exactly been forthcoming with the information, so she didn’t dare ask. Dominic’s medical appointment had loomed on the calendar for a month now, an angry red scribble that she’d caught Parker staring at every time he walked past the refrigerator, as if somehow he could imagine it away. She wished he’d just talk to her about it, especially since both their fathers were sick, and they were really going through it together. But talking through his anxieties was not his style.
He was visibly shaken when he returned home that night. Charmaine saw his car pull in, but he came through the door so quietly that she didn’t hear him. She rounded the corner to find him standing in the hallway, his coat crumpled in his hands, staring at his favorite photo of himself and his dad. She only needed one look at his stunned face to know that grief had finally sunk its terrible teeth into him. She drew him into her arms, soothing him with soft kisses as he clung to her.
After a minute he whispered hoarsely, “I just need to hold you.”
She nodded and gently unclasped his jacket from his hands, hanging it carefully on the antler coat rack before leading him to their bedroom. Parker cooperated as she sat him on the bed and pulled off his shoes one by one; administering more slow kisses as she slowly undressed him to his t-shirt and boxer briefs.
“I don’t know why it hit me so hard today,” he finally managed in a strangled, halting voice. His throat worked as he told her as much as he could about the appointment before burying his face between her breasts and falling silent. “Three months,” he whispered into her shirt. “I can’t stop thinking about Maddie.”
She ached for him trying so hard to keep it together. He hadn’t said a word when her father was in the hospital, and she knew it was because she had needed him. That was Parker--always looking out for everyone else before himself. He didn’t say much else, but she was grateful he’d opened up to her even that much. They fell asleep with Charmaine holding him to her breast like a child, her arms wrapped protectively around his body.
It was only a few short hours later when she woke to his hands caressing her, peeling her t-shirt away and covering her skin with blazing kisses. Through her sleepy haze she felt his mouth land on hers, insistent and raw. Her brain was still struggling to wake up even as he stripped her naked and pressed his fevered skin against hers. Her body roared to life, instantly sensitive to his touch.
“Baby,” he breathed against her lips, “I need to be inside you.”
She shivered at the contact and wrapped herself around him in glorious defeat, loving the way he whispered her name as he slid easily into her. Everything was slick and hot and aching and she sighed his name over and over as she took him in. For a moment he paused and she felt him twitch within her, causing her walls to contract in response, milking him. He growled and latched his teeth onto her shoulder, holding her fast but not moving inside of her.
“Being like this makes everything better,” he murmured against her skin. “Why is that?” His fingers gripped her so tightly that she feared he’d mark her skin.
“Because this is where you belong,” she whispered fiercely. Her nails clawed the smooth swell of his tight ass and she sucked his earlobe between her teeth, making him gasp and shiver. “Give it to me,” she begged, trying to make him forget everything and just lose it all in her. She knew it would clear his head to be a bit more primal. Still he held her hips down, resisted her writhing. “Please, Parker. Don’t be gentle.”
Even if she’d had forever she wouldn’t have wanted it any slower. He rumbled deep in his throat and moved inside her. She raked her nails down his back, bucking impatiently against the steady measure of his hips, seizing his nipple between her teeth. He grunted in agonized
Learning to Kill: Stories