the water.
Parker unlocked the truck and helped her up. After a lingering caress on her leg, he closed the door and went to his side and pulled himself in.
He didn’t say anything when he turned off far before they got home.
In the beachfront parking, he backed the truck up as close as he could to the sand and turned off the ignition. Then he went back to her side.
“What are we doing here?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice how often your gaze cut to the water and the storm over it? I know you love watching them. Come on, let’s go down to the beach and watch your storm come ashore.”
The excitement in her gaze made him feel as if he’d handed her a key to the world. “I just need to take off my shoes.”
“I got them.”
He crouched by her and unhooked the dual buckles on her shoes before removing each one and placing them on the floorboard of the truck. Her joy was worth any existing pain he had in his leg. She took his offered hand and hopped out. “Oh God, that feels so much better.”
He slammed the door behind her and tugged her back against him. “Uncomfortable, were they?”
“You have no idea.”
“Well, you did mention the thong was uncomfortable, as well. I’m more than willing to remove that for you, too.”
She gazed up at him over her shoulder. “What makes you think I didn’t already take it off in the restaurant?”
His dick was ready to declare mutiny on him. Holy fuck, this woman. What she did to him.
She laced their fingers and dragged him down over the sand to the water. He didn’t go farther, because he still wore his dress shoes, so she released him and went in until the water was up to her ankles.
“I don’t trust my mom to keep her mouth shut,” he blurted out as she came back to his side, her face aglow in the flashes of light from the incoming storm. “Once it comes out about this thing between us being fake.”
She paused before him, hands at her sides and head canted a tiny bit to the left. He loved how she gave him her full attention; even if they weren’t on the same page, she always gave him the respect of all her focus.
“And you think you’ll be pushed more toward Cullen’s mother.”
He nodded, reaching out and twining two fingers in her hair, which moved in the strengthening wind.
“My mom isn’t exactly known for her subtlety.”
“Really?” she deadpanned. “I hadn’t noticed.”
A laugh burst from him and pressed tiny kisses along her lips. This woman amazed him.
“I don’t want Gemma in my life in the way she’s angling for. My mom’s like a pit bull when she gets something in her head.”
“She’s your mom. I’m sure she feels she knows what’s best for her baby boy.”
“I’m not in diapers.”
She rested her head against his arm as they walked. “I know that, Parker. I just mean that to her, you’ll always be her baby. No matter how old you are. Kind of the same way I suspect you’d be if you had a little girl. No man who came close to her would be good enough.”
“Fuck no they wouldn’t.”
He tried to imagine a baby girl with anyone but her and fell short. Even as they strolled, he couldn’t help but feel more admiration for this woman who, despite the boorish behavior shown her by his own mother, defended her actions.
They walked for a while in silence, picking up shells and watching as the storm grew more impressive the closer it got. When he wanted to get her away from it, he steered them back to their starting point and up to the truck.
The first drops of rain had begun as he left the lot and pointed the truck toward home.
Home.
That’s what it was with the woman in the passenger seat.
But would he find a way to keep her in his life after this blew up? It was bound to; he knew this, understood she did, too. Tonight with his parents proved that. It had been about getting into her bed, then to keep Gemma at bay and his mom off her planning a wedding, but he could still see there was something huge Skylar was keeping from him. She said all the right words, had all the correct action, but still, something lingered in her eyes that was full of pain in her past. Something he wanted to know.
Chapter Eight
Skylar