She needed me to communicate more. So I’d communicate more. I’d let her all the way in. My hand slid down her slim back, stroking, soothing. “You’re not even gonna ask who she was?”

Parker stiffened, but she let out a breath and met my eyes. “I kind of forgot to in the heat of the moment.”

My eyes crinkled, even though I still felt bruised and battered as though I’d gone twelve rounds. “It was Marcy. That’s who you saw me with.”

Her body jolted as if pinched and she turned her head slightly, the tips of her fingers digging into my neck. “Marcy?”

“Yes, Marcy. Jake’s wife. We grew up together. She’s like a sister to me. I’ve been looking out for her ever since Jake …” I shook my head and exhaled hard. “That hug you saw? I was trying to comfort her because she still misses him.”

Silence filled the air broken only by the crash of thunder. Parker blinked at me as if she were confused. Then her head tipped forward, the silky strands of her hair falling into her face. “Well, shit. I feel like an ass.”

Her curse made me chuckle. But then I grew serious. “Don’t. If I saw you hugging some guy, I’d have lost it.”

Parker hummed, then pressed her lips to the sensitive curve of my neck. “You won’t have to worry about that happening. I’m a one man only kind of girl.”

Thank Christ for that.

“You’re a good friend,” she said, drawing me back.

I kissed her temple and found it damp. My heart gave a hard thump. “Tonight, I had dinner with Marcy. She asked me what I wanted out of life. And all I could think was that I wanted you.”

A sob broke from her and she melted into my embrace, clinging tight. I pressed my lips to her hair. “I want you,” I said again. “I want to be with you, to come home to you, to see you smile, to make you mad. Parker, I want it all.”

Her slim frame shook and she burrowed in closer. “I want that too.”

For a long moment, I simply held her and listened to the rain. But then she drew back and took my hand. “Come with me.”

I followed because I wasn’t a fool. But I felt compelled to make her understand. “We don’t have to do anything tonight. I don’t want you to think all I need from you is sex.”