“I mean,” she clarifies, “I trust your judgment. If you see an opportunity—” she pauses when her phone chimes from her bag and pulls it out, looking at the screen and smirking.

“What?” I ask.

She brings the phone over so I can see the messages.

MADELINE

There’s no need for the PDA in a sports bar.

You’re a Montgomery. Act like one.

I glance between the windshield—waiting for the light to change—and at the phone while Parker types back.

I’m rehearsing for when I’m a RHODES. I’m learning they’re less discreet.

I snort. “Thanks. Are you calling my family trashy whores?”

Parker smiles, tucking her phone away. “No. You’re just more fun, more real. And, see? That was the right call. So you don’t have to ask. Just…go for it.”

God, I wish I could.

“We’re both adults,” she adds. “I think we can handle it.”

I might be thirty and well into adulthood, but the thing is, Parker somehow has me feeling like I’m not a day over seventeen. So, no, I can’t really handle her warm body squirming in my lap as she opens her mouth against mine. Or at least, not very well. So I make note that I’ve got to be a little more careful about logistics, and I lie, because at this point, what’s adding one more to the pile?

“We can.” I take off when the light turns green, keeping my hands tight on the wheel as I head toward my apartment, turning into the garage. As I pull in, Parker yawns, stretching her arms slightly above her head. “Bowling took a lot out of you, huh?” I ask, pulling up next to my truck. Three seconds later, the black SUV parks next to us.

With Parker’s head against the seat, she turns to me. Her face is peaceful, eyes nearly half-mast, and her mouth relaxed and parted. “Just happy to be home.”

The word home out of her mouth—referring to my place—squeezes my heart.

Parker smiles softly. It would be the perfect place to kiss her, and I let myself wonder what my lips against hers would flow into—god, her scratching my beard, one of my hands in the ends of her hair, the other against the small of her back, sliding up her shirt like I just did an hour ago.

Thankfully Parker turns away, opening the door the moment my cock twitches.

We ride the elevator up in silence with Agent Samuels, and his presence in the small space should be enough to sober me up from my thoughts. After all, he’s the ultimate cock block. In my dreams, he stays far away from us.