Page 55 of The Complication
That was the last time I’d ever sought him out or tried to share some bit of my life with him. From that day on, we’d been two strangers living in the same house. After graduating high school, I’d immediately moved out and had only spoken to him once after graduating college. Despite the distance I’d put between us, I’d never been able to shake the fear that I would one day turn into him.
“Yep. My first instinct was correct.”
I blinked at Parker as if coming out of a trance. Thinking about my father and my childhood always seemed to wrap me in a block of ice that felt impossible to escape. But Parker had pulled me free with a sentence. “What?”
“When you first mentioned that your father was cold toward you, I’d wanted to kick him in the balls. Now I really want to kick him.”
A slow smile spread across my lips, and I breathed a deep sigh, as if shedding the last of those old memories. Sebastian was the only one of my friends to have ever met my father. His reaction had been pretty similar to Parker’s.
“There’s no point. He’s not part of my life, and you’ll never have to meet him,” I reassured him.
“Okay, but the offer still stands. I don’t care if he’s a crusty old man. I’ll still kick him square in the nuts.”
I had nothing to say to that, so I returned to eating my steak while a warm feeling spread through my chest. From there, we skipped the rest of my childhood and we turned to talking about college and various other random adventures.
After dinner and a leisurely walk around Fountain Square under the warm glow of the fountain and the bright lights of the surrounding skyscrapers, we returned home, where I followed him up to Joy’s bedroom so we could check on the sleeping angel.
We strolled out together and Parker attempted to pull me to his bedroom with a sexy smirk, but I dug my heels in, not following.
“Huh?” he whispered as he returned to my side.
“Not tonight.”
“Really? You don’t think the perfect date should be capped off with bedtime fun?”
I slid my hand along his jaw and threaded my fingers through his silken hair at the back of his head, pulling him down for a slow, soft kiss that had him melting into me. Normally, nothing could stop me from a night of sex and cuddles with this amazing man.
“Later, but not tonight. I want to show you that I am interested in more than sex with you. I want us to be together. A couple,” I murmured against his lips.
“Declan Foster, you are a very dangerous man,” Parker declared, but he said it with a grin.
“I am when I want something, and what I want right now is more important to me than anything else in the world. Sex can wait.”
19
PARKER CAIN
“Hello?”Declan’s slightly confused voice rang out through the house from the foyer. My heart skipped, and an electricfrissonof excitement skimmed along my arms. Declan was home from work right on time.
I scooped up Joy from her bouncy chair and plopped her on my hip. “Ready to see Da-Declan?” I caught myself at the last second and replayed in my mind what I’d almost blurted out. Had I almost called DeclanDaddy? Good grief, I was losing my fucking mind.
Clearing my expression from that frightening slipup, I hurried to the foyer, where Declan was searching for the missing Franks. His home assistant was always there to greet him first thing and give an update on the home before taking the car Declan had driven to the garage. A grin teased my lips as I imagined how that daily update had grown since Joy and I had come to live there.
“Welcome home,” I greeted as soon as Declan spotted me. Joy squealed and shouted. She stretched out both arms and leaned her upper body toward Declan as if she meant to fly to him.
“Thank you,” he murmured as he took Joy from my armsand snuggled her close. He pressed the softest kiss to Joy’s cheek and then captured my mouth in a brief but thorough kiss. “How was your day?”
“Good. Busy. But good. How was work?”
Those full lips that refused to grow into a smile actually twitched in a smirk. “You remember the financial cliff we were facing while you were at Courtland?”
“Yeah. The company had to make up its revenue shortfall by a certain date or you had to look at cutbacks and layoffs, right? But the deadline’s not until the end of the third quarter, right? You’ve still a full month left.”
“Byron’s proposal on how to raise revenue across the company worked out spectacularly. We’ve made up the missing revenue, and we’re on course to have one of our best years in the past ten.”
“Holy shit!” I jumped away from Declan and grabbed my head with both hands. “That’s so amazing! Congrats!” I wrapped him up in a tight hug and stole another kiss. While he’d been dealing with my insanity over the past month, I knew he’d also been worried about Courtland Enterprises’ financial situation. I might have been a temporary contract worker at Courtland, but I’d been in the finance department. Countless reports from all the divisions had crossed my desk, and I’d talked with other members of the department. I’d seen exactly how dire the situation was. “Is the company going to do something for Byron? A bonus check or something? I get why they fired him, but it was his idea that saved the company.”
Declan caught the hand I’d started waving in his face and pulled me close, cuddling my tall frame to the other side of him. Joy was watching me like I was an entertaining lunatic, her wide blue eyes taking in all my antics. Declan kissed my chin. “Yes, he’s receiving a nice bonus. However, he’s asked that we donate his bonus to a charity.”
