Forbidden Gold (Providence Gold 5)

And I was so damn excited!

We were just getting ready for bed when Parker asked, “Why do you like miniature animals so much?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged as I wiped off my makeup with a wipe. “I guess I just always stand up for the little guy.”

He was in the middle of spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste when I said it, so when he laughed, it went all over the sink. Ignoring it, I watched him as he went back to brushing, almost hypnotized by the show. It had to be said, I’d never watched a man brush his teeth before. My brothers didn’t count, plus they were skanky asses who’d only done a quick swipe or ran their brushes under the water to make Mom think they’d done what they were meant to.

Parker had his own way of doing it, and it was hot as hell to watch. By the time he was finished, I was already looking forward to watching him do it after we woke up in the morning—obviously also acknowledging the fact that this was sad sack behavior, but ask me if I cared?

As he cupped his hand under the water, though, my hand shot out to catch it before he could bring it up to his mouth.

“Didn’t your dentist ever tell you not to do that?”

“Uh, no?”

“You’ve got perfect teeth, so you need to keep them that way. If you rinse after you brush them, you’re washing out all of the fluoride in the toothpaste left in your mouth. It reduces what it’s in there to do.”

Blinking at the random information, he watched me like he was expecting there to be more. Bad news for him, that was the extent of my knowledge, but I took the health of my teeth very seriously.

“How important is this to you?” he asked carefully, his eyes darting back to his hand, which still held a tiny bit of the water he’d been cupping in it.

“When I was four, I fell off Tate’s skateboard and knocked my front teeth out. It took almost a year for my adult teeth to grow in. Then I had alignment issues because my back baby teeth were delayed in falling out so the adult ones could grow in, which meant I had braces. I spent so much time at the dentist and orthodontist that I now know way more than I want to about oral health.” I could laugh about it now, but at the time it sucked donkey balls.

Assessing all of this information, he pointed out, “You might find that’s where your problems with your appearance started. You were so aware of an imperfection that you focused on what you felt were other ones.”

I couldn’t help lifting my hand to rub my nose as he said it. More than likely to make sure I didn’t have a big old potato honker there still.

Grabbing my hand, he pulled me into him. “I don’t like talking about my past, and you don’t like remembering things you didn’t like about yourself. We both need to realize our value, don’t you think?”

Gah, I hated that he was using my own words back at me.

“You’re right,” I agreed begrudgingly with a sigh. “I’ll keep working on that.”

Giving me a peck on the nose, he whispered, “You do that. In the meantime,” he skimmed his hands up my back, pulling the t-shirt of his I was wearing with it, “I want to learn all about you. What goes on inside this beautiful head,” he kissed me on the forehead, “all about your past, and all about your body.”

He could do whatever he wanted if he moved his hands under the damned piece of clothing he’d insisted I wore instead of the pajamas I’d brought with me.

Looking almost vulnerable, he added, “I want what we have to mean more to you than any other guy got from you. I don’t know why, but I keep thinking about it and worrying.”

“Uh, Parker, we already have more than what I’ve had with anyone. I don’t exactly have a…” I paused, cringing at having a discussion I hadn’t wanted to have. “A long and colorful dating history, and, honestly, I’m not the sort of person who wants to swap notes on that. I don’t want to know about your past, and I really don’t want to discuss my own. It makes me feel uncomfortable and like I have to live up to something.”

When I finished, he just stared at me, like he was trying to see inside my mind. Jesus, I hope he couldn’t. What if he was one of those people who was born with ‘the gift’ or something? If I ever needed to go to the bathroom or fart, he’d know.

Finally, he agreed. “Okay, we’ll leave it at just us. What happened in the past stays in the past.”