The ability to touch her properly. To claim her. To make sure she knows exactly who she belongs to.
Parker’s fingers tangle in my hair, pulling me closer, her body arching into mine. She makes that sound—the one that drives me crazy, breathy and needy and completely uninhibited now that we’re alone.
Or what I thought was alone.
Someone clears their throat.
Loud. Deliberate. Impossible to ignore.
I freeze, Parker still wrapped around me, both of us breathing hard.
Slowly, I turn my head.
Jace and Cal are in the living room. Jace is in one of the armchairs, his expression somewhere between amused and exasperated. Cal is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, a smirk playing at his lips.
“Don’t stop on our account,” Cal says helpfully.
Fuck.
I set Parker down carefully, her feet touching the hardwood floor, though I keep one hand at her waist because I’m not quite ready to let go entirely.
“I told you not yet,” I say to the room at large.
“They showed up right after you texted me,” Parker says, and there’s amusement in her voice even though her cheeks are flushed, her lips swollen from my kiss. “I wasn’t going to kick them out.”
“You could have texted me that they were here,” I point out.
“You were driving. I’m not going to text you while you’re driving.” She smooths down her dress, trying to look composed despite the fact that thirty seconds ago she had her legs wrapped around me. “Besides, whatever you need to tell me, they should probably hear too, right?”
She’s not wrong.
But still.
I was really looking forward to having her alone for a few minutes before diving into the shitstorm that is Ryan Matthews and Aria’s schemes.
“Fine,” I say, releasing her waist reluctantly. “But I wanted to talk to you first, firefly. This affects you most directly.”
“Then talk,” Parker says, moving into the living room and settling on the couch. She tucks her feet under her, looking up at me expectantly. “What happened?”
So I tell them. All of it.
The tail from the gala. The bug Parker planted working perfectly. Ryan’s call to Aria. Following him to her place. The conversationabout building alliances, about Aria knowing information about the twins’ paternity, about destabilizing Charles’s control.
Ryan catching me. His recruitment pitch. His confidence that I’d want to work outside the Carter organization. His threat to tell Charles about me and Parker.
My response.
When I finish, the silence is heavy.
Parker’s expression has shifted from curious to calculating to something harder.
“Aria doesn’t know anything,” she says finally. “She’s bluffing.”
“Are you sure?” Jace asks.
“Positive. She has no access to my medical records from California. She’s guessing, presenting speculation as facts to make herself valuable to Ryan.” Parker’s jaw tightens. “But Ryan doesn’t know she’s bluffing, which makes her dangerous.”
“And Ryan threatened to expose your relationship with Silas,” Cal says quietly. “Implied he knows about all three of us.”
