Stealing Harper (Taking Chances #1.5)(13)

Princess’s eyes snapped open and widened as she took in her surroundings and scrambled off Brandon’s lap. Good.

Brandon shot a quick glare at me, and I could actually see my words click in his brain, and he looked at Harper, confused. “Wait, ‘PG’ is a rating they gave you?”

That’s right, brother. My rating for my girl. “What, she didn’t tell you? Princess over here was as virgin as someone could possibly get until she met you. Now she’s just simply a virgin, I guess we can raise it to PG-13 until later. I’m sure she’s ready to get rid of it altogether. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.” I ground my teeth and tried not to finish with, But I’ll kill you if you touch her more than you have.

Natalie laughed softly and shook her head but otherwise kept quiet until we were outside. “Oh my God. I seriously can’t believe this right now.”

I withdrew from her and couldn’t help but look back into the living room in time to see Brandon facing the sliding glass doors and Bree talking animatedly to him. He looked pissed. I didn’t blame him, but I didn’t care either.

“Chase Grayson is whipped.”

“Not whipped, Natalie.”

“So I’m guessing you don’t want to relax the way I had in mind?”

Bree took off for the hallway that led to my room. Had Harper gone in there? Brandon looked up and met my stare, and he looked ready to murder someone. I smirked, and his head snapped in the direction of my hall seconds before he took off for it. Shit, she must be in there. Oh God, did I make her cry? I took two steps toward the door before Natalie caught my arm.

“That’s probably not the best idea right now.”

“I have to—”

“No, what you need to do is calm the eff down before you make that situation worse. Don’t get me wrong”—she laughed and dug around in her purse before pulling out a metal container—“that was priceless to watch; especially since it involved you. But I’ve seen your boy fight, and he looked pissed, so you might want to stay away.”

I looked up in time to see Brandon stalk off in the direction of his room, and Bree came our way with a look on her face that would make me proud if it weren’t directed at me.

She flung the door open and held her hand out as she continued to punch me in her mind. “Key, *. Now.”

Ouch. Guess I deserved that one. I dug it out of my pocket and dropped it in her hand, “Love you, too, sis.”

“Go to hell, Chase.” She huffed and slammed the door shut. I really wanted to go in her place.

“Huh, sweet girl,” Natalie said from behind me.

I heard the click of a lighter and turned to watch Natalie light up a joint. “Seriously, Natalie? Put that shit away. No drugs in or around my house.” Legalized or not. Too much changed and could go wrong if you put that into the mix. The couches inside the house were already tilting up as it was from the liquor; I really didn’t need any secondhand benefits from her right now. System of a Down started playing, and I reached for my phone. “It’s the shop, I gotta take this.”

“God, you got boring over the summer.”

“Then feel free to leave. You already figured out why I needed to keep you around these past couple weeks, and obviously I’m done with you now, so go.” I watched her walk away and had to really focus on the screen, so I would hit the green button instead of the red. “Yeah?”

“Hey, man, sorry; I know you have the night off, but we’re slammed, and some people are requesting you. Can you come in?”

Bree came back out and went straight to whoever this guy she brought for the night was. Where was Harper? “Uh, no, Brian. Sorry, but I can’t swing it tonight.”

“There’s a couple really hot chicks asking for you.”

“That’s great, man, but I can already barely stay standing as it is, there’s no way in hell I could drive or hold up my gun long enough to ink anyone—not to mention make it what they want.”

He laughed loudly away from the phone and brought it back. “God, I miss college. All right, man, see you tomorrow. Do everything I wouldn’t do; I need to live through you since I’m tied down.”

“Nice. I’m telling Marissa that next time I see her.”

“Do, and I’ll deny it.”

I looked back through the glass doors and realized Harper still wasn’t there. Had I upset her that bad? I looked again, and Brandon wasn’t there either. I swore to God that if they were in my bed together, I wasn’t threatening anymore, I was doing. “Yeah, yeah; look, man, I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

“Later.”

I was through the door and storming down the hall before I could hit the END button. Thank God she hadn’t locked the door because I slammed right into it as I threw it open. I almost sighed in relief when I wasn’t met with yells to get out from Brandon, but wanted to curse myself for making her want to be alone like this.

“Can’t you just leave me alone?”

That was almost laughable. No. “Once again, Princess, you’re in my room.”

“Fine, then I’ll go.” She got off the bed and tried to walk around me, but I held her in front of me. “Chase, let me go!”

“Not until you talk to me.”