A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(31)

Garrett never felt an ounce of guilt that his best friend's girl crawled into bed with him almost every time he was away for work. Nothing ever happened aside from sleep; Garrett would have never crossed that line no matter what. And Milo knew all about Parker's sleep habits and regularly teased her for being such a girl. Milo had always trusted Garrett explicitly while he was alive. He’d trusted him with his friendship, with his life, and with the woman he loved.

Garrett wished he had been worthy of that trust back then. All of the thoughts he’d harbored about Parker over the years made him feel undeserving of it.

Garrett took one last look at Parker’s body under the covers and made a quick decision to just do what he'd normally do. There was no reason why this time should be different than any others. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto a chair in the corner then untied the string on his running pants and let them drop to the floor.

Wearing just his boxer briefs, he eased back the covers and crawled into bed as gently as he could so he wouldn't wake Parker. Garrett lay there on his back, still as a statue, listening to Parker's deep, even breathing. He turned his head toward her on the pillow, and the nightlight from the bathroom offered just enough of a glow that he could see her face.

She was sleeping in her favorite position: on her stomach with her arms wrapped around her pillows.

Garrett needed to get some sleep. They had a team meeting first thing in the morning. For some reason he had a feeling it wouldn't be as easy as it used to be to sleep next to his friend tonight.

Garrett only hoped he was able to keep his boundary problem under control.





Chapter Eight



Parker’s eyes fluttered open and she quickly closed them when the bright Dominican sun assaulted her through the patio doors. She wondered if she forgot to turn on the air conditioning the night before. Parker knew it was hot in the Dominican, but this was ridiculous. She was burning up. And she felt like she was pinned to the bed.

When her subconscious finally woke up, she realized there was an arm draped over her waist and a hard body pressed into her back. It only took a few seconds for her to realize that Garrett must have come back to the room after she fell asleep. Parker held perfectly still, not wanting to wake the man that had his nose pressed into the back of her neck and an erection nestled against her ass. Out of all the times they had sleepovers through the years, they never woke up this way. In the past, Garrett’s leg had slid between hers and she’d push him back to his side of the bed. His hand would flop over and smack her on the arm and she’d jerk awake to throw it off of her. In the morning, they always woke up on their respective sides of the bed. This was uncharted territory and Parker didn’t know what to do. She knew what her body wanted to do: rub up against the hardness currently pushing into her and slide the hand warming her stomach inside her pajama bottoms to see if Garrett’s fingers felt as good as they looked. Parker assumed Garrett wouldn’t react very well to something like that, so she closed her eyes, slowed down her breathing, and wished for a few more hours of just being close to him.

Garrett was oblivious to Parker’s daydream about his fingers and the morning swell of his member because he was lost in his own thoughts. The smell of coconut awakened his senses before he realized where he was. All Garrett knew was that there was something soft that smelled like heaven in his arms. He fluttered in between dreaming and waking, and he wasn’t quite sure which category he fell into. He didn’t care as long as he could stay where he was.

Feelings of arousal tingled through his groin, and he felt his cock harden and push into something supple. Garrett liked the way it felt so much he shifted his hips in an effort to feel more of it rubbing against him. He realized his hand was resting against something flat and warm and pushed it up so he could feel even more of it against his palm. His hand lightly skimmed the silky smoothness, letting his fingertips glide over every inch along the way, until they were met with something full and round that fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. He halted his movement. Garrett didn’t know if it was the low muttered female moan that forced him fully awake, or the realization that he was holding a breast in his hand, but his eyes popped open and his brain flew into overdrive when he comprehended the fact that it was Parker’s breast in his hand and Parker’s body that he was currently snuggled up against.

Do I keep pretending I’m asleep or make a huge joke out of the situation, Garrett thought to himself. And why can’t I move my hand away from her breast, his brain practically screamed.

Parker knew the moment Garrett became conscious of what he was doing probably before he did. An agent was trained to pay attention to certain tells, like a subtle increase in breathing patterns and a heartbeat that went from a sleeping rate of fifty-two beats a minute to Garrett’s current ninety-seven beats a minute. Garrett’s rate was unusually high for someone just waking up, which told Parker he was finally aware he was currently palming her bare breast.

“You’ve obviously decided on a whole new meaning for the word ‘boundaries’ haven’t you?” Parker said, attempting to inject some humor into the situation. She knew better than anyone that Garrett-straight-laced-does-everything-by-the-book-Parker-is-my-friend-McCarthy would be absolutely mortified that he woke up that way.

Garrett jerked his hand out from under Parker’s tank top and tried not to whimper at the loss of her beneath his palm. He quickly scrambled away from her and off the bed while she casually rolled over to face him, propping her head in her hand and her elbow on her pillow.