“Are you calling me a coward?”

“If the shoe fits, sweetheart.”

Her teeth met with an audible snap. “Don’t you dare play that card. Not when you duck your head any time things get too emotional.”

The force of her words punched past my defenses, and I blinked, my stance sagging. “You’re right. That was a low blow. I’m sorry, all right. But, shit, Parker, I’m lost here.”

“I saw you with that blond today,” she said abruptly, her eyes big and round with hurt. “At lunch. You were hugging her.”

Realization hit. Fuck. She had the wrong idea. “You think I’m cheating?”

“No.” She laughed hollowly. “Not when I took a minute to think about it. That’s not your style. I know it here.” She tapped her temple. “You wouldn’t cheat. You’re too honorable. But when I saw you hug another woman, it wasn’t my head that was leading me. It was my heart. It was my heart that broke.”

Her pain hit me like a lash, and I reached for her. But she held up a hand, forestalling me. “No. Don’t… let me say this.”

“All right,” I rasped, my throat closing up on me.

“I’ve only had one other relationship before you—”

“That makes one more than I’ve had,” I cut in, unable to help myself.

Parker nodded. “I get that. But even you must know that a relationship can’t thrive solely on sex.”

I felt pinned, unable to breathe. I’d been doing her wrong and hadn’t noticed. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Maybe she was right. Maybe I wasn’t for her. But even as I thought it, my mind—my fucking heart—rebelled.

“It isn’t just sex,” I repeated through my clenched teeth.

Parker stared at me with those eyes that cut to the bone. “That’s the point, Rhys. How am I supposed to know when every time I’ve attempted to talk to you about how you’re feeling these past few weeks you’ve distracted me and opted for sex instead? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the sex—I can barely keep my hands off you either.” A soft, lopsided smile pulled at her lips but didn’t reach her eyes. “But we haven’t had a real conversation since we left Fairchild’s lodge. We were closer then but now… you have a tendency to withdraw and keep everything to yourself when it comes to emotional support. And it … hurts.”

Fuck. “Parker—”

“Today, I saw you with another woman … and it hurt so much. It reminded me how painful it is when you lose someone you care about.” She nodded, tears spilling down her pretty cheeks. “You… you have power over me, and I don’t think,” she swallowed hard, “I don’t think this is going to work if one of us feels more than the other.”

I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Why the fuck would you think you feel more for me than I feel for you? It’s not true. You have power over me too.”

“Rhys, I don’t—”

I reached out, hooking an arm around her waist and easily drew her up against me. She gasped at the sudden movement. “You’re right; I’m not good at letting people get close, or letting them help me. But I have with you. I told you all my shit and you convinced me to talk to Dean. I asked you to help organize the exhibition fight and you stepped up… if I’ve been distant since then, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. But Parker, you’re all that I think about. You are the only purely good and clean thing in my life that’s just for me. I promise to try harder at talking to you about shit instead of burying it, if you promise to stop having entire conversations between us in your head.”

She pressed a hand to my heart, surely able to feel it racing. But she pursed her lips wryly. “I do not have entire conversations between us in my head.”

My smile was tremulous—because, fuck, she’d scared the hell out of me with her talk of letting go. I held her closer. “Yeah? Don’t you think it might better to talk to me before deciding you and I aren’t right for each other?”

Parker sighed and rested her head on my shoulder with a thud. “This was the talk to see if we’re right for each other, Rhys.”

“Ah.” I cleared my throat. “Like I said, I’m not really any good at conversations like this. But I’ll try, Parker. I swear, I’ll try.”

“I know you will,” she whispered. “If you tell me you’ll do something, you always do it.” Slowly, she wrapped her arms around my neck, and I squeezed my eyes shut, not realizing how much I needed that simple touch too.

We stood together for a minute, getting used to each other again. I’d never had an argument with a woman where the outcome had the potential to ruin me. That right there told me all I needed to know about how much I was invested in Parker.

She needed me to communicate more. So I’d communicate more. I’d let her all the way in. My hand slid down her slim back, stroking, soothing. “You’re not even gonna ask who she was?”

Parker stiffened, but she let out a breath and met my eyes. “I kind of forgot to in the heat of the moment.”

My eyes crinkled, even though I still felt bruised and battered as though I’d gone twelve rounds. “It was Marcy. That’s who you saw me with.”

Her body jolted as if pinched and she turned her head slightly, the tips of her fingers digging into my neck. “Marcy?”

“Yes, Marcy. Jake’s wife. We grew up together. She’s like a sister to me. I’ve been looking out for her ever since Jake …” I shook my head and exhaled hard. “That hug you saw? I was trying to comfort her because she still misses him.”

Silence filled the air broken only by the crash of thunder. Parker blinked at me as if she were confused. Then her head tipped forward, the silky strands of her hair falling into her face. “Well, shit. I feel like an ass.”

Her curse made me chuckle. But then I grew serious. “Don’t. If I saw you hugging some guy, I’d have lost it.”

Parker hummed, then pressed her lips to the sensitive curve of my neck. “You won’t have to worry about that happening. I’m a one man only kind of girl.”

Thank Christ for that.

“You’re a good friend,” she said, drawing me back.

I kissed her temple and found it damp. My heart gave a hard thump. “Tonight, I had dinner with Marcy. She asked me what I wanted out of life. And all I could think was that I wanted you.”

A sob broke from her and she melted into my embrace, clinging tight. I pressed my lips to her hair. “I want you,” I said again. “I want to be with you, to come home to you, to see you smile, to make you mad. Parker, I want it all.”

Her slim frame shook and she burrowed in closer. “I want that too.”

For a long moment, I simply held her and listened to the rain. But then she drew back and took my hand. “Come with me.”

I followed because I wasn’t a fool. But I felt compelled to make her understand. “We don’t have to do anything tonight. I don’t want you to think all I need from you is sex.”

She shot a smile over her shoulder and then led me into her bedroom and straight to her bath. I stood compliant and silent as she slowly stripped the wet clothes from my body. No one in my adult life had ever taken care of me. I hadn’t realized I craved her care until she stood there, easing the shirt from my head with a tender expression. My heart contracted, and I sucked in a sharp breath.