crossed to an antique highboy that used to belong to Parker’s grandfather. It was where he kept his liquor. Opening the front panels, I took out a crystal old-fashioned and the decanter half-full of scotch. I poured an inch or so into the glass, replaced the decanter, and walked to the sofa.
Parker was watching me as I set the glass on the table at his elbow. It was a ritual we often had on evenings we both worked late. Personally, for as hard as he worked I thought Parker deserved a drink far earlier in the evening, but he never touched a drop until after nine o’clock. I wished I had half his discipline and self-control.
Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees as he picked up the glass. His gaze dropped to my bare feet and I was absurdly glad I’d had a pedi recently. My toes were a sparkly Cozu-Melted-in-the Sun pink.
We didn’t speak, but the silence was comfortable to me as I resumed my spot on the floor. Parker and I had an understanding. At least, I understood him. He made me feel needed—necessary—and as an only child who’d never been really needed by anyone, I liked that. And I liked him.
My mom had been bugging me lately to “get a real job” that actually pertained to my degree, but I’d brushed her off, even when she’d intimated my father “knew people” who could help me. I wanted to get a job on my own merits. Besides, I had plenty of time to worry about my career in art history. For now, I was content being an executive administrative assistant to Parker, and times like this reminded me of why that was the case.
Dragging another box down from the now shorter stack, I began sorting through it, scooting between my piles as I labeled and made notes. The only sounds were that of the music, the quiet beep of my scanner, and the shuffle of paper. It was a companionable moment, just the two of us. Then he had to go and ruin it.
“I saw you and Ryker tonight,” Parker said out of the blue.
I glanced around to see his gaze steady on me.
“Earlier,” he continued. “You were leaving with him.” His tone was difficult to read, his expression impossible.
Unsure how to respond, I opted for the truth and, considering their earlier hostility toward each other, vagueness. “He asked me to dinner,” I said with a shrug. “So, I went.”
Parker took a large drink of scotch before replying. I watched the exposed skin of his throat move as he swallowed.
“Ryker’s not a bad guy,” he said, his gaze focused on his drink. “Just perhaps not your type.”
My eyebrows climbed at that. Not my type? A hot guy with abs of steel wasn’t my type? “And you know what my type is?” Irritation tinged with exhaustion made me speak more sharply than was wise and Parker’s eyes flashed to mine at my tone.
“I’m trying to give you a warning,” he said, his voice flat. “I suggest you heed it.” Tossing back the rest of his drink, he rose from the couch and went back behind his desk. With a few taps on the keyboard, I was dismissed, his attention now firmly fixed elsewhere.
Turning away from him, I resumed my task, now wishing I’d thought a little more before reacting to his words. I could’ve had a chance to ask him about this morning, about what Ryker had wanted, or even about how they knew each other, but it was pretty obvious Parker was done with talking, at least for now.
Focusing on my job—daydreaming and speculating wouldn’t get this done any quicker—I kept at it. Crawling on all fours to the farthest piles for scanning, then restacking papers inside the boxes from which they’d come. I would’ve been a bit self-conscious about some of the positions I was in if I hadn’t known that Parker had no interest in me in that way. In the year I’d worked for him, he’d never, not even once, said or so much as hinted at something inappropriate.
Which was a damn shame.
I sighed. Ryker must have ratcheted up my hormones. Normally I wouldn’t let a thought like that even get put into words inside my head.
I glanced Parker’s way a few times, trying to do so inconspicuously, just because I liked to look at him. With his tie discarded and his cuffs turned back, he sat back in his chair, an elbow