Page 56 of Just One Bite

He’s going lower, and my soft sighs turn into panting breaths. His palm cups the small of my back to hold me straighter. It’s obvious how much I want him. How much I love him. And even more obvious how I don’t want him to stop touching me. We’re made for each other .

My other strap falls, and he whispers, “Why do I feel like you’d let me strip you right now if I asked?”

“We shouldn’t.”

My phone isn’t near. Searching around, I don’t see any cameras.

“But you’d like me to make you come, wouldn’t you?”

I swallow.

We’re completely alone, and he caresses between my legs, and when I squirm, his fingers move under my suit, touching the sensitive skin there but never where I need him.

“Is this casual, baby? The way you want me inside you right now … Would you say this is fake?”

His tongue runs up my neck until it grazes over his mark. My entire body spasms at the pleasure of it.

“I could make you come like this … from my mark. If you hated me, I’d know. It wouldn’t feel this good.”

I’m shaking my head. Panting. The further I let him go, the more guilty I feel.

But I love him.

I love him.

I love him.

I whimper when he moves his fingers and stops.

“Are you aching that bad for me, baby?”

“Parker. Please touch me.”

“Yeah? Why?” His voice is hard against my ear while he runs his fingers back and forth under the edge of my swimsuit bottoms.

“I need you.” My voice nearly breaks.

It’s an admission to more, and he knows because he melts into me.

“Mate.” His breath rushes over my neck before he sucks. My entire body thrums with need, while his tongue teases the delicate skin. There’s an ache in my breasts and between my legs when his suction grows harder. “You get whatever you want from me.”

The sounds of my panting and the trickling of water echo in the bathhouse, so I whisper his name.

He knows what I want.

Those thick fingers run over my opening, and I’m so close just from his tongue, then he fills me, pressing into me where I ache, and I cry out, the sound ricocheting in the empty bathhouse.

For a moment, it’s not enough. I need him buried inside me.

I miss him. But he makes it enough. The combination of his tongue on my neck while his fingers are buried inside me draws the orgasm out of me like the snap of a rubber band.

That and the memory of him, hands on the headboard, spilling into me.

He kisses my neck while the pleasure spreads through my body, and I ride it out in his arms, gripping the edge of the pool.

His eyes are pure blue. Wide, blown pupils, but soft and contemplative. It’s all him.

“You know, I could do so many things right now, including bending you over the side of this and giving you exactly what you want, but I’m playing the long game and finally claiming what is mine. Tomorrow. No more faking.”

I lean against him, closing my eyes.

“Parker, I … I did mean it. I love you. That wasn’t a lie.”

I don’t know what it changes, but I need him to know. No matter what happens from here on out, Parker has to know it was never fake for me, and I do want it to work even if I’m a coward. There’s a part of me that still believes. He makes me want to.

My forehead meets his, and he asks, “What do you need?”

“I want to go to my room. I’m so tired.”

I’m being lifted out of the water in his arms. He drops me momentarily, shakes out a towel, and wraps it around my waist.

“Hold on to me.”

He picks me up like I’m his bride, and I wrap my arms around his neck.

His skin is so hot and perfect. I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, pretending for a moment it’s just us.

No one else matters. I can’t believe he’s still here fighting for me. It would have been easier to let me go.

Parker keeps choosing me. It’s deliberate and calculated and hard. Nothing is easy for him, being here surrounded by these people who do nothing but challenge him. He’s doing all of this for me.

“You know … whatever happens. If this all falls apart, I’d still run away with you. Go to the city just you and me,” he says.

“You would … even if …”

“Even if. Yeah.”

I’m tempted to finish my sentence anyway, but it doesn’t matter to him. No matter the circumstance, he’ll still want me.

“That’s good to know.”

Everyone is afraid of who Parker will become, and they should be. He’s going to live up to every expectation of greatness, and I want to be by his side when he does.

My eyes open when he places me on the floor.

We stay close, with my head pressed against his chest. I want him to come in.

I want to give in and take his offer, run away to the city, just the two of us, but that won’t solve this.

It won’t stop people from targeting us. The only way to do that is to fight back.

He pulls a shirt from his bag. “Here. Hopefully this is the last night we’re ever apart.”

I bring it to my face and inhale. There’s something primal about the way it relaxes me.

“So you can sleep.”

Just as I contemplate asking him to stay, my door opens. Eva is in my hotel room, in some type of raincoat, and her hair is a mess.

“You came.” The emotion of seeing her spills from my eyes, and I wrap my arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Thank them. It was not easy to get here. We took a fishing boat.”

That explains the smell.

When I look back, Parker is whispering with Zant in the hallway.

“Wait, you did this?” I ask.

Zant holds a finger to his lips. “Not easy. All Parker’s idea.”

Parker is more serious than I’m used to seeing him. He’s doing this for me, to prove a point to everyone. He isn’t someone to mess with. He’s taken his rightful place as a leader, and the world will need to accept it.

I fist his shirt in my hands and take in the scent of it, and with his cologne lingering, I watch him disappear.