“Right now?” I query back, but I’m not against it. I’ve wanted that since I first saw him on the other side of the wine cellar door.
“If you still want me,” Parrish adds, and Chasm makes a noise, climbing out onto the roof with his cigarette, camera be fucked. He moves to slam the window closed, but not before leaning through and adding his two cents to the situation.
“The sexual tension between you two is making me physically ill; just bang it out already.” He pauses. “There are condoms in my bag.” He points to its location on the floor before retreating, scooting to the edge of the roof, and continuing to smoke.
“I don’t really get a say in this,” Maxx says, sighing heavily. “You two decide what’s best for you.” He offers me a look as he moves over to the door and peeks into the hallway again. “Better be quick though. Tess will be down here soon enough to check on you.”
I study X’s back, all of that tension in his muscles, and I make a choice.
I can’t please all three of them at once, at least not right now. Parrish has been missing. He almost died. He needs me. I want him.
All of those things are valid.
Parrish and I look at each other, and then I bend down and flick Chasm’s bag open, fully aware of how weird—and how strangely sad—this entire situation is. Yet, I can’t get past the elated feeling of having Parrish here with us. I’m not the only one: I have a feeling that Chasm and Maxx wouldn’t be so nice if the situation were any less dire.
“I want you, Parrish,” I tell him as I rise to my feet, and he releases a deep breath. He grabs my hand, and we slip into the bathroom together. He slams the door behind me, and then his mouth is on mine all over again, his fingers sliding across the side of my neck and leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
His other hand cradles the curve of my waist.
“I don’t want to wait even a second longer, but I have to ask … what the fuck is this dress for?” Parrish pulls back, looking over my outfit with undisguised interest. “Also, I’m sorry that I bled all over it.”
“I would soak everything I owned in blood just to see you again,” I admit, looking down at my outfit. “This was Justin’s pick—we all went to the launch party for his new app tonight.”
Parrish seems more—rather than less—confused, but then he sets his mouth in a determined line and grabs me by the hips, parking me on the edge of the countertop. He leans in, even as steam drifts around his face.
“I dreamed about this,” he repeats, pushing the voluminous skirts up my legs and running his palms along my thighs. The soft white steam creates a barrier between us and the real world for a brief moment. It’s all an illusion, but I think we both need that.
We need to reconnect.
Desperately so.
“I dreamed about it when I was tied to that chair, when my vision got blurry and I couldn’t see straight, when my ears rang and eventually all sound cut off. I dreamed about it when my hands were numb from being tied up too long and I thought about just giving up and falling asleep.” Parrish puts his forehead against mine. “I don’t know what you did to get me that bed, to get me untied, fed, showered. Whatever it was, it isn’t unappreciated.”
“I felt like I was betraying you anyway,” I admit, brushing my mouth against his in a small, heated kiss. “That whole time. I felt sick about it. I still do. I feel even worse knowing that I didn’t hate what Justin made me do with Maxx and Chasm. Everything else was awful. But not that. The guilt I felt for you and Maxine was the only bad part.”
“If I say I forgive you, does that help?” he offers, as I dig my fingers into his hair again, closing my eyes and letting his addictive scent wash over me. “You forget that I know some of the things that bastard made you do. I know about the typewriter and the car; I know about the theatre fire. I can only imagine it got worse after that.”
Parrish brushes his knuckles across the front of my panties, and my breath catches sharply. I try to let my head fall back, but he threads the fingers of his right hand in my hair and brings our mouths together again.
He tastes so damn good. I’m not sure that I’ve ever tasted anything so perfect and so satisfying in all my life. Any and every emotion in the human repertoire lies between us: sadness, anger, trust, hate … love. When we said we loved each other over the video chat, it wasn’t just out of blind desperation and fear, it was deeper than that.
