Romance: The Campus Player: A College Romance

by Caroline Lake

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  The Campus Player

  The Campus Bad Boy

  The Billionaire’s Choice

  The Billionaire’s Girl

  The Art of Love

  The Executive’s Baby

  The Bad Boy’s Baby

  Moving West

  Escaping Europe

  Mated

  Taken Bare

  Fly with Me

  Kiraz

  The King’s Brother

  Hostage

  Rowdy

  Love is Blind

  Taken by the Unknown

  The Campus Player

  A College Love Triangle Romance

  Caroline Lake

  The Campus Player

  Copyright 2016 by Caroline Lake

  First electronic publication: January 2017

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to person, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: Due to mature subject matter, such as explicit sexual situations and coarse language, this story is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older, and all acts of a sexual nature are consensual.

  The Campus Player

  Prologue

  Lucas Sawyer spent most of the evening not thinking about Ella Scott. In other words, Lucas Sawyer spent most of the evening trying not to think of Ella Scott. He actually did spend around thirty minutes not thinking of Ella before she came into his vision and his resolve crashed there and then.

  Lucas was tall with dark black hair, which-much like himself-never seemed to cooperate. He was handsome, with a strong jaw and a long, straight nose. He had an easy smile, a crooked grin and an air of arrogance around him though deep in his heart, he was a good person. His tall demeanor was perfect for a basketball player. He had been elected captain while he was a freshman; something that had never happened before in the history of the university. He was also an eloquent writer. His articulate talent for writing combined with his passion for basketball was what made him so alluring to women. That, coupled with his good looks and distant conduct made them swoon over him.

  Lucas watched as Ella walked hand in hand with Patrick, their backs retreating as they walked away from where he stood. Ella’s blonde hair swung as she walked. She seemed to be in an intense conversation with her boyfriend. This was the first time he was seeing her in two months. He had been away on a holiday with his family and had barely had any contact with her during the holidays. His gaze lingered on her for a moment. Lucas turned away as he brought the cigarette to his lips. Inhaling deeply, he allowed the smoke to engulf him. Instantly feeling better, Lucas started to head towards the ground where he knew his best friend Adam would be waiting.

  Meanwhile, Ella Scott wished she was anywhere but where she currently was.

  “I love you,” Patrick had said, only minutes earlier, shattering their perfect moment. They were sharing a fantastic kiss before Patrick had pulled away and decided to confess his love for her.

  Love. Love was great. Love was fantastic. She certainly liked Patrick a great deal. He was gentle and unassuming. She liked the way his hands rested on her hips when he kissed her. She liked how he had been extremely respectful in front of her parents when they met him in the summer. He was absolutely gorgeous, with smooth brown hair, tender brown eyes and a charming smile that was never used with bad intentions.

  She liked Patrick.

  She loved someone else (though she did not know it yet).

  Ella sighed. “I can’t say that back,” she told him. Patrick had guessed that much when he saw the confusion in her eyes during the thirty seconds between his confession and her reply. “I mean,” Ella pressed on. “You know how I am. I can’t say that back until I’m sure I absolutely mean it. I like you, Patrick and I care about you a lot but until I truly, completely, unconditionally meant it—”

  “I understand,” her boyfriend smiled down at her though he looked dejected.

  “We’ve only been together a month,” Ella tried to explain again.

  “I know. I was just telling you how I feel. I wasn’t expecting a reciprocal, Ella.”

  He kissed the top of her forehead and started to walk again, pulling Ella along. She noticed how quickly he had brushed off the disappointment and moved on. Adding that to his list of admirable qualities, Ella continued to walk with him.

  Ella Scott didn’t care much for drama. In fact, she cared so little that she would barely know of any taking place around her had it not been for her best friend Mary Shields, who, contrary to Ella, lived for gossip and drama. Ella’s first instinct was always to roll her eyes and consider it to be childish when people talked about drama as if it was the next NASA discovery of life on Mars. And that is precisely what she did when she walked through the corridors of the Astronomy department of her college and heard of the latest scandal of some poor guy and girl who had no idea they were going to become the topic of discussion the next morning. Patrick had gone off for his classes, leaving Ella to attend to her own.

  Meanwhile, Mary Shields had her arms around Stebbins’ neck as they shared a kiss. They had found themselves in a small bathroom in the early hours of the day. Stebbins had accidently turned the tap on a few times and Mary’s panties seemed to be missing but other than that, the experience was well worth a few bruises. Stebbins grinned at her as he fiddled with his belt. Mary sat on the sink, feeling light headed and blissful. It was only the first day of classes and she was already missing them in favor of having sex with her boyfriend (was he even really her boyfriend?). All promises of ditching boys in favor of studying had been forgotten this morning. But Mary still believed she could stay on track. Smiling happily, she exited the bathroom alone (Stebbins had exited a few moments earlier) and headed for her first class.

  Chapter 1

  “Luke!” Ella called out. Lucas, who was leaning on the pillar as he watched Adam and the rest of the team play, turned around at the sound. Ella was jogging towards him. He felt himself cheer up against his will as he watched her approach. “Luke!” she said again before throwing her arms around him. Lucas laughed at her enthusiasm as she hugged him tightly. Her soft blonde hair brushed against his cheeks and he noticed that they smelled of rosewater. His arms wrapped around her waist.

  “Whoa, missed me?” he asked her.

  “Was positively lost,” Ella said as she released him. As she stepped back, he finally got a good look at her.

  Ella Scott had straight, blonde hair that fell to her waist. She had a pretty face with brown eyes and a golden nose ring which went nicely with her facial structure. She was almost as tall as Lucas. She had pulled back her hair with a black hairband which matched with her black outfit. Ella wore black a lot; in fact, sometimes it seemed as if her whole closet consisted of black items and nothing else.

  “I haven’t seen you in two months. You need to tell me all about Italy,” Ella said.

  “Eh, there isn’t much to tell.”

  “Oh come on!” Ella’s eyes were twinkling. “I’m sure there are a few stories. I’ve heard Italian women are very pretty.” She r
aised her eyebrows meaningfully.

  Lucas laughed.

  “I saw you earlier,” he said, changing the topic.

  “You saw me and you didn’t come up to meet me? Even though we haven’t met in two months?” Ella feigned anger. “Is this what our friendship has been reduced to?”

  “You were with Prince Charming,” Lucas replied. Prince Charming was the name he had come up with for Patrick out of bitterness at first, but now it had become somewhat of a private joke between the two. Patrick was the old fashioned, gentlemanly type who was literally the Prince Charming of any girl he dated.

  Ella rolled her eyes. “Prince Charming dropped a bomb on me today.”

  “How amusing. What was it?”

  “He said he loved me.”

  Lucas’s heart skipped a beat but he tried to tell himself he doesn’t care anymore. “Good for him,” he replied, without a hint of anything he felt.

  “I didn’t say it back though,” Ella continued. “I couldn’t say it back.”

  “What did you say, then?”

  “I told him I can’t say it back.”

  Lucas smiled inwardly at that. It was such an Ella thing to do. Some girls would feel pressurized to say it back and end up lying. Others would not respond. Ella would answer and tell him she can’t say it back. Lucas also felt a vicious happiness at that. Ella didn’t love him. That should mean something good for Lucas.

  Lucas Sawyer and Ella Scott had been friends since high school. It didn’t start off too smoothly which was partly because of Lucas’s extreme arrogance and his belief in his undeniable charm. Lucas Sawyer was as popular as any teenage boy can hope to be. He was every girl’s dream; basketball player, poet and the son of a big business tycoon. Lucas relished in the attention and admiration he received. So naturally, Lucas felt as if he was going to get any girl he set his mind on. In his haughty teenager phase, Lucas had asked Ella out multiple times. Normally, her harsh replies always amused him since he was convinced that no girl would want to deny Lucas Sawyer and that she was only playing hard to get. It became more of a game to Lucas: How to get Ella Scott to say yes to him. He was obsessed with playing this game. It was only later that he realized somewhere along all the games, the intense but interesting arguments with her and the rare, calmer moments when they weren’t arguing, he had fallen for Ella. He didn’t tell her, though. Once he stopped asking her out at every opportunity he had and deflated his ego a little, which happened in the summer after high school, Ella and Lucas developed a close friendship. As fate would have it, they even ended up at the same college.

  Adam jogged to where Ella and Lucas were continuing their playful banter.

  “Ella Scott,” he greeted.

  “Adam,” Ella sang giving him a one armed hug. “Why haven’t I seen you all summer?”

  “I can ask you the same question.”

  Adam looked around at the stands which had a few onlookers watching. Most of them were girls whose only interest in the game was Adam. He seemed to be enjoying that greatly. Adam Murdoch was handsome, to say the least. He was like the hero of several clichéd romance movies. Careless, trouble maker and mysterious, Adam Murdoch was the most popular one from the two friends. He had probably kissed every girl he had ever known at some point in his life and his idea of female friendships was physical more than anything else. His dark hair fell into his eyes and his tall frame had just the right amount of muscles and build.

  Ella left the boys on the basketball court as she headed back to her apartment but was met with Mary at the exit.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” Mary told her. “Should have guessed you were with Lucas.”

  “Came to say hi.”

  “Lucas had grown even more handsome after the summer.”

  “You’re not allowed to sleep with Lucas, Mary,” Ella said sternly. “He’s one of my best friends and that would just ruin everything.”

  Mary rolled her eyes. “If I had a ‘best friend’ half as good looking as Lucas, I would be sleeping with him right now.”

  Ella shook her head.

  Mary Shields was the duller of the two when it came to intellect. As far as looks were concerned, Mary Shields was superior to Ella by far. She was petite, curvy and had lush black hair which fell to her shoulders. In some manners, she was like Adam; they both enjoyed the attention of the opposite gender and in fact, relished in that attention. The girls were as different as could be but they had been best friends since middle school. While Ella’s interest lay in arts and books, Mary was into dramatics and that was what she was majoring in at college. Ella was the one unofficially in charge of keeping Mary in line.

  “I’m getting tired of Stebbins, El,” Mary complained. “Tell me how to get rid of him.”

  “The same way you got rid of the previous hundred men,” Ella suggested.

  “It’s different with Stebbins. He’s actually nice. The rest of them were all jerks.”

  “Well, just tell him you’re not interested anymore.”

  Ella had spent more afternoons than she would like to admit drawing up strategies with Mary on how best to ditch the latest of Mary’s experiments.

  “Maybe Adam can help you out,” Ella said sarcastically.

  “That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Mary mused.

  “Two idiots getting together to figure out how to get rid of people you invited into your beds willingly. How adorable.”

  Mary rolled her eyes.

  Chapter 2

  Lucas was trying to focus on the books in front of him but the fruitlessness of his attempts was frustrating him to the point of slamming his book shut at any minute. Giving in to the instincts, he did exactly just that before heading out of the library for a smoke. Despite being a writing major, Lucas had lost track of all the times he completely went blank when he had to write an important story for one of his classes.

  Walking down the corridor, Lucas thought he heard some commotion at the end. Since he was never one to mind his own business, he went to investigate.

  “Stebbins, I told you no…” The voice grew more and more familiar as Lucas approached closer. He recognized it as Mary Shields’ voice though he had never interacted with her much except for when she was with Ella.

  “You don’t always get to call the shots,” a male voice, rougher than Mary’s, answered back.

  “Stebbins, I’m done with this.”

  Lucas peered over the door into the small classroom at the end of the corridor. Mary was leaning against the white board while Stebbins stood in front of her.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Stebbins took a step towards her. “You whore.”

  Mary blinked. Straightening up, she made to walk away but Stebbins grabbed her roughly and pushed her back against the door.

  “You’ve practically slept with the whole university but I still gave you a chance. And this is how you repay me,” Stebbins was standing dangerously close to her now. Mary looked back at him, her expression completely blank.

  “Let go of my arm, Stebbins,” she said calmly.

  Stebbins’ grip on her arm may have tightened because of the cry Mary let out before Stebbins crashed his lips onto hers. Mary struggled but it was useless; Stebbins was much larger and stronger than her. His hand painfully pulled her hair back.

  Lucas had seen enough. He opened the door noisily to announce his presence. Stebbins didn’t seem to realize someone had entered and Mary was too busy struggling with him. Lucas reached them and roughly pulled Stebbins off her. Losing his balance, Stebbins almost fell as he staggered backwards, glaring at the intruder.

  “What the fuck?” His face had turned red with anger as he stared at Lucas.

  “It’s not nice to force yourself upon a lady.” Lucas’s voice was so deadly that Stebbins seemed to recoil for a minute before regaining his composure.

  “I wasn’t forcing myself upon the whore. And even if I was, it’s none of your business.” Stebbins took a step towards Mary again.

&nb
sp; “Don’t use that word again,” Lucas said lazily as he stepped in front of Mary. She seemed too shocked to be able to say anything and she was staring at Stebbins as if seeing him for the first time. Stebbins weighed his options. Lucas was much taller and much bigger than him. It would be best not to pick a fight with him. Shaking his head and cursing under his breath, Stebbins walked out of the room, banging the door shut.

  Lucas turned to Mary who seemed like she was in a trance.

  “Are you alright?”

  “He… he—” Words seemed to fail her as she touched the hair where he had pulled. “How dare he?” she finally finished. “I dated him despite everything. I’m Mary Shields. I can have anyone but I- I chose him? And he had the audacity to-” She seemed to be talking more to herself at this point. Lucas looked worried. “Do you want me to call Ella?” he offered.

  “No,” Mary said. She shook her head as if clearing her head of a mist. “No, no, no. Let me digest this first.”

  Suddenly, tears sprang to her eyes and she begun to sob. Lucas moved closer awkwardly and patted her on the shoulder.

  “How did you even end up dating an asshole like Stebbins?” Lucas asked in an attempt to distract her.

  Mary wiped away the last of her tears and smiled weakly.

  “Um,” Lucas tried to think of something to say. “Let me buy you coffee. And then you can tell me how things even got this far.”

  Mary seemed visibly cheered at that. “Alright,” she agreed.

  Minutes later, they were seated in a cozy, street side café with large cups of hot chocolate in front of them.

  “It’s strange how we’ve never actually had a real conversation,” Mary was saying. “I mean you’ve been friends with Ella for years and I’m her best friend. I should know you.”

  “If you aren’t busy trying to get rid of admirers, maybe we could have met properly.”

  “I can say the same for you,” Mary replied humorously.

  “That’s not true. I never chase off admirers. I welcome them.”