Scattered Colors (20 page)

“No, wait!” I shouted, reaching out for him. “I do, Parker! I
do
feel the same way. Please don’t leave.
Please
.”

That was all it took to get Parker to turn around. Before I could do so much as blink, he was back at the bed, grabbing my face in his hands and laying the most deliciously devastating kiss on me. He kissed me like he was a man trapped in the desert and I was the first glass of water he’d seen in days. He poured every ounce of his want, his need for me into that kiss and I felt so strongly for him, I had no problem returning it. The slide of his piercing against my lips sent shivers down my spine as his tongue shot out, coaxing me to open for him. The moment my lips parted for him, my own tongue dueling with his, a deep groan of satisfaction rumbled up from his throat. I was lost. Everything I was became lost in Parker’s kiss, his touch, the smell and taste of him. I never wanted it to end, yet at the same time, the intensity of it scared me.

When we parted, both of us sucking in much needed air, it took everything I had to release the tight hold I had on his hair. The sound of the front door closing pulled us from our haze. I glanced at the alarm clock beside my bed to see it was a quarter past ten.

“My dad’s home,” I whispered against his lips. I hated the idea of him leaving, but I knew it was for the best. The last thing either of us needed was for my father to catch Parker in my bedroom.

“Christ, gorgeous, you have no clue what you do to me. I’ve been dreaming about kissing you since we met.”

“I hope the reality lived up to the fantasy.” I giggled.

“The fantasy can’t even compare.” He pressed three quick pecks on my lips before finally pulling away and hurrying for my bedroom window. “I’ll see you in the morning, sweetheart.”

I followed after him to slide the window shut behind him. “Sweet dreams, Parker.”

He stole one last kiss before telling me, “They will be now, baby. Sleep good.”

There was a noticeable spring in my step the next morning as I got ready for school. Just the thought of seeing Parker after the previous night had me feeling like I was walking on air. I had all but abandoned my prior plans to get through my senior year without connections. I had a friend—dare I say, even a best friend?—in Stella, a pretty decent acquaintance in Michael and a…
boyfriend?
Or were Parker and I still too new to label whatever we were? I wasn’t sure, but whatever we were was the root cause of the excitement that had kept me tossing and turning in bed most of the night. Giddy anticipation had made it impossible for me to sleep.

I found myself putting a little more effort into my appearance, wanting to impress Parker when he saw me. I didn’t go overboard; I just wasn’t the kind of girl who strived for being trendy or in-style. But I found a nice, off-the-shoulder blousy top to pair with my skinny jeans and took the time to tame my hair so I could wear it down. My simple ponytail just wasn’t going to cut it. I practically skipped from the kitchen to the front door, messenger bag in hand, after sucking down a cup of coffee and a granola bar. The moment I swung the door open I startled, a high-pitched yelp bursting past my lips.

“God, you scared me,” I breathed with a hand to my chest. “What are you doing here?”

Parker lowered the hand that had been poised to knock. “Taking my girl to school.” He flashed that heart-stopping grin I’d become addicted to.

“Your girl, huh?” My smirk matched his own.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, stepping into my personal space. “After last night, it’s a sure thing. If you didn’t want this, then you shouldn’t have let me kiss you. Now you’re all mine.”

A shiver worked its way through me as he wrapped his long arms around my waist and peered down, his dark, endless eyes staring into mine.

My brain malfunctioned at the feel of his warm body pressed tightly against mine. Without conscious thought, I found myself flirting shamelessly, egging him on. “So other than rides to school, what else does being your girl entail?”

His eyes shot over my shoulder before coming back to me. “Your dad here?”

“Lucky you, you missed him by just a few minutes.”

“Okay then, why don’t I show you what else being my girl entails?” Without hesitation, his soft, full lips came down on mine in a tender kiss. However, the instant I leaned in to him, responding to each slide of his lips, the tenderness was replaced by fierce passion so intense that if Parker hadn’t already been holding me up, my knees would have buckled. My hands had a mind of their own, slipping into his jacket to wrap around his firm back. Even though there wasn’t enough space between our bodies for light to get through, it wasn’t enough. I needed to be closer.

After what felt like an eternity, Parker pulled away, his ragged breath blowing out in puffs in the cold air. I didn’t know how I missed it until that moment, but as I looked up into his deep, dark eyes, I noticed flecks of gold and green mixed in with the rich chocolate brown. They were the most beautiful shade of brown I’d ever seen. His voice came out gruff as his thumb trailed over my swollen bottom lip. “You keep looking at me like that and we’ll never make it to school, gorgeous.”

A deep red blush climbed up my neck to my cheeks as my eyes grew wide at his insinuation. Parker chuckled as he leaned past me and pulled my front door closed before grabbing hold of my hand and leading me toward his truck. Once inside the warm cab, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. He was intense;
we
were intense together, but even with the emotional upheaval I felt in his presence, I had no doubt I still wasn’t quite ready to take that step with him. Yes, what I felt for Parker was more than I’d ever felt for any boy I’d ever dated—I could take those past emotions and multiply them by twenty and that was what I felt for Parker—but one thing my mother had always stressed was to never do something I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of. And things were way too new for me to be that sure of Parker.

The cold whip of air that filled the cab as Parker opened the driver’s side door and climbed in yanked me from my musings. I sat in silence, studying his profile as he threw the truck into drive and headed in the direction of school. After a few minutes, his hand found mine and he used it to pull me to the middle of the bench seat. “What are you thinking so hard about?” he asked, briefly taking his eyes off the road long enough to shoot me a questioning glance.

“Um…I’m not…I mean I never…um, had sex.” I somehow managed to stutter, feeling like my skin was on fire as I concentrated on twisting my fingers together nervously in my lap. I could no longer look at him, the admission was so embarrassing.

In my peripheral vision, I saw his head snap in my direction quickly before turning back to the road. Silence enveloped the cab of the truck for several seconds before he finally asked, “You’re a virgin, Freya?”

God, I hated that question. Seriously, was it so bad to still be a virgin at seventeen? Why was that so hard to believe in our society? “Yes,” I answered firmly, trying to sound more confident than I felt at the moment. My gaze remained pinned on the windshield as we turned into the school parking lot. When Parker finally came to a stop and put the truck in park, he turned his body fully toward me and waited for me to look at him. When he finally grew impatient with my reluctance, his fingers gently grasped hold of my chin and turned my face to his. Sincerity shined through the darkness as he leaned in and gave me a brief kiss.

“Baby, don’t be embarrassed. Not around me.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” I lied weakly. “I’m just…I guess I hadn’t really thought about it until this morning.” I pulled my chin from his fingers and looked back down at my lap. I couldn’t say the next part if I was looking at him, and I
needed
to say it. “I’m just not ready for that right now. What if you get bored with me? What if you decide you don’t want to wait around for me to be ready?”

He’d clearly had enough of my looking at anything but him, because the next thing I knew his strong hands were around my waist and lifting me up until I was seated firmly in his lap.

“What are you doing?” I asked, startled by the frustration in his expression.

“You’re obviously getting in your own head about this, so I needed to make sure I had your damn attention,” he stated heatedly. “First of all, I don’t care that you’re a virgin. Honestly, I’m thrilled that no other guy has touched you before. I’m over the moon, freaking ecstatic about it! That means when you finally
do
decide you’re ready to be with me, everything about you will be mine. You’ll be giving me something no one else can ever have.”

He sounded so certain, so self-assured, that I found myself holding my breath as he continued. “I could never,
ever
get tired of waiting for you, sweetheart. I don’t care if it takes years for you to finally feel ready. I need you to get that through your head now. I was miserable until I met you. That first day on the beach, when you gave me a verbal ass-whipping was the first time I can remember being happy in years. I actually looked forward to seeing you again just so I could try to rile you up. Christ, you’re so cute when you get all pissy, baby.”

The pressure building in my chest forced me to exhale and suck in a ragged breath. I cut my eyes and glared, but there was no anger behind them. “That’s why you were always messing with me?”

Parker leaned in and nuzzled his face in the crook of my neck. “You made it clear you didn’t like me. The only way I could get your attention was to push your buttons.”

“How romantic,” I deadpanned. “You know, you could have just tried being a little bit nicer. That would have been a lot more helpful.”

His temple rubbed against mine as he pulled back to look at me. “You told me everything happens for a reason, and that got me thinking. I think there was a reason your dad picked Sommerspoint of all places. I think it was destiny that brought you here. We both need each other, Freya. There isn’t anyone in my life who understands everything I’ve been through the way you do, and I think the same holds true for you. I think we were meant to heal each other. I feel calmer and more alive at the same time when you walk in the room. That has to mean something.”

“Like divine intervention?”

When his hand came up to cup my cheek I couldn’t help but to lean into his touch. “Call it whatever you want. All I know is there’s no one else who’s ever made me feel like you do. I couldn’t breathe until I met you. Don’t you get it? I could never get tired of you. You’re like air to me. You’re necessary.”

Tears welled up in my eyes at the same time my heart swelled in my chest. As I studied his earnest expression, I had to question how I’d ever been able to maintain my walls around Parker.

“You really like me, don’t you?” I asked in an awed whisper.

I watched in delight as his head fell back in laughter. It was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard him make. “Yeah, gorgeous. I really,
really
like you.”

I had to ask a question that had been weighing heavily on my mind. “You don’t think this is moving too fast? It’s not too…intense? Doesn’t this seem kind of crazy? It’s hardly been over a month! It’s not supposed to feel like this.”

“I’ll be damned if I question why it feels so good to be around you, Freya. And I won’t let you talk yourself out of this, either. Tell me you don’t feel better when I’m holding you,” he demanded. “Tell me you don’t feel lighter when we’re together.”

I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him I didn’t feel that, because I did. I felt
everything
so strongly when he was with me.

“We’re good for each other.” He wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pulled my forehead to his, squeezing his eyes closed as he spoke. “I’m not going to question that because other people might think it’s too fast.”

He was right. I had no reason to argue with him when everything he said made perfect sense to me. Other people might not understand our connection, but that was okay. They hadn’t suffered the same way we had. They hadn’t found a kindred spirit in another person who made each day more bearable. That was what Parker and I were for each other. Maybe it would be for the long haul, or maybe one day we’d fizzle out. While that thought left an ache deep inside me, I wasn’t so far-gone for him that I couldn’t be realistic. The odds of high school sweethearts making it were slim, but as long as we were providing each other with what we needed in that moment, I wouldn’t question it. I was actually
happy
…in
Sommerspoint
, for crying out loud. And it was all because of Parker. Maybe what he said was true. Maybe what my mom taught me was real. Maybe everything
did
happen for a reason, and that was what led us to each other.