Parker's Passion (14 page)

“Or she’s been doing this
a long time?” Kristi filled her glass with water and took a sip. “I swear, that woman works harder than anyone I know.”

“We only come on the weekends,” Cam said. “It’s probably not so crazy during the week.”

“Still… How cool would it to be a psychic waitress?” Something in Drew’s tone caught Kaitlin’s attention; it sent pings down her spine. He glanced at her, then at Parker. His jaw firmed. His intention rolled over her in a wave.
Oh no.
“What do you think, Kaitlin?”

She steeled her spine, forcing her panic away. “I wouldn’t know, Drew,” she said. “I’m not a waitress.”

“But you are a psychic.”

Parker stiffened at her side. Kaitlin tried not to wince at the sudden shift in his energy.
“I’m not a mind reader, Drew.”

“Aren’t you?” Drew’s laugh was harsh.
His gaze raked around the table. “Isn’t she?”

“Drew.” Patrick’s voice rumbled a dark warning.

“What? We all know it. You know it, don’t you, Parker? You’re her…
boyfriend
. Surely you would know that.”

She could feel Parker staring at her. Sense his confusion and a ripple of fear and betrayal. Kaitlin
fiddled with the paper of her straw. She couldn’t bear to look at him. Couldn’t bear to see her worst fears come true.

Oh dam
n.

Damn Drew.

Damn herself.

She should have been brave. She should have just taken the bull by the horns and told him.

“Kaitlin?” Parker’s voice was low, almost a whisper. “Kaitlin, look at me.”

It took
everything in her to tip her head, to meet his eyes.

And yes. Everything she’d felt was there
in his expression. “Parker—”

He glanced around the table, then took her arm and tugged. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Really?” Did Drew need to bellow? “Another walk? What is it with you two and walking—”

“Drew.” Patrick again, in tandem with Holt. “Shut up.”

Kaitlin ignored the sudden tension at the table and slipped from her seat, following Parker like a zombie. She knew. She just knew what was coming, and it devastated her.

He led her out the front door and waved to the bench under the overhang of the bar’s porch where the smokers usually hung out. They were not there tonight. “Can we talk?” he asked.

“Sure.” He might not have heard her, as her chin was tucked so low. But she sat, and he sat next to her. Silence wreathed them. It was not a comfortable silence. She couldn’t stand it. She had to say something.  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Tell me?”

“About it.”

He tipped her face up. “Tell me now.”

Oh lord.
He wanted her to tell him about it. He wanted to know what it was. She comforted herself with the knowledge he hadn’t just backed away, the way some people did.

“I don’t know how.” She shrugged. “It’s just who I am, Parker.”

“You said you don’t read minds…”

She snorted. “No. It’s colors and feelings. Energy patterns. Things like that.” She set her hand on his arm. “Are you freaked out?”

His smile was a miracle. “A little.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Everyone likes to think they have secrets.”

“I don’t know everything.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Just most things. And with some
people, only when I touch them. That’s why…”

“Why, what?”

“That’s why I hadn’t, you know, before now.”

“You know?”

“You know.”

“Well, I don’t know.” He gusted a laugh
, but it was a shallow one. “I’m
not
psychic.”

She became suddenly obsessed with the hem of her blouse. “Why I’d
never…been with someone.”

He gaped at her. His throat worked. “Wait. What?”

“It was always painful, when I touched someone. Always…too much. But when I touched you, there was that one flash of pain…and then nothing but pleasure. It—”

“Wait… You’d never
been
with someone before?”

She stared up at him, her eyes wide. Shook her head. “Just you.” A whisper.

His jaw went slack. He was quiet for quite some time. “Well, shit, Kaitlin. You should have told me.”

“Why?”

“So I could, I don’t know, make it better? Be gentle?”

“You were wonderful. You are wonderful.”

He shook his head. “I just can’t wrap my brain around this.”

Her heart sank. She set her hand on his arm. “I’m only a little psychic.” Okay. A lie. Probably.

His snort surprised her. “Not
that
, Kaitlin. Christ, you were a virgin?”

“Yes.”

“How could I not have known that?”

“
Did you expect a fanfare? Confetti fluttering from the ceiling?”She bit back a smile. Confetti would have been nice.

“Isn’t there supposed to be pain or blood or something awful?”

“Silly. This isn’t the middle ages. And I had no pain. It was different—“

“Different?”
He reared back, an affronted expression on his face.

“But pleasant. Very pleasant.”

“Different, how?”

“Parker, it was wonderful. Just weird to feel so…full.”
She stroked his arm. “You are quite large.”

A flush rose on his cheeks. “Well,” he said gruffly.

“I enjoyed it very much.”

“Well, I… You did?”

“I did. It was very nice.”

“Nice?” he roared.

“
Very
nice. Can we stop talking about this?”

He frowned at her. “Nice?”

“Very.”

“
Humph.”

They sat in silence for a moment and Kaitlin tried to read hi
m. There was still some confusion and fear twining around him, but there was acceptance as well.

“Do you mind very much that I have this gift?”

His forehead wrinkled. “Mind?”

“Some people…” She dropped her head. “Well some people are afraid of me. Some people hate it.”

He cupped her cheeks and forced her to look at him. “I’m not afraid of you. Kaitlin. If this is part of what makes you who you are, how could I hate it?”

Something inside her, something which had been tightly held for far too long,
released. Joy coursed through her. “Thank you, Parker.” She kissed him. “Thank you for understanding. It means everything to me.” It meant the world.

“Sure.” He tucked his arm around her and pulled her
close. “Just be patient with me while I work this all out, okay?”

She nestled closer. “Okay.”

Kristi poked her head out the door. “Hey, you guys,” she said. “Our food’s here.”

“Thanks.” Kaitlin waved and
Kristi went back inside. “Shall we?” she asked.

“Okay.” He stood and reached out a hand to her.
His palm was warm against hers. They started back inside when suddenly he stilled. “Do you see…dead people?” he asked.

Something in his tone snagged her attention. She snorted a laugh. “No.”

He collapsed in mock relief.

“
But I know people….”

He
gaped at her.”Seriously?”

“Yes.
Is there anyone you wanted to reach?”

She shouldn’t have asked. His energy shifted sharply, his muscles bunched. But then, after a moment, he relaxed. “My mother
, maybe.” He kissed her forehead. “Maybe, someday.”

H
e looped his arm around her and she threaded her fingers through his at her shoulder. “When you’re ready, just ask.”

They stepped inside the darkened bar and Kaitlin blew out a sigh of relief. She should have told him, but she hadn’t. Now he knew, and he hadn’t run away. There was something quite gratifying in that fact. That and the simmering sense that he was, indeed, the one.

Also gratifying was Drew’s pout when he saw them entwined and realized his little outing hadn’t had the effect he’d hoped.

She shot him an evil grin.

He choked on his French fry.

Served him right.

Chapter Fourteen

After dinner with Kaitlin’s friends, which was more pleasant than he expected, they all headed home, although Drew stayed behind to play some pool and, Parker suspected, flirt with the waitress. When they reached the turn for Ash’s driveway, Parker glanced at Kaitlin.

He didn’t say it. Didn’t say,
are you coming in
? But she seemed to read his meaning because she smiled and waved her friends on.

Of course she read his meaning. She was
psychic
.

It should have freaked him out, this little tidbit. He’d spent most of his life hiding huge chunks of himself from the world. The thought of everything being revealed, everything exposed
to her, should have terrified him. It did not.

In fact, it was almost a relief. He didn’t have to hide anything from Kaitlin. He couldn’t if he wanted to.

It was as though she, and she alone, understood him. Saw him for who he was. And he liked the way he looked in her eyes.

The house was dark when they entered, so he flicked on the lights. “Do you want anything?” he asked, because he couldn’t think of anything else to
say.

“Just you.”

A skiver rippled through him. The light in her eye invigorated him. “Just me?” He pulled her into his arms, there in the hall, and kissed her. “I’m yours. Do with me what you will.” It was a joke.

And not.

She chuckled and wiggled closer, rubbing her belly against his cock. Heat rose. Lust rose. And something more than that.

He wanted this woman, needed her maybe, with a passion that was probably unwise.

But unwise or not, he couldn’t find it in him to resist.

Thank God the bedroom wasn’t far away.

He was gentle as he backed her into the bedroom until her legs hit the bed. There was a tenor to his kiss she had not experienced before—a softness, a vulnerability—but she liked it. His fingers trembled as he unbuttoned her blouse, taking him longer than it should have, but when she tried to intervene, he pushed her hand away and murmured, “Let me.”

Her blouse fell from her shoulders and he caressed her exposed skin, running his palm over her in an enthralling, drugging pattern. He stroked her for some time, enervating her skin, waking her, making her feel alive and cherished. His knuckles scraped over her nipples and she gasped. Their gazes met. His lips tweaked up in a crooked smile, but he didn’t remove her bra. Instead, he turned her around, so she faced the bed, and proceeded to give her back the same delicious treatment.

It was a new experience for Kaitlin, this intensity of touching. His
palms, warm on her skin, drawing delight on her.

There was no pain. No cacophony. No
anxiety. Only bliss.

He kissed her neck, the cap of her shoulder, then trailed his mouth down her spine, tasting her.

“Parker…” She whirled around to find him on his knees. He stared up at her with a smile and reached for the snap of her jeans. Slowly, he slid the zipper down and eased them off, again, leaving her underwear on.

The look in his eyes made her knees buckle. She
clutched his shoulder to steady herself. “Kaitlin, you are so lovely,” he said, leaning in to kiss her belly. His hands roved. Over her lower back, down her thighs to the backs of her knees, and down to her feet. He made long strokes that sent ripples dancing along her nerves. “I want to worship you.”

“W-worship me?”

In response, he hooked his thumbs in her panties and nudged them down. It was a leisurely journey, with his mouth tracking their passage. When he reached her ankles, she lifted one foot, and then the other, and stepped out of her underwear. He kissed his way back up, still rubbing her, warming her…but he stopped when he reached the crux of her thighs and stroked her curls.

She sucked in a breath.

He leaned forward. Opened her and touched his tongue to her thrumming button.

Kaitlin seized. Pleasure and passion rained through her. A groan escaped from her throat.
He circled her, lightly lapping and licking at the aching nerves. He continued to stroke her with his palms, while with his mouth, he incited her to greater passion.

When he sucked her in, nibbled, she lost her balance and fell onto the bed. He followed her, relentlessly
, consuming her with a rising fervor. His moans and murmurs sent shocks of vibration through her body, shot her through with spirals of delight. He pleasured her until everything tightened. Her nipples, her belly, the muscles in her legs.

An ache began, deep within her, a gnawing hunger, a raging desire…for more.

“Parker…”

Without halting his agonizing exploration, he slipped two fingers inside her, stroking, searching. He found some arcane spot, some bundle of sensitive nerves
, and he touched her.

Everything within her
constricted, until the tension was unbearable and raw and delicious. Her lungs seized. Heat rose from her belly to her neck in a scorching tide. The entirety of her world, her universe, narrowed down to the point where Parker’s mouth suckled her, his fingers nudged. Her body shook. Her soul contracted.

He thrust deeper, sucked harder and—

The tremble began in her belly and swept out in ever-increasing arcs. She shuddered, quaked, howled as a delicious sensation, one she had only known with him, flooded her. Her vision went cloudy, then burst into a rain of bright and sparkling lights as a glorious bliss descended.

As she recovered, he crawled up beside her on the bed
, still trailing his palms over her belly, her hips, her breasts.

He was careful, though, to avoid her nipples. They were hard points and they ached for his touch. She pouted at him. He grinned.

“Did you enjoy that, my darling?”

“Yes, Parker. But don’t you want to take off my bra?”

He stilled. His intensity bore into her. “I would like to…take something else off first.”

Her joking mood faded. She could tell from his expression, from his somber energy, this was no joking matter. This was serious. Deadly serious.

“W-what would you like to take off?”

His throat worked. “My shirt.”

Her heart slowed, and then launched into a manic rhythm. “Okay.”

“You won’t run away?”

“No. You didn’t run…when you found out about me.”

“You’re not hideous.”

She smiled and stroked his face, thumbing the dent in his cheek. “Neither are you.”

He sucked in a deep breath and took the hem of his shirt in his hands…and peeled it off.

She stared at him, taking it all in. The angry scars, the tired ones, the puckered circle where a bullet had pierced him. He bore her scrutiny courageously, stalwartly, showing her the kind of man he truly was. Brave. Beautiful.

But then, she’d known all along.

“Oh Parker,” she sighed. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.” She came up on her knees and put her palms on his shoulders and she did for him what he had done for her. She touched him. Stroked him. Loved every inch of him.

His lashes fluttered,
his lips parted. A groan, some dark and deep release, rumbled from his chest.

He took her in his arms and
laid her down on the bed, removing her bra and releasing her breasts into his keeping. He kissed them and nuzzled them and brought her, again, to a frenzy. And then, never dropping her gaze, he settled between her legs and entered her.

It was so much more than it had been before—any of the other times. Because this was Parker, bare before her, and she was bare before him. And still, they loved each other.

He’d never said it, but she’d
heard
it.

He began slowly, reverently, filling her in one relentless, deliberate stroke after another. But then, when she began to wriggle beneath him, to demand more, he increased his pace. The feel of his cock sluicing in and out of her wet body was
exquisite. Each stroke scraped against enervated walls, stretching her, filling her, and soon, Kaitlin was mindless again. Crazed with passion. The wet sounds of their loving echoed through the room.

“Parker, yes,” she cried, sinking her fingers into his hair and
tugging at him. Urging him on.

“Ah,” he groaned as he slammed into her again. “Yes. Yes.
Yes.” Each cry in tandem with a frenzied thrust. His cock swelled inside her. His movements became faster still, and his passion tipped her over the edge. As her body closed in on him, he sucked in a breath and his body seized.

Heat filled her, flooded her, sending her into another, a new
, paroxysm of delight.

Chest heaving, he dropped his head on her shoulder and gasped for breath. She held him, soothed him, running her hands over his back, his neck, his buttocks, soaking in his essence and blanketing him in serene
cloud.

He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “Are you…okay?”

She smiled. Touched his cheek. “Very okay. Are you okay?”

“
God, Kaitlin.” His throat worked. “I…”

“I know, Parker.” Simply that.
I know.
She did.

He rolled to the side, taking her with him, loving the exhilarating feel of her skin against his. Chest to chest, groin to groin. Funny how something so simple could become so important when a man was denied it for so long. A human touch. A caress…without a recoil. It was priceless.

She was priceless.

He never wanted to let her go.

Ever.

She shifted and his cock slipped out. He reached for the condom and froze.

Shit.

“Parker? What is it?”

Shit.

He released a groan; it sounded a little like a wail to his ears. “Damn it, Kaitlin, I forgot to use a condom.”

“A…condom?”

“I’m sorry. I always do. Always.” It mortified him to ask, but he had to. “You’re on birth control, right?”

Her expression blanked. Horror skirled in his belly.

“You are on birth control. Right?”

A tiny shake of those red curls sent dread skittering along his veins.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“There was never any need…”

Right. Because she was a freaking
virgin
.

Releasing her, he collapsed on the pillows and scrubbed his face. What a disaster.
What a travesty. He’d been so careful for so long, only to have this woman waltz into his life and steal his heart and make him
feel
and forget everything—

Her
palm on his chest scuttled his thoughts. Completely interrupted his self-flagellation.

“Parker.” And, when he didn’t respond, “Parker.” She pried his hands from his face. “It’s going to be okay. Relax.”

“I can’t relax, Kaitlin. You just don’t understand.”

She sent him a sardonic look. “Don’t I?”

How could she? Psychic or not, how could she understand? How could anyone?

“So tell me.”

“I made a vow. A vow, Kaitlin.” A sacred vow he knew he could never break.

“A vow to always wear a condom?” It was annoying the way her lips tweaked, as though she found this amusing.
This.
The greatest disaster of his life. And he’d had some pretty big disasters.

“A vow to
never have children.” Pain and regret flooded him in an unexpected wave. A little girl with bouncing red curls and impish green eyes? Or a brave boy he could protect and teach how to be a good man? “I’ll never have children.”

She
stroked his chest. “Never?”

He kissed her forehead. “I can’t. I just…can’t.
What if it turns out I’m like him?”

Her smile warmed him, but did not chase away the shadows. “Y
ou’re not your father.”

“I could be.
” He bunched his fists. “I could be like him. If I let it out.”

“It?”

“The passion. The emotion.” He was scared to death one day he would wake up and see his father’s face in the mirror.

Kaitlin’s expression went fierce, which was adorable on her
. “You’re not like him.”

“How can you know that?”

She grinned. “First of all, I’m psychic.”

He snorted a laugh.

“If there was anything truly dark in your soul, I would know. I would see it. I sure as heck wouldn’t be here now. But it goes far beyond that.”

“What
-what do you mean?”

“Remember what Patrick said? About judging a man by his actions?”

“Yes.” It was a good standard. Sometimes the only standard.

“Even if I couldn’t
see
what a good, gentle, loving man you are—a true pure soul… Even if I didn’t see that in your aura, I would know.”