“What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Helping.” He soaped up his hands again and slowly massaged her shoulders and arms until she sighed and let him support her weight, leaning her head back so that it rested on his collarbone.

  With his height advantage, this gave him a great view of her slicked, soapy body, and he watched her nipples tighten even more as he nuzzled into the crook of her neck. When she was as loose as he could get her, he took her hands in his, guiding them over her own curves and then to those gorgeous breasts. He used both their fingers to lightly tug and tease her now-straining, wet nipples until she was moving of her own accord, rocking her sweet ass against his erection.

  Damn. She undid him, completely, and he had no idea how the fuck he was supposed to walk away from her when this was all over.

  Don’t go there. Not now. Don’t borrow the heartache sooner than you have to.

  “Parker . . .”

  The need in her voice fueled him on. Kissing the column of her neck, her shoulder, distracting her with his mouth, he turned her toward the corner of the shower, placing her left hand flat on the wall, her right still caught in his. Pushing a thigh between hers from behind, he bent his leg and lifted one of hers until her foot rested on the edge of the tub.

  Perfect.

  Now he slid their still-joined hands down her beautiful breasts, her quivering stomach, and lower—right between her thighs. Their fingers traced her every fold and then circled back and started again.

  And then again.

  Neither of them spoke; the only sounds were the thunder of the water and their equally harsh breathing. Leaning over her shoulder, Parker took in the sight of them both driving her up. “Watch,” he murmured, and nipped her shoulder until she dipped her head. She sucked in a breath and her entire body began to tremble.

  With his leg beneath her bent one, his foot on the ledge next to hers, he could feel her body pressed against him like they’d been hot-glued together, the softness of her skin tempting him as he held her in place, still watching while their fingers swirled and dipped and teased. He was harder than he could remember ever being, his erection nestled between her ass cheeks, straining like a homing beacon, trying to work its way inside her however it could.

  She tensed and he turned his head to whisper in her ear. “Relax, that’s not where I’m headed.”

  She let out a half laugh, half moan and tilted her head back for a kiss. He gave it to her. Hell, he wanted to give her everything and anything she wanted, always, and to distract that thought from creeping in, he took the handheld massager out of the wall cradle and put it into her hand.

  She squirmed. “You do it,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

  Laughing softly, he kissed the sweet spot just beneath her ear. “After all we’ve done to each other, Zoe, you can’t possibly be embarrassed.”

  She didn’t answer, so he covered her hand with his and guided her. She moaned and started to relax again now that he was in charge.

  “Am I doing it the way you do?” he asked.

  Still no verbal response, though her body was telling him everything he needed to know. Stubborn to the end, he thought with a surge of lust and affection and hunger. But in a clash of wills, he never lost. When he misdirected the spray of water by about an inch, she whimpered in distress and tried to guide his hand back to where she wanted it, but he held firm.

  “If you want it some other way,” he murmured in her ear, taking the lobe between his teeth, “you’ll have to hold it yourself.”

  She tried to arch her hips to force his hand but he couldn’t be budged. Finally, with a huff of great frustration, she yanked the handheld from him and shifted it right where she wanted it. It took her another thirty seconds to find her groove, but he knew when she melted against him again, her hips rocking, her breath coming in sexy little pants, that she’d lost herself in the game.

  And God, she was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

  When she started to tremble, a punch of lust went straight to his gut. Again he slid his hand between her thighs and while she aimed the pulsing water, he stroked with his fingers.

  She came with a cry and a racking shudder. He held her through it until with a soft sigh, she leaned her head back against him and closed her eyes, making him want to crush his mouth to hers, fit his lips to hers, suck her tongue, suck every part of her.

  Then she turned to face him. “Your turn,” she said, holding the handheld like Annie Oakley with a gun.

  “It doesn’t work that way on me,” he said with a smirk.

  “Well, I know that.” She put the massager back in its cradle so that the water once again rained down on them from above. With a naughty smile she dropped to her knees and wrapped her hand around his erection. “Luckily for you,” she said, looking up at him, “I know what does work.”

  And then she sucked him into her mouth.

  A groan shuddered through him as she teased him, and he slid his hands into her hair because he needed an anchor on his spinning world.

  That was when she got down to serious business.

  Parker let her dictate the pace as long as he could, but then she did something magical with her tongue that took him nearly to the point of no return. He tried to pull back, tightening his hands in her hair, but she wasn’t having any of that. She took him all the way and he came hard, his groan echoing between the shower walls. Unable to stand, he sank to his knees in front of her and dropped his head to her shoulder while he tried to drag air into his lungs.

  Twenty-three

  Wrapping her arms around Parker, Zoe held on while the shower kept them warm as they both struggled to come down. When the water turned cold, he stirred. Reaching past her to flick it off, he wrapped her in a towel and then himself.

  “Holy crap,” she said, feeling dazed. “That just gets more intense and more intense. Can you imagine what it’d be like a month from now? We’ll be dead. Death by orgasm.”

  “I won’t be here in a month,” he said quietly. “Maybe not even next week.”

  He was right, of course. Horrifyingly right. They didn’t have a future, and damn.

  She’d almost forgotten.

  Wishful thinking, she knew. Just as she knew something else. She met his gaze and found him watching her, following her train of thought, and God, her chest hurt. Afraid to make this too serious, she forced herself to go with a light tone, the lightest she could get as she gestured to the space between them. “Maybe we should keep some distance until you go. A foot seems about right.”

  He rubbed the scruff on his jaw, clearly working up a smile, trying to match her tone. “You think a foot of space is enough?”

  She smiled. “I think anything over about nine inches should do it.”

  Parker laughed and she laughed, too, but it faded quickly.

  The air between them crackled with tension.

  “It’s all my fault,” she said as she searched out her clothes. “I started this.”

  “It’s not your fault at all. I’m pretty irresistible when I want to be.”

  Knowing he was trying to keep the light-and-easy thing going for her, she let out another laugh and shook her head. “And even when you don’t want to be,” she said. “The truth is I’m out of control when it comes to you.”

  “Giving information to the enemy, babe.”

  She clutched her towel to her chest and heard the truth escape her. “It’d help if you stopped.”

  “Stopped what?”

  She’d let her smile fade. “Looking at me,” she whispered. “Touching me, smelling so good . . . and breathing.” She offered a half smile, acknowledging the ridiculousness of the suggestion. “That would be really great.”

  The corners of his mouth quirked slightly. “I’ll work on that.” He handed over her panties.

  She shoved her feet into them and wriggled them on. Then she attempted to put on her bra, but it took two tries because it was tangled in her blouse. Frustrated, she tugged and tugged until Parker took them both from her fingers, righted everything, and handed them back to her.

  Dammit. He was standing there quiet and utterly at ease in his own skin, and why shouldn’t he be. He was smart and sharp and funny and . . . perfect.

  And he was leaving.

  He was really leaving.

  She kept telling herself that worked for her. She always had carried a bit of a trust issue, and she certainly hadn’t been looking for anything with him. But somewhere along the way, she wasn’t sure when, maybe when he’d hugged her silly dog for the first time, she’d started to trust him.

  And now, as a direct result, she was falling for him. Only he had this expiration date, one that was flashing big, bright red warning signs at her with every breath.

  Knees weak, she sank to the edge of the tub, unable to keep up any sort of pretense of having her shit together. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I thought I could do this, I really did. But I can’t.”

  His smile vanished and his eyes went serious as he crouched in front of her, his hands on her knees. “I know,” he said just as softly.

  “I mean, it’s good between us.” She gathered his hands in hers and let out a small, watery laugh. “Actually, it’s great. Which is what keeps tripping me up. I get all confused because my body’s emotionally invested and so my brain thinks it should be, too. It’s how I work, you know? But not you, which means you’re not The One. I wanted you to be, but you’re not, and I should’ve known from the very beginning because you weren’t the things on my list that The One was supposed to have. You’re all these other things like sexy and—”

  He put a finger on her lips. “I know,” he said again.

  She just stared at him and realized he wasn’t going to say anything else. He wasn’t going to dangle a carrot, or try to talk her into setting aside her needs for his.

  Or tell her he couldn’t live without her.

  Damn. She’d really sort of hoped for that, ridiculous as it seemed. Rising, she dropped his hands and dressed in silence, her throat getting tighter and tighter with each breath.

  When she’d finished, he pulled her around to face him, waiting until she met his warm eyes.

  “I wanted to be okay with this,” she said quietly before he could speak, and damn, her eyes threatened to fill.

  Parker held her gaze. “I’m sorry, Zoe. You deserve better; you deserve someone who can give you what you want for the long haul.”

  And that someone wasn’t going to be him. Unable to hold eye contact with him without dissolving into a sniffling mess, she dropped her head to his chest. She wanted to be mad, but he’d been open and up front and honest about their future—or lack of one—from the beginning.

  And anyway, he was right. She needed to move on. She needed to go back to her plan. Lifting her head, she looked into his warm eyes and promised herself she’d do just that. She’d go back to the plan.

  Tomorrow.

  For now, she simply breathed him in before gathering her strength and heading toward the door.

  Parker let her go. What the hell else could he do? She’d been so genuine and earnest, so sweetly apologetic, so absolutely positive they had to stop this madness.

  It had just about killed him. Because against all the odds, he’d liked the idea of them being a . . . well, them.

  But she needed him to stop messing with her. Except he hadn’t been messing with her at all. He’d been as shocked as she at their easy chemistry.

  But it was a lot more than chemistry. He knew that now. And yet the reality was that he was leaving, and he had to find a way to do that without further hurting her. That was a priority for him. She’d set the boundaries and he’d honor them.

  Even if it killed him.

  He could have changed her mind. There’d been a beat there when she’d hesitated, as if waiting for him to say something. And he’d known what she wanted him to say, that this didn’t have to end when he left.

  Just as he knew what he wanted to say—Let’s take this thing, this really great, hot, sexy, wonderful thing as far as we can before I have to go.

  No, that was a lie. That was what he’d have wanted to say when he’d first arrived. But things had changed. He no longer wanted to go—not that it mattered. His job was his life and he was going back to it.

  So even though she’d looked at him like maybe she wouldn’t argue if he made a good case for continuing their relationship, he wouldn’t. She’d been hurt enough in her life; no way would he add to it, ever.

  Twenty-four

  Parker slept like shit, his dreams mocking him with images of Zoe smiling at him, making his life better just by being in it.

  At some point before dawn, he was woken up by a notification on his phone. When he accessed the app, he couldn’t see much in the dark but there was definite movement. Trucks on the go, leaving the ranch just like the other day but more. Like all of them . . .

  Shit. He sat up and called Sharon. “He’s moving his stash,” he told her. “He’s got a buyer or he’s going to auction, or maybe he’s been spooked and is changing locales.”

  “Parker—”

  “Look, I’m working on accepting that this asshole got a deal even though he shouldn’t have been allowed one,” he said. “Just tell me you have someone on him, that he’s not getting away.”

  There was a beat of silence and there in the dark, Parker swore. “You don’t.”

  “It’s not my responsibility,” she said quietly. “He’s not our responsibility anymore. It’s out of both of our hands.”

  “Do they have eyes on him?”

  “A deal is a deal,” Sharon said. “He gave up intel and evidence on the militia that was needed, and in return he agrees to stay in Idaho and retire from his business of choice. You know this.”

  “And you believe him? You really believe that he’s not going to pull up stakes and simply move off the radar to continue his extremely profitable business somewhere else?”

  There was a long pause. “Not my call,” she finally said.

  So she didn’t believe it, either. Which didn’t make it any easier to swallow. Parker disconnected. He knew what he’d seen on the feeds, and it didn’t look to him like Carver had stayed behind. It looked to him like the entire operation had cleared out, and there was nothing to stop them from finding another isolated spot in another state to start all over.

  He called Kel, who answered with, “Was just calling you.”

  “What’s up?” Parker asked.

  “I think you know.”

  “Yeah,” Parker said. “There’s movement. Where is he going and why is he being allowed to go anywhere?”

  “Complicated,” Kel said. “Back before Carver landed on the FWS’s radar, the FBI had him with enough charges to put him away for a long time.”

  “So what happened? Wait, let me guess. The bastard was slick enough to make himself a sweet deal.”

  “Jackpot,” Kel said. “He remains free as long as he helps the FBI indict a large slice of the evasive militia group he funded, most of whom are wanted for a multitude of other crimes as well. The problem has been that Carver makes new deals, promises that are always juicier than the current evidence.”

  “So he keeps getting an extension on his lucrative deal,” Parker said. “Fucking unbelievable.”

  “It gets worse,” Kel said. “Every time he gets into trouble—like he did with your agency—the FBI has no choice but to step in and bail his sorry ass out of the sling or they lose their ground.”

  “Perfect setup for an asshole like Carver,” Parker said, impressed in spite of himself. “He’s got us over a barrel and knows it. And he’s extended his base of operations from illegal antiquities to funding the militia, so now what?”

  “The FBI and the ATF are in way too deep to back out,” Kel said. “Everyone thinks they’re in control, but it’s a political and red-tape nightmare, leaving Carver as the only winner. There are piles of charges that the FBI keeps promising all the other agencies that they’ll get to pursue, but they’re being strung along just as Carver is stringing them along.”

  “So what’s his endgame?” Parker asked.

  “Anyone’s guess,” Kel said.

  Yeah, well, Parker intended to find out.

  Zoe got up early, ready for her day. Or so she told herself. She’d had a flight scheduled, but according to a text from Joe, it had been moved to another day. He said the Caravan should be fixed this morning and needed a test flight. He’d put it up for sale and had an interested buyer up north that he wanted her to go show the plane to after the test.

  She would miss the Caravan, but she’d do just about anything to keep her mind off Parker and all that they were no longer going to be doing together. Her eyes on her phone, she headed out of her room and . . . right into Parker.

  He’d come out of the bathroom, hair wet, body damp, one of her towels wrapped indecently low on his hips.

  Damn. Looking that sexy should be completely illegal. She nearly said I want to recant my statement, the one where I said to stay at least nine inches away from me. I spoke too hastily. Instead she said, “Sorry! I need to learn to walk and read my phone at the same time.”

  “You can get a ticket for that these days,” he said.

  She laughed, relieved that they were going to be grownups about this. It was a huge effort not to step close and run her finger over the cut on his forehead and demand to see his leg, but she managed by shoving her hands into her pockets. “So, where are you off to this early? More . . . sightseeing?”

  “Yes, actually.” He met her gaze. “I’m going up to Rocky Falls.”

  Her own hair was wet, too, still in a ponytail. She could almost feel his hand curl around the back of her neck, wrapping the strands of her hair up in his fingers as he slowly deepened their kiss. She had to shake the memory off. “Your cameras not working?”