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 h*ps 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 h*ps 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.
I’d almost forgotten why I’d been coming to the kitchen in the first place, but an annoying feeling like being watched finally broke through, and my eyes shot up to find wide gray eyes locked on mine again. Drew was talking to her, but she was focused on me. Her eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of her head, and her mouth was slightly open. She looked disgusted. I licked the redhead’s chest and winked at this timid-looking girl before taking the fourth shot. I am going to tear you apart, little girl.
I wiped my mouth and bent low to the redhead’s ear, “Thank you, beautiful.” I let my teeth graze her ear and smirked when she shivered.
Straightening quickly, I looked ahead, only to find the timid girl gone and Drew looking in the direction of one of the halls. I immediately took off in that direction and ran into Bree.
“Hey, bro! Awesome first party!”
I hugged her tight and kept looking for that girl. Why did she have to be so damn short? I was never going to find her in this now.
“Who’re you looking for?” Bree asked, and when I looked down at her, saw she was looking around, too, but in the opposite direction.
“A girl, who are you looking for?”
“My roommate, she ran off.”
“Ah shit, Bree, I forgot to ask. How is your roommate?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “She’s awesome, a little sheltered, but I can already tell I’m going to really like her. Now I just have to find her. Can we have your room tonight?”
“Of course, find me whenever you get tired, room—”
“I know, Chase, room’s locked. Like always. I’ll find you later, I gotta go find Harper.”
Harper . . . what the hell kind of name is Harper? Sheltered girl named Harper, I already felt bad for my sister. I laughed softly as I continued to walk toward the hallway; after looking up and down it and not finding her, I went back out toward the kitchen to look for her there.
“Hey there, handsome.”
My brow scrunched as I turned to look at who had just whispered in my ear but relaxed when I saw her. “Natalie. How was your summer?”
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and leaned close. “It was fine, spent most of it with my boyfriend.”
I nodded and kissed right below her ear. “And how is he?”
“Not here.”
“Shame.”
Her body pressed even closer to mine. “Isn’t it? I was thinking since I’m just so upset about that, you should help me enjoy tonight.”
My fingers trailed under her shirt and against her hot skin, “Bathroom?”
“Where else?” She laughed low and took my other hand as we turned to go one of the bathrooms on the hall I’d just been.
We’d turned the last corner when a little blur smashed into me and began falling backward from the impact. My arms had automatically gone out to steady her, and I instantly recognized the auburn hair moments before the gray eyes met mine.
“I’m so sorry, I—” Her mouth snapped shut, and her gorgeous eyes narrowed.
I couldn’t help but smile at her; she looked like a fierce little kitten the way she was glowering at me. Her eyes lost their anger, and her cheeks reddened slightly as her eyes locked on my lips. I doubt she realized she had pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and was currently biting on that perfectly full, soft-looking lip. I tilted my head to the side and smirked at her; I knew that look. Hell yeah. This was gonna be fun. Oh, sweetheart I am going to break your heart. “Now who are you?”
She blinked rapidly, and a determined look came over her face as she tried to get out of my grasp. No way in hell was I letting her leave yet.
“What, you’re too good to tell me?”
Her expression deadpanned, and her eyes shifted to my left, then down to my waist. Shit, I’d forgotten about Natalie. One of her eyebrows arched, and she looked at me like I disgusted her. “Apparently.”
Excuse me? Who the hell does this girl think she is? She’s going to look at me and talk to me like that at my party in my house? She was looking at me like she was royalty, and I was some peasant in her way. I let go of her and crossed my arms over my chest, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell if I was more pissed off or intrigued. I’d had a girl thank me for letting her blow me earlier, and this girl wouldn’t even give me her name? “Excuse me, Princess?”
Those eyes turned into damn thunderclouds as she roughly shouldered her way past me. “You’re right, excuse me.”
I stood there stunned for what had to be a full minute before Natalie was able to pull me toward the bathroom again. What the hell just happened? I looked behind me, like the freakin’ princess would still be standing there, and shook my head slightly as we hit the bathroom and locked it behind us.
“On or over?” she asked, and was already reaching for the button on her shorts.
That’s what I liked about Natalie. No bullshit with her. Just sex. She had a guy back home, and I didn’t want a relationship. “Over.” I pulled a condom out of my wallet and shed my pants and boxer briefs before rolling it on. Natalie was already bent over the countertop, and I didn’t waste any time.
We both groaned when I slammed into her; I kept one hand on her hip, the other went to her shoulder. I looked at the long blond hair falling across her back and onto the countertop, and my eyes shut as images of auburn hair filled my head. What is it about that girl? I’d seen her for all of three minutes, and already she was consuming my mind this way? Why? She was disgusted with me . . . that was more than apparent. That had to be it. I was used to this, used to tonight. The blonde earlier, the redhead in the kitchen, and now Natalie. I wasn’t used to insignificant girls not wanting me. And she had no idea how bad that was for her. It just made the challenge that much better. I would get her. And I would enjoy breaking her heart. I almost smiled to myself, but then flashes of her wide, innocent, gray eyes and her perfectly white teeth digging into her lips assaulted me. I thought about biting that lip, and my thrusts quickened; thought about her underneath me and in my arms, and I gripped Natalie tightly as I came harder than I ever had before.
“Hell, Chase,” she said roughly, her breathing ragged.
“I’m sorry.” I took a deep breath in and released her before sliding out.
“Why are you apologizing—that was—just holy crap.”