Page 101 of Parker

Wouldn’t be the first time.

But Quinn just smiled. “It’s okay, Parker. Like I said, it wasn’t like I was hiding something bad. I guess I’m just so used to keeping everything locked inside, that I…” She sighed. “I don’t know. But you… I totally get why you didn’t tell me what you do on the side. I mean, the threat of prison time is a pretty good motivator to keep quiet, right?”

He was quiet for a moment, those eyes of his filled with an admiration she didn’t understand.

“What are the odds?” His tone was almost wistful. “Two people like us meeting the way we did. Reuniting the way we did, and then—”

“Falling in love the way we did,” Quinn finished for him. She leaned down and kissed him again, just because she could.

It was meant to be a sweet, playful kiss…but Parker had other ideas.

The man’s impressive six pack flexed against her as he lifted his upper half into a sitting position. Their tongues met, Quinn swallowing his primal growl as her tank top-covered breasts pressed against his.

Frayed, faded jean shorts stretched high on her thighs as she locked her ankles behind him, and his steely bulge ground teasingly against her aching core.

She tilted her head to the side as Parker left a trail of hot, wet kisses along her racing pulse. “How much time do we have?”

“Don’t care.” More breathless kisses.

Quinn giggled. “Everyone’s coming here soon.” A low moan bubbled up from her throat when he nibbled the place where her neck and shoulders met. “We have to be ready.”

“Iamready.” Parker kissed his way back up to her lips before pulling away to meet her gaze once more. “Are you?”

The emotion she found reflected in those hazel eyes left her breath hitching, and Quinn realized he wasn’t talking about the party they had planned for later that day.

“Parker?”

“I’m ready, Quinn.” He ran the back of his knuckles down her cheek. “I’m ready for this. For us.”

“Me, too.” She smiled, her heart feeling as though it wouldburstfrom the love she felt for this man. “I’m ready, too.”

Green and brown speckles shone in the late morning sun. “Are you sure? Because I’m a selfish bastard, sweetheart. I want it all. Marriage, kids… Or if you don’t want kids, that’s okay, too. We’ll get a dog. Or another cat. Or a…turtle.”

“A turtle?” She snickered. “Really?”

Another cat, she could understand, given how quickly Parker had taken to Oreo. Who, as luck would have it, showed back up the same day they’d flown back to her townhouse to box everything up for the move.

It had been a tearful reunion for all involved. The final missing piece of her crazy, unbelievable, far-from-traditional Cinderella story.

Last Quinn checked, the black and white ball of fur was napping in her new favorite spot—smack dab in the center of Parker’s bed.

“Baby, I’ll get you a damn tarantula if that’s what you want.” He cringed. “I won’t go near the fucking thing, but if that’s what will make you happy, then that’s exactly what you’ll get.”

Crazy thing was the sweet, totallyunselfish man meant every single word. But as she’d once told him before, she didn’t need him to buy her things to make her happy.

I only need him.

Quinn was curious, though…

“What about you?” She posed the question back to its original creator.

Parker frowned. “What about me?”

“What will make you happy?”

He stared back at her, those soul-steeling eyes of his seeing and accepting every part of the person she’d become. Her past and present, her aversion to photographers and living in the public eye… None of that mattered to the man in her arms.

Which only made her love him even more.

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