Chapter Six

“YOU’RE MOPING.”

“I’m not moping!”

Parker pulled the blanket over her head and lay back on her sofa. Maybe if she ignored her best friend, she would go away. Another week had passed since the embarrassing email fiasco. Before, she had been so scared to make another bad decision. Now she was just furious with herself for taking so long to decide that she had missed her chance with Kristina completely.

“Parker Anne Freeman. Get your ass off the sofa, get up those stairs, and get your butt ready to go out!”

God, Marion was being annoying. She’d showed up fifteen minutes ago already dressed, hair beautifully curled and a bottle of vodka in her hands, triumphantly declaring they were going to ladies’ night.

Parker didn’t want any of it.

“It’s cold outside.” She sounded petulant, she knew, but she just really didn’t want to do this. She didn’t feel like being the oldest person in the bar tonight. Marion didn’t count because she was married. “And I hate the Clam Dive. It’s tacky.”

Marion laughed.

“Oh no, Amanda hated the Clam Dive. She said it was tacky and didn’t want you going there. In hindsight it was probably so you didn’t end up running into her in there when she was supposed to be out of town. Now…”

The blanket was whipped off her head, and Parker stared up into the defiant dark eyes of her oldest friend.

“Up… Dressed… We’re going out. If you can’t do it for you, do it for me. Lily is watching Roland; I’m off starting tomorrow for two whole days in a row. I’m freaking free, and we are going to have a good time.”

Bitter, Parker took the offered hand and let Marion pull her to her feet.

“I hate you.” She grumbled as she passed Marion to head to the stairs.

“Hate you too. I’ll be up in a minute with some glasses.” She waved the bottle in her hand gleefully, and Parker could already feel the headache she was going to have tomorrow beginning.

 

“YOU NEEDED AN intervention!” Marion’s voice was slightly raised so she could be heard over the music. Admittedly, Parker did feel better. One of her favorite deep-red dresses looked amazing on her, her bare arms softly shaped once again, her stomach flatter, legs more toned—even she had been surprised looking at herself in the mirror. Running and watching what she ate, taking care of herself, was finally paying off.

“I can’t say I’m not glad we came.” She offered Marion a grateful smile, leaning back on her stool to catch the bartender’s eye and gesture for two more.

She did feel better, hair carefully styled around her shoulders, hoop earrings, eye makeup a few shades darker than she’d usually dare. The hum of liquor buzzed pleasantly through her veins. She did like the Clam Dive. Fuck Amanda.

“To new beginnings!” Marion clinked their glasses, and Parker took a healthy sip of whatever vodka cocktail they’d been drinking.

“Oh…” The mischief in her best friend’s voice instantly caught her attention. “Young, tan, and gorgeous coming through the door.” She watched Marion watch whoever she had spotted, not wanting to get caught staring.

“Maybe we should be looking for middle-aged, cute, and attainable?”

Marion swatted her arm, and she couldn’t help but giggle. I feel good. Taking another long sip of her drink, she turned on her stool slightly, following Marion’s line of sight.

All the alcohol in her bloodstream froze, and she snapped back to face the bar.

“Marion…that’s her.”

“That’s the spirit! You’re here, you’re hot, and forty is the new twenty, and-”

Parker cut her off.

“No, M. That’s Kristina.”

“What?” Marion whisper-hissed, turning back to her. “That…is Miss Perfect, goddess in bed, slightly kinky but treats you with respect and you liked it?”

Parker drained her glass.

“Oh, looks like she’s with someone.” Her best friend’s voice turned apologetic.

“That’s probably the new me. The person she’d already made an arrangement with by the time I got back to her.”

She was still tipsy, but somehow, it wasn’t as fun anymore.

Marion ordered four shots, but Parker just wanted to leave.

“Okay. She’s not seen you yet. So here’s what we’re going to do.”

Parker closed her eyes and took a deep breath, ready to tell Marion all she wanted to do was go home and start on the ten bottles of water she knew she was going to have to down before bed to curtail a raging hangover.

“Parker, you give up too easily! She moved on, so what? Tonight you’re going to drink, dance, find someone new, and make her regret passing on you for some little blonde bimbo.”

“Oh my God, is the new one young?” She couldn’t help but ask. Marion’s face betrayed the answer.

“Less talking, more shotting.”

They clinked the tiny glasses, and Parker tossed the shot back. It burned all the way down. She had barely gotten over the taste when the next was slid across the bar to her. She downed it before she could change her mind.

“Okay, they’re heading this way, so get your game face on.”

She panicked. Marion was smiling at her, soft and absolutely fake though to all the world it would look genuine.

“Laugh right now or I’ll wave her over here.”

She did, with murder in her eyes.

“She’s at the other side of the bar, sweetie. She sees you.”

Parker kept her eyes glued to Marion’s face, afraid to look anywhere else. Marion had always been a good actress, always known how to play things in college to make sure they both got the girl.

“Oh yeah…” Marion laughed softly, looking down at her drink and then back to Parker. “She’s still into you.”

Something spilled into her chest. Parker didn’t dare to recognize it as hope. Suddenly brave, she went to order another drink. When she turned in her seat to find the bartender, her eyes landed on Kristina’s dark ones.

She looked good. Her long hair was softly curled, and the thin straps of her dress displayed her collarbones and toned arms beautifully. Earlier in the night, the prolonged eye contact might have made her blush, but with the liquor making her bold she held those dark eyes easily, finally offering her a smile before she was the one to look away.

I can do this.

“Welcome back…”

Marion bumped her shoulder, and they laughed. This time it was real.

They talked at the bar. Parker didn’t even remember what the conversation had been about. Her eyes were never far from Kristina. The pool table had come free, and she had been dominating it ever since.

The woman with her was young, probably only a few years older than Kristina herself, bottle blonde, and Parker guessed she was attractive. Somehow next to Kristina she was just plain.

Everything in her stomach was knotted tight. She nodded absently along with whatever Marion was saying, her eyes caught on the bare skin of Kristina’s back, exposed by the low swoop in the fabric of her dress. She still remembered her fingers pressed there.

Kristina’s dark eyes flashed to her, catching her gaze, and she felt Kristina’s smugness that she was watching.

“Parker…”

Kristina bent low over the table, deliberate. The hem of her dress was riding high up the back of her thighs.

“Parker.”

She snapped her eyes back to Marion.

It was only when she went to reply that she realized her bottom lip had been caught between her teeth. She was sure she’d been biting it so hard there would be an indent left behind.

Marion’s eyes flicked back toward the pool table and then landed on Parker’s, heavy with an intent that was familiar in a way she couldn’t place.

“She’s watching…” Marion pushed up from her stool, slow and deliberate, and Parker’s stomach rolled. “Brace yourself.” The words were almost a whisper, and God this was always so weird, and it had been years since they’d done this last.

Fingers skimmed her cheeks, and her best friend stepped into her space. She closed her eyes, already knowing what was coming.

Marion’s kiss was different now. It started out slower; every press of her lips was deliberate, so different than the messy passion she’d known in the six confusing months they’d mistaken friendship for love in college.

It was a well-practiced dance, a routine she half remembered, and God bless Marion, she was going for it. She shoved Marion’s tongue out of her mouth with her own. As much as she knew it was meaningless, she still felt bad for LiLing. The woman was a saint, and she had put up with so much from both of them through the years.

She tried to imagine Kristina’s eyes on them, imagine her jealousy, imagine that rich, dark voice. You’re mine.

She heard Marion’s breath catch as she twisted her fingers in her hair. Marion stayed close to her when they parted, studying her face, though Parker sensed the effort it was taking her not to shudder.

“You owe me…” She leaned in and kissed her one more time, soft and slow, and Parker struggled not to laugh.

“I’m going to wash my mouth out first this time, since this one was for your benefit…” she quipped.

Marion stepped away with one last long look at her, and Parker fought the urge to wipe her mouth as she watched her best friend make a beeline for the bathroom. Oddly enough, the last time they had done that was the night Marion had met LiLing.

She turned back to the bar, a smug little smile on her face, a smolder in her eyes. When they sought out Kristina, she was vindicated.

Those dark eyes were on her, burning. Kristina’s knuckles were white around the pool cue, and Parker saw her swallow, hard. Even in the increasingly crowded space, for just a second, there was only the two of them in the world. Good.

The bartender slid another drink across the smooth surface to her with a wink, and she felt powerful, fixed, herself in a way she hadn’t, in so long.

“Oh we got her, all right.”

Marion slid down beside her and took the glass from her fingers as she lowered it from her lips. She took a long sip herself.

Parker stood from her stool.

“Going to cleanse yourself of the gross?”

She nodded. She loved Marion, but kissing her still felt how she imagined kissing your sister would.

The bar spun around her for a second as she stood. She laughed it off.

Kristina’s jealous.

She moved through the bar, aware of the eyes that followed her. A woman in a booth stepped in front of her, short cropped hair and glasses, offering to buy her a drink. Her heart soared, but she politely declined.

By the time she reached the small bathroom, she was smiling. The woman who greeted her in the mirror was vibrant. Maybe it was the alcohol, but her eyes were shining, big and bright, and her blonde hair was a rich gold against her slightly flushed complexion. She filled her dress in a way she hadn’t in years, and her dark lashes set off her crimson lips in a way she loved. She was back.

“Parker.” The door opened, letting in the sound of the music, and she turned. Kristina stood there as it closed again behind her, dark eyes alight.

“Kristina, how are you?” Parker turned back to her reflection, fixing her already-perfect hair.

“I’m…” She paused, and Parker watched her in the mirror. “I’m glad you were able to reconcile with your wife after all.”

“Oh, that’s not my ex-wife.”

For the first time, it felt truly good to call Amanda that. Kristina seemed to falter.

“You move quickly.” She seemed to recover herself, stepping up to the mirror beside the one Parker was using. She watched her reach up to run a thumb beneath her lower lip.

“So do you. I see you brought your new…partner.” Parker was careful to keep the malice out of her voice.

Kristina turned to her. Parker gripped the cool porcelain of the sink.

“My arrangement with Becca isn’t going to work.” Kristina’s voice spilled into something dark. “And if that woman isn’t your ex, would it be bold of me to assume that kiss was for my benefit?”

Parker’s heart jumped in her chest. Marion would be mad at her for tipping her hand, but fuck it. She didn’t want to play games; she just wanted her.

She took one last breath, one last glance at the woman in the mirror who, for the first time in years, she truly recognized.

She turned and her eyes met Kristina’s, and she couldn’t help but lick her lips at the sight of her.

“You’re here, aren’t you?”

Wow, my voice sounds like sex. She was about to congratulate herself on that, but Kristina spoke again.

“I don’t do jealousy, sweetheart.” Smugness danced in those black coffee eyes, and she stepped so close Parker’s head wanted to spin.

“Really?” She studied her. Looking down at her, watching her chest rise and fall with short breaths, Parker was brave. “So her hands on me, her lips on my lips, her tongue in my mouth, doesn’t bother you at all?”

Kristina’s eyes were unfathomable pools. Something flashed across her face too fast for Parker to name, and then they were kissing.

Fingers in her hair tugged her head down, and Kristina’s lips crashed into her own with bruising force. When a tongue skirted her lips, pushing inside her mouth, it was insistent, claiming. A hand held her hip, keeping them close, and Kristina’s kiss was just as consuming as she remembered. Parker surrendered to it, lost herself in it.

When they parted, they were both breathless. Kristina’s eyes flashed to the door and then back to her.

“Go into the stall, Parker.”

It wasn’t a request, and her heart stuttered and stopped, then raced at it. She felt brave, and bold, and wanted.

“Make me…”

Kristina’s nostrils flared, disbelief flashed across her beautiful face, and then a hand closed around Parker’s arm like a vise. Parker let herself be dragged into the stall, and pushed back against the wall, hard.

Kristina closed the door and slid the little lock into place. She paused there, back turned. The anticipation made Parker’s body burn.

“Is this what you wanted?”

The words were barely above a whisper, but somehow they were loud in the quiet of the restroom. Kristina stepped toward her, predatory on five-inch heels. Impatient, Parker reached out to catch her around the back of her neck and pull her in to meet her mouth.

Hands were on her, a messiness in her touch that hadn’t been there before—whether it was due to alcohol or urgency, Parker couldn’t say. Fingers slid between her back and the wall, falling lower, lower, lower until Kristina was squeezing her ass, hard.

Lips attacked her mouth, trailing messily across her cheek, teeth grazing her chin, and then Kristina was feasting on her throat. Head back, eyes closed, Parker was lost and she was absolutely, gloriously found.

Kristina sucked rough over her pulse point, and Parker hummed a warning at the mark she knew was being left behind. When Kristina raised her head, there was fire in her eyes.

“Well?”

It was what Parker wanted, and she hissed her agreement as she shoved Kristina back into the opposite wall of the stall and descended on her greedily. She kissed her long, hard, thoroughly, braver now than she had ever been. She felt the stiff peaks of Kristina’s nipples through the thin material of their dresses, their bodies crushed together in the small space.

Since that very first meeting their chemistry had been explosive, but here, in a dirty public bathroom, working a thigh between Kristina’s, surprised when the move set a tan one between her own, Parker could barely believe her own actions. This woman was dynamite to her. She blew her wide open and set free a part of herself she’d thought was long lost.

Fingers twisted hard in her hair. The flash of pain was acceptable given the pleasure that spiked in her gut as Kristina pulled her impossibly closer, pressing her hips down into her thigh, while Parker pushed her own harder between tan legs. Kristina’s breath caught. Hands squeezed her ass hard. Parker felt them working on the back of her dress, pulling it up and up and up, and God I want it off, hers, Kristina’s, all of it.

Forgetting to be shy, she covered Kristina’s breast, lathing her tongue up the side of her neck, enjoying the soft weight of it in her hands, feeling the firmness of her nipple.

The hands on her ass dragged her forward, running the length of her along Kristina’s leg and grinding her own thigh into Kristina at the same time. Parker let out a shuddering breath, feeling Kristina’s body flex beneath her.

Dark eyes found her own; then fingers were around her throat, and she was falling backward. The hard expanse of the wall caught her, Kristina’s other hand behind her head, saving it from impact.

Kristina didn’t waste a second. As soon as they were moved she was reaching up to kiss her again, Parker’s dress hiked obscenely around her waist, taunting fingers running too soft over the wet material of her underwear.

Parker let out a whine.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

She didn’t answer the question, leaning down to kiss her. The hands in her hair turned to a vise, holding her back.

“I want to watch you, baby…”

Heat exploded in her chest. The hand between her legs cupped her, giving her just enough pressure to be absolutely maddening.

“That’s right…” Kristina’s eyes were dancing, triumphant, hungry. “You’re mine.”

Am I?

“What about your brand-new sub?”

Parker hadn’t meant to say the words, but they spilled out anyway, breathless.

A beat passed, and then the change in Kristina was immediate. The fingers in her hair went loose, the hand between her legs fell away, and Parker wanted to scream, to cry, to beg. Why do I ruin everything?

“You’re right.”

She watched Kristina run a hand through her hair, cursing.

“I need to end things with her first.”

God, she has morals? Parker knew she should be pleased, but holy crap, she just wanted to finish what they had started, what her body was coiled tight, hot, wet, aching for.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I owe it to her to do the right thing and end things respectfully.”

Kristina’s bottom lip was between her teeth, and Parker leaned back against the wall, unashamed. Kristina’s gaze ascended her bare legs slowly, lingering on her exposed panties at their apex for a few long seconds. Kristina grit her teeth.

“Pull down your dress.”

Parker did, grudgingly.

“Can I pick you up tomorrow, maybe at noon? We can get lunch and talk.” Kristina swallowed hard, hungry eyes searching Parker’s face as she continued, “Maybe finish what we started here?”

Parker didn’t want to wait, but what choice did she have? Drunk as she was, she wanted her, now.

“Fine.”

She was pleased with herself for the iciness in her tone.

Kristina nodded, smoothing her hair and straightening her dress.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

She moved to the door. Her fingers lingered on the lock. Parker’s heart beat hard as she hoped, stupidly, desperately, selfishly, that Kristina would give up whatever moral high ground she was trying to maintain and just turn around and fuck her like they both clearly wanted.

“May I kiss you good night?”

She had not been expecting that. Kristina’s shoulders were stiff, the words careful.

“That depends on what you plan on doing afterwards?”

Kristina crossed the space back to her, trapping her against the wall. “I plan on taking Becca home safely and ending our arrangement respectfully.”

Parker wanted so much to be mad at her. Kristina’s dark eyes roamed her face. Her tongue darted out to wet full lips as her voice dropped low, rougher.

“And then I plan on going home and trying not to keep myself up all night thinking about you, Parker, while I wait to see you again tomorrow.”

The words hit her low in the gut, the thought of Kristina…keeping herself up…was sweet, sweet torture, as ridiculously keyed up as she already was. Kristina was studying her face, and Parker knew she was waiting. The question came again, softer.

“May I kiss you, sweetheart?”

Damn this woman. Parker swallowed hard. The intensity that had lived between them since their very first meeting was thick in the air now, and the need for her was like a physical ache. She had tasted the upper hand, and a little part of her enjoyed pushing Kristina’s buttons, playing with her.

She imagined Kristina wasn’t used to asking permission for anything. She paused, giving herself a moment to remember this, then took great joy in granting it.

“You may.”