32. Hope
32
HOPE
A t that moment, nothing could stop me from going to Parker. It was like a compulsion. My brother was still singing, and even that couldn’t keep me in my seat.
Nudging Raina, I told her, “I gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded to let me know she heard, and she waved me on, her attention plastered to Alec, like pretty much everyone else’s was.
Then I was out of my seat and hurrying up the stairs to the quieter second level, where a sparser amount of people were hanging out at various tables, eating their meals.
Finding the hallway that led to the bathrooms soon thereafter—four doors that led to four single rooms—I glanced around for Parker but didn’t see him anywhere.
“Hello?” I called.
A door opened to my left.
Parker scowled out at me before growling, “In here.”
I set my hands on my hips and returned his glare tenfold. “Did you really just summon me? During my brother’s song? What do you think you’re?—?”
He grabbed my arm and yanked me into the bathroom.
As soon as the door clicked shut, he spun to me demanding, “What the actual fuck, Trouble?”
My brows lifted. “Well, hello to you too.” Glancing around, I couldn’t help but ask, “Where’d your friend go?”
He had the audacity to look confused. “Friend?”
“The girl ,” I bit out from between clenched teeth. “The girl who slipped you a note, and you followed up here?”
“I didn’t follow anyone up here,” he claimed. “And she didn’t give me a note. She gave me her number. Which is now in that trash can right there.”
After I traced his gaze to the trash and saw a crumpled bit of pink in the same shade as the note that the skank had given him, I smiled. “Really?”
“Don’t fucking smile about that,” he ordered irritably.
Unable to stop, I taunted, “Why, Grumpy, is something the matter?”
“Something?” he sputtered. “Try a whole fucking list full of somethings.”
With a quick laugh, I pointed at him. “Lists, right?” I nodded in understanding. “They’re freaking addictive, aren’t they? Pretty soon, you’re going to have your own bucket list started.”
Parker did not share the love. Grinding his teeth, he glanced toward the ceiling as if seeking patience. Then, he met my gaze with a pointed glower.
“First of all,” he started, but instead of listing a single grievance, he grabbed a fistful of my shirt and hauled me in to smash his mouth against mine.
His tongue spiked between my teeth, and I moaned, arching up onto my toes and tangling my hands in his hair. He kissed me hotly and thoroughly, putting everything he had into it.
And when our lips broke apart so we could gasp for air, he stayed right there with me, resting his brow against mine as he breathed heavily.
A moment later, he shifted his gaze up to mine and squinted in confusion. “What the hell are you wearing?”
Remembering my lime green eye shadow and over-the-top liner, I sniffed out a smile. “The girlfriends and I decided to dress crazy to cheer Xander up. She still misses her boyfriend.”
He blinked. “You have a black tooth.”
“Oh yeah.” I slapped a hand over my mouth and started to crack up. “I forgot about that.”
Parker reached out and rubbed it away with his thumb. Then his gaze traveled over my face before he tenderly tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear that had come free of my braid.
“You told the girlfriends about the orgasm king.”
I cringed. “Only because I didn’t think they’d go and immediately blab to everyone else about him.”
Eyes glittering with smug pleasure, he said, “You bragged about me.”
“No,” I denied. “I?—”
“Bragged about me,” he insisted, only to furrow his brow. “So why were you starting shit with me then?”
“Huh?
“You were zinging potshots from the moment I walked in the door.”
“Oh.” I blinked in confusion because he should already know why. “I thought we agreed to glare and bicker at each other when we were around the others, you know, to throw them off the scent.”
“Sure.” Parker scoffed as if he disagreed before he held up a pair of bunny ears. “Number two. Dugger.”
“Actually,” I countered. “I think that’s number three. Or four. Possibly even number five. And what about Sneezy?”
“Stop fucking flirting with him.”
“ What ?!” My mouth dropped open, and I tried to step back, but Parker gripped my arm to keep me close. “I wasn’t flirting with Keene. If you didn’t notice, he was on the very opposite side of the bar when you summoned me up here, and he was trying to get into some other girl’s pants. Multiple girls’ pants, in fact.”
“But you were hanging all over him before that and laughing the entire way through that damn dance you shared. Then you demanded a second kiss on the cheek from him and slapped him on the fucking ass. How do you define that kind of behavior?”
I shrugged with a cringe because when he put it that way, I’d probably call it flirting too. But it hadn’t meant anything. And Keene had known that.
“I don’t know,” I muttered petulantly, sending Parker a short frown. “We were just having a little fun.”
“Well, it stops. Now,” he ordered me.
“No, it doesn’t,” I stated firmly. “You can’t tell me what to do. Besides, I have many reasons for giving him special attention. And none of them have anything to do with you or getting your approval. Why do you care, anyway?”
Instead of answering the last question, Parker scowled. “Many reasons? Just what are these reasons?”
I sniffed. “None of your damn business.”
“Hope,” he ground out in warning.
“Oh, for the love of God. Fine,” I muttered just to get him off my case. “He’s Alec’s closest friend, so I decided I didn’t want him to hate me, which he genuinely does if you haven’t noticed. So I’ve been sucking up to him and trying to wingwoman him in the attempt of getting into his good graces. And besides”—I gave a cringing shrug—“I think Alec really likes Xander. So I’m trying to distract Keene from getting too close to her so my brother has a better shot.”
Parker’s eyebrows lifted as if he were actually impressed by my reasoning, but when he opened his mouth to reply, I spoke over him, hooking my thumb over my shoulder and motioning back toward where everyone else was. “Plus, he’s a damn good dancer. So am I allowed to go back out to him now?”
“Oh, you’re not going back to him.”
“Excuse me?” My mouth fell open in outrage. “If I want to befriend him, I’m going to fucking befriend him.”
His brows arched in disbelief. “Believe it or not, darlin’, you can befriend that idiot without laying a single finger on him. I’ve been his friend for over a decade now, and you’ve officially touched him more tonight than I have in all ten of those years put together. So stop…touching him.”
“Oh, jeez.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a piece of work. Do you know that? You can’t just come in here and boss me?—”
He grabbed the front of my shirt and shut me up by kissing me again.
Our mouths crushed together roughly, only for him to soften the contact almost immediately, even as his hand plowed through my hair a moment later to clutch my braid in a brutal grip. His lips plundered and stole every thought from my head.
I streaked my hands up his chest, then under his arms and down the back sides of his torso before smoothing them around and gripping his ass, encouraging him to press his erection against me.
When he did, I broke my lips from his with a gasp, and he started to kiss his way down my neck.
He gripped my hips and lifted me onto a nearby counter so he could step between my thighs, but my tulle tutu caused him to scowl down in confusion for being in his way.
Furrowing his brow, he shook his head and looked up into my eyes. “And what’s with the fucking song?”
“Song?” I repeated in a daze, pretty sure I didn’t even know what a song was anymore. Or my name. “What song?”
“The song! The fucking song you had Younger sing.”
“Oh.” I started to cringe, only to catch myself and lift my brows in utter innocence. “What about it?”
Parker narrowed his eyes. “Are you serious right now? Why did you have to go and pick that goddamn song?”
With a loose, careless shrug, I alluded, “Because I like it.”
He growled, looking pissed. “Well, you know what you’ve done now, don’t you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “What have I done?”
“You just made it their song,” he charged hotly.
I squinted and tipped my head. “Huh?”
“Alec and the new girl,” he huffed. “Union’s cousin was hanging off every word he sang. She practically fell in love with him right there on the spot. And now, when they get married someday, this is going to be the song they have their first dance to as newlyweds. Are you happy now? You just gave them our fucking song.”
My lips parted in awe. But he thought of it as our song?
I suddenly couldn’t breathe so well.
I pressed my lips together and tried to pull my wits back in around me before I admitted, “Okay, fine. Maybe I wanted to see if you…remembered it.”
“Remembered?” He scoffed out a hard laugh. “Oh, I remember just fine. I remember dancing to it in the rain, then fucking you to it in the rain. I remember spending the rest of that afternoon inside you. And that night too. And I remember waking up Sunday morning to you being fucking gone .” When he nailed me with an accusing glare, I shrank further back on the sink away from him.
“You left me,” he hissed. “You left me without even saying goodbye.”
“I—I’m sorry,” I gushed, biting my lip. “I didn’t think it would upset you.”
“Oh.” He lifted his eyebrows as if that made sense. Then almost immediately narrowed his gaze. “No, you’re right,” he seethed sarcastically. “It felt fucking great. I love being ghosted like some humiliating one-night stand you regret.”
“I didn’t regret it,” I blurted in immediate denial. But when he stared back at me with eyes that looked hurt, I swallowed.
“I don’t regret it,” I repeated in a quieter, solemn tone. “I—I just—I couldn’t say goodbye.” Reaching up, I traced my fingers down his cheek in a loving caress. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave if I’d waited for you to wake up.”
Parker rasped out a hoarse moan and leaned in to rest his face against mine. “Come home with me,” he whispered, gripping my waist possessively. “Come home with me right now.”
I drew in a sharp breath. “Parker,” I whimpered, frankly tempted. But then I swallowed and pulled my face back again. “No. You know we can’t. I need to go back down there.”
He shook his head, his jaw tense. “You’re not going back to him,” he repeated.
His eyes swirled with desperation as they peered into mine.
Melting, I returned my fingers to his face. “I’ll leave Keene alone. I swear. Does that help?”
“No,” he mumbled moodily and buried his nose in my neck so he could run it along my throat. “I still want to kick his ass.”
A smile flickered across my lips, and I tipped my chin up as I sank my fingers into his hair. “I kind of like your jealousy,” I admitted greedily as I drifted my lips across his jaw and then started to pull away. “But I really have to go.”
He tightened his grip on my waist, keeping me on the counter. “Just one more minute.”
“Parker,” I groaned, resting my forehead on his shoulder before fisting a hand and pressing it against his chest. “Do you want us to get caught?”
He was quiet for a moment before he pulled back to look into my eyes. “What if we just told him? Alec. He’s reasonable and understanding. Maybe he’d be…fine with it.”
I lifted my eyebrows, not sure how to breathe for the longest second. Because oh…my God. This had to be at least somewhat real for him if he was willing to risk the wrath of the seven.
But, no. It couldn’t happen, not even with their approval.
So I sniffed. “Seriously?”
“What?” he demanded, clearly not understanding.
I sighed. “The only way my brother would be fine with you having sex with me is if he thought there were honorable intentions behind it, like, serious, monogamous, long-term, and relationship-minded intentions.”
His mouth opened and then closed. A moment later, his jaw tightened, and he glanced away, looking annoyed.
“Yeah. I didn’t think so,” I murmured, ignoring the disappointment I felt.
Parker turned back to me, looking tormented. “Ten more seconds,” he wheedled.
With a heavy exhale, I caved, sinking against him so I could inhale his scent.
“Ten more seconds,” I agreed.
He pulled his arms around me and buried his nose in my hair.
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” he admitted, swaying slightly with me as if trying to dance to the muffled song coming through the floor. Sounded like someone was singing “Broken Window Serenade” now, another one of my favorites.
“I can’t stop wanting you again,” Parker went on. “Can’t stop wishing I could curl up against you at night, miserable because the fucking weekend had to end. God, Trouble. Tell me it’s not just me.”
I swallowed, wishing I could lie so I could put both of us out of our misery and stop the torment right there. But I couldn’t lie to him. Not about this.
“It’s not just you.”
He released a breath and grabbed my face. “You said I’d forget about it within a month.”
“Well.” I shook my head helplessly. “It hasn’t been a month.”
He laughed harshly. “A month isn’t going to cure this. I wake up every morning hard for you. I go to bed, itching for another round. I can’t stop thinking about it, needing it again, sweating bullets every fucking time I even think about your damn brother. You need to fix this.”
“I…” Shaking my head in exasperation, I spilled out an unsteady breath before lifting my hands helplessly. “ How ?”
Tipping his face down into my hair, he repeated, “Come home with me,” in an achingly erotic plea. “Help me work the craving out of my system once and for all.”
My knees went weak, and my heart fucking fluttered . “Parker…” I breathed, swallowing hard. Then, I shook my head in a weak attempt to deny him. “We agreed; it was just that once.”
“Fuck once.” Slipping his fingers under the hem of my shirt so he could skim the pads of his fingertips across the flesh of my waist, he groaned in agony. “You’re insane if you think one weekend appeased anything. I need you again.”
I swallowed, already wet, even as I pushed him back so I could slide off the sink. “We can’t.”
“We definitely can,” he argued with a wicked grin. “We’ve already proven just how well we can.”
He looked around my face with the loving hint of a smile before he spun me around and pressed my hips into the counter and his erection against my ass.
“Except maybe from behind,” he murmured into my ear as he slipped his hand inside my tutu and tights. When his palm spanned the naked swell of flesh, he asked, “We never tried this position, did we? Don’t you want to know if an orgasm feels different when I’m taking you from behind? You should add that to your bucket list.”
When his lips touched the shell of my ear, I drew in a ragged breath. Pressing my hand to the wall near my face, I arched my bottom out to grind against him. “This is a very bad idea; you know that, right?”
“Bad ideas are usually the best things I ever do,” he rasped as he tugged my tights down to reach between my legs and find my wetness. “Fucking hell,” he groaned. “You’re already ready for me.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed. “Of course. I’m always ready for you.” When I heard the rasp of his zipper, I whimpered, eager to feel him inside me again. “Oh God, hurry.”
“I got you,” he assured steadily, as his hands gripped my hips and tilted me to the angle he needed before I felt him, hard and demanding.
“Holy shit. Holy shit,” I chanted as he began to press inside me, going slow. With the leggings trapping the lower portion of my legs together, it took more of an effort for him to squeeze his way in, but once he got there—oh mother of all things holy—he felt larger than life.
I bowed my head and shut my eyes, breathing hard with my hand still braced against the wall as Parker finally filled me completely, only to hiss out a breath and then start to pull free again.
I moaned, squirming against him in torment because I was basically trapped and had to rely on him to do all the moving.
When he did, thrusting in a steady rhythm, I quivered in suspense, so hungry for a release that I sobbed, “Parker, goddammit. Fuck me.”
He cursed and shoved into me harder, making me nod and moan until he hit that spot I needed and my entire world lit up.
I must’ve cried out because he slapped his hand over my mouth, and I was suddenly muffling my surprise into his fingers.
Then he groaned into the back of my neck as he shuddered and came inside me.
The moment he finished, all the muscles in his body went slack, and I immediately started to slide down, not realizing how much strength he’d put into holding me up against the sink.
“Shit. Holy shit,” he gasped, burying his face into my hair. “I—that—you doing okay?”
Shaking from a silent laugh, I bobbed my head. “Um, better than okay. I can’t believe we just did that, though. I—God, Parker. My brother’s?—”
But I didn’t get to finish the sentence. Alec’s voice called, “Hope? Hey, Hope. You up here?”
Parker crowded in closer behind me, hiding me with his own body, and his hand whipped past my face to slap against the door just as someone tried to open it.
“Occupied,” he grated out in a hard, gravelly voice that he tried too hard to disguise.
“Oh shit, sorry, man,” Alec’s voice called back. “My bad.”
As the footsteps turned and retreated back down the hall, I released a breath and glanced over my shoulder at him.
“We didn’t even lock the door,” I panted in alarm. “We didn’t lock the fucking door.”
He winced and actually had the grace to admit, “Okay, that was my bad.” Then he reached out and locked the door…way too late in the game.
I could only shake my head as he pulled free of me. My body took a moment to adjust to being my own again, and then I whirled around, only to find Parker silently holding out a wad of tissues for me to clean up. His eyes were full of apology.
Unable to yell at him after that, I took the wipes, and we spent the next few seconds cleaning. As soon as I had my pants pulled up and tutu back in place, I lifted my gaze to find him fastening the top button of his jeans.
He glanced up as well, and we stared at each other almost leerily as if waiting for the other to respond first.
I drew in a deep breath and shook my head. “Never again,” I swore to him sternly.
But he only smiled back lazily. “We’ll see,” he returned and cupped my face between both hands, giving me a slow tender kiss on the lips. “But for now, you better get your ass back down there. Just stay the fuck away from Keene, okay?”
I huffed out my amusement, really liking his jealousy.
“Bye,” I whispered, looking into his eyes and running my fingers slowly down the center of his chest before I unlocked and opened the door.
“Later,” he promised, affectionately smoothing his hand along my braid as I went.
I shuddered, knowing we were definitely going to hook up again. And probably soon.
God, I was in so much trouble.