Author: Molly McAdams

“I would never be desperate enough to want you.”

I might have believed that if her voice hadn’t gone all breathy on me, my lips stretched into a grin—oh yeah . . . she’ll be mine. “We’ll see.”

“ARE BREE AND Princess coming tonight?”

My hands curled into fists for the freaking fifth time today as I turned to look at Zach. “Probably, and stop calling her that.”

“Who’s Princess?”

The guys in the kitchen all broke out into cheers as I turned back around, a wide smile crossing both Brandon’s face and mine. “Glad you’re finally here, bro!”

“Tell me about it; that’s a long fucking drive.” He dropped a bag on the ground and stepped forward to man-hug Derek and me and shake the rest of the guys’ hands. I made sure he remembered Zach and Drew; just because they knew Brandon from his fights didn’t mean he knew them.

“I bet. All your stuff in your Jeep?”

He nodded. “It can wait. I just want to relax for a bit. So what’s going on? Obviously, I’m the last one here.”

“Missed a hell of a party last week, man,” Derek said as he took a seat on the island. “But there’s another one tonight.”

Brandon yawned and rubbed his hands down his face. “Is that what you were talking about when I came in? With Bree and Princess? Bree’s your sister, right?” He looked at me, and I nodded, “Then who is Princess?”

“Good God, Brandon, you have got to see this chick,” Zach began, and my hands instantly went back into fists.

“She hot?” Brandon asked

A mix of “Hell yeah,” “You have no idea,” and “Wait ’til you see her” came from the kitchen. I clenched my jaw.

When I didn’t say anything, Brandon looked at me curiously. “Is she not?”

I shrugged. “She’s just another girl.”

“Chase is just pissy because she didn’t put out for him,” Drew said.

Brandon raised an eyebrow at me and burst out laughing, “That had to be a first.”

“You’re all acting like I even tried to hit that.”

“Chase—man—you had her in your bed!” Brad said between laughs. “Another freakin’ first! You can’t act like you didn’t try to bang her.”

“Exactly, I had her in my bed, which shows you I didn’t want to touch her. If I want a girl, I’ll take her anywhere else but there.”

“Shit, a girl that didn’t fall all over herself to get to Chase, and she’s hot?” Brandon asked, and barked out a short laugh. “I’ve got to see this! Will she be here tonight? You said her name’s Princess?”

“Chase calls her Princess.”

Damn right, Zach. Remember that.

Brandon looked even more confused, “Well, what’s her name?”

All the guys shrugged. “Princess.”

“Well, it’s not looking good for you, brother. You had her in your bed, you didn’t sleep with her, and you gave her a nickname?”

“Because she was acting like an entitled prissy bitch, it fit.”

Everyone, including Brandon, started laughing. As soon as he could catch his breath, he shook his head sadly at me. “Never thought I’d see the day Chase Grayson was brought to his knees by a girl.”

“Whatever.” I sighed and walked outside to start moving his stuff in.

A girl bring me to my knees? Hell. No. Never, and I’d prove it. Whether my gray-eyed princess — no . . . not mine. I didn’t want her, I must have just been losing my mind last weekend—whether Harper was here tonight or not, I’d prove to her and myself that she didn’t have any type of hold on me.

“MA—DAD? I’M HERE.” I breathed in the heavy scent of bacon, and my stomach growled. God, I loved Sundays. Walking into the kitchen, I kissed Mom on the cheek and snatched a few pieces from the growing pile on the plate near Dad and clapped him on the back as I went to sit on the counter.

“Hi, honey!”

I nodded and spoke around the food. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Oh, you know, just chilling.”

“Mom”—I laughed—“you just gotta stop trying.”

“One of these times I’ll get it, and you’ll be so impressed, I’ll be cool enough to hang out with you.”

I snorted. “I’m here, aren’t I? Bree here?” Speaking of my sister . . . would she bring the princess?

“Not yet, she was doing something with her roommate first, then she was coming over.”

Nope. Damn it. “Have you met her yet?”

“Harper? Oh, she’s a doll; she slept over last weekend! You’d like her, Chase,” Mom said with a weird smile. “She’s really cute.”

Yeah she is.

Mom gasped. “So you’ve met her!”

Shit, had I said that out loud?

“Tell me what you think!”

“She’s cute.” I shrugged. “But I’ve only seen her once; they didn’t come to the party on Friday.”

“That’s it? She’s cute? I may or may not have heard she slept in your room with you the night of the first party.”

“Robert! How did you know this and I didn’t! You’re supposed to tell me everything, especially something like that.”

Dad laughed and pulled some more bacon off the skillet, “I said may or may not have.”

“Oh, you are so in the guest room tonight, mister!”

My brows were pulled together listening to them, and how did Dad hear about that?

“Well, are you going to explain yourself, Chase? Or am I going to make sure you don’t get any more bacon? Because that is a sweet girl, and if you hurt her—”

No more bacon? That’s just not right. “It wasn’t like that, Mom, I was just making sure she was safe.”

Mom’s brows shot up under her bangs, and her lips pursed.

“Bree may have told all the guys at my place that she’s basically never done anything with a guy, and I mean anything. Everyone started making fun of her, and she looked so damn embarrassed. And with those guys—hell, maybe even Brad—I know they would try to change that, and I wasn’t about to let anyone touch her; so that was my way of keeping her safe.”

“You kept the virgin safe . . . by putting her in your bed with you,” Dad deadpanned, then nodded. “Actually, that makes sense.”

“No it does not! Chase—”

“Mom, I swear I didn’t touch her!” Well not entirely true, and it’s not like I didn’t want to do a lot more touching than I did. “I just needed to make sure no one else got their hands on her either. Jesus, it’s not like she would have let me even if I tried.” I snorted and shook my head once, “First, she got mad that I got in bed with her, so she got on the floor—”

“You did not make her sleep on the floor!”

“Ma, really? No. I picked her ass right back up and dropped her on the bed.” Dad laughed, and Mom swatted him on the back. “Then get this, cutest damn thing I’ve ever heard, she more or less tells me that if I touch her, she is going to chop my dick off.”

Dad winced; Mom crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Good girl.”

I laughed. “Cracked me up. She can be feisty as shit, but God she’s sweet. She just—she’s . . . I don’t know.” Her wide gray eyes were flashing through my mind, and I hoped my sister would bring her. I exhaled deeply and blinked away the images, finally noticing that Mom and Dad had both turned toward me. My dad was grinning mischievously, and Mom was tearing up. Fucking hell . . . can’t I go more than a few minutes without talking about her like an idiot? “What?”

Mom bounced up and down on her toes. “Oh, honey!”

I shook my head and hopped off the counter to grab more bacon. “She’s just a girl, Mom.”

Chapter Three

THERE SHE IS, my gray-eyed princess. I watched her walk into the cafeteria, and stopped sucking on Natalie’s neck. “Gotta go, see you.”

“Bye, handsome.”

I jogged over to the cafeteria doors and tried to follow at a safe distance from her. I could only see her back, but that was more than enough. She was wearing these tiny black shorts that perfectly hugged her butt and gave me the best view of her legs. Those shorts may not pass her PG rating, but I certainly approved. Before seeing her bent over in my room, and like she was just then, I would have sworn short girls didn’t have killer legs. God, I was so wrong.

I was so focused on her and the way my heart had gone into overdrive since she first walked into my line of sight that I ran into the corner of a wall and a scared-looking freshman coed. I steadied the girl, mentioned what I’m sure was some form of an apology, and looked around quickly, only to find my princess gone. Taking in a deep breath, I popped my neck on both sides and grabbed a bowl of pasta. I needed to calm down. She was driving me crazy, and she hadn’t even looked at me yet.

Get a freakin’ grip, she’s just a girl, a girl that you don’t even want—a girl who pisses you off more than anything. I heard Zach’s and Drew’s loud voices, and my head snapped up. A small smile crossed my face as I watched her sit down next to Bree. I couldn’t even be annoyed with them for calling her Princess again; she’d been hiding from me for almost two weeks, and now here she was, in all her snarky and sweet glory.

Her shoulders hunched slightly, and I wondered if the guys were embarrassing her again, but I didn’t give myself time to think about it too long. I set my bowl down next to her salad and planted my hands on either side of her plate. I leaned close, letting my chest press against her back, and I almost groaned when I smelled her soft, vanilla scent again. Not just a girl. Not even close.

“Have you been hiding from me, PG?” I whispered in her ear, and she shivered against me, her arms instantly covered in goose bumps. I had to force out a soft laugh, so she wouldn’t hear my next groan.