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.

“CHASE!”

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?”