  “It’s not the first time, and if I don’t leave Derrick, it won’t be the last, so thank you for telling me.” I made a poignant look at her neck. “We’re both better off without him. You know that, right?”

  Kim was the one with the tears that time. Ones that flew away as she nodded vigorously.

  “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Those love marks on your neck are only the beginning, and they only lead to more pain.”

  I wish I had learned that sooner.

  Minutes tick by before I hear the creak of the door opening again, and the footfalls I’ve grown to memorize as Shan’s walk down the auditorium steps. I don’t stare this time, only seeing him out of the corner of my eyes. His green T-shirt, snug to his chest, and his amazing hair are all I need to see, for now. I had him in my bio class when we were freshmen last year, and I used to wonder what his room looked like and if I could somehow run into him at a party, but I never did. I met Derrick instead.

  I feel myself relax with him back, exhaling like I had been barely breathing since his exit. I know Derrick’s looking again, and I don’t care. Shan may not care or know that I exist, but he already helps me by just being around. People give off vibes, you know, and his are warm, strong, and caring. I’ve seen him help Tim with his wheelchair, Ida when she had difficulty pronouncing a word, and Jack when he falls asleep. At least he doesn’t smack him awake like I’ve seen Derrick do to Chas. God, I’m glad Derrick and I don’t have any other classes together.

  “Enough already.” Nia looks at me with squinting eyes.

  “Sorry, pencil problems.” More like mind problems. I’m barely even out of a relationship, a terrible one at that, and I’m pining over some guy in chem class. It’s so cliché. He doesn’t want—oh, what did Derrick call me each time I tried to leave him—damaged goods, baggage, a slut? Yes, all of those. I don’t even think I know how to be with someone. Derrick played so many games that my mind and my body are too confused to think of anyone touching a single part of me for a long time.

  Class ends and Nia snags my notes from the desktop. “These look good. I knew I didn’t need to worry.”

  I shake my head at her, knowing she was in fact worried the whole time. She’s a bit of a control freak with school, but that’s her thing. School is her life. Hey, we all have our things. Mine are running and reading. I get lost in my mind when doing either.

  “Let’s just wait till everyone’s gone. I doubt he’s going to sit out there till we come out.”
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  It hurts, deep in my chest. She saw things so clearly when I didn’t. Derrick was my first love, my first everything. I was so busy in high school, and overprotected by my parents, that I did not have time to think about boys. Seeing it now, it was all wrong.

  I don’t know how I missed Shan talking to Professor Grady and Ida as they walked up the steps toward the exit, but before I know it, Ida is calling out to me with the biggest I-am-so-sorry smile on her face. Whatever she’s just done, and with how well I know her, I know she has a good reason. I freeze in our row, not wanting to get too close for anyone to see the bruising on my face. Grady continues on, after she smiles and nods, while Ida and Shan look our way. My mouth goes crooked, as it does in every picture taken of me—I mean ever. Oh no, I must look like a crazy person standing back here, instead of moving forward, but I can’t will my legs to move.

  “Sorry to put you on the spot, April, but Professor Grady recommended that Shan borrow your notes from what he missed, seeing as you are the only ones here, and some of the best in the class, it has kind of just worked out that way, if you don’t mind.”

  Well, shit. What am I going to do now? Plastering on a big smile, I look to Nia, who fumbles around before jumping in to my rescue, moving in front of me in a clumsy and sad leapfrog-like maneuver.

  “Sure thing, Ida. I just need to borrow them for a little while, since I had a little trouble seeing some things back here, and then we can give them to, um, Shan is it?”

  Not being able to stop myself, I look up directly at my crush. And there it is, the first locked-eyes moment between me and my object of affection from afar, Shan. A charming smile plays at his lips as he takes me in, being a gentleman, not tilting his head or moving his eyes much to look me up and down. I can still feel him on every part of me just the same. And then he stops, his smile leaves, and I can see his pupils dilate even from where I stand. He’s seen it. I know he has, and he looks angry—or wait, is that disappointment? Whatever it is, he says something quickly to Ida before walking away. Away from me, away from my pathetic-looking face, the one that put up with Derrick’s crap for way too long. I am damaged, and Shan isn’t having any part of it, or me.