“Harper, stop trying to cover yourself. You're not succeeding and you look stupid.”
I glared at my friend, but stopped trying to cover myself. At least none of the guys were home yet. I pulled off the shorts and lay down on my towel next to Bree. She had turned on her iPod docking station on the patio and we rocked out to the songs while we tanned. We had flipped onto our backs again a few minutes earlier when a huge splash followed by freezing cold drops of water interrupted us. We both screamed and jumped up, apparently that's what they'd been going for since we were tackled into the pool as soon as we'd gotten vertical. I came up sputtering and smacked Derek across the head as soon as he surfaced.
“Are you serious?!”
“I'm going to kill you Drew!” Bree shoved Drew back under the water and held him there.
I looked over to see Zach laughing from the side of the pool, I guess he'd been the one that did the cannonball. I swam to the side and hopped out, running to my towel I picked it up to find it soaked from the numerous splashes.
“Awesome.”
I ran my fingers through my hair trying to get the tangles out, and stood there long enough so I was no longer dripping. Bree was still in the pool with the three guys so I decided to go get a few more towels for everyone. I was halfway to the hall closet when Chase walked out of his room. He froze and his eyes got wide as he took in my body.
“Damn Princess. You look...” He cleared his throat and finally met my eyes, “wow.”
I blushed fiercely and crossed my arms over my chest. “I was uh, just coming to get more towels.”
He reached into the closet and pulled out a few. Dropping all but one on the floor next to me, he shook out the one still in his hand and wrapped it around my shoulders. “How are you?” He brushed his fingers across my cheek and down my neck causing me to stifle a moan.
“Huh?”
Chase chuckled against my neck and lightly pressed his lips to my throat. “That good, huh?”
I blinked a few times and pushed away from him, ignoring that smirk I loved so much, “Why do you keep doing this to me?”
“What do you mean?” He went to wrap his arms around me, but I stepped out of his reach.
“This!” I pointed to an outstretched arm, “You can't keep doing this. I'm with Brandon now, you have to stop.”
His face fell into an unreadable mask and he dropped his arms to his side.
“No more notes, no more touches, no more putting your lips on me. This isn't fair to me. Do you have any idea how crazy you're making me?”
Okay, maybe I shouldn't have asked that, his eyes lit up and that stupid smirk was back. “Really now?”
“Chase I'm serious, this has to stop.”
“Give me one good reason why I should.”
I huffed and wrapped the towel tighter around me, “I told you, I'm with Brandon now.”
“I said a good reason Princess.” He deadpanned.
“That's a perfectly good reason! And it's the only one you're going to get.” I bent down and picked up the towels, when I stood back up he was right in front of me.
“Harper.”
“No Chase,” I shut my eyes so I wouldn't get distracted again, “Please just – just don't. I really like Brandon. Besides, you have plenty of girls who are fine with being treated like shit by you, I'm not one of them. Go find another brainless bimbo to screw and get out of your system.”
I heard his sharp intake of breath, but kept my eyes closed until I was on my way back outside. Setting out the dry towels, I flopped onto my stomach and tried to forget about Chase. Brad fired up the grill a little over an hour later, and Bree was lying out next to me as the guys talked about going surfing tomorrow. It was easy enough to keep my eyes off Chase's bare chest, but the stupid goose bumps wouldn't go away and Brandon was taking forever to get here. I was so focused on where Chase was, not even five feet away, and trying to hold a conversation with Bree that I didn't even notice Brandon until he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground. I shrieked and kicked for a second before I realized it wasn't one of the other guys about to throw me back in the pool, which had happened two more times since my hallway encounter with Chase.
Brandon just laughed and pressed his lips to mine, “Mind if I steal you away for a few minutes?”
I didn't miss the fact that Chase abruptly stopped talking, “Not at all, I'm yours for the next three days.”
We were in the house before he spoke again, “We need to cover you up sweetheart.”
“Why? Do you know how long it took Bree to talk me into wearing this thing?”
He set me down on his bed and slowly raked his eyes over my body. Heat spread across my cheeks and I had to force myself not to cover myself. “Remind me to thank her for that later, but I don't have enough patience tonight to continue watching the rest of the guys look at you like they want to eat you.”
I frowned and ran my fingers down his cheek, “Bad day babe?”
“Something like that.” he snorted and dropped his head to mine.