Chapter twelve Parker
Chapter twelve
Parker
“Fuck.” I push the barbell back up far enough to rack it, blowing out a breath. Challenging myself with heavier weight today was my game plan going in, but everything feels really fucking heavy this morning.
The elephant sitting on my chest isn’t helping either.
It’s been an entire month now that Cashlynn has been living with me, and with time, I was hoping it would get easier to be around her. But it’s only gotten harder to ignore how she makes me feel.
When I get home from work, I genuinely look forward to our conversations about our days. She fills me in on her progress with the gallery, and I tell her about my patients—and the daily battle not to level Seth out in front of everyone at the practice.
“How early do you get up to work out every day?”
I twist my head to the doorway and stop cold. Cashlynn’s standing there, her hair thrown into a messy bun and her body poured into black spandex—the smallest fucking pieces of spandex that must exist in the world.
Holy shit. She might as well be wearing a bikini.
I gulp down the knot in my throat. “Five.”
She covers her mouth as she yawns. “I thought so.”
“What are you doing up this early?”
She walks further into the room, and that’s when I notice she’s carrying a mat under her arm.
“With everything going on, I’ve let my morning yoga routine slip, and I was really good about it back in Philly.
I figured I’d get back into it now that things have settled.
It keeps my mind centered and my body flexible. ”
She rolls her shoulders back, arching slightly, and it’s all I can do not to groan.
Fuck me. As if I needed more fuel for my already overactive imagination.
“It might be quieter in the house,” I say, wanting nothing more than to watch her bend herself into all sorts of positions, but knowing that watching her do so will be fucking torture.
“I don’t mind the noise. This is your gym, right?” I nod. “Then this is where I’ll work out too.”
Resigned to my fate, I lie back on the bench, gripping the bar like it’s the only thing keeping me tethered to sanity.
I stare up at the ceiling and curse myself, knowing that if I don’t control my imagination here, Cashlynn will get a front-row seat to my cock standing at attention under my gym shorts.
The mesh does nothing to contain an erection, that’s for damn sure.
Gripping the bar above me, I lift it off the rack and do my next set, breathing out hard as I push close to failure. Racking the bar again, I sit up and find Cashlynn bent over right in front of me, her shorts doing nothing to hide that ass I know I shouldn’t have memorized like I do.
“Jesus,” I mutter.
Cashlynn peeks at me from between her legs. “Is something wrong?”
“Nope.” I stand, avoiding looking in her direction, and walk over to the free weights where I grab the forty-pound dumbbells for some bicep curls. Staring at my form in the mirror helps for about three seconds—until I glance toward Cashlynn again and find her still bent over, watching me.
“You have an incredible body, Parker.” Straightening, she brushes loose strands of hair from her face and lets her gaze roam up and down my bare chest. Then, as if the torture weren’t enough, she licks her lips.
“Thank you,” I manage, my voice tight.
“You’re welcome.” She smiles and then goes back to stretching, moving down to her mat and starting a pose.
Her body stretches flat to the mat, then shifts as she starts to arch and flatten her back.
With each movement, I think about what she’d look like on all fours, bowing her back like that as I fuck her from behind.
Jesus Christ. This is torture.
When she stands, she rolls her neck and reaches behind her to fiddle with her top—which let’s be honest, is basically a sports bra.
Between the shorts that barely cover her ass and this top that is straining to contain her breasts that I remember vividly, Cashlynn’s body is entirely on display, and I’m struggling not to appreciate it as she did mine.
She scrunches her nose. “This top is digging into me. Could you adjust it for me, please?”
I place the dumbbells back on the rack. “Uh, yeah. I can do that.”
“Thanks. I think the straps are just too tight.”
I walk over to her and when she turns her back to me, my eyes involuntarily trace the curve of her waist, remembering what her hips felt like in my hands, thinking about how easy it would be to push her forward onto the bench and have my way with her.
Focus, Parker.
I grip the metal piece that slides along the straps and pull it down, releasing some of the tension.
Cashlynn lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh my God. Thank you. Can you do the other side too, please?”
I repeat the process, making sure the two sides are even. The smell of her coconut shampoo hits my nose with each passing second, and that smell…does things to me. It makes my dick stir, and just as I feared, my shorts start to tent.
I turn around quickly, adjusting myself, and go back to the free weights.
“Thanks, Parker.”
“No problem.”
Cashlynn drops back down to her mat and I try with every ounce of control that I possess not to look in her direction, debating on cutting my workout short. A nice cold shower should do the trick, or I can just jerk off for the thousandth time—not that it’s been helping.
“Ugh!”
Her frustrated groan snaps my attention back to her, and I immediately regret it. She stands up tall, turns her back to me, and then rips her sports bra off up over her head, throwing it to the ground.
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
“Um, is everything all right?” I manage to choke out as she covers her breasts with her forearm and turns around to face me. But why does she bother? I already know what those rosy, pink nipples look like and how they feel in my mouth.
“I think that top is just too small. It’s digging into me and I couldn’t take it anymore.” She grabs her water bottle and then walks right up to me, an innocent smile on her face. “Thanks for trying to adjust it for me, but I guess I just need to get rid of it.”
Swallowing down my frustration, I say, “You could’ve waited to take it off in your room, Cashlynn.”
She blinks a few times, dips her eyes down to my crotch, and then lifts her eyes back to mine with a pleased smile on her lips. “Yeah, I could have, but I just couldn’t take it for another second.” She shrugs and then moves to the door. “I’m gonna hop in the shower.”
As soon as she’s gone, I look down and see my cock standing at full attention, straining against my shorts. Yeah, there’s no way she didn’t see that—or feel it with how close she was standing to me.
I drag my hands through my hair and place them on the top of my head, looking up at the ceiling, asking God why I’m being punished when I was just trying to help the woman out.
But it seems karma is hell-bent on making herself known, and Cashlynn is a lot more to handle than I bargained for.
***
“Where’s Grady?” I ask as I walk into Catch & Release for our Thursday lunch, finding my brothers already in their usual spots—Dallas behind the bar and Penn on his stool, shoving a burger in his mouth—but no sign of our friend with his daughter strapped to his chest like normal.
“Callie had a doctor’s appointment,” Dallas says, filling up a glass of Coke for me and sliding it down the bar.
Penn looks at our older brother. “That’s going to be you soon. Have you and Willow discussed cutting back your hours at this place once your son arrives?”
Dallas looks out over his restaurant, the business he takes immense pride in.
One day, I hope to do the same with Carrington Cove Animal Hospital.
“We have. I’m promoting Sara to manager and hiring a few more servers.
I won’t be working night shifts anymore, gentlemen.
And I’m not sure what will happen to our Thursday lunch dates. ”
The chime above the door rings out as Grady strolls in. “Sorry I’m late.”
“I thought you weren’t going to make it,” Dallas says.
“Callie’s appointment was quicker than expected, so Scottie took her home for some one-on-one time since she has the afternoon off.”
Grady slides onto a stool to my left and Dallas pours him a drink. The kitchen bell rings, signaling that my lunch is ready, so Dallas grabs it and asks the cook to throw down another burger for Grady.
“Jimmy’s gonna get you a burger going,” he says to Grady, setting my plate in front of me.
“Appreciate it.” Grady tips his chin to Dallas and then leans back on his stool. “So, what did I miss?”
“We were talking about how Dallas’s life is about to change once the baby comes and he has no fucking clue what he’s in for,” Penn replies.
Grady huffs out a laugh. “There’s no preparing for it, man. Life and all of your priorities shift.”
Dallas nods. “Yeah, I was telling them I’m not going to be working nights anymore.”
Grady nods. “Probably a good idea. Evenings are the witching hour. One night Callie’s easy to bathe and put to sleep, then the next, she screams for an hour before bedtime.”
Dallas blinks. “Joy.”
Penn chuckles. “You’ll adjust.” Dallas nods, taking a deep breath.
Penn looks to me now. “Speaking of adjusting, how’s living with Cashlynn?”
I finish chewing my food and wipe my mouth with my napkin. “It’s…interesting.”
Dallas laughs. “How so?”
“Well, I swear the woman is trying to drive me nuts. Otherwise, she just has weird fucking habits and I’m not sure I’ll make it through the timeline we agreed to.”
Penn laughs as he pops a fry in his mouth. “Women are fascinating creatures, that’s for sure. What did she do?”
I spend the next few minutes telling the guys about the unplugging of the appliances, her giving me shit about ironing my socks, the kiss, and this morning’s little bra-removal incident.
“You iron your fucking socks?” Grady asks from beside me as Dallas hands him his burger.