A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(53)

Parker laughed along with him.

“Who said anything about you making me scream?” she asked jovially as she stood up from the bed. “I do believe I have proven my ninja skills on more than one occasion.”

She moved closer so she could stand on her tip toes and kiss his cheek. She missed the easy camaraderie with Garrett; it was nice to have it back.

Parker pulled away from him slightly so she could see his eyes, sliding her hand up to rest on his chest and turning up one corner of her mouth in a confident smile.

“Don’t underestimate my power to make you scream,” she said softly.

They stared at each other with humor evident in their faces for several heartbeats. Then, the reality of the situation set in for both of them. They could have been just a couple of friends, making off-color jokes about killing each other or performing some kind of act that would cause enough pain to make one of them scream, but in that moment, standing chest to chest, it stopped being a joke about shouts of pain and became the reality of cries of pleasure.

Garrett swallowed thickly, imagining just what Parker could do to his body that would cause him to shout her name in pleasure, and Parker thought about Garrett’s hands and just where they could touch her to bring about screams of ecstasy.

Awkwardness suddenly descended on both of them as they were each assaulted with thoughts about how they should spend the night together in the room.

Parker needed a few minutes away from Garrett to get her head screwed on straight. This was an assignment, and Garrett was her friend. They could watch television, talk, or do whatever they normally did when they spent an evening together. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

“I think I’m just going to take a shower,” Parker said as she took a step back from Garrett and walked around him to go into the living room where the staffer had placed their bags.

Garrett was rooted in place, staring at the bed, and imagining Parker naked underneath the covers. He stood silently with his hands in his pockets as Parker came back into the room a few minutes later, carrying her toiletries and some clothes.

He watched her walk down to the end of the room, past the bed, and disappear into what must have been the bathroom. He waited until he heard the sound of the water running before he snapped out of his daze and went to retrieve his own bag.

Parker’s comment when they first saw the bedroom left a bad feeling with him. Fernandez invited them here for a honeymoon of sorts. Garrett found it hard to believe he wouldn’t have done something to make sure that’s what they used this time for. He didn’t trust the man at all and wouldn’t put it past him to do something underhanded and sick. Parker was right. They could scream and yell and no one out in the hallway would hear them. The room was entirely too big and the bed was as far away from the door and hallway as possible.

Garrett picked up his small duffel bag and walked with it back into the bedroom. He deposited it on the settee at the foot of the bed and rummaged around inside until he found what he was looking for: a small silver keychain with a square device hanging from it that looked like a remote for a car.

Garrett kept his hands inside the duffel and pressed the button in the middle of the device, turned the dial on top to adjust the frequency, and palmed it under his cell phone so he could walk around the room slowly to see if it lit up while he acted like he was typing on his phone.

Within seconds the little light at the top of the device flashed yellow, and Garrett swore to himself.

He crouched down quietly next to the nightstand on the side of the bed, making a production of untying and taking off his shoes while he looked under the bottom of the table. Sure enough, at the very back was a small, round, black device no bigger than a pea stuck to the wood.

Garrett’s head dropped in defeat, and he wished he could yell a stream of profanities right now. But he couldn’t because every word they spoke was currently being listened to. Now he just needed to make sure they weren’t being watched as well.

He stood back up and continued to slowly walk around the bedroom, acting like he was taking in all of the artwork on the walls. He stared out of the corner of his eye at the device still in his hand and prayed to God the light didn’t turn red. Red indicated a higher frequency like that of a video recorder. Garrett was worried enough as it was about how they were going tosoundlike a married couple on their honeymoon. It would be a whole new level of freak-out if they had tolook the part in bed as well.

After a quick sweep of the room, the light remained yellow. Yellow was bad enough since it meant Fernandez and God knew how many other people were listening to them, but at least they couldn’t see what was going on. Garrett could work with that without raising any suspicions.

Garrett heard the water in the bathroom turn off and knew he needed to quickly let Parker know what he’d found. He hurried across the room and with a slight pause outside the bathroom door, he pushed it open and walked into the steam filled room.

Parker had just wrapped the towel around her wet body when the door to the bathroom suddenly opened and Garrett hurried in, shutting the door behind him.

“What the he—”

Garrett’s arm wrapped around Parker’s towel-clad waist, and his hand clamped down over her mouth before she could say another word. He pulled her against him and stared into her eyes warning her wordlessly not to speak.

Parker was breathing heavy from the shock of Garrett barging into the bathroom and the feel of him holding her so close with only a towel on. She was wet and now cold since Garrett opening the door had let out most of the heat. But she was pressed up against Garrett’s warm body, clutching onto his biceps, and forgot all about the chill in the air.