Alliance – Chapter 15

Parker needed a break from his planning so he went to Skylar’s just before one o’clock that afternoon.  When he realized she wasn’t home, he let himself in to wait.  It annoyed him that she was never home, even though she had no way to know when he was coming over.  He needed to tell her the truth, but every minute that ticked by while he waited took away a piece of his nerve.

Parker summoned his thoughts back once he heard Skylar’s voice and walked out into the living room where she waited.  “That was no way to greet a guest,” he chided.

She rolled her eyes.  “You are not a guest.”

“True,” Parker responded, nodding.  “I’m your boyfriend.”

“I am not in the mood for this right now.  What do you want?”  Skylar asked as she slumped down onto the sectional.

“I needed to talk to you about something.” Parker paused.  “What’s your deal?”

“Nothing.  I’m just sick of coming home every day to find a burglar waiting for me.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t be waiting if you weren’t always out when I came over.” He shook his head. That didn’t matter. “Besides, I’m a con artist, not a burglar.  There’s a difference.  One takes finesse.”

Skylar touched her hand to her face and let out a loud sigh.  “Why can’t you just use the phone like a normal person?”

Parker smiled.  “I’m not a normal person. And I already told you I didn’t like to discuss this sort of thing over the phone.”

Skylar shook her head.  “Fine, you win.  What did you come here to tell me?”

Why did she look like she was about to cry? No power on this earth could make him tell her the truth if this was a PMS thing. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good.”

“Wow. You really are a smooth talker, aren’t you?”

“I didn’t mean…”

“I don’t care.” She dropped her gaze to the carpet. “I’d like for you to stop spending so much time in my bedroom when I’m not here.” Her eyes shot back to his with sapphire flames burning inside. “I don’t know you. It’s creepy.”

Clearly, she wasn’t about to cry anymore. “It’s not like I’m rifling through your panty drawer, sweetheart.”

“I don’t care if you’re in there washing the windows, it’s still my private space, even if you can apparently walk in here whenever the hell you feel like it.”

“Look, I can’t wait out in the open for you to get home and I can’t be sitting on the couch in case you have someone with you when you get here. I can either wait in your bedroom or the bathroom.” The corner of his lips twitched, but he didn’t let the full smile form. “But I think it would be creepier for me to be waiting behind the shower curtain for you.” The smile won the battle. “Unless you’d like me to surprise you while you’re in the nude, that is.”

Skylar regarded him for a moment, then shook her head. “Oh, I bet you’d enjoy that.” She tapped her index finger against her lips a few times. “Is the real reason I always come home to find you here that you’re trying to get a peek at the goods?” She shrugged and lifted her arms out to either side. “You can get your fill of looking, but it’s still hands off.”

Parker was about to answer her when a knock at the door interrupted them. Whoever it was had damn good timing. When she’d moved her arms, it changed something about the angle with her shirt and a lacy edge to her bra was beckoning to him from the low neckline of her blouse. It would help him sell his answer if his eyes weren’t glued to her breasts.

She rose and brushed by him on the way to the door. Against his will, his eyes strayed to her ass. Fitted black slacks were a definite improvement over the baggy jeans she seemed to favor. He tore his eyes up to meet hers as she looked back to him from the viewer.

Her eyes were wide with an annoyance that didn’t seem to be because she caught him ogling her.

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like he has a badge in his hand,” she whispered, urgent.  “You shouldn’t be here when I open the door.”

Parker nodded.  “I’ll wait in the bedroom.”

“Are you kidding me?” Even though she was too short to be intimidating, she advanced on him and caught his arm before he made it to her room. “Didn’t we just talk about this?”

His eyes swept over the room. “I’m pretty sure a cop will notice me hiding under the coffee table, so where did you want me to go, sweetheart?” He inched nearer to her. “Or did you want me to wait in the shower for you? You balked at that suggestion before, but never gave me an answer of substance.”

Was now really the time to test the limits of the sexual tension between them? A cop was standing on the other side of the door and he was considering breaking his number one rule when on a con. Like the seething woman in front of him, he didn’t mix business and pleasure unless it was a necessary part of the plan.

And he didn’t need to seduce her to get to Raptor.

Yet Parker still found himself considering it. For Skylar Montgomery, he would toss out all his carefully constructed rules of the game. If this were about anything other than Raptor, he would take her to bed without a second thought for the score he was blowing. Based solely on the sexual chemistry smoldering in the few inches of space separating their bodies, the trade would be worth it.

Well worth it.

But this was about Raptor. For that reason – and that reason alone – sex with Skylar was off the table until after the last play was made. It didn’t matter that she still hadn’t released his arm, or that one of her fingers was stroking it.

It figured that she wasn’t going to make this easy on him.

She stared at him, barely breathing until they heard another knock at the door. Skylar finally shook herself out of it and shoved him into the bedroom. “Just be quiet and leave my underwear alone.”

“I wouldn’t think of touching a thing until I get an invitation.”

“Keep dreaming. Not gonna happen.”

“We’ll see.” He grinned and stepped out of sight from the front door. “You were thinking about the shower. We both know it.”

Unfortunately, so was he.

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