Easy question to answer. “Of getting hurt again.”
He frowned. “I wish I could promise you never will. Only thing I can say is that I would never willfully hurt you.”
I believed him. “I know.”
“Do you?”
One second, we sat on opposite ends of the hot tub. The next, he was sitting right beside me. Pushing away a strand of wet hair that had fallen on my cheek, Parker tucked it behind my ear. This was the closest we’d been since the kitchen. I could smell him. Feel him, even though we weren’t actually touching.
I looked into his eyes.
“I do,” I said, finally answering his question.
Parker’s hand moved behind my neck, and he pulled me toward him. Heart hammering, I looked into his kind eyes, which had a glint to them now. A mischievous, sultry, “you are about to be kissed” glint.
I closed my eyes as his lips touched mine. It began slowly, our lips melding together. But when Parker’s mouth opened, when his tongue sought my own, the kiss turned quickly. From soft and sensual to something much more urgent. His hand at the back of my neck pulled me closer as the kiss became more insistent. How trite it was to think that this kiss surpassed all others, but honest to God, it was the truth. Our legs pressed together as warm water bubbled around us, the hum of the hot tub the only other sound besides my own murmur of pleasure.
If I could talk to Parker for days, I could kiss him for weeks.
Months. Years.
That particular thought had me pulling away. He didn’t release the grip on the back of my head, though. Instead, Parker’s thumb massaged the soft spot at the top of my spine.
Pure heaven.
“That feels good,” I said, meaning it.
He looked directly into my eyes. “Kissing you feels good, Delaney.”
The hot tub shut off. Dammit.
“What do you want to do?”
What I wanted to do and what I should do were two different things.
“Should we join the others?” I asked, knowing even as I attempted to preserve my heart that it might be too late. The seal had been broken, so to speak, and I wanted more.
Much more.
“Sure. Don’t want the buzz to completely wear off.”
“Exactly,” I said.
Neither of us moved. I imagined his thumb that continued to rub circles on my neck was somewhere else entirely.
“Keep looking at me like that, cupcake, and we won’t be going inside anytime soon.”
I smiled, feeling flirty. “And what would you do with me, precisely, if we stayed in here?”
“Hmmm, let’s see. I’d probably slip my hand a bit lower and untie that bikini top, for starters. I might fill my hands with those gorgeous breasts of yours, after I moved you to my lap, of course.”
Dear lord. You got what you asked for, Delaney.
“I wouldn’t have taken you for a dirty talker, Parker. Nice guy and all.”
His thumb stopped. Parker’s hand moved upward, and before I knew what he was about, it was wrapped around my ponytail. He tugged on it, pulling my head back, lowering his own to my neck. Trailing kisses upward, his teeth nipping ever so slightly, he finished at my ear, my body shivering despite the warmth of the water.
“Looks like you found another of my faults,” he whispered. “I do like control.”
