Stealing Harper

“Hey, Princess.”

Her eyes went wide when she looked up at me. “Chase, I didn’t think you were going to be here.”

Shit, I should’ve told her I’d be here, too. “I asked if you were coming to the house.”

“Right, I just figured you meant your house.”

I watched her watching me and tried to figure out if she was happy to see me or not. The room got thick, and my eyes flashed down to her chest, which was rising and falling quickly; this couldn’t just be me. I wasn’t dumb, I knew she was in love with Brandon—anyone in the room with the two of them knew that. But the way she reacted to me definitely wasn’t the way she reacted to Brad, or Bree’s boyfriend, Konrad. She bit her bottom lip softly, and a light blush covered her cheeks. God, she was beautiful. I finally noticed all the presents lying around her and remembered why I’d come in here in the first place. Pushing away from the door, I walked over to her and sat down close enough that I could feel her body heat but not so close that I was touching her.

My hand shook as I handed her the ring, and my voice was rough and low, “Merry Christmas, Harper.”

I’d been holding my breath while she stared at the tiny, wrapped box, and huffed a small laugh when she finally asked, “Why?”

“Because you’re my favorite, remember? When I saw it, there was no way I couldn’t get it for you. Please open it.”

With the way my heart was pounding against my chest, I had no doubt she could hear every beat as I watched her face when she lifted the lid of the box. She gasped, and her eyes went wide as she studied it. When she looked up at me, I was relieved to see the awe there as she shook her head, and asked, “How did you know?”

“You doodle it on everything put in front of you.”

She nodded, and choked out, “Chase . . .” Her head dropped, but not before I saw the tears falling down her face. Damn it.

“Don’t cry, Harper. If you don’t like it, or you don’t like that it’s from me, I’ll take it back.”

“I love it; please don’t take it.”

Then why are you crying and breaking my heart? “Then what’s wrong?” I placed two fingers under her chin and tilted her head back so I could look into her eyes and brush away her tears. My breath caught at finally touching her again, and my heart started hammering when her eyes fluttered shut for a few seconds.

“I’ve never had this before. Not just the presents . . . the love that your family has for me. I’ve never had it until now, and it’s so overwhelming. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, and I don’t know if I show them that, too.”

“You do. Trust me.” I looked at her beautiful, tear-streaked face and wiped away more tears that escaped her stormy eyes. There were so many things I wanted to say to her right then. I love you. I want you to be mine. “You’re special, Harper, it’s not hard to love you.” I had to leave before I said more, which would send her ru

I went back to my room and tried to talk myself into leaving now that I’d given her the ring, but then the shower turned on, and I groaned as I flopped onto my bed. I raked my hands over my face as I tried to do anything but picture Princess in the shower, but that wasn’t happening. I wanted to thank my sister for getting Harper to wear bikinis and thought of the handful of times I’d seen her at the beach or lying out by the pool at my place. Those suits didn’t leave much to the imagination, and those images mixed with the ru

“Chase”—someone pounded on my door—“your dad said you’re in here, and he needs our help bringing some stuff into the house.”

You’ve got to be shitting me. I liked Konrad, he was good to my sister, and he fit in our family well. But I was going to knock him the fuck out for this.

“Chase, buddy,” Dad’s voice came from the other side of the door, “c’mon. Got a lot of ice chests and food that need to be brought in.”

Well, that killed any fantasy of Harper I might have been having. I adjusted myself and fixed my pants before opening the door. “All right, let’s do this.”

The last load was small enough for two, so Konrad went to find Bree as my dad and I went back to finish bringing the last of it in. I’d decided leaving was my only option if I wanted to have any sort of control around Princess, but then I saw her standing there behind Bree and Konrad at one of the poker tables, and I knew I wasn’t leaving anytime soon. She looked amazing, even more so than usual; a brief flash of how I’d been picturing her not ten minutes earlier went through my mind, and I fought with the idea of grabbing her and taking her to my room to actually live it. My eyes snapped up to find her watching me, and her cheeks went red as she dragged her gaze back to the poker table.

I noticed an empty seat at the table and made my way toward it, slowly taking in every inch of her on my way over. I caught a flash of silver and looked at the hand closest to me to find my ring on her finger. My chest swelled, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing her right hand to run my thumb over the ring before dropping her hand and going to sit.

The games were passing quickly—I wasn’t wi

“I’m ru

I’d never understood why he called Harper, “Kid,” but it’s not like I was one to judge when it came to giving her nicknames. I watched her sit down, and her eyes glazed over as she looked at the cards. God, she was horrible at any card game, but it was cute to watch her try.

“You better just hand over all his chips now, Princess; they won’t be here by the time he gets back anyway.” I smirked at her and loved the way her ever-present blush crept back up her cheeks.

Bree leaned in to whisper in her ear, and I watched closely as she and Harper spoke quietly. My smirk died when Harper’s face drained of color, and a murderous glare followed by a deep ache filled her eyes. What the fuck had Bree said?

Konrad came back before we even got around to showing our cards, and I watched Harper avoid looking at me as she quickly got up and walked away from the table. What the hell? I glared at my sister as she flirted with her boyfriend. She was sitting there having a good time when she’d clearly just hurt Princess? I looked for Harper and found her talking to my parents before slowly making her way toward the kitchen.

I put my cards on the table, tossed my chips at Konrad to make up for what Bree was losing, and got up quickly. “I’m out.” Harper placed five beers on the kitchen island from one of the coolers, and I just shook my head. “Nu-uh. If I’m not drinking, you’re not drinking.”

Her eyes darted in my direction before going back to the beers. “Well then, why don’t you have one?”

“Because I don’t drink anymore.”

She put a hand on her hip and finally turned to face me. “Since when?”

Since when? I stopped looking around the kitchen and looked directly at her. Has she not noticed everything I’ve changed for her since meeting her? “Since I was a jackass and hurt my princess.”

Her eyes went wide, and I heard her next intake of breath, “Huh . . . I didn’t realize.”