Page 139 of Just One Bite
My forehead meets his, and he asks, “What do you need?”
“I want to go to my room. I’m so tired.”
I’m being lifted out of the water in his arms. He drops me momentarily, shakes out a towel, and wraps it around my waist.
“Hold on to me.”
He picks me up like I’m his bride, and I wrap my arms around his neck. His skin is so hot and perfect. I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, pretending for a moment it’s just us. No one else matters. I can’t believe he’s still here fighting for me. It would have been easier to let me go.
Parker keeps choosing me. It’s deliberate and calculated and hard. Nothing is easy for him, being here surrounded by these people who do nothing but challenge him. He’s doing all of this for me.
“You know … whatever happens. If this all falls apart, I’d still run away with you. Go to the city just you and me,” he says.
“You would … even if …”
“Even if. Yeah.”
I’m tempted to finish my sentence anyway, but it doesn’t matter to him. Nomatter the circumstance, he’ll still want me.
“That’s good to know.”
Everyone is afraid of who Parker will become, and they should be. He’s going to live up to every expectation of greatness, and I want to be by his side when he does.
My eyes open when he places me on the floor. We stay close, with my head pressed against his chest. I want him to come in. I want to give in and take his offer, run away to the city, just the two of us, but that won’t solve this. It won’t stop people from targeting us. The only way to do that is to fight back.
He pulls a shirt from his bag. “Here. Hopefully this is the last night we’re ever apart.”
I bring it to my face and inhale. There’s something primal about the way it relaxes me.
“So you can sleep.”
Just as I contemplate asking him to stay, my door opens. Eva is in my hotel room, in some type of raincoat, and her hair is a mess.
“You came.” The emotion of seeing her spills from my eyes, and I wrap my arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Thank them. It was not easy to get here. We took a fishing boat.”
That explains the smell.
When I look back, Parker is whispering with Zant in the hallway.
“Wait, you did this?” I ask.
Zant holds a finger to his lips. “Not easy. All Parker’s idea.”
Parker is more serious than I’m used to seeing him. He’s doing this for me, to prove a point to everyone. He isn’t someone to mess with. He’s taken his rightful place as a leader, and the world will need to accept it.
I fist his shirt in my hands and take in the scent of it, and with his cologne lingering, I watch him disappear.
Chapter Forty-Six
Olivia
“Mine,” he whispers in my ear.
“Oh, this is bad,” I say, as Eva and I stare at the envelope that was placed under my door in the night.
It’s pictures of Emma on her trip and a typed note.Enjoy the swim?In case you get cold feet, Rabbit. Step lightly.The contents are strewn over the hotel bed but Eva can't see them. They’re pictures of my sister on the culinary club trip. She’s in bright-Luxxia blue, testing out food at different street markets. They’re all from different angles where she can’t see. The threat is implied.
