Page 61 of Forbidden Game

“You,” I answer honestly.

“Mmm,” he hums. “I think about myself often, too.”

“Seriously.” I lift our joined hands and let them fall back against his chest in a soft push. He lets out a laugh, and I feel his chest rumble as a smile spreads across my own face.

Parker is infectious. Even in the darkest hours, he never fails to bring light. He could give the sun a run for its money.

“Do you promise you’re not going to go back to avoiding me?”

I turn my head, silently lamenting the sand getting stuck in my hair as I face him.

His face is lit up with the golden sunset, casting a glow on his pale skin and making his cheekbones stand out more than normal. I trace the gentle slope of his nose before stopping on his eyes that are watching the clouds above us.

“I promise.”

The corners of his lips twitch up in a smile.

“But…” I say slowly, and his eyes slide to me with the slightest tilt of his head. “Whatever this is, it stays between us.”

“I figured.” I see a gust of sadness swoop through his gaze before it disappears. “I’m good at keeping secrets.” He gives me a playful smile even though I know it masks something deeper.

I feel so selfish because I hate asking him to keep such a large secret when he just got free of his last one. But I need to take the time to figure out what this is before I commit to anything. This isn’t something I can be rash about, and Parker deserves more than a false promise.

At the end of the day, I am still his publicist. I’m still Aleks and Jackson’s publicist. I have to think of The System first, and they do not need another scandal right now.

Until I know where my heart sits, we need to tread carefully.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He sits up and leans over to place a kiss on my nose. “Come on, I’ll drive us home.”

He gives my arm a squeeze, and my chest aches when he lets go, already missing his touch.

I need to get myself together; everything is burning too fast.

Parker curses and I push myself up onto my elbows, gritting my jaw against the little specks of sand digging into me. The tide has risen, and all our stuff is slightly drenched.

I groan as he lifts my damp jacket off the sand. This was one of the nicer sets that I’d splurged on.

The logical part of my brain, the part that is slowly coming back to me, realizes that the matching skirt is also covered in sand under my butt and probably not in much of a better state.

I force myself to stand up and dust said sand off myself before taking the jacket from him.

Parker reaches down and plucks our shoes from the shoreline. They’re both in a sorry state. Although, I know for a fact that mine, at the very least, don’t cost as much as his.

I see Parker’s jaw tick as he surveys his shoes. My heels don’t look great, but they might be salvageable.

Or not.

The white leather is dark beige around the heel.

Parker sighs and tosses me an impish grin. “I needed an excuse to buy new shoes.”

“I didn’t think you needed an excuse for that.”

He links his arm in mine and swings me into step with him as we trudge back up the sand to the parking lot. My bare feet prick slightly against the asphalt as we make our way to the car, and Parker stops short with another curse.

“What?”

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