Page 29 of Pride
When the last pigeon flapped away over the wall, Pride looked at his sister covered in feathers and delight.
“Where do you think they go?” he asked.
“Who cares? They’re free.”
“Parker?”
He met Alice’s worried gaze with an uncomfortable feeling cracking open inside. Alice was right. This should have just been drinks. Why did he think getting to know her would be a good idea?
His finger twitched to reach for another champagne, but he was already onto his second glass, so scrubbed his hand down his face. The movement was the action he needed to center himself. Everything about Alice threw him off. She was not his assistant. She was another person, more foreign than ever.
But damn, she looked good tonight. Better than he’d ever seen her, and he couldn’t put his finger on why. She was the same person, except he just sawmoreof her. Surely he wasn’t that shallow, was he?
Crackling from the ceiling speakers was the only warning they received before Marvin Gaye’s song,Sexual Healing,started playing.Goddammit, Sloan.
“This is a mistake.” Parker abruptly stood.
“What?” Alice blinked up at him. “What’s a mistake?”
“All of this.” He threw the napkin on the table and strode to the kitchen, where he found Wyatt flipping something in a pan while chuckling to someone on the cell phone wedged between his shoulder and ear.
Parker’s jaw clenched, and he snatched the cell from Wyatt, then put it down and turned on the loudspeaker.
“Turn the music off, Sloan.”
Silence. Then,“How did you know it was me?”
“Who else likes to pull stupid, juvenile and mistimed escapades?”
“Well, you got me there.”
“Turn it off, now.”
“Ugh, you’re such a party pooper but fine. Whatevs. Be boring.”Another pause.“Hi, Alice.”
Meddling pain in the ass. Parker cut the call.
“That’s it. You’re done. Go back to your mate,” Parker said to Wyatt, taking the knife from him.
Wyatt glared back. “Fuck you, I’m not finished.”
“Dinner is canceled.”
Wyatt threw his black chef’s cap on the counter and then shot an apologetic look over Parker’s shoulder. Parker turned to follow his gaze and found Alice standing in the kitchen entry.
Parker smoothed his still damp shirt and straightened his spine. “I’ll take you home.”
She blocked him as he attempted to leave. “I don’t think so. This meeting isn’t over.”
He looked down at the woman. The Sinner. His dangerous mate.
She had the power to unravel him, to pluck apart the thin threads holding him together. Each strand more meticulously sewn into place than the one before it. Each line carefully crafted to perfection because it had to be. Because the only other alternative was liability, and he would never be that. Not for anyone.
13
Alice staredParker down as he attempted to leave the kitchen. Something had bothered him back there, and it had cracked his perfect, composed exterior. He hated that she’d seen it. That’s what this was all about. Alice knew shame. She lived with it on a daily basis, but somehow, seeing it on him didn’t sit well with her.
“I’m hungry,” she said. “At least feed me like you promised.”
