A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(36)

“I’m so sorry. You have no idea how…”

Parker turned to face Garrett and covered his lips with her fingertips. She didn’t tell him so he’d feel sorry for her. She didn’t bring forward a memory that cut into her soul just so he could look at her with pity in his eyes.

Garrett had scooted as close to Parker as possible while she spoke. He knew it was more for his benefit than hers. He had an extreme need to feel her against him, no matter how simple the touch was. Their shoulders and thighs were pressed together and they both had their backs against the headboard. When Parker turned to face him and pressed her fingers against his mouth, Garrett could feel her breath on his face they were so close. He could see the pain in her eyes, and he wanted to take it all away just to see her smile again.

“You can’t feel sorry for me, Garrett. I made the choices I did, and I’m responsible for the consequences. I just need you to understand that none of this—none of the lies, the pretenses, the sneaking around—it had nothing to do with our friendship or my trust in you and everything to do with keeping you safe. Keeping both of you safe.”

Garrett closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against Parker’s. He should feel like the biggest * for being happy she hadn’t kept all of this from just him. It seemed like Milo had been as much in the dark as he was. Garrett knew the one thing that angered him the most in all of this was that maybe she just hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him the truth. Garrett should have known better, and he admonished himself for thinking something like that about his friend. Everything she’d done had been to protect them, and he threw it in her face the first time she’d been honest.

Garrett eased his head away from hers and stared at her face. He took in the light dusting of freckles on her nose, her full lips, and her long, dark lashes that framed the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen as she opened them up and looked at him. This was his friend, for better or worse. She’d lost so much in her short life, and he wasn’t about to do anything to mess up the bond they shared. He promised himself that if it was the last thing he did, he would find out who the hell had been messing with her life when she joined the CIA. When this mission was over, he’d make sure they paid.

But right now, Parker needed him as a friend more than anything else. A friend that wouldn’t let her down, a friend that would keep her secrets and understand the decisions she made.

But most of all, a friend that wasn’t mesmerized by the way her tongue darted out to wet her lips or the way she seemed to lean into him. Parker’s hand rested on his chest, and Garrett wished she would take that hand and push him away. But like a magnet, he felt himself being pulled towards her, so close their noses grazed against each other.

Garrett shouldn’t have wanted to kiss her right then. He shouldn’t have wanted to know if her lips tasted like sugar or her tongue felt like silk inside his mouth. He felt like he had no control of himself when he was near her, and he didn’t understand why she was letting him in, allowing him to get this close.

Parker swallowed and tried to slow her breathing, tried to force her chest to stop moving up and down so quickly with each drawn breath. She felt the excitement in her stomach and welcomed it. The way Garrett looked at her right then made her think he had his own secrets. He stared into her eyes and down at her lips like he wanted to kiss her, like he wanted to devour her.

She wouldn’t make the first move, of that she was certain. Parker wouldn’t be able to take getting shot down by the one man that could unravel her entire existence just by telling her no. All she had to do was tilt her chin forward and her lips would be on his, but she couldn’t. Garrett had never made any indication that he felt anything for her other than friendship, and she refused to make a fool of herself no matter how much she ached to taste his lips and slide her tongue against his.

“Anna,” Garrett whispered as he looked back and forth between her eyes.

He rarely, if ever, called her by her first name unless it was in jest. The way he said it now, like he was aching inside, made it impossible for Parker to move away from him.

They both knew there was something different about this moment, maybe it was the fact that Parker had opened up to Garrett and shared something that she never told another living soul and it brought them closer together. Whatever it was charged the air with electricity and made everything around them disappear.

Except for the ringing of the phone on the bedside table.





Chapter Nine



Saved by the Bell had never been a more apt description for a moment than the one Garrett and Parker currently found themselves in. When the phone rang, the spell had been broken. They jumped apart and Garrett answered the phone before it rang a second time.

Five minutes later Brady was knocking on their door. Garrett let him in and Brady took a moment to look back and forth between the two roommates.

“Is everything okay? Did I interrupt something?” he asked with a smile.

“No!” Garrett and Parker both shouted at the same time.

“I mean, no, you didn’t interrupt anything. We were just…” Parker paused, her brain flashing to images of her and Garrett kissing and rolling around on the bed, hands touching, clothing dropping, and mouths connecting.

She hastily bent over and started grabbing the papers that had been shoved aside when Garrett first sat down earlier.