Page 72 of House of Desire

His back muscles move and flex as he strokes himself aggressively. His moans are sexy and more intoxicating than all the alcohol I had at dinner. Eyes shut, his mouth hangs open as I watch him pleasure himself in the mirror, the sight the most erotic thing I’ve ever seen. I wonder who he’s thinking about, what made him so ravenous he had to take care of himself, and a small, infinitesimal part of me hopes it was me.

“That feels so good. Don’t stop,” he moans. Giving himself a few more strokes, with a groan, he comes.

The handle of my bag drops from my fingers as I watch him, my thighs slick with my wanting, but at the sound, his green eyes snap open, finding me.

“What the fuck!” he says, ripping a towel off the counter and wrapping it around his waist.

“Sorry, I, well, you see, Tank, he. And I. So here. That looked like it felt good.” I feel my face heat at that honesty and babble some more. “I’ll give you a minute to…” I gesture at him before deciding the best thing I can do is shut the fuck up and go wait for him.

Water starts to run as, I assume, he washes his hands and before I can get myself back under control, he’s standing in front of me, his naked chest a complete distraction.

“What are you doing in my room, Anastasia?” he asks, his voice curious.

“Did you not get Charlie’s texts? She tried calling and texting you.”

My heart is racing so hard I’m afraid I’m going to pass out. It takes every single iota of self-control I possess to not jump him right here and now.

“No, I hadn’t seen them.”

“Well, sure, your hands, or hand really, was full.”

“Jesus. Why are you here?” he asks, his tone merely curious. His arms flex as he pulls his hair up, tying it into a bun at the base of his neck, a single strand hanging loose and covering his face. My hands want to tuck it away. They also want to take off his towel, and so I wrap them around myself to keep from doing either of those things.

“Tank showed up. He broke his foot and now he’s here and I was going to stay with Lorelei this weekend but he’s here and he can’t sleep on a cot and I’m not entirely sure I want to sleep in a bed with both of them although they are both very attractive and that wouldn’t be a bad thing if this was a porn but it’s not, a porn that is, and so Charlie said you wouldn’t mind if I stayed with you,” I ramble.

“You want to stay with me because this isn’t a porn?” I can see him trying not to laugh, so I close my eyes and take a deep breath and try to bring my racing heart under control. And to banish the attraction coursing through my blood like I just downed eight espressos in one go. Once I feel like I’m semi back on solid ground, I open my eyes again.

“Charlie suggested, since you have this room to yourself, I could stay with you. If that’s okay.”

“Oh, well,” he scratches the back of his neck and looks around, obviously uncomfortable with the entire situation.

“I could sleep on the couch!” I offer. “It looks comfortable enough.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not going to sleep on the couch. You can sleep in the bed. With me.”

We make eye contact and my stomach floats. This is a bad idea, I know it is, but my stupid, traitorous mouth simply says, “Okay.”

As the sun comes up, lightening the sky outside, the ceiling becomes visible. The ceiling I’ve stared at almost all night. When I wasn’t tossing and turning, that is. At first, the sound of the ocean kept me awake. Parker preferred to have the windows open, letting the ocean breeze sweep through the space. For someone who doesn’t sleep with any white noise normally, this was incredibly distracting to me.

But the noise didn’t hold a candle to the distraction that was sleeping next to Parker. The last time we slept in a bed together, his strong arms were wrapped around me and we didn’t know what was to come the next day. This time, there was no snuggling. No gentle kisses on my shoulder. No marriage proposal waiting on the other side.

There was only a divider made of spare pillows that I wanted to rip away.

Every time my eyes closed, Parker’s face as he spilled his seed in the bathroom would dance across my mind. My fingers ached to take care of myself. At one point, I considered going into the bathroom and following Parker’s lead. But I couldn’t do that.

What if he heard me?

And worse, joined me?

Or even worse, didn’t join me?

My libido was firmly on team “join me” and my mind waffled between the two.

“Psst. Parker?” I whisper into the dawn. Even though he still has some groveling to do, I’ve softened a lot since my talk with Charlie.

“What?” he whispers back.

“Are you awake?”

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