Page 91 of Just This Once

I’d wondered how many hugs he’d gotten since his parents had died. I mean, I’m sure Thane’s mom and dad had taken care of him just fine, but the way he clung to me left me to believe it’d been a while. Then the reminder that he’d tried to contact his mom and dad had fluttered through my head. And before I knew it, I was blurting out the question.

“When you went home with the Happys on Monday,” I clarified. “Did you get to see your parents?”

“Oh.” He blinked, then pulled me off the edge of the tub and back into the water. I unpeeled my legs from his hips as we were separated. But he kept his arm around my waist so firmly that he settled me sideways right back onto his lap as soon as he wasseated, as if I were some child preparing to tell Santa what I wanted for Christmas.

All I wanted was more of him.

“No,” he answered flatly before he pressed his lips to the side of my neck and then just kind of remained there nuzzling my throat with his nose. “I didn’t get to see them.”

I swept my fingers over his hair. “Raina mentioned something about…syncing right. What does that mean?”

Parker straightened from my throat to look at me. He didn’t seem annoyed by the question, maybe just puzzled as to why we were even talking about it.

But then he explained, “I have to sleep at the same time that she does and be near her to even begin to share a dream.” Grasping a piece of my hair, he began to play with it. “And that’s already hard enough to accomplish because I haven’t slept well since?—”

When he broke off, I already guessed the answer. Not since his parents had died.

“I didn’t know that,” I murmured, kissing his temple. “I’m sorry.”

He blinked at me, clearly not sure how to take my show of compassion. Then he scooped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in until our cheeks touched, and then, stroking my hair, he went on with his story.

“In theory, I’m supposed to get sucked into her dream, where we meet up on this beach with Union’s brother, Hayes, who’s some kind of guide on the other side. Then Hayes is supposed to go off and find whoever we’re looking for and bring them back in the next dream. But…”

When he winced, I filled in the blanks. “He hasn’t been able to find your parents.”

Parker shook his head regrettably. “Not yet,” he admitted. “The last time we managed to meet with Hayes, he said he hada lead, but I haven’t been able to share a dream with Raina since. What’s worse, if I’ve been drinking or taking any kind of medicine to help me sleep, which is more often than not, she gets pulled intomydream, where there is no beach or spirit guide from the land of the dead waiting to greet us.”

“Oh boy,” I said with a quick grin. “I can only imagine what kinds of crazy, depraved things she saw in your head.”

He studied me for a moment before admitting, “She saw you.”

I blinked. Then my lips parted. “Wait. You seriously had a dream about me?”

He nodded. “A sex dream. A pretty R-rated one too.” Sliding his hand from my knee up the outside of my thigh, he grinned lasciviously. “Wasn’t as good as reality, though.”

My mouth dropped open wide. “Oh my God. I—” Straightening in horror, I repeated. “Oh my God. She’s going to tell Foster.”

“Already did,” he answered with a careless shrug.

I shook my head. “But—Jesus, Parker, aren’t you worried that he’ll tell everyone, and then they’ll start watching us andknow?”

He scoffed. “Relax. It was just a dream. Union knew that. I doubt he’ll spread it around, and even if he did, no one would suspect a thing. We don’t exactly scream best friends, let alone fuck buddies, when we’re around them.”

“That was before we actuallybecamefuck buddies,” I argued. “We might be more obvious now.”

“Then I’ll make sure to toss you the occasional glare in public just to throw them off the scent. It’ll be fine.”

He began to kiss his way around my ear, and I shuddered, tipping my face to give him more access. “That might work.”

“We’ll make it work,” he assured, growing more amorous as his hand slid between my legs.

My thighs loosened and my head fell back. But God, I seriously could not get enough of his touch.

Smiling because at least Parker was suffering under the same affliction, I buried my fingers in his hair only for something to occur to me. “Wait.” Lifting my face, I blinked at him. “You tried the dream sharing thing onMondaynight.”

He glanced up distractedly before returning his attention to the strap of my soaked teddy. “Yeah. So?”

“So…” I started to smile slowly. “That wasbeforeI asked you to have sex with me. You were already dreaming about us hooking up even then.”

---