Chapter 35 Summer
Thump thump thump thump.
It’s the second time I’m waking up like this, cheek pressed to my best friend’s chest, his heart beating into my ear.
Last time, the impromptu sleepover drove me into a confused, lust-addled spiral.
And while there’s plenty of lust to go around this morning, skin-to-skin the way we are, there’s no confusion to be found.
It’s Parker who caused the delightful soreness between my thighs, his lips that made mine swollen and sensitive. He put the faint red marks around my wrists, cold hard proof that last night wasn’t a figment of the copious fantasies that’ve haunted me since our first kiss.
Careful not to wake him, I shift onto a pillow, craving a better look at him like this: peacefully asleep, hair a mess.
I brush the thick strands off his face, trail a finger down the bridge of his nose, just because.
My heart threatens to explode just from the sight of him so at ease with me like this.
I stare into his gorgeous face, wishing I could see into his head. Is he feeling this way, too? Will he forgive me for lying about the tour?
In which world could I plausibly leave town now, when it feels like I’m on the verge of the very relationship I’ve longed for my entire adult life?
Is there a reality where I could go and he’d simply… wait?
“Hey.” Parker’s soft voice, thick with sleep, startles me out of my head even as the questions continue to pile up, a new one added to the mix by the second. His palm touches my cheek. “Thinking too hard this early in the morning.”
I search his sleepy face. “Last night.”
A dimple in his cheek. “Yeah.”
“It was…” Everything I’ve ever wished for.
“Yeah.” He’s stroking his thumb over my cheek, gazing at me with sleepy eyes.
Is it too much to hope for that he means it in exactly the same way I do?
This is foreign to me. Having all these questions and feeling suddenly unable to speak them out loud to Parker of all people—and now of all times, when we’re lying naked together with nowhere to hide.
But asking them would mean admitting that I’ve lied to him. And after last night… blame the delusional girl in me, but I don’t want to ruin the magic.
“I think I should go,” I say slowly. Get some space, some perspective, and figure out how to talk to him about all this.
His brows pull together. “Okay.”
I slide out from under the sheets before I can think better of it. Parker sits up, watching me search for last’s night clothes. My chest pinches at the neat way he’s laid out my vibrators on his nightstand.
He brought every single one of my sexual fantasies to life, simultaneously demolishing every insecurity brought on by the men before him. And that there should be the deciding factor, shouldn’t it?
There’s no way I can leave town now. Not if there’s a chance this thing between us is real.
I sweep everything into my purse and face him. He looks almost exactly as he did when I woke him last night. Bare-chested, covers around his hips. Visibly confused. Except I can see the red lines my nails scored into his shoulders before he bound me.
“Well… thank you. For the…” I clear my throat. “Sex.”
Thank you for the sex? What in the awkward morning after is the matter with you?
Parker doesn’t say a word. Doesn’t take his eyes off me. But I think I see something like amusement flair in them before I flee.
I keep my chin tucked as I cross the street at a damn near run, hoping this doesn’t look like the walk of shame it absolutely is because… thank you for the sex?
Peak shame. Peak first-, second-, thirdhand embarrassment.
No recovering from this.
“You’d better hope you make that tour now,” I mutter to myself as I race up the steps of my walk-up. “Or you’ll have to assume a new identity. Grow a mustache—a beard, even.”
In my apartment, I dump my purse on the table by the door. Run my fingers through my disheveled hair. I can feel the ghost of Parker’s fingers tangled in it while he angled my mouth just right before sliding his—
My blood heats when I spot my phone on the table. Oh my God—I didn’t just fuck Parker. We filmed ourselves last night. Like a pair of rabid, horny teenagers.
I swipe at my screen, tapping to the video with a shaking hand.
The still is enough to get my clit throbbing—it’s me, stretched out on Parker’s sheets, legs thrown open with Parker between them.
“Summer Freya Prescott, you cannot be serious,” I mutter to myself. “You’re not really about to—”
I hit play. Dig my teeth into my lip as Parker’s cock sinks inside me. Whimper at the sound of his groan, and I can’t help it. I reach between my legs, dragging a finger over my clit—
A knock at the front door has me jumping out of my skin.
“Open up, Summer.”
I slap at my screen, make it go black. Open the door with shaking hands to find him there—Parker dressed in a mouthwatering pair of sweats and a T-shirt, his hands braced on either side of the doorframe. My pussy clenches, furious at his interruption and demanding he right his wrongs.
Parker looks down at me in the same measured way he had in his bed, mere minutes ago. “You done yet?”
My heart thunders. “Done what?”
“Freaking out.”
“No, actually.” I jerk a thumb over my shoulder. “I was just about to go drown myself in the shower over the thank you for the sex thing. Give me a couple minutes and I’ll be right with you.”
“Now you’re rescinding the appreciation? Not very polite.”
Parker steps into the apartment and kicks the door shut.
It’s like he’s walked through a veil at the threshold, wiping away the mild-mannered man I’ve had all morning.
Sheer starvation pours from his eyes as they bounce over every inch me.
Like he’s just endured years without the feel of me and he’s sick of waiting for more.
He makes a winding motion with his finger. “I vote we fast-forward through the freak-out. We’ve got more pressing matters to deal with, don’t you think?”
“Like what?” His eyes land on my mouth. Something hot bursts in my chest. “That’s what you came here for? To offer me more sex?”
Parker takes my face in his warm hands. “First, I came to make sure we’re okay. Are we?”
I can’t speak for myself on an individual level, considering thank you for the sex and the fact that he nearly just caught me watching our sex tape.
But I nod. Even with the questions that pulled me from his bed, nothing’s ever felt more okay than this—Parker holding my face, smiling gently down at me.
“Good.” His thumbs brush my cheeks. “Second, I came to tell you how unbelievable you were last night. All of you. Your body is to die for.” His thumb presses down on my lip. “This mouth is to fucking die for. Your sounds—your sounds, Summer. I’ll be thinking about last night on my deathbed.”
A smile tugs at my mouth, the typical post-hookup nerves fading. “Definitely came for more sex, then.”
Shallow dimples pop in his cheeks. “Are we doing it again?”
“I don’t know. Is that really a good idea?” I’m asking us both, fingering my wrist. I can feel lingering traces of last night’s rope. “It’s so messy, Park.”
He lifts a brow. “I seem to recall you were the one begging for my—”
I clap a hand over his mouth. “You really can’t help yourself, can you?”
He licks my palm. I release him. “I heard a great analogy the other night—what was it?” His face scrunches. “Oh yeah: It’s like finally having a bite of that chocolate cake, and—”
Collecting my phone, I start heading down the hall. “And you just guaranteed you’re never getting another bite again.”
“Too bad. Really was a great cake. Best bite of my life.”
I stop dead, stomach swooping. Biting down on my lip and staring at my toes, trying not to smile so pathetically big before turning back around.
“Well.” I fiddle with my phone, happy butterflies dancing inside me. “That really shouldn’t have come as a surprise—”
A moan fills the hallway.
My moan.
Then the very obvious sounds of skin hitting skin, and—
“You’re too tight. And you’ve tortured me, watching you come so fucking hard, over and over—”
My fingers fumble over my screen, killing the video that’d still been cued up. Silence rings around us and it’s official: a beard and a new identity won’t suffice.
“Hey, Sum?” Parker leans his hip against the table. “Whatcha watching?
I can’t do it—I can’t look at him. “Some guy sent me his sex tape. It’s not very good though.”
“Is this why you hurried out of bed?” Parker steps closer and tips back my head, forcing eye contact. A smirk tugs at his mouth. “Were you touching yourself watching us fuck, Summer?”
“Hardly.” I raise my brows. “It was boring. Vanilla. Could never get me off—”
I gasp when he throws me over his shoulder. Parker strides into my apartment, straight to the couch, and drops me onto the cushions just as roughly as he’d handled me last night.
“Prove it,” he says, snatching the phone from my hand. He places it on the coffee table, propping it up against a stack of books before dropping into the seat next to me. “Play it here and now. Watch it to the end without touching yourself. Without making a single needy sound. I dare you.”
The obvious answer is no. Maybe to kick him out of my apartment, for the second day in a row. But he looks so completely smug, pleased to no end with himself, and nothing ever gets me going like that does.
“What do I get if I do?”
“I’ll leave you alone. Never mention last night again, just like you pretend you want me to.
” He smirks when I scoff. “But if you don’t?
You’re going to spread your legs then and there, and let me fuck you until the sun sets.
And again tomorrow. And the day after that.
” Parker sinks lower on the sofa, lacing his fingers behind his head.
“It’s win-win, really. I’m considerate like that. ”
I eye his profile. “Like a friends-with-benefits situation?”
“Call it whatever you want.” He nods at the phone. “Now, play it. I’m dying to see your pussy again.”