“Sam,” I growled as I walked up and wrapped my arms around Aubrey.

He looked at me sheepishly, knowing that he’d just been caught staring at my girlfriend’s boobs. “Hey, Luka.”

“You mind if I steal Aubrey away?” I asked, not really giving a shit what his answer was. “Or did you need more time with my girlfriend?”

“Luka,” she sighed and turned in my embrace to look up at me. “We had a pop quiz today and Sam and I were just comparing answers to see if we could figure out if we did well or not.”

That might be what she had been doing, but Sam had been buying time so he could enjoy the view. He was a dog and always had been. He’d gotten into enough fights with boyfriends during the years we’d been playing hockey together that I knew he couldn’t care less if a girl was taken or not. If he wanted to get his dick wet, he went for it no matter what. And I didn’t trust that he cared if the girl’s boyfriend was one of his own teammates or not.

“I’m sure you did great, moya printsessa,” I reassured her as I gave Sam a curt nod and led Aubrey away. Thank fuck it was her last class of the day and I didn’t have practice tonight.

“Then why were you a jerk to Sam?” she asked as we walked to my car. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong, Luka.”

I stopped for a moment and looked down at her. “Trust me. He knew exactly why I was acting pissed off and what he was doing to cause it.”

She rolled her eyes at me and stomped across the parking lot to stand by the passenger’s side door of my car. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest and her foot was tapping out an irritated rhythm on the ground. I opened the door for her and she hopped in without saying a word.

We rode to my apartment building in complete silence, and I figured she was just trying to decide out how she wanted to respond. Then she still didn’t say anything in the elevator. Or as she dumped her backpack on the kitchen table before she stomped into my room and slammed the door.

“Fuck, bro. You’re in the doghouse again?” Jason asked. He was sitting on the couch and a grin on his face like he enjoyed watching me get into trouble with Aubrey.

“Sam’s in her Econ class and was chatting her up when I got there,” I muttered.

“Dude, you don’t think he was hitting on your girl. Do you?” Jason wondered aloud. “I mean, Sam will chase just about anything in a skirt, but even he’s got to know you would literally kill him if he touched her.”

“I don’t know. And I don’t really care because he shouldn’t be alone with her anyway,” I growled before stalking towards my bedroom.

“And here we go with the caveman shit again,” I heard Jason say as I closed the door behind me.

Aubrey was lying down on the bed with a pillow over her head.

“I don’t like when you’re alone with other guys,” I started, but I didn’t get very far because she threw the pillow at me.

“Luka, we weren’t alone,” she argued. “I was standing in a public building on a college campus outside a classroom where anybody could walk by. Hell, you walked by and I knew you were going to because I knew you were coming to get me. How in the hell could that count as being alone with a guy?”

I contemplated her words for a moment. “Yeah, I get that you weren’t alone alone with him, but you were talking to him by yourself and he was looking down your fucking shirt to stare at your boobs.”

“He was not!” she gasped. “I would have noticed him doing that.”

“Alexa, trust me. He was absolutely looking down your shirt and I busted him for it,” I insisted.

“But…” she sputtered. “He’s your teammate. And your friend. He wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Yes, he’s my teammate and supposedly my friend, but that doesn’t mean he can be trusted around you,” I argued. “So how about we make a deal that you don’t have any private conversations by yourself with other guys? Save it for when I’m there with you.”

She looked outraged at the suggestion. “Are you honestly sitting there, telling me that I can’t talk to another guy by myself?”

“I just want you to be safe. That’s all,” I reassured her. “There are a lot of assholes out there who see how beautiful you are on the outside and want that for themselves.”

“And I’m a big girl and can tell them no if some guy ever tries anything like that,” she retorted. “I’ve turned guys down plenty of times before.”