His voice gets lower. "Since I got here, I've been counting the minutes until I can leave again."

Inexplicable disappointment snakes through me at the thought of him leaving. I hope it isn't visible on my face, which I'm keeping carefully averted.

He slides a little closer. "Or... I was counting the minutes. Until I saw you."

I try not to let my knees quake as I feel the warmth of his side press against mine.

"Me?" I breathe, finally looking over at him.

His eyes trap mine immediately and I see they're dangerously soft again. He reaches out slowly, like I'm a horse who might buck if he moves too fast, and tucks a rogue strand of hair behind my ear.

"There's this thrill I get, when I go on an adventure. Climb a peak, explore a city, set down wheels on a dirt runway in a place I've never been before. I've spent my whole life chasing that feeling." He pauses. "You're the first person I've ever met who makes me feel that rush while I'm standing still. Looking at you, I don't need to chase some crazy whim. You..." He shakes his head, as if he can't believe he's saying this shit out loud. "You're a huge adventure in a five foot, hundred pound package."

For a minute, I don't respond. I can't. All I can do is stand there as his words wash over me, listening to the pulse pounding between my ears and trying not to let my eyes water.

Zoe Bloom doesn't cry over boys. Even boys who say things so sweet, she's worried she'll get used to hearing them and be miserable for the rest of her life when they inevitably stop.

I push that voice away. Force back the tears stinging behind my eyes. Brace myself for impact.

And then I take a tiny step forward, so there's only the smallest sliver of space left between our bodies. So I'm completely invading his space. He's so tall, I have to crane my head back to keep his eyes on mine.

"A good adventure or a bad adventure?" I whisper haltingly.

I watch his Adam's apple bob in his throat as he swallows, and I get the sense his control is hanging by a thread.

"You are my favorite kind of adventure," he says simply as his arms come up around me and he crushes his mouth down on mine.

Heat explodes between us. The fire that started burning last week when we met never truly went out. It was always there in the back of my mind, embers just waiting for a spark to reignite the inferno. Parker's mouth moves over mine in greedy, uncompromising sweeps and I return his kiss with equal fervor.

My hands grip his shoulders; his tug at my waist. I'm plastered against him, every curve, every atom in my body possessed by his, and it's still not close enough.

Sexual attraction is a powerful drug.

It's not something you can force or manufacture or hope to foster with enough time or practice or little blue pills. It's elemental.

I don't care how much you love someone's personality, their sense of humor, their compassion, their every redeemable quality... if you don't want to tear their clothes off, at the end of the day it's never going to work out. Without that fundamental attraction, two people can't last.

Longing. Desire. Lust.

Parker and I have it in spades.

We may not always communicate well with words, but our bodies speak a language all their own - that much is clear from just the way he touches me.

This sheer, unstoppable pull I feel for him is unlike anything I've ever experienced. It goes through me like a needle, threads into every part of my existence until I can't think of anything except the sensation of his hands against my skin.

I make a needy sound in the back of my throat as I push up onto my tiptoes, trying to deepen our kiss.

"Fuck," Parker growls, tearing his mouth from mine. "We're supposed to be talking. That's why I brought you here."

"Funny," I pant, clinging to his shoulders. "I thought you brought me here to see whether you could get to third base."

His eyebrows waggle. "What are my odds?"

"Slim to none."

"How about second?"

"Not likely."

"Figured as much." His mouth lands on the tip of my nose as he gently pushes me back to create a little distance. "Come on. Sit with me for a minute. And try not to be too grabby with the goods. I'm not a piece of meat, Zoe."

"You're the worst."

He laughs as he leads me down to the front row of seats, right on the edge of the wall. I don't fight him. As much as I'd like to get naked with him, the top of the Green Monster on a freezing December night is really not the appropriate locale for that.

We settle onto two metal seats, purposely leaving a few inches between our bodies. Our only point of contact is Parker's hand enveloping mine. His large fingers trace the small bones of my wrist as we settle in, and just that light touch sends flares of sensation through me like electricity. Trying to control my hormones, I prop my feet up on the rail and sigh as I take in the dark field below us.

"It's so fucking cool up here."

Parker nods. "When I was a kid, I always dreamed my dad would take me to a game here. He never managed to find the time." His shoulders lift in a small shrug. "That probably sounds totally cliche."

"It's not," I say softly. "There's nothing cliche about wanting good parents."

"I did my best, trying to raise Phoebe after our mom died. But when you're eleven years old and suddenly you've got to be an adult, a parent... you don't get to be a kid anymore."

I look over at him, this beautiful man who I've misjudged over and over since the first moment we met, and feel his words sink into me like a blade.

"I know what it's like to have your childhood taken away," I murmur after a few minutes. "And I'm sorry - about your mom. About everything."

Parker's thumb strokes the fragile flesh on the inside of my wrist. "It was a long time ago."

"Maybe," I murmur, staring hard at the pitcher's mound. "But there are some scars even time can't heal."

He doesn't press me for details, even though he could. He's revealed much more about himself than I expected, and I haven't returned the favor. Not remotely.

Instead, he just slides his arm around the back of my chair and tugs me closer. I let my head fall onto his shoulder, breathing in the scent of his skin and listening to the strong pulse in his neck, and for a while we don't say anything at all.

When Jim comes up and tells us his shift is over, we walk in silence down the steps back to the car. And this time, I don't complain that he's holding my hand. In fact, I twine my fingers tighter with his and tell myself I'd be an idiot to ever let go.

13.

The Floodgates

"Take a left."

Parker turns the car onto my street and I watch his jaw clench tighter.

"Just up ahead." I point out the old piano factory. "That's my building."

He glances at me. "That's not a building. It's a crack den."

"It's perfectly safe!"

"Zoe." He pulls the Porsche to a stop at the curb. "You shouldn't be living here."

"So, it's not the greatest neighborhood." I shrug. "Just because it's not a multimillion dollar yacht doesn't mean I have to move."

"There are two drug deals going on in the alley behind us."

I hesitate. "Three, actually, if you count the dealer behind the dumpster..."

Parker shakes his head. "I'm not leaving you here alone."

"You just want an invitation upstairs."

"That's true," he admits. "But only eighty percent because I want to see you naked. That last twenty percent strictly wants to check your windows and doors to make sure they lock properly."

"What a gentleman," I drawl, rolling my eyes.

"Zoe." His voice is soft. "I'm not going to push you. Ever. Yeah, I want you - your body, your mouth, your hands on me. I want you so bad it hurts. But I also want your mind. I want to know the secrets behind your eyes, and what makes you sad, and why you're so damn determined to walk through life alone. And I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize that." His heated eyes lock on my mouth. "I'll wait. Until you're ready. I might not be any good at it, but I'll wait."

By the time he's done talking, my thighs are pressed tight together and I'm feeling a little feverish.

Taking a deep breath, I lean into his space and whisper, "And what if I'm ready now?"

I see the flash of a grin, the flare of desire in his eyes, and then he's out of the car. I've barely gotten my seatbelt off when he yanks open my door and pulls me onto the curb.

"I was really fucking hoping you'd say that," he mutters as his lips close over mine.

The elevator ride upstairs is a blur of hands in hair, fingers finding buttons, mouths exploring skin. His hands lift me as my legs go around his waist and my arms twine around his shoulders. Pressing me into the elevator wall, Parker's mouth dominates mine in a way that should scare me - too possessive, too needy, as if he already owns every facet of me, body and soul.

I'm a foregone conclusion in the circle of his arms.

"You told me not to kiss you in any more elevators," he reminds me, his voice muffled in the crook of my neck.

"Shut up," I say, tugging his lips back to mine.

When the ancient freight car clatters to a stop on the sixth floor, I barely have the mental wherewithal to remember to grab my key from the security panel as he carries me into the loft. He growls something against my mouth that sounds like bed so I unwind my legs from his waist and lead him there, walking backwards so my mouth never leaves his. We don't waste time finding the lights.

When my thighs bump the bed, I jolt back onto the plush white pillows - and Parker follows me down, his body settling over me with delectable, breath-stealing weight.

"It's fucking freezing in here," he grumbles against my lips, reaching back to tug off his sweater in one sharp motion.

"Someone once told me..." My fingers trace his bare chest and he groans. "...The cure for hypothermia..." I gasp as his fingers flick open the button of my jeans. "...Is getting naked with the nearest warm body..." My hips lift so he can slide the fabric over my hips. I'm barely holding onto my train of thought.

"Oh, really?" I feel Parker's grin against the skin of my stomach as his hands slide my shirt up.

"Yes," I breathe as he pushes my thighs apart. "Do you happen to know..." I pant as his head moves lower, so his mouth is poised over the lace triangle of my underwear. "...If there's any truth to that theory?"

The final words come out in a breathy squeak, because his hot mouth is suddenly there, pressed against the most intimate part of me, and it's all I can do not to come up off the bed at the sensation, even through the fabric.

"Darling, I'm happy to test any theory that involves me and you, naked in this bed." Parker's voice is a rumble. "But right now, I'm going to fuck you - first with my mouth, then with my hands, and later, when you're ready, with my cock. So let's save the discussion of our hypothetical findings until after you're done coming. You okay with that?"

"Yes," I whisper, my hands slipping into his hair as he tugs my underwear down to my knees.

"Good."

And then I don't say another damn thing, because Parker West and his dirty-talking mouth are all over me, keeping the promise he just made.

Multiple times.

No one who's ever met me would make the mistake of calling me mushy. I'm not clingy or emotional. Certainly not one of those idiotic girls who stands in the mirror giggling at herself before a first date, trying out the sound of her crush's last name tagged on the end of hers.

Sex has always been something of a fun, yet ultimately substance-less endeavor for me. I pick up sexual partners at the bar with the same perfunctory selection I use to buy roses in a grocery store. You know, the commercially produced ones behind those glass doors that always look a little too perfect from their artificial coloring and are typically sanitized of any actual floral scent.

Sure, they're a pretty pick-me-up in a cheap vase on my kitchen table... for a few days. When their petals start to wither and fall, though, it's time to toss them in the trash and move on.