9. Asher

As soon asWinter had disappeared into the bathroom, I snatched her phone off the table. She'd put it down unlocked, and it hadn't timed out yet.

It really was too easy.

Going to the app store, I downloaded my favorite Big Brother app, invisible on the home screen, but always running in the background, and paired it with my phone. I ran the same one on my sister and mom's phones. A small dot appeared on a campus map. Winter's phone location. I liked to keep tabs on my opponents just as much as my loved ones.

Next, I fished about in her bag for her keys and pocketed them, and then poked around at the rest of her things, out of interest.

Her portfolio was interesting. I'd never have guessed the arty, introspective side of Winter. Her photographs were arresting. They felt searching, somehow, like I was a different person for studying them.

I took the entire thing and stuffed it into my sports bag, then dumped the bag onto the floor. I moved the vacant chair to another table, relaxing back just as she reappeared. Her little cheer fuck-me outfit was distracting as hell, and I wasn't the only guy who'd noticed. Gazes stuck to her when she walked past, oblivious.

"Where did my chair go?" she demanded. Daddy's princess really never learned.

Before I could answer, she lowered herself back on my lap, this time sideways so she could loop an arm around my shoulders. This girl was playing with fire.

Then she iced her play for attention with a cherry on top, reaching for my coffee and taking a long drink.

"You spilled mine, remember?" she pointed out, setting the cup down in front of me.

"You're being a brat right now, you know that?"

"I'm aware." She tossed her long hair, and it hit me in the face, filling my nose with her amber-and-jasmine scent. "But I think you protest too much…maybe you like it." She turned a soft grin to me. "I mean, is that a knife in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

She picked up my coffee again, and I chuckled. "That has cinnamon in it," I murmured to her.

She jerked, dragging her ass over my hard-on in a way that made me groan internally. She set the cup down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Just kidding, geez, relax," I goaded her.

She wriggled around like she was about to scold me, and I distracted her by gripping her hips.

I moved her purposefully across the hardness in my pants. It wasn't my fucking knife in my pocket, that was for sure. It was my cock trying to invent a way to cut through a few layers of clothing and get inside this infuriating woman. It had been a while. Actually, I couldn't even remember when I'd last had time to indulge in any action with the fairer sex. It had certainly been before that fateful Parents" Day. Senior year had busted my ass so hard, and Colorado had been brutal, trying to fit in with the new team. Women had been the last thing on my mind. Except one.

I rocked her against it and turned a glare to anyone watching us, my eyes promising murder if they continued to ogle us.

"Stop!" she gasped, finally realizing that she really was letting me get off on rubbing her delectable ass on my dick in public.

"Why? I'm so close," I teased her and bit her earlobe. "Has this ass seen a lot of action? Some locker room spit roasts with the team? How many of the stuffed shirts your parents set you up with have been inside this tight body? Do they let you call them Daddy?"

"Ash!" She ripped herself off my lap and glared at me. Ash? It was the first time she'd ever called me by my nickname. Her cheeks were pink, her hair tousled. She'd never looked more fuckable. "You're a pig."

"I thought I was your boyfriend. Giving up already?" I goaded her.

She grabbed her bag and slung it over ger shoulder, dismissing me with a curled lip.

"Never," she tossed at me and flounced out of the coffee shop.

I watched her go and enjoyed the damn view.

Winter lived on Greek row, in the tallest, most expensive sorority house, right at the end. Of course she did. Sneaking in during the day, with keys, wasn't difficult. Luckily, Selena, her roommate, was out.

It was obvious which side of the room was Winter's. While Selena's had posters of pop groups and hot guys, and enough makeup to open a store weighing down the surfaces, Winter's side was tidy and expensive. Every single thing was designer. Her restrained, classic taste was evident from her bedspread to the books she had in a single line along a shelf.

The only area that wasn't curated was the wall of photos. A collage of black-and-white shots decorated the wall beside her bed. Pictures of Hade Harbor and the beach, the dunes undulating into a dark sky, ripples in still water. Abstract and beautiful, they seemed to capture some essence of where we lived better than I'd ever seen before.

I had a shift later at The Clutch, a biker bar just off the highway. I had just enough time to make my presence known.

Grabbing some scissors off her desk, I got to work on her underwear drawer first. In my opinion, there wasn't a single pair of panties in existence that couldn't be improved by being crotchless, especially Winter's. I had a hunch she'd really suit nipple-less bras, too. I planned to find out.

Next, I headed for her wardrobe, Sharpie in hand. She had recovered far too quickly for my liking from having brAT written across her forehead. We'd see how she'd like finding my little messages on her clothes.

Lastly, I pulled up her mattress and carefully stepped on a few wooden rungs on the bedframe, bringing my thick-soled boots down just enough to make the boards close to breaking along the middle. Rearranging the mattress, I looked around, making sure I wasn't missing anything. My eyes landed on her nightstand. It was time to find out what the Ice Queen liked to keep secret.

Inside was a velvet bag. I opened it, peering inside at the much-talked-about golden vibrator. I'd be taking that for the time being. Next time she wanted to use it, she'd have to beg me for it back. I tucked it into my backpack and froze.

At the bottom of the drawer was a small piece of tied rope. It was the only other thing in there. The Carrick bend knot I'd given her for her birthday. Why would she keep that? I rubbed a finger across the material then closed the damn drawer and headed out.

Sure, this was petty as shit, but it was also fun.