Stealing Harper (8 page)

She worried her bottom lip and shifted her weight a few times before looking up at me from under those impossibly long lashes, “Is it okay with you that I’m here?”

I hopped off the barstool and pulled her close to me, and she swayed into my chest. “It’s more than okay, Princess.” I leaned down to whisper in her ear and felt her shiver against me. “I’ll always want you here with me.”

Harper inhaled sharply, and her hands flew up to my stomach to push me back, but I held her close. “Chase, please. I need you”—her head dropped so that her forehead was resting against my chest to look at her hands, which were now curling against my abs—“um, I need you to uh, please . . . just let go of me.”

“One day, Princess,”—
please
God let me be right about this
—“one day.” I released her and sat back on the barstool. She took a few calming breaths and gave me one more glance before sitting on a barstool two down from me.

The rest of the day passed way too quickly. Harper became comfortable with my parents before breakfast was finished being made, and not long after she was done trying to avoid looking at me and staying away. By the time breakfast was over, she wasn’t leaving my side, and I definitely wasn’t complaining. We had a lazy day of just sitting around watching TV, and I couldn’t hold back my perpetual smile when she sat down on the couch with me, or an hour later, when she started to stretch out and I pulled her feet into my lap and she didn’t move them back. Instead, she just nudged my stomach with her foot and gave me a small smile before looking back at the TV. To me, this was perfect, and I never wanted it to end.

B
RANDON S
HUFFLED INTO
the kitchen the next morning, and I smiled to myself, knowing that Harper was alone in her bed in the dorm.

“Morning.”

He grunted and grabbed a coffee mug, “Whoever made 8:00
A.M
. classes on Monday was seriously disturbed.”

My brow furrowed, and I looked back at the microwave clock. “Bro, hate to break it to ya, but it’s almost eleven.”

“I know, I just got back from it. Doesn’t mean I’m actually awake yet.”

“Nice. Guess it’s a good thing Harper wasn’t here to keep you up all night then.”

“I’m not gonna talk to you about her.” He sighed and finished pouring the coffee.

“Don’t need you to now that I’ll have her all to myself on Sundays. Yesterday was . . . perfect.” Okay, yeah, I was laying it on thick. The day really had been perfect, but not like I was making it out to be.

“Chase, I’m serious brother, don’t—”

“You really should see the way she lets go when you’re gone.”

He put the coffee mug down hard enough that some of the liquid sloshed over the side, and he gripped the edge of the counter, “What is your deal? What do you gain from pissing me off?”

“Other than Princess underneath me when you’re not around? Not a damn thing.”

“You son of a bitch! If you ever touch her, I will kill you. Do you get me?”

“Little late for that one.” I watched as he tried to control his anger. “Does she moan that loud when she’s with you, too?”

“Are you serious right now?” he roared, and slammed a fist down on the counter.

I shrugged and began walking out of the kitchen. “I’ll take that as a no.” He was breathing heavily and obviously trying to talk himself out of this fight, but I needed it.
I still hate
that he has
her, and I
need
the reminder that I never will.
“Looks like you’re underperforming, brother. Better step your game up before she stays in my bed for good. ’Cause those moans and little noises she makes? God . . . sweetest fuckin’ thing you’ve ever heard.”

Brandon was already rounding the island before I’d finished with the last sentence, but this time I was ready for him. He was a skilled fighter, yeah. But this wasn’t the ring he was used to, this was over a girl I knew he had fallen in love with just as much as I had; so he wasn’t thinking strategy. He just wanted to hit something. And that’s exactly what I’d been hoping for. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and slammed me up against the wall. I’d been expecting a blow to the head, but he smashed his fist against the wall near my head instead.

“I will end you if you touch her! Stay the hell away, Chase!”

I waited until he took a step back before landing one on his jaw. Payback. “Sorry, no can do.”

He slowly looked back up at me, worked his jaw a couple times, and spit blood in my face. “You can, and you will. She’s mine. I’m not doing this with you; you’re like a brother to me.” Brandon took a step back and shook his head before turning toward his hallway.

“No wonder she comes running for my bed. Obviously, you can’t finish what you start.”

He froze midstep and stayed like that for a couple seconds before turning and charging at me. He plowed into me, and I felt like all the air was knocked out of me from having him land on top of me. Before I could take a deep enough breath, he rolled off and punched me hard in the stomach.

“Stay. Away. From Harper!”

“Not my fault—” I wheezed and tried to take a deep breath—“you can’t make her—scream your name.”

Just as Brandon leaned back to deliver another punch, arms were around him and pulling him back. He turned and kicked my side as Derek and Drew pulled him away. “We are done! You hear me?”

I struggled up and winced at the pain in my stomach.
God, these guys really need
to quit stopping the fights.
Brandon ripped his arms from the guys and scrambled up quickly before Zach was there, helping the first two keep him back, and Brad was in my face, pushing me toward my hall.

“You’re such an ass, Chase. Why can’t you just leave him alone?”

“Because he’s with my entire world.”

Chapter Six

“W
HAT ARE YOU
working on today?” Princess leaned over the back of the couch to look at my sketchpad.

I flipped it onto my stomach so the drawings were covered and turned to smile at her; her face was so close to mine, I could smell the mint from her gum, and it took everything in me not to lean in and taste her.

“Hey now! That’s not nice. Is this one top secret?”

“Maybe, or maybe I just don’t want you looking at my drawings.” Not true, the way her face had lit up as she spent time going over every single one of my pieces from the sketchbooks I had at my parents’ had made me fall in love with her that much more.

How she hadn’t figured out I was a tattoo artist yet made me laugh at the time, but I was glad I got to see her reaction, glad that she was fascinated rather than disgusted. I wasn’t bringing in money like Brandon, and while I loved what I did, I know some people looked down on it. Instead, the biggest smile I’ve ever seen crossed her face, and her stormy eyes got even wider when I brought down the sketchpads, and she’d spent hours going through them.

“Seriously? Rude.” Her fingers came up to just behind my collarbone, and I swiftly moved from under her hands and knelt on the couch so I was facing her and pressing her hands down into the cushion.

“Now
that’s
not nice. Your pressure-point training isn’t fair.”

“It’s perfectly fair! It’s the only way I can win at anything around you guys! All any of you have to do is pick me up, and it’s over.”

I raised an eyebrow at her seconds before I let go of her hands, grabbed her waist, and hauled her over the couch. She gasped, and I could tell she was getting ready to let me have it. Those hands of hers went up to hit another point I’m sure, but I let my body stretch out on top of hers, and her mouth snapped shut, her hands stilled on my chest. I leaned in close to whisper not even an inch above her lips. “Good girl. Now, if you’re done trying to hurt me, I’m gonna go back to what I’m working on.”

She nodded, and I sat up and prayed she didn’t notice my hard-on. I picked the sketchpad up off the floor and got comfortable. Harper stood up, but I grabbed her hand and brought her ass right back next to mine, keeping my eyes fixed on the pad of paper on my lap.

“I said I was going back to what I was working on, not that I was ready for you to leave my side.”

“Chase, I’m just going to—”

“Sit here with me.”

Even though I was still grabbing one of her hands, the other came up to our joined hands, and she started nervously playing with her fingers. “So it’s okay if I watch you?”

I finally looked up into her wide gray eyes, and said softly, “ ‘Okay’ is an understatement. Please don’t leave.”

Her only response was to remove her hand from mine, bring her legs up onto the couch, and rest her chin on her knees as her gaze went to the pad of paper. They widened even more, and her face lit up. God, I seriously loved her reactions to my work.

Bree walked in as soon as I started back drawing, and I was glad she hadn’t come in while I was lying on top of Harper. I could only imagine how that would have gone over. “We’re having a movie day since it’s all stormy outside. Any requests?”

Princess shook her head as she studied the latest piece, and I smiled. “Whatever you pick is fine, I’ll be working.”

Mom and Dad walked in with bowls of popcorn, and the three of them went about deciding what to watch first. Harper’s eyes never left the paper; I’d have to draw something for her one of these days.

Harper fell asleep just minutes into the second movie, and I knew I should get down on the floor so she could lie down, but having her right next to me for the last couple hours had been more than perfect, and I only got her for one day out of the week; I wasn’t about to give that up. I grabbed the pillow next to me and put it on my left leg before gently pulling her down. She went easily and immediately curled up against me. Her arms and legs were covered in goose bumps, so I took the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over her. She grabbed at it subconsciously and pulled it tighter around her before stretching out and drifting back off. She looked so beautiful when she slept, and I wished I hadn’t wasted time that first night with her, I wish I had woken up so I could watch her just like this. I could spend every early morning for the rest of my life watching her sleep, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

One of her hands came out from under the blanket to grip the pillow, and the blanket slid down to just under her perfect breasts. I almost covered her back up since I knew she’d been cold, but I let my gaze travel up her throat to her face; her mouth was barely open, those incredibly long eyelashes I loved were resting against her cheeks, and her long hair was falling wildly around her face, shoulders, and chest. I knew I’d never forget this moment, but I never wanted to forget exactly how she looked that very second. I flipped the page on my sketchpad and took a deep breath before starting to replicate everything that was my princess. I just hoped she didn’t wake up and freak out about this.

The movie was almost over by the time I was finishing and a loud explosion caused Harper to jerk awake.

“It’s just the movie,” I said low to reassure her, and let my fingers trail across her cheek. “Don’t move yet, Princess.”

“Don’t move? Why?”

“I’m almost done; give me another minute or two.”

She stilled but thankfully didn’t ask any more questions. I finished up the drawing and slid out from under the pillow to kneel on the ground in front of her. Her breath caught and her eyes heated and I couldn’t help but look down to that perfect lip that I’d just spent time re-creating. I wanted to kiss her so freakin’ bad; this beautiful girl had no idea what she did to me. It was no longer a matter of just wanting to kiss her, I needed to kiss her, needed to know exactly how those lips would feel against mine.

“Why couldn’t I move?”

Her words broke through, and I stopped my advance on her, “Oh, um. Well . . . here. Just don’t freak out, okay? I wasn’t trying to be creepy.”

“You’re not supposed to tell someone not to freak out—those words alone cause them to freak out.”

“Okay, well then don’t hit me or use your pressure-point training on me again.” I took a deep breath and held the sketchpad in front of her and watched as her cheeks went bright red, and her mouth popped open. “Shit”—I took it away and wondered how I could have thought it would be a good idea to show her that—“I knew it was creepy.”

“Chase, that wasn’t creepy. Can I see it again?”

Um. Hell. No.

Her wide eyes held mine and pleaded with me. “Please.”

Okay, now that look definitely wasn’t fair. I would give her anything she asked for if she looked at me like that. I gave her the paper and tried to smile, but I was still freaking out over being a freakin’ creep and drawing her while she slept. “I’m sorry, but you looked too perfect. I couldn’t let that opportunity pass.”

Her cheeks went red again, but I forced myself not to take it away as she spent minutes that felt like hours going over the drawing. “Chase, it”—she cleared her throat and shook her head slightly—“it’s incredible.”

“Yeah?” I wasn’t sure if she was saying that to make me feel better, but the way she looked up at me and smiled the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen come from her pushed the last of the worries aside.

“Yeah.”

Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine, and like she suddenly realized how close we were, they went down to my mouth, and I heard her next intake of breath. When she looked back up into my eyes, I could see the indecision in hers and wanted to beg her to choose me. I don’t know who started leaning toward the other first, but just then a string of explosions sounded from the TV, and we both jerked away from each other. I looked back up at the TV, then over to my parents and Bree; I’d completely forgotten where we were and who we were with. My mom was smiling widely and trying to keep her eyes off us, and I exhaled loudly as I looked back over at my princess.

“I um, I have to . . . I’m gonna go get some water.”

I shook my head and pushed her back onto the couch. “I’ll get it, Princess, just stay there.” By the time I got back into the living room, she was on the large chair with Bree, and I wondered if I’d just hurt any chance with her again. “I gotta go in to work; see you guys later.” Handing the glass to Harper, I squeezed Bree’s shoulder, then went to kiss Mom on the cheek.

“Chase, don’t leave; everything will be okay,” she whispered softly.

“I can’t be around her right now, Mom. See you later.”

I drove home to waste time before going in to the shop and regretted it as soon as I walked in. All the guys were sitting around the couches eating and watching the game; Drew was the first to speak up.

“Holy shit. I think I’m starting to forget what you look like.”

“Funny. Who’s winning?”

“Oh man, Chase!” Zach said, and held a fist up while he tried to swallow whatever he was eating. “You missed a
hilarious
party on Friday. You know that Carter kid? Princess’s friend?”

I already didn’t want to hear this story. I hated that clown.

“Get this. Homeboy takes Princess outside and kisses her right in front of
all
of us, starts declaring his love for her and goes to kiss her again when Brandon and Derek stepped in and took care of it. He freaked when Brandon wouldn’t fight him and got all loud and pissy; Brad ended the entire party because of it.”

“Good.” I huffed and glanced at Brandon like he was insane. “He kissed her, and you didn’t do
anything
?”

He started to speak, but Derek interrupted. “He handled it how he should have, and apparently it worked for Princess, too. I heard her moaning the next morning.”

My body went rigid, and Brandon tensed as he glared at Derek. “Shut the hell up; you know not to talk about her like that.”

Derek held his hands up and smiled. “Just sayin’, she sounded more than happy with whatever you two were doing.”

“Shut up, man; you can talk about your girl all you want, but leave mine and what we do out of it.”

My hands curled into fists, and Brad stepped right in front of me and started pushing me out of the living room, talking quietly, “Don’t, Chase. We’re not going through this shit again. Just leave it alone. They’re dating, so it shouldn’t be shocking to you. You’ve got to start being okay with this.”

She was a fucking virgin, and he took that from her. I didn’t have to be okay with anything! I wanted to go back in there and beat the shit out of him more than anything, but with all of them standing around, I wouldn’t have even gotten one hit in. I thought about the time I’d just spent with her, and everything I’d just found out. Clown’s kissing her Friday, she’s screwing my best friend on Saturday, and leaning in to kiss me today? She’s gonna make me feel like shit for the few girls she’d seen me with and tell me she’d just be another girl for me? Look in a fucking mirror, Princess. Because, obviously, I’m just one of many guys for you.

“C
HASE!”

I groaned and hated the fact that despite all I’d found out about her, all I wanted was to take her in my arms.

“What, you’re just not going to talk to me now?”

I kept walking down the hall and only stopped after she planted herself right in front of me, hands on her hips.

“Why are you being like this?”

Really?
She really wanted to know why I was being like that?

“Did I do something to offend you? You haven’t said a word to me since Sunday. You have been so bipolar lately, I don’t even know what to expect from you.”

I raised an eyebrow at her; she didn’t know what to expect from me? At least I was completely honest. Well, maybe not, but at least I wasn’t going around acting like some innocent virgin when I was really screwing everyone.

Harper’s cheeks turned red suddenly, and now I had no idea what we were even talking about. Wasn’t she just mad at me? What was the embarrassment for? She blinked her eyes rapidly a few times and narrowed her eyes at me. I almost laughed. My fierce little princess was back.

“Whatever. I’m done trying to figure you out. If you want to be an asshole, go right ahead. But don’t keep acting like there’s nothing wrong between us on Sundays.”

Oh my God, really?
This wasn’t about me being an asshole, it was about the way I thought she was acting with every other guy! “We’re back to this now?”

“It’s a freaking miracle. He speaks.”

“You think I’m confusing? God, Harper, that’s rich. This coming from the girl who repeatedly told me to stay away, but fell into my arms at the first sign of trouble with her boyfriend? Do you want me to back off, or don’t you?” I took a step toward her, and another when she stepped back. I leaned in close and whispered softly in her ear, the way I did when I wanted her to sway toward me; and I wasn’t disappointed this time either. “Why keep fighting the inevitable, baby? You want me. Even now, your body is shaking because you’re trying to keep yourself from touching me.” I brushed my fingers across her hand and watched her arms instantly get covered in goose bumps. “One touch from me, and you’re covered in goose bumps. Tell me now that you want me to go away.”

“You’re such an ass. I just don’t understand why we can’t be friends all the time. I don’t want to be your friend on Sunday and the girl you don’t acknowledge every other day of the week. I want the same thing every day. So you decide what that is and let me know.”

She tried to move past me, but I slammed my palm against the wall, blocking her from leaving the hallway. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“I feel like I’m just one in a group of Harper’s many guys, but I’m not getting the benefits. So tell me, if I act like your friend, will I get to fuck you, too?”

One second I was trying not to laugh from the thought of her actually getting a punch in, the next my back was slammed against the wall, and Brandon was directly in my face, his forearm pressed against my throat.

“What the hell did you just say to her?” His face was getting red, and he shoved into me harder. Once again, I couldn’t speak, so I spit in his face.