Page 33 of Wicked Beautiful (Wicked Games 1)
An open bottle of my medicine is not six inches away from Parker’s hand, sitting on the lazy Susan in the middle of the table, naked and vulnerable to any curious, prying eyes.
My voice cold and controlled, I say, “Really? How interesting. I don’t think you’ve ever given any restaurant such a great rating.”
Her eyes flash. It’s a warning or a message of some kind, but I’m too busy being furious to try to decipher the meaning.
Parker rises. He’s wearing a navy dress shirt with no tie, open at the throat, a pair of beautifully cut charcoal-gray slacks, and a chunky platinum watch I recognize as a Patek Philippe. It probably cost upward of a hundred thousand dollars. Countering the elegance of his clothing is his hair, which is a little tousled, as if he’s been running his hands through it, and the glint of copper along his jaw. He hasn’t shaved.
He looks like a Ralph Lauren ad.
Bastard.
In a gravelly voice, the bastard says, “Victoria.”
Nothing else, just my name, but he says it as if he’s just thrown me facedown across the table, hiked up my dress, yanked off my panties, and buried himself inside me.
All the blood that had left my face floods back into it. My ears go throbbing hot. Through clenched teeth, I say, “Parker.”
Hearing my tone, Darcy’s expression turns smug.
It’s official: I’m going to kill her.
“Well, I gotta go! Great seeing you again, Parker. And I’ll see you later, girl.” Darcy sashays over to me and plants a kiss on my burning cheek. When she pulls away, she winks, leaving me completely confused. Then she’s gone.
The devil stands on the other side of my breakfast table, staring at me as if all the mysteries of the universe can be found inside my eyes.
“You’re angry.”
I turn away, smoothing a hand over my hair. When he adds, “She said you would be,” I spin around and stare at him.
“What?”
Has she told him our plan?
Slowly Parker moves out from behind the table and approaches me. His gaze never leaves mine. When he’s an arm’s length away, he stops. A smile teases his lips. “Because I was early. She said you hate it when people are early even more than you hate it when they’re late; you don’t like to be caught off guar
d. She also said that you’d freak out that I was in your kitchen—because you never have men in your kitchen because it’s like the heart of the house, and therefore like your heart—and that she liked me and knew you did, too, and the only way I was ever going to be able to climb that ivory tower you’ve constructed to keep out anything that hurts is with the help of your best friend.”
A small, astonished breath leaves my lips.
That evil, brilliant witch! She not only played him, she played me! She did something that would evoke a real emotion in me, which would be much more convincing than any act, and then told him the truth about why I’d be angry, and then tied it all up with the preplanned lie we’d agreed on. I’m so relieved I feel lightheaded.
She’s still got flack coming about that bullshit A-plus, though.
Parker says, “She also said I should kiss you as soon as I could,” and moves a step closer.
My heartbeat accelerates. I clear my throat. “Well. She certainly said a lot, didn’t she?”
He moves even closer. When I glance up at him, there’s fire in his eyes. He whispers, “Yes,” and reaches out and touches my face.
I freeze. Like a rabbit pinned in headlights, I stare motionless at Parker’s face as it moves closer to mine. When his lips brush my mouth, I make a small, wordless noise of pleasure.
He snakes an arm around my waist and pulls me against his body. The hand on my face moves to my neck. He tangles his fingers in my hair. He moves his mouth slowly along my jaw, skimming my skin, and then says into my ear, “But I want you to ask me for it.”
My hands are pressed flat against his chest. I feel his heart pounding through his shirt. My own heart is keeping pace with his, hammering against my breastbone almost painfully.
“And why, might I ask, would I do that?”
He noses my hair aside. Lightly, using his teeth, he tugs on my earlobe. An involuntary shiver runs through me.
