Page 137 of Just This Once

The moment he finished, all the muscles in his body went slack, and I immediately started to slide down, not realizing how much strength he’d put into holding me up against the sink.

“Shit. Holy shit,” he gasped, burying his face into my hair. “I—that—you doing okay?”

Shaking from a silent laugh, I bobbed my head. “Um, better than okay. I can’t believe we just did that, though. I—God, Parker. My brother’s?—”

But I didn’t get to finish the sentence. Alec’s voice called, “Hope? Hey, Hope. You up here?”

Parker crowded in closer behind me, hiding me with his own body, and his hand whipped past my face to slap against the door just as someone tried to open it.

“Occupied,” he grated out in a hard, gravelly voice that he tried too hard to disguise.

“Oh shit, sorry, man,” Alec’s voice called back. “My bad.”

As the footsteps turned and retreated back down the hall, I released a breath and glanced over my shoulder at him.

“We didn’t even lock the door,” I panted in alarm. “We didn’t lock the fucking door.”

He winced and actually had the grace to admit, “Okay, that was my bad.” Then he reached out and locked the door…way too late in the game.

I could only shake my head as he pulled free of me. My body took a moment to adjust to being my own again, and then I whirled around, only to find Parker silently holding out a wad of tissues for me to clean up. His eyes were full of apology.

Unable to yell at him after that, I took the wipes, and we spent the next few seconds cleaning. As soon as I had my pants pulled up and tutu back in place, I lifted my gaze to find him fastening the top button of his jeans.

He glanced up as well, and we stared at each other almost leerily as if waiting for the other to respond first.

I drew in a deep breath and shook my head. “Never again,” I swore to him sternly.

But he only smiled back lazily. “We’ll see,” he returned and cupped my face between both hands, giving me a slow tender kiss on the lips. “But for now, you better get your ass back down there. Just stay the fuck away from Keene, okay?”

I huffed out my amusement, really liking his jealousy.

“Bye,” I whispered, looking into his eyes and running my fingers slowly down the center of his chest before I unlocked and opened the door.

“Later,” he promised, affectionately smoothing his hand along my braid as I went.

I shuddered, knowing we were definitely going to hook up again. And probably soon.

God, I was in so much trouble.

33

PARKER

Ireturned to our table a couple of minutes after a flushed and flustered Hope left me in the bathroom.

She was posted at the other end, surrounded by the girlfriends and her brother, laughing and talking about who knew what. Keene was thankfully nowhere in sight.

As I slumped back into my chair next to Hudson, Hope lifted her eyes briefly but as soon as our gazes met, she went back to responding to something Raina had just said.

I reached for my glass of bourbon I’d yet to finish, only for Hudson to lean toward me and wrinkle his nose as if I smelled funny.

“Did you just have sex?” he asked with lifted eyebrows.

I glanced at him in surprise, wondering how the hell he knew that.

“With the chick who slipped her number into your pocket?”

Well, I guess using her as a diversion had definitely worked onhim. After the complete stranger had come up to me, murmuring, “In case you want this,” and tucked her number into my pocket, I’d gone upstairs to get a reaction out ofHope, trying to makeherchase after me and keep me from hooking up with someone else.

---