attempted to talk to you about how you’re feeling these past few weeks you’ve distracted me and opted for sex instead? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the sex—I can barely keep my hands off you either.” A soft, lopsided smile pulled at her lips but didn’t reach her eyes. “But we haven’t had a real conversation since we left Fairchild’s lodge. We were closer then but now… you have a tendency to withdraw and keep everything to yourself when it comes to emotional support. And it … hurts.”
Fuck. “Parker—”
“Today, I saw you with another woman … and it hurt so much. It reminded me how painful it is when you lose someone you care about.” She nodded, tears spilling down her pretty cheeks. “You… you have power over me, and I don’t think,” she swallowed hard, “I don’t think this is going to work if one of us feels more than the other.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Why the fuck would you think you feel more for me than I feel for you? It’s not true. You have power over me too.”
“Rhys, I don’t—”
I reached out, hooking an arm around her waist and easily drew her up against me. She gasped at the sudden movement. “You’re right; I’m not good at letting people get close, or letting them help me. But I have with you. I told you all my shit and you convinced me to talk to Dean. I asked you to help organize the exhibition fight and you stepped up… if I’ve been distant since then, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. But Parker, you’re all that I think about. You are the only purely good and clean thing in my life that’s just for me. I promise to try harder at talking to you about shit instead of burying it, if you promise to stop having entire conversations between us in your head.”
She pressed a hand to my heart, surely able to feel it racing. But she pursed her lips wryly. “I do not have entire conversations between us in my head.”
My smile was tremulous—because, fuck, she’d scared the hell out of me with her talk of letting go. I held her closer. “Yeah? Don’t you think it might better to talk to me before deciding you and I aren’t right for each other?”
Parker sighed and rested her head on my shoulder with a thud. “This was the talk to see if we’re right for each other, Rhys.”
“Ah.” I cleared my throat. “Like I said, I’m not really any good at conversations like this. But I’ll try, Parker. I swear, I’ll try.”
“I know you will,” she whispered. “If you tell me you’ll do something, you always do it.” Slowly, she wrapped her arms around my neck, and I squeezed my eyes shut, not realizing how much I needed that simple touch too.
We stood together for a minute, getting used to each other again. I’d never had an argument with a woman where the outcome had the potential to ruin me. That right there told me all I needed to know about how much I was invested in Parker.
She needed me to communicate more. So I’d communicate more. I’d let her all the way in. My hand slid down her slim back, stroking, soothing. “You’re not even gonna ask who she was?”
Parker stiffened, but she let out a breath and met my eyes. “I kind of forgot to in the heat of the moment.”
My eyes crinkled, even though I still felt bruised and battered as though I’d gone twelve rounds. “It was Marcy. That’s who you saw me with.”
Her body jolted as if pinched and she turned her head slightly, the tips of her fingers digging into my neck. “Marcy?”
“Yes, Marcy. Jake’s wife. We grew up together. She’s like a sister to me. I’ve been looking out for her ever since Jake …” I shook my head and exhaled hard. “That hug you saw? I was trying to comfort her because she still misses him.”
Silence filled the air broken only by the crash of thunder. Parker blinked at me as if she were confused. Then her head tipped forward, the silky strands of her hair falling into her face. “Well, shit. I feel like an ass.”
Her curse made me chuckle. But then I grew serious. “Don’t. If I saw you hugging some guy, I’d have lost it.”
Parker hummed, then pressed her lips to the sensitive curve of my neck. “You won’t have to worry