Page 62 of Forbidden Game

“Nothing. Just…stay there a second.” He unlinks our arms as he lifts the door and reaches behind the driver’s seat for something. He pulls out a sweater and walks over to me.

I stare at him in confusion as he bends down and uses it to dry my legs and dust off the sand.

A small snort escapes my lips, and he glares up at me.

“It’s not funny, Syd. The car’s brand new.”

“I’m not laughing,” I say through soured lips, stopping another smile from slipping through.

“Turn around.”

I do as he asks, letting my grin loose once I’m facing away from him. He begins beating the sweater against my ass, and I let out a yelp, glaring down at him this time.

“Maybe I should just call a rideshare. Pick the car up tomorrow,” he ponders.

“Parker, you can’t be serious.”

“The sand, Syd.”

A beeping noise begins filtering out from the car, and I step out from Parker’s obsessive cleaning to open my side of the car and pull my phone from my abandoned purse. My eyes widen when I see the time and the reminder blinking up at me.

“Parker, we need to head back, like now,” I call out.

Parker comes around and rests his chin on the crook of my shoulder, staring down at my screen. The connection sends a jolt right to my heart.

“It’s only five,” he comments. “Plenty of time to get back before the stream.” He pulls back, putting his hands on my shoulders and guiding me into the passenger seat. He takes the sweater and brushes the remaining sand from my feet.

“Not if we get stuck in traffic,” I get out between breaths at the ticklish sensation.

“Nah, we’ll be fine. Don’t sweat it, love.” He takes my heels and jacket from my arms before closing the door and dropping them into the compartment in the hood.

An hour and a half later, we finally pull into the private garage, and I give Parker an “I told you so” as I hop out of the car.

We got stuck in a nasty chunk of traffic, and now he only has thirty minutes until the stream. Plus, he never got around to filming his content for his channel, which I am now going to have to hound him on for tomorrow.

Parker gets out of the car and dusts off his seat with his sweater.

“Next time we go to the beach, I’m taking one of the bikes instead,” he mutters.

“Good luck getting me on one of those death traps.” I fiddle around with the hood before popping it and grabbing my stuff.

“Stevie loves being Aleks’ backpack.” Parker shuts his door and comes around, grabbing his shoes from around me before clicking the hood closed.

“That’s because Stevie is just as ridiculous as Aleks. She merely hides it better.”

My feet are cold on the concrete as we walk to the elevator, and Parker slings his arm around my shoulders. The practiced movement feels different now.

“I’ll convince you.” He hits the elevator button with his knuckle while popping a kiss on the top of my head.

“In your dreams.”

There is no way in hell I would be getting on the back of one of those things. He is lucky enough that I even get in the car with him half the time. I chalk it up to the fact that some part of me trusts him more than I can admit. That he feels safe, even when he is driving a million miles an hour.

An engine rumbles, and I jump out of Parker’s hold to see Jackson’s Jeep curving around the corner.

I frown as he pulls into his spot, wondering where he could have been. I don’t keep track of the guys like an FBI agent, but I do know their general schedules and whereabouts pretty damn well. I’m mostly surprised because Jackson doesn’t normally cut it this close to his scheduled stream times. Out of the three guys, he is always the most punctual.

Parker puffs his cheeks in a pout, and I counter with a raised brow.

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