A Beautiful Lie (29 page)

She turned to face Cole and raised her shot glass a little higher.

“Well then, to the Dominican.  Let’s hope they find a better aphrodisiac soon,” she said with a laugh as she choked down the shot.

Cole laughed with her and swallowed the drink with ease.  He could sense her distance and that was alright with him.  He could tell from the first time he was in the same room with Garrett and Parker that Garrett would probably knock him out if he attempted any kind of move on her.  He always wondered why he never got the same vibe from Milo but just figured he was more of a laid back kind of guy.  Parker was beautiful and smart and a total bad ass CIA agent, but he was in no mood to get his face rearranged over a woman.

Cole and Parker spent the next hour drinking and sharing stories. 

Parker never noticed the eyes that had been watching her from the moment Cole sat down next to her at the bar.

<> ~ <>

Garrett yanked open the mini fridge in the room with so much force it slammed into the wall, denting it with the handle.

He shoved aside the old fashioned bottles of Pepsi and 7UP and reached in and grabbed the complimentary bottle of Barceló Imperial Rum from the top shelf.  Kicking the door closed with his foot, he unscrewed the cap and took a long swig.

All Garrett wanted to do after the woman at the hotel confirmed she had seen Milo there on several occasions over the years was to race back to the resort and apologize to Parker.  All of the awful, ugly things he said to her played on a loop in his mind.  The look on her face after she smacked him popped up every time he closed his eyes.

Parker had been right to suspect Milo, and Garrett should have kept an open mind with her.  She lived with him and spent more time with him than Garrett had.  He’d been one person with Garrett and another with Parker.  And obviously, he’d been a third person with both of them.  Garrett had no idea which Milo was the real one.  All this time he wanted Milo to be the same man he grew up with, slightly troubled but with a big heart, willing to do anything to make a better life for himself than the one he had growing up.  A good friend and partner, someone he could trust with his life and always depend on.  He’d given up on any dreams he harbored towards Parker because he knew Milo was perfect for her.  He knew Milo would take care of her.

Now he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

The maid at the hotel remembered seeing Milo every couple of months routinely for the entire seven years she worked there.  He always arrived alone, stayed one night, and left the next morning with a girl.  She stressed that they were girls, not women.  The maid never saw the girls arrive, so she didn’t know when they came or if they came alone.  She never recognized any of them.

Until the last one:  Catalina Olvera.

She’d recognized the girl’s picture when an article was printed in the paper about her death.  Several months prior to the article, she’d seen Milo walking out of his hotel room with his arm wrapped around the teenage girl’s shoulders.  She remembered the girl because it was the only time one of them ever made eye contact with her, the only time one of them looked terrified and desolate.  It was the first time she felt the need to tell someone.  Her manager told her if she valued her job, she would keep her mouth shut about the man and his girls. The American had connections that could ruin all of them.

After that, the maid never saw Milo at the hotel again.

Brady didn’t say anything to Garrett on the way back to the resort. He was sick with the thought that someone he knew, someone he trusted and went into dangerous missions with could have been mixed up in something as ugly as this.  Brady knew it was only a fraction of what Garrett was feeling.

When they got back Garrett told Brady to look into Catalina’s death more closely.  He wanted copies of her autopsy and police reports and anything he could find on the investigation.  Garrett started to walk away but stopped after a few feet.  He spoke without turning around.

“Also, I want everything you can find on Milo from the day he was born.”

Garrett stalked out of the room he shared with Parker and made his way down to the beach, taking a healthy swallow of rum every few feet.

All he wanted to do was come back here and see Parker, tell her he’d made a mistake, and ask for her forgiveness.  No matter what had happened between them, the things he found out at the hotel were going to crush her, and he didn’t want anything hanging in the air between them when he told her.

He dreaded every single step he took as he walked into the lobby knowing it was one step closer to breaking Parker’s heart yet again.  Garrett stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of Parker’s musical laughter as it carried through the air.

He saw her sitting at the bar, close to Cole, laughing while he leaned into her and whispered in her ear.  Garrett stood there long enough to see just howhurtshe’d been by their earlier fight as she drank and laughed and talked to another man

Garrett wondered just how screwed up in the head he was when he started stalking across the room, the only thought in his mind picking up Cole and punching the laugh right off of his face, the face that was making Parker smile and giggle and flirt.

He stopped himself before he got too close to making the biggest mistake of his life.  Punching Cole wouldn’t solve any of his problems. It wouldn’t erase the memories of Milo eating dinner with him and his parents, Milo convincing him to sneak out after curfew to go to a party, Milo jumping on Garrett’s bed first thing in the morning when he had a hangover from hell, or Milo working so hard in the  Navy just to make Garrett and his parents proud.

It wouldn’t take away the pain of seeing Parker give Cole a laugh that was supposed to be Garrett’s.

Garrett turned and fled from the lobby, unable to watch whatever was happening between Cole and Parker unfold.

By the time he made it down to the water and sat down on one of the beach chairs, he had a nice buzz going but his anger hadn’t diminished.  He wondered if Parker would go back to Cole’s room.  If she’d let him undress her and run his hands over her soft skin, between her warm thighs, and inside her welcoming body.  He wondered if she’d make the same moans and sighs with him that she did when Garrett pushed his fingers into her, slid his cock against her, and made her come.

“FUCK!” Garrett screamed as he hurled the half-empty bottle of rum into the ocean and put his head in his hands.  He clutched at his hair so hard it made his eyes water and his hands shake.

She couldn’t do this to him.  He wouldn’t let her just forget about what they’d done no matter how pissed she was at him.  Somewhere in Garrett’s mind he knew he shouldn’t talk to Parker now, not when he was buzzed and angry and imagining her naked and wrapped up with another man. 

He pushed himself off of the chair and made his way back to the lobby.

<> ~ <>

Parker said goodbye to Cole and thanked him for keeping her company as she made her way up the walk to villa she shared with Garrett.  She felt around her hips for the key when she realized she didn’t have any pockets and therefore had no key.

She cursed herself for not changing out of the black wrap dress when they got home from the palace.  Parker let her forehead fall against the door with a thud, not looking forward to the walk back to the lobby to have another key made.  She was tired and she was drunk.  All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and go back to feeling sorry for herself.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart, did your date leave you high and dry?” Garrett asked sarcastically.

Parker whipped around at the sound of his voice, irritated to see that he still had a bug up his ass, but happy that he could at least let her into their room before he stalked off to pout somewhere.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked him angrily.

Garrett moved up the walk until he was standing right in front of her.

“I’m talking about you and your cozy little date with Cole,” Garrett spat.

Parker stared up at him in shock.

“Oh my God.  You have lost your fucking mind, you know that?”

She turned to walk away from him, but he grabbed her by the arm and spun her back around to face him, pushing her backwards until she smacked up against the wall of the alcove to their villa.

Garrett pushed his body against hers to keep her in place, sliding his knee between her thighs.  Parker quickly put her hands to his chest and tried to shove him away from her.

“Get OFF me!” she growled.

He didn’t budge.  He just stared down into her beautiful, angry face and let the words fly.

“I saw you with him.  I saw you snuggled up next to him, laughing at all his jokes and turning on the charm,” Garrett seethed as he felt himself harden while Parker squirmed against him and tried to get out of his arms.

He couldn’t help himself; he grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands away from his chest, anchoring them against the wall above her head.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”  Parker fumed as she tried to pull her arms out of his grasp, but that only made him tighten his hold.  If she really wanted to, she could take him down with one well-placed kick to the groin or a twisting self-defense move, but something about being this close to him when he was in a jealous rage sparked a fire within her that kept her rooted in place.

She could feel the anger rolling off of him, and while she wasn’t afraid and could never be afraid of Garrett, she had no idea what had gotten into him. He'd never acted this way with her before.  He was being possessive, like she was his and had no right to share herself with another man.  It irritated her and turned her on all at the same time. She could smell the rum on his breath and mixed with his cologne, it was a heady sent that would have intoxicated her if she wasn’t already halfway there.

“YOU are what’swrong with me, Parker.  It’salways been you.  Every time I’m around you I can’t think.  You mess with my mind and you make me lose focus.”

Parker’s heart beat rapidly in her chest as she stared into his eyes.

It’s always been you.

She knew better than to think he meant anything by that comment.  They were both drunk and angry.  Letting her mind misconstrue his words was foolish and would do nothing but hurt her in the end.

But she couldn’t bring herself to care about that right now.

Garrett could smell the alcohol on her mixed with the faint coconut perfume of her skin.  She was still wearing the dress from earlier, and the thin material made it easier for him to feel every inch of her body up against his.  He pushed his hips into her, wishing the anger away so he could just feel.  He was still plagued with thoughts of confusion and resentment though.  None of that would go away easily.

Parker let out an involuntary whimper when he pushed his hardness against her.  She had no control of her body and its reactions when Garrett was around.

“Do you think he could make you moan when he rubbed up against you?” Garrett asked as he ground himself harder between her legs.  He didn’t know if he was referring to Cole or Milo at that point.  Both men’s faces flashed before his eyes as he pictured them touching Parker and giving her the pleasure he was meant to.

He pushed Parker’s arms together so he could grab both wrists with one hand, letting his free hand slide down the underside of her arm, over her breast, across her stomach, and under the hem of her dress.  He brought his hand up the inside of her thigh, letting his fingers graze over the thin scrap of satin between her legs.

“Do you think he could make you wet like this?” Garrett asked fiercely as he slid his fingers up and down over her sex, feeling her wetness soaking through the satin.

Parker’s body continued to betray her. His words angered her, but his hands and his fingers made her want him so badly she ached for him to sink himself inside her.  Her hips moved forward, reaching for more of him, wanting him to keep going even though a part of her didn’t want to do this when they were both so angry.

“What the hell do you want from me?” Parker asked brokenly as Garrett circled his finger around her satin-covered clit, forcing another moan from her.

“I want you to admit that I’m the only one who can make you feel like this,” Garrett said through clenched teeth, knowing he was crossing a very dangerous line with Parker but unable to stop now.  He pulled his hand out from between her legs, slid his arm behind her back, and pulled her up against him roughly, covering her mouth with his before she could say anything, before he could second guess his decision.

The kiss was hard and forceful.  Garrett took everything she had to give from that kiss, bruising her mouth with his lips.  She wanted to tell him to stop, to slow down, but he dropped her arms from above her head and both of his hands cupped her from behind as he lifted her up against him.

She shouldn’t have wrapped her legs around his waist as he turned them both and slammed her up against their closed door while she clutched the front of his shirt and held on.  She should have told him they needed to talk, but as his lips and tongue continued their assault on her mouth, all she could do was respond.  She’d wanted him like this for so long.  She’d wanted him wild for her and unrestrained.  As much as she dreamed about slow, sensual loving with Garrett, she also dreamed about him finally giving in and taking her.  She dreamed about him wanting her so much he couldn't control his actions any longer.

The door behind her was unlocked and Garrett pushed it open using her body as leverage.

His hands found their way under her dress and grabbed onto her to pull her closer to his body as he walked, his fingers squeezing the bare flesh as he moved.

When they were inside the room, Garrett kicked the door closed behind him and swung Parker around, her back smacking into the wall beside the door, forcing a picture hanging on the wall to crash to the floor.

Garrett should have stopped to apologize; he didn't want to hurt her.  But right now, with her long legs wrapped around him and the heat between her thighs pressing against him, he lost all control.