Stealing Harper

Chapter One



“THAT IT?” I asked one of my housemates, Derek, as we passed each other in the hall.

“Yeah, this is the last box. I’m ready for Brandon to be here and all, but, Jesus, I’m glad he won’t be here ’til next weekend ’cause if we move one more person into the house today, I’m gonna die.”

I laughed and stretched out my arms before lifting the bottom of my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face and neck. “That’s what you get for being the first person back here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

Drew rounded the corner, holding a flattened inflatable doll. “My car’s empty; did you guys get everything already?”

“No thanks to you.” My eyes went flat as I watched him start blowing up the doll, “Where the hell did you go?”

He held up the doll before going back to blowing air into her.

“Nice. I’m glad that’s your priority.”

“At least he’s come to terms with the fact that a doll’s the only way he’s gonna get some,” Brad, another housemate, said as he smacked Drew’s head and pushed through us.

“Then Drew”—I looked down to the thick, leather-banded watch on my wrist—“you can go pick up and pay for the kegs tonight.”

“But—” he began.

“Might want to go soon; people will be here in a couple hours.”

“Bastards,” Drew mumbled under his breath, as we all left to go to separate parts of the house.

“Quit bitching. You’re the last one to move back in, and you didn’t even move your own shit in.” Even after nine hours of moving the guys in, I couldn’t help but smile as I went to take a shower. First and last parties of the year were always the best; and the first always meant a lot of women and plenty to come.

“GOD,” I GROANED, and couldn’t help it when my hand formed a fist in her hair, urging her to continue—I was so close. She moaned around me, and my eyes shut as I lost it. From the way she jerked, I knew she hadn’t been expecting it. I probably should have warned her, but that was the last thing I’d been thinking about just then.

As soon as she was done, I let her pull away and, as I put myself back in my pants, I looked around to see if anyone had come to this side of the house.

“Thanks, Chase.”

I froze momentarily, then huffed a short laugh and glanced at her as she stood back up. She’s thanking me? Usually, I had to do something for them first before they started thanking me, but I wasn’t one to judge. “Uh, yeah. Ready to go back in?”

She nodded enthusiastically and reached for my hand, so I quickly draped my arm around her shoulder and led us through the backyard and into my house. “Oh, Chase, can we dance? I love this song! Pretty please?”

Pretty please? What are we, five? I tried not to groan and forced a smile on my face. We walked toward the center of the mass of people dancing in my living room, and my hands went to whateverhernamewas’s hips as she ground her butt into me. Her back arched, and I had an even better view of her already exposed chest.

“I’m so glad we can start this before school starts; I was dying to date you all last year,” she whispered, and I ground my teeth.

Date? Oh hell no. I tried to remove my hands from her hips at the same time she pushed them tighter to her body, and someone knocked into us. My already narrowed eyes looked up to see wide, terrified, gray eyes turn toward me. I literally felt my heart skip a few painful beats before my pulse started racing.

Her cloudy eyes looked at the delusional blonde I was pressed up against, then flashed back up to mine. They got wider, and her head slightly shook back and forth like she was on the verge of panicking from what she was seeing as she stumbled over herself trying to back away.

Wrong thing to do, sweetheart. I always did love a challenge.

I finally detached myself and made quick work of getting away from the tightly packed bodies and headed in the same direction she’d just taken off.

“Chase!”

I looked up to see Zach sprinkling salt on a redhead’s chest on the island in the kitchen. “Body shots?”

Zach shook his head to the side and put a shot glass in the girl’s mouth, then filled it with vodka. “No, but do you want the honors?”

The redhead curled her index finger toward herself, and when I got close, ran her fake nails across my lower stomach. I licked her chest, curled my lips around the shot glass in her mouth, and lifted it out, letting the liquor slide down my throat. Zach poured the next shot as I sucked on the spot on her neck where Zach had rubbed lime juice before making my way to lick her chest again and take the second shot. I resumed biting and sucking on her neck as I sprinkled more salt on her, then repeated the process for the third.