But this guy standing in front of me was breathtaking…….I could not tear my eyes away from him…..

I heard a small laugh escape from his beautiful mouth and noticed he was still holding onto my shoulders. I snapped out of yet another daze.

He smiled down at me and at that moment everything sounded muffled. I barely heard Jefferson yelling at Ryan, or Mr. Watson screaming and asking Jefferson why he was on campus and to let Ryan go. I only saw the most magnificent smile looking down at me.  My whole body felt weak and I had to really think about breathing. I managed to look around him to see what was going on with Jefferson.

He gave my shoulders a small squeeze and a moment later he turned and grabbed Jefferson off of Ryan.

“Jeff, take it easy man. Calm the hell down dude; he’s not worth going to jail for!” He said in a soft and calm voice.

Yep, I had never heard a voice so sweet in my life. Can your body physically melt from a voice? What the hell was going on with me?

“I’m going to kill that fucker if he hurt her in anyway Gunner, I.Will.Kill.Him!” Jefferson shouted as he looked at Ryan.

So, this was Gunner huh? My brothers best friend from college. Jefferson talked about Gunner all the time but I had yet to meet him. I had seen him plenty of times on the football field though. They played football together for UT and were both majoring in Architectural Engineering.

Gunner let out a laugh that moved through my whole body like a warm blanket. What was happening to me??? I just stood there staring, I could not move. What was it about this guy that had my insides just melting? I mean I just saw my boyfriend screwing someone else and I was NEVER…let me repeat myself…I was NEVER going to fall in love again. All men were pure scum. Evil bastards that just wanted to get one thing from you. SEX. Let them know you are a virgin and I guess they will invest months of their lives to say that they took that away from you.

Bastards……

I looked at Gunner again. There was something about him. I was shocked by my immediate intense feelings for him especially after what had just happened. I looked his body up and down as I licked my lips after my mouth went dry in an instant. I tried to tear my eyes away from him but couldn't. He was built just a bit bigger than Jefferson. He had brown hair that had that perfect messy look only a guy this hot could pull off. I looked up to his eyes…. holy shit…those beautiful blue eyes. I could see myself getting so lost in those eyes. I dragged my eyes down away from his face and they went right to his large muscular chest. He had a tattoo, YUM. I could see part of it on his arm, just sticking out from under his tight white tee shirt. You could almost see his black tribal tattoo under his shirt if you looked hard enough and I sure as hell was looking hard. It appeared to start on his chest and moved up his shoulder and back down onto his arm. What I wouldn’t do to get a peek of that and run my fingers along…….

OKAY! Wait….. Hold the fucking fort Ellie! Good god what am I doing? I had to shake my head to clear my thoughts. I was practically undressing my brother’s best friend in my mind.

No! I will never let myself be hurt again by another man. My mother was right; no one would ever want me and Ryan was proof of that. I was never going to let another man into my life to hurt me ever again.

Just then I was brought back to the real world by Ari asking me to let her see my hand. When she got there I have no clue.

“OH FUCK….. ELLS! Jeff! We need to get Ellie to the hospital like RIGHT NOW!” Ari was screaming trying to get Jefferson’s attention.

“Dude listen to me, your sister is hurt. We need to get her to the doctor. Don’t worry about this fuck wad Jeff. We can take care of him later” Gunner said as he gave Ryan a look that oozed out hate and disgust. If I had not known better I would have thought he wanted to kill Ryan more than Jefferson did.

Jefferson’s body relaxed in an instant. I have never seen anyone calm my brother down that fast. Jefferson walked over to Ryan and leaned in close enough so that Mr. Watson did not hear but I sure as hell heard it.

“I will be back for you bastard.”Jefferson hissed.

“Let’s go Jeff” Gunner said as he guided Jefferson away from what Ari was now calling ‘the crime scene’.

We started to walk down the hall to go outside when Ari started her famous rattling ways.

“They are for sure not going to let you walk now Ells…oh my god, what the hell were you thinking hitting him and doing it right here in school in FRONT of everyone?? I mean I know you are third in the class but they might not let you walk!!! I can’t be up there giving a speech knowing my best friend is not going to be walking with me on the same stage! Have I not taught you a damn thing?! I mean, you needed to wait…..”

“Arianna! Please, shut the fuck up will you?” Jefferson shouted.

Even though my hand was so swollen and hurt like hell, I had to giggle. Jefferson and Ari had a love/hate relationship. Ari loved Jefferson and Jefferson seemed to hate Ari. It was not always like that though.

When I was ten years old Ari became my best friend in school after she moved from Dallas to Austin. Jefferson was thirteen and used play with us and tease the shit out of Ari. Then something changed when we were in ninth grade and he was a senior. He would barely look at Ari. He never wanted to be around her and that made life a bit difficult for me. I know he cares for her like a sister though. When Brad Roberts bragged that he was going to take Ari out to her parent’s lake house one weekend and take her virginity, Jefferson found out about it and beat the shit out of Brad. Ari of course took that has a sign of his undying love for her.

I took it as he was protecting his little sister’s best friend because Jefferson just does things like that. That is why I needed him so much and would be lost without him.

Ari and Jefferson continued to bicker back and forth all the way out to Jefferson’s truck, I just tuned them out because my hand was hurting so much otherwise I would have been annoyed with their bickering.

Jefferson helped me up into the back seat of his Ford F250 . Gunner ran up behind him and handed me a bag full of ice. HUH? Where and when did he get that?

“Thank you ah, um, Gunner.” I stuttered out.

Jesus what was wrong with me? I could not even talk right. Why did he give me such weird feelings? Just when I thought it could not get any worse he smiled at me.

Fuck me….those beautiful sky blue eyes and perfect white straight teeth to round out the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.

“No problem Ellie. Try to keep it up above your heart sweetheart and here, take these Advil.” He handed me Advil and water.

Gulp, I could not even speak. Ari leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Breathe Ells, Breathe.” I sucked in a long breath and managed to thank him for the ice, bottle water and Advil.

“Hey, I’m Ari by the way, Ellie’s best friend.” Ari said.

Gunner gave her the sweetest smile then leaned in a bit closer to me.

“Let’s get you to the doctor, what do you say?” Gunner whispered against my ear. The feel of his hot breath against my face caused my body to start to shake.

“Ahhh, yep okay, doctor sounds good, yep let’s go, let’s roll, let’s do this thing.”

Okay why was my mouth still talking when clearly my brain had checked out the moment he smiled at me? He shut the door and jumped into the front passenger seat. Jefferson started his truck and of course, Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah” started up. I swear to God if I had to hear that song one more time I was going to hurl.

I looked over to Ari who had a shit eating grin on her face. She leaned over and said low enough to where only I would hear her. “Okay that boy wants in your panties!!!”