Take Me Down (The Knight Brothers 2)

“But I didn’t have a parent left that I loved the way you do your father. That’s different. But I have experienced loss.” And he wanted her to know about it.

Like his brother Ethan, Parker never spoke about that time in his life, not even with his siblings, but for some reason, he wanted to share with Emily so she’d know him. He wanted her to see him as more than some charming guy who’d swooped into her life, thrown cash at her father, and thought he knew best.

It was his turn to swallow hard. “I was engaged.”

Her eyes opened wide but she remained silent, letting him tell the story in his own time. “Rina and I were close in school, we both loved skiing, and she understood my love of competing, medaling, and turning pro. The relationship took a natural progression. But to make a long story short, we were driving one night and a car came out of nowhere, broadsiding us. I was just coming back from an injury on the slopes and the impact shattered my knee … but Rina, she died instantly.”

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry,” Emily said, wrapping her arms around him and cushioning him in warmth, understanding, and everything that was Emily.

The lump in his throat from talking about that time was painful. He swallowed it down and pulled away, glancing at her. “I just don’t want you to think that I don’t understand emotions or pain. Or that I intended to barge into your life and take over like whoever hurt you before did.”

She opened her mouth but he shook his head. “Not now. We don’t need to get into that today.” Someday soon, he wanted to know all about her. But she was suffering now and she needed to cope with her current issues with the inn and her father. “Look. You can’t protect your father from life.”

“But I can make it easier for him to live out his years and be healthy. Relaxed. Happy. In Florida, where it’s warmer.”

“What if the inn makes him happy?” Parker asked, because he’d seen the gleam in the older man’s eyes when he spoke of renovations and had accepted Parker’s offer.

“Or what if he just thinks it does because it was my mother’s dream?”

He groaned, realizing he wasn’t going to sway her on this subject. “Okay, just don’t fight with him over it. It’s not what you need in your relationship and working on the inn makes him happy.”

Emily opened and closed her mouth before deciding on what to say. “As long as he sells it at the end,” she finally muttered under her breath.

With a nod, Parker tucked those words away to think about later.

“Would you understand if I rescheduled dinner?” she asked. “I’m not in the mood to go out in public and make small talk with people I know that I’m bound to run into.”

“Sure.” He understood. He glanced at their probably cooled hot chocolate. “Now let’s drink.”

She shot him a grateful smile and picked up her cup, taking a long sip, letting what remained of the whipped cream create a foamy white mustache.

Unable to resist, he leaned in for a kiss, then swiped his tongue over her upper lip and groaned. “You taste so fucking good.”

“I think that’s the whipped cream.”

“I beg to differ. It’s all you.” He grabbed her neck and pulled her into him, sliding his tongue over her mouth once more before dipping inside.

She gripped his shoulders and the kiss got hotter, deeper, only an awareness of his surroundings keeping him from hauling her into his lap and making her his in the most carnal sense.

She licked his lips back despite the fact that he hadn’t tasted the hot chocolate yet, and the feel of her had him shifting uncomfortably in his seat, his cock hard and ready. It was going to be damned difficult to convince himself he wasn’t taking her here.

Until the distinctive sound of a male throat clearing interrupted them, and when he reluctantly broke off the kiss and glared at the intruder, he found himself looking at a man in a three-piece suit.

“So this is why you left me? So you could degrade yourself by practically having sex in public? I had no idea you were into voyeurism,” the man said, his voice dripping with disdain.

Before Parker could react, he felt rather than saw Emily shrink back from him and knew immediately who he was dealing with. No, he didn’t have a name or the full story, but the only one who could make his girl react like this was the asshole who had done a number on her.

And she was his girl and Parker intended to make that clear, starting now.

He rose to his feet. “Can I help you? Because from where I’m standing, you’re interrupting a private moment.”