Page 11 of Just This Once

“Not at all,” Parker told him with a sly smirk. “I just needed your name, Devon Roark.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

Fed up with whatever cat-and-mouse game Parker was playing, I hissed, “Parker!”

Both men turned. Devon’s eyes widened in surprise and some amount of horror while Parker merely scowled as if irritated by the intrusion.

“Give me a goddamn second,” he said, holding up a finger to pause me. “I’m almost done here.”

Folding my arms over my chest, I cocked my hip and sent him a dark scowl. “You are un-freaking-believable. Do you know that?”

“What?” he asked cluelessly, lifting his hands. “Like I was just supposed to ignore the fact that heknockedyou to the ground? I don’t fucking think so.”

“It was an accident,” I seethed.

Parker scoffed, unconvinced. “He didn’t act very sorry.”

“Ah, hell,” Devon breathed from the other side of Parker, finally clued in to the fact that Grumpy and I knew each other well. Motioning toward me, he asked, “She’s your girlfriend, isn’t she?”

“No. Devon, man.” Parker shook his head sadly at Devon’s terrible deductive powers and then sent him an apologetic wince. “Not even. It’s so much worse than that. She’s like family.” Leaning closer, he lowered his voice. “And no one’s allowed to be a bigger dick to my family thanIam, so I’m really sorry, buddy, but… I hope you didn’t like your life too much.”

Brow furrowing in confusion, Devon shook his head. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing much.” Parker shrugged as he patted Devon’s arm companionably in farewell. “Just that I’m going to ruin you.” And turning away again, he waved over his shoulder as he walked off. “Later, Roark.”

Behind him, Devon’s mouth fell open as he watched Parker stroll back toward the luggage claim. Then his confused gaze transferred my way. “What the fuck does he think he’s going to do to me?”

I gnawed on my lip and sent him a worried cringe before saying, “I’ll get him to back off.”

Whirling away, I hurried after Parker. But when I reached his side, he only chuckled. “Yeah. Good luck with that, Langston. You can’t stop me from destroying him.”

I didn’t say anything, just swallowed thickly as he pulled the first piece of luggage from the claim. But for a moment there, it was hard for me to concentrate.

Being defended like that wasn’t a common occurrence for me.

I mean, I knew he’d only done it because of Alec, but still. There was this lump in my throat I couldn’t seem to swallow down.

Listening to him stand up for me had been sexy as hell.

Arousal buzzed through my veins, and I kind of wanted to grab him by that messy, gorgeous hair and kiss the crap out of him.

Not about to lethimknow that, though, I drew in a deep breath before mildly asking, “Feel better now? You’re back to being the biggest ass in the room.”

“Right where I belong,” he told me with a wicked wink. “On top.” He turned back to the next piece of luggage, only to pause and straighten, frowning at how many bags were left. “This shit isn’tallyours, is it?”

“Relax,” I told him. “It’ll fit into the back of that big-ass truck of yours, no problem.”

“Except I didn’tbringmy truck,” he argued, turning to send me a disgusted scowl.

My mouth fell open in horror. “You traded your truck?”

But I loved his truck. It was so…Texas. He wasnotallowed to get rid of such a monstrous piece of mastery.

“No, I still have the truck,” he assured.

I squinted before realizing, “So you bought asecondvehicle on top of that?” Shaking my head in confusion, I wondered, “Why?”

“Thirdvehicle,” he corrected before he lifted one shoulder. “And because I could.”

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