All I Want Read online

  This was a not-so-subtle reference to the time last year when Zoe had gone on a two-guy dating spree. The first one, Evan, had wanted her to take pole-dancing classes. Not with him but for him.

  She’d declined.

  The second guy, Mike, she’d seen a few times before calling things off. “He was a mouth breather, and a very loud one.”

  “You got scared,” Darcy said.

  No. Well, maybe. But while Mike had been nice and kind and even gainfully employed as a ranch manager, he hadn’t been the right one for her—with or without the loud breathing.

  “Zoe,” Darcy said. “I’m not leaving this car until you promise.”

  Zoe crossed her fingers. “I promise.”

  “Good. Now uncross your fingers and say it again.”

  Dammit. Zoe uncrossed her fingers. “I won’t chase Parker away or dump him because he’s breathing wrong.” Nope, in her heart she knew it wouldn’t come to that. Because he’d be walking out the door far before she was ready for him to do so.

  Twelve

  After Zoe had left for work, Parker got into the shower to wash off his run and several hours of slinging horse shit.

  Oreo trotted into the bathroom behind him. The big dog liked to stick his head into the shower and slurp at the water. At first this had been disconcerting to say the least, but Oreo had turned out to be good company.

  Still, Parker’s thoughts didn’t drift far from Zoe.

  She wasn’t a woman to trust easily, if at all. And up until today he’d have said no way did she trust him, not even a little.

  But something had changed between them now that they’d shared. And then there was the way she looked at him, like maybe she was torn between wanting to run and wanting to kiss him again.

  He could admit to being torn between the same two things.

  There was chemistry, more than he’d expected. More than he’d felt in a very long time. But his leave was by no means a vacation, and now that Sharon had made him, his ass was on the line.

  His job had been hard on more than one relationship, including the tenuous one with his family. His parents had never approved of his career, pretty much leaving him out of the loop of their world. He had Amory and that was about it. He didn’t think about it much, but when he did, he consoled himself with the knowledge that he didn’t have room for more, anyway. He was gone for long stretches at a time, sometimes without much warning, and he couldn’t always tell people where he was.

  What woman would deal with that in a man?

  No woman he’d ever met. No one wanted to be in a relationship where she had to give such blind trust.

  Especially not Zoe.

  He knew that much all too well now that she’d told him about Kyle the Asshole. He dunked his head under the hot water, letting it beat down on his sore muscles. When the water turned cold, he got out, dressed, and went to the kitchen table with his laptop. There he studied the images he’d taken with his camera from twelve thousand feet.

  Putting his trust in the system wasn’t easy, but he’d promised to lay low. In his mind, laying low equaled not being seen.

  He had no intention of being seen. The area wouldn’t be easy to watch in person. So he wouldn’t do it in person. He’d set up motion detector cameras and rely on the feed. Because trusting the system was one thing. Letting Carver get away scot-free was another.

  That wasn’t going to happen. He’d seen some interesting things in the air with Zoe, one of them being a ranch that had piqued his interest. He went shopping for what he needed and made the three-hour drive up to Rocky Falls. It took longer to find Cat’s Paw. He was going off the pics he’d taken, matched up to his GPS, and found the ranch he’d wanted to take a better look at.

  He didn’t get close, not wanting to be made. Instead, he left the car in the woods and went in on foot, avoiding the roads and clearings, managing to outmaneuver the few guards he caught sight of at the fence lining the ranch.

  For a long time he just watched and realized there were only two goons. Though they were armed to the teeth, they were bored and spent a lot of time talking to each other instead of paying attention to their surroundings.

  This left Parker free to stealthily place his equipment without getting caught. Which wasn’t easy, as it involved a lot of tree climbing, and his ribs hurt like a bitch.

  On the way home he made a stop at the county recorder’s office to see who owned the land, but they were closed. He consoled himself with the knowledge that with the cameras in place, he could now watch what was going on at Cat’s Paw.

  He was supposed to meet Wyatt and Emily for dinner, but he went back to Zoe’s place first to shower and change. It was six o’clock on the dot when he pulled into Zoe’s driveway and parked next to a car he knew wasn’t hers.

  A guy got out at the same time as him.

  Joe, from the airport.

  He’d nearly forgotten her date with the guy. He’d told himself it was absolutely none of his business what she did with her free time. None at all.

  He almost believed it, too.

  Joe wore jeans and a polo shirt with the airport’s logo on a pec. His sole concession to the night’s date appeared to be that he’d tucked the work shirt partially in.

  Joe nodded to Parker and they both headed up the walk. Joe stopped on the porch.

  Parker didn’t. Look at that, he thought with a grim smile. There was a benefit to not being The Date, after all. Resisting flashing Joe a smug smile, Parker let himself into the house and found Zoe in the kitchen eating French toast. It smelled so damn good that for a minute he completely forgot what he’d come in here to tell her and just inhaled the cinnamony, buttery scent of the room.

  Zoe smelled good, too, like syrup, and she looked pretty fucking sexy in a white tank top and . . . well, he had no idea what else because Oreo was in her lap.

  The chair appeared to be straining.

  She fed Oreo a bite of French toast and met Parker’s gaze. “Don’t judge me,” she said.

  “Are you kidding? I’m about ready to steal that plate from you. It smells amazing.”

  “It’s my secret ingredient.”

  He dropped his duffel bag on a chair. Playfully, he moved in behind her, scooped her hair away, and pressed his face to the nape of her neck to smell her. “Is the secret ingredient you?”

  “No,” she said, elbowing him with a laugh. But goose bumps broke out on her skin and she shivered. He actually thought maybe she moaned, too, but that might have been him. Unable to help himself, he took another big sniff of her.

  “Cinnamon,” he said with a hungry sigh.

  “Told you I could cook.” Her voice sounded a little shaky as she dragged a piece on her plate through a river of syrup and stuffed it into her mouth. “It’s just baking that keeps defying me. But no worries.”

  He grinned. “Because you’ve got this.”

  “Well, yeah.” She smiled.

  He stared at the gorgeous, resilient, tough-as-nails woman and felt a mixture of pride, hunger, lust, and, most surprisingly of all, affection.

  “So what’s that stuff?” she asked curiously, pointing to his opened duffel bag on the chair. Inside was the one extra camera he hadn’t placed up at Cat’s Paw.

  “It’s for surveillance.”

  “Like . . . a nanny cam?” she asked.

  “Sort of. Except it’s not a continuous feed. It doesn’t roll until it detects motion. You can watch the feed from an app. I drove up to Cat’s Paw and put some in play today.”

  “And you have a leftover camera.”

  “It’s a spare. In case one malfunctions.”

  “Huh.” She ran a finger over it. “Think I could borrow it?”

  He stared at her as all sorts of really erotic thoughts vied for first place in his head. He wondered if they were on the same page.

  “I’ve always wanted to put one here in the house to see what Oreo does all day long,” she said.

  Nope, he thought, laughing at h