Page 54 of Parker

“And fill me in?”

“You got it.”

“Hey, Harp,” I say, my heart filling with gratitude for my big sister. “I love you so much. You know that, right?”

“For sure,” she says, her voice so full of love, it could keep me warm on the top of Denali in January. “I love you, too.”

We hang up.

I place my phone on the bedside table.

And sleep like a baby.

***

Quinn

I sleep like hell and wake up like the devil.

Fuck, but I never—not in a million years—saw that conversation coming last night.

In my wildest, weirdest dreams, I never thought I’d arrive in Vegas agreeing to be strangers with Parker and leave having told her I love her.

Don’t get me wrong. After harboring deep feelings for her for over a decade, there’s a certain relief in coming clean. But I wouldn’t have done it like that. And I wouldn’t have done it after a tentative three-day ceasefire. The timing sucks, and I’m afraid that instead of giving me the chance I’ve always wanted, the depth and intensity of my feelings will scare her away, making iteasier for her to turn her back on me, build a brick wall between us, and never look my way again.

She knows I love her.

And I only have three more days to make my case.

Then we go back to Skagway, where I worry that everything will go back to the way it was…unless we’ve made some real progress before we get there.

I scrub my hands over my face, growl with frustration, then whip the covers off my naked body and stalk to the bathroom. In the comforting warmth of the shower, I lean my head on the tile wall, close my eyes, and indulge myself with a highlight reel from yesterday.

The way her tits looked only covered by a wet, thin sports bra.

When she agreed to go to the aquarium with me.

Standing beside her in the hotel elevator.

Sitting beside her in the taxi.

That hug in the aquarium. Oh, man, the way it felt to hold her.

The feeling of her head on my shoulder.

The way her soft hair felt beneath my lips.

Her eyes, widening with realization, as we stared at our reflection on my phone screen.

And her voice as she asked me if I was in love with her.

Fuck, her voice. Her devastation. Her tears.

All of it means something to me. Something big. Something possible.

My cock has stiffened during my recollections and juts straight out from my body, tall and hard. I fist it with my soap-slicked hand and stroke it firmly, base to tip, letting the hot water rinse it clean, before my hands cover it with suds again.

Bracing one hand on the wall, I think of Parker’s body flush against mine at the aquarium. I imagine that the building’sclosed for the night, but we’ve been locked inside. Her clothes come off in my fantasy, and we’re both naked, her breasts flattened against my chest as I cup the side of her face and lean down to kiss her.

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