He’d taken off his tie and undone the top two buttons on his shirt, and even as I processed this, he crouched down so he was closer to my level.
Reaching out, he gently brushed my arm with his fingers. He touched the bruises Vladimir had left and appeared to be studying them, his forehead creased in a frown. Our eyes met.
He didn’t speak, but his face softened. His hand drifted from my arm to my cheek, brushing away a damp trail I hadn’t been successful in holding back.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
My face heated and I couldn’t look in his eyes. I lowered my lashes, shifting my shoulders in a shrug, as I didn’t trust my voice to answer. What was his cryptic apology for? Making out with me? Or the effect it’d had on me when he hadn’t delivered on what had seemed a done deal? He didn’t elaborate and I didn’t want to ask.
Parker brushed my hair back from my face, his hand slowly tangling in the long, thick strands. I lifted my gaze to his eyes, which shone like silver in the low light.
He didn’t say anything else and for just this one brief moment, everything between us was stripped bare. I had nothing to hide behind—no duties or pencil skirt, no French twist or steno pad. I’d do anything for Parker, even make myself incredibly vulnerable to him in the most intimate way, and now he knew it.
I tried to see anything in his eyes, anything that might show he felt something for me. Something more than the usual gratitude and appreciation a boss had for a particularly hard worker. But it was impossible to tell.
He stood, his hand drawing slowly back, the locks of my hair slipping between his fingers, and I felt the same overwhelming disappointment that had consumed me earlier. He leaned down over me, and for a breathless moment, I thought I was wrong, that he was going to kiss me and take up where we’d left off. But he didn’t.
His lips pressed against my forehead, and my eyes slipped shut; then he moved away. I watched in silence as he took off his shirt and drew his T-shirt over his head. Pressing the switch on the television, he turned it off and I heard the rustle of clothing as he finished undressing, then the slight creak of the other bed.
I didn’t know how long it took him to fall asleep. I just knew I lay awake for a long time, staring at the vague outline of him in the darkness, mere feet away.
* * *
The door closing to the room woke me in the morning. I sat up, disoriented from too little sleep, and realized Parker was gone.
I flopped back down, heaving a sigh of relief. Put off facing my boss, who knew I wanted to sleep with him? Yes, please.
It had been a long night and I hadn’t fallen asleep until the wee hours of the morning. My mind had been spinning, trying to think of how I was going to continue business as usual with Parker. I hadn’t come up with a solution before exhaustion had overtaken me.
I was sure to hurry into the shower and get ready as quickly as possible. The armor of my usual work clothes helped me not think about last night, and I was just putting the last pin in my hair when the door opened.
Parker must have gone to work out again, because I could hear him breathing heavily and the scent of his sweat drifted to me. Nerves twisted my stomach into knots and I grabbed my purse and slipped on my heels.
“I’m going to get some coffee,” I said without looking at him; then I was out the door and heading down the hallway before he’d even had a chance to say a word.
Coffee was all I was getting because the thought of eating and then spending the next eight hours locked in a conference room with Parker made me physically ill. There was a Starbucks in the lobby and habit made me get Parker’s usual as well as a triple soy mocha (add whip) for me. I glanced at my watch, knowing that the meeting began at eight-thirty. When it was five after, I grudgingly returned to the room, wishing I had a shot of whiskey to put in my coffee.