The Seduction of Alex Parker(31)

I laughed. “Feel the rain. Lift your hands up and feel the way it falls on your hands.” I took his hands and faced them upwards. A small smile fell upon his lips as he stared at me. “I’m sure your soul needs a lot of cleansing. Take it all in, Parker.”

“Thanks, Emerson.” He frowned.

I laughed as I let go of his hands and picked up the pace in front of him. Before I knew it, he came up from behind and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. I stopped, placing my hands on his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking in all the beauty.” He kissed my cheek.





Chapter 22


Alex

Watching her dance in the rain was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. The way she viewed life and things were so different from the way I viewed them, but yet, the way she did started making sense to me.

I let go of her and she turned around and looked at me, wiping the rain from my face.

“We can go back to the cottage if you want.”

I gave her a small smile as I placed my hands on each side of her face. “No. Let’s walk a while longer.”

The corners of her mouth curved upwards and I hooked my arm around her as we continued our journey in the rain. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the rain stopped and the sun reappeared.

“Guess it’s time to go back now and change out of these wet clothes.” She smiled.

“Let’s go.”

When we entered the cottage, the first thing I did was kick off my shoes and take off my wet shirt before starting the water for a bath.

“What are you doing? Are you taking a shower?” she asked as she began to strip out of her wet clothes.

“We are taking a bath together.”

“Oh?” She arched her brow.

I took off my soaking wet pants and boxers and held my hand out to her. “Are you coming?”

“You tell me.” She bit down on her sexy lip.

“Get over here.”

She walked towards me and took my hand. As I led her into the bathroom, she stopped me as I was about to climb into the bathtub.

“Stop.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“There’s no bubbles.”

“Really? Do we really need bubbles?”

“Yes, we do, Parker. It’s customary when you take a bath with someone, you do it in a bubble-filled tub.”

She reached for the bottle that was labeled “Lavender bubble bath” from the shelf and poured more than a capful into the water.

I sighed. “Now I’m going to smell like a girl.”

She patted my cheek. “Shut up and get in the tub.”

I chuckled as I climbed in the oversized tub with my back against it. With the help of my hand, Emerson climbed in and nestled her back tightly against my chest as my arms wrapped securely around her. We sat there in silence for a moment and I pressed my lips against her head and she ran her fingers up and down my arm.

“We had dated for over a year.”

Her eyes darted up to mine. “Huh? Who?”

“Bella and I. Or, as you call her, ‘frizzy curly-haired woman.’”

“Oops. Sorry about that.”

“Things were great with us, or at least I thought they were. We talked about a future together. Our jobs, buying a house, settling in.”

“What happened?”

“One day while we were having lunch, she got a call and a job offer from an advertising agency in New York. Hell, I didn’t even know she had applied for it.”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Nope. She told me she was going to New York to visit her best friend.”

“Wow. She sucks.”

“We got into a huge fight about it when she told me she was accepting their offer. She told me that I was a very selfish man and that I couldn’t stand to see her make something of herself and that I never supported her decisions.”

“Was that true?”

“No. It was the fact that she didn’t tell me about it in the first place. She had lied to me and that’s something I don’t tolerate.”

“Why did she feel like she had to lie to you?”

“I asked that very question and she couldn’t answer me. Finally, after hours of arguing, she said that she wasn’t happy and she was leaving.”

“Just like that?” she asked as she looked up at me.

“Yep. Just like that. The next day, she was gone without so much as a goodbye.”

“I’m sorry, Alex. That must have been hard on you.”

“It was for a while.”

“Were you in love with her?”

“I thought I was, even though I never told her, but her leaving made me realize that I wasn’t. She used to tell me that she loved me and the only response I would give was “me too.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and, with a tilted head, she spoke, “That’s what I would always say. The only guy I ever said those three words to was * Christian. But it didn’t count because I was sixteen and sixteen-year-olds just spew out those words as if it means nothing. Actually, it doesn’t mean anything at that age because sixteen-year-olds don’t even know what love is.”

“But you thought you loved him.” I smiled.