Page 48 of Masked

“Not tonight. I’ll send the contract in the morning. You have stuff at the university starting tomorrow evening don’t you?”

She nodded. It was sweet that he knew that. Parker never paid attention to her schedule.

“I have a lot of early morning stuff the next couple of days, so I’ll see you on Thursday night and our thirty days will begin.”

She frowned. It didn’t feel good to know that she wouldn’t see him for the next forty-eight hours.

“Can we talk on the phone?”

He crossed the room and pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her nose.

“Text me when you get done tomorrow night and I’ll call you if I can. But I can’t make any promises. I might have to take a quick trip out of the country.”

“Oh. Do they not have phones where you’re going?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not something I can talk about. But sometimes my job makes me unreachable.”

She knew he had a secret government job but had no idea what he did.

“Are you ever in danger?”

He put a finger to her lips. “Shh. No worrying about me, little siren. It’s in the rules.”

“That is so not fair.”

He laughed and bent to kiss her. “Are you OK?”

She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head against his chest. “I’m good. Thank you for tonight. It helped take my mind off everything that happened.”

He brushed damp hair away from her face and kissed her forehead. “I have to go, or you’ll keep me up all night. We’ll talk tomorrow night. Somehow. I promise.”

His promise was good enough for her. She knew they would talk. It was refreshing to be with someone who kept their promises. Even if the relationship was temporary.

He walked to the elevator and bent to pick up her clothes from the floor. He put them all on the entry table and plucked her panties from the pile and shoved them into his pocket before he stepped into the elevator.

“Behave until I see you again, little siren.”

Chapter 12

Reva

“Parker,youhavetoleave.”

“Come on, Reva. Talk to me.”

She brushed past him in the hallway of the arts and humanities building and made her way to the social studies office to drop some paperwork off in her professor’s box. It was her first week back as teaching assistant, and the first week of any semester was always the most hectic.

“I am working right now, Parker. We are not having this conversation here. We are not having this conversation ever. You’re the one who decided to epically break up with me and jump in bed with Monica because I told you I wasn’t ready for marriage.”

“Are you fucking my stepdad?”

Her heart skipped a beat before hammering into overdrive. How the hell did he find out?

She whirled on him. “Excuse me? It’s none of your business who I’m fucking. You were fucking that… that… bimbo for years behind my back. It would serve you right if I were fucking your dad.”

God, she hoped her bluster was enough to convince him she wasn’t. Even though she was. The mere thought of that conversation had her wanting a hole to swallow her up.

In all of their talks, she and Noah hadn’t discussed how to handle Parker if he ever came back around. Mostly because she really didn’t think he would.

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