Do I keep pretending I’m asleep or make a huge joke out of the situation, Garrett thought to himself. And why can’t I move my hand away from her breast, his brain practically screamed.
Parker knew the moment Garrett became conscious of what he was doing probably before he did. An agent was trained to pay attention to certain tells, like a subtle increase in breathing patterns and a heartbeat that went from a sleeping rate of fifty-two beats a minute to Garrett’s current ninety-seven beats a minute. Garrett’s rate was unusually high for someone just waking up, which told Parker he was finally aware he was currently palming her bare breast.
“You’ve obviously decided on a whole new meaning for the word ‘boundaries’ haven’t you?” Parker said, attempting to inject some humor into the situation. She knew better than anyone that Garrett-straight-laced-does-everything-by-the-book-Parker-is-my-friend-McCarthy would be absolutely mortified that he woke up that way.
Garrett jerked his hand out from under Parker’s tank top and tried not to whimper at the loss of her beneath his palm. He quickly scrambled away from her and off the bed while she casually rolled over to face him, propping her head in her hand and her elbow on her pillow.
Parker watched as Garrett bent down to the floor and grabbed the pants he had discarded last night, pulling them up his legs and over the erection that strained against his boxer briefs. Parker watched the sight before her disappear behind the black nylon pants as Garrett pulled his thumbs out of the elastic, letting it snap into place. The pants hung low enough on him that Parker could see the muscled indents by his hip bones and a bit of his happy trail peeking out of the top. Parker wondered why she never took more time to stare at his body before when a flash of something caught her eye. She blinked and looked down to see Milo’s engagement ring resting on top of her tank top, right between her breasts.
While Garrett got dressed without saying a word, Parker was hit with a wave of guilt and wondered if the reflection of the sun against the ring was some sort of sign she was betraying Milo’s memory with all of these thoughts of Garrett.
Parker reached up and fingered the ring, sliding it back and forth along its thin, silver chain, the zipping sound of metal against metal filling the quiet room.
“We’re supposed to be downstairs in thirty minutes to meet everyone for breakfast,” Garrett finally spoke. His back was to Parker as he rummaged through his suitcase for a change of clothes.
Parker sat up in bed and pushed the covers off of her.
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” Garrett said without looking at her as he piled a tee shirt, jeans, and clean underwear into his arms and moved towards the bathroom. “I’ll just meet you down there.”
The door slammed shut behind him, signifying that there would be no discussion about the morning’s wake up call.
<> ~ <>
Thirty minutes later they were all seated at a table for a continental breakfast with a view of the Atlantic at the Playa Restaurant located just off the resort’s lobby.
Parker had thrown on a pair of dark green cargo pants and a fitted white tee shirt, pulled her hair into a high ponytail, and left the room right after Garrett’s departure to the bathroom, making her way downstairs to wait in the lobby for everyone.
She sat in one of the black wicker love-seats with red cushions that reminded her of the color of Garrett’s underwear from that morning and people-watched. For the most part, this resort looked like a honeymoon destination. Everywhere Parker glanced she saw couples. Men and women holding hands, kissing, and their arms wrapped around one another, completely oblivious to what was going on around them. They only cared about each other. She tried to remember back to a time when she and Milo were like that, but she couldn’t. The sad truth was they had never been in love like that. They held hands occasionally. He offered her his elbow when she was exiting a vehicle or they were walking into an event, and he hung his arm around her shoulder in a friendly gesture—but none of it screamed love, passion, and adoration.
Parker always blamed herself for the lack of…everything in their relationship. She kept the most important parts of herself closed off from him. A few times she tried to apologize for not being able to give him more, but he would always cut her off and tell her it didn’t matter. He loved her and he would take any part she was willing to give. Milo knew about her father. She was able to give him that much at least. She had to share something with him so he could at least try to understand where she was coming from. Milo was her best friend. She always thought that would be enough. It was the basis for every successful relationship.
But as she sat there and felt the warm ocean breeze against her skin, listening to the rustle of palm trees and the cries of exotic birds in the distance, she looked across the expanse of the lobby and watched Garrett walk the length of the marble floor, feeling her heart speed up in her chest. Garrett was also her best friend, but Garrett gave her butterflies, made her second-guess every single decision she’d made for the past eight years, and made her want to stay locked away in a room with him, away from the world and other people and anything that could come between them. He made her want to greet every single morning exactly like she did that morning. He made her want things she had no business wanting or even deserved.
After everyone finished their breakfast, where they lightly conversed about safe topics like sports, vacations, and movies, Garrett got down to business.
“Marshall, where are we on making contact with President Fernandez?”
While Austin and Cole were there mostly for muscle, Brady’s main focus for the mission was intel and communication. He was quick with a computer and skilled with a gun, but he absolutely excelled in sweet talk and cons.
“I sent an email to the lovely Mrs. Pilar Espinal, Fernandez’s secretary and guard dog for the past ten years, as soon as I got to my room last night. According to her reply this morning, she received our request last week inquiring about an interview with the President and now that we are in the country, he is more than willing to sit down with us,” Brady explained as he wiped the corner of his mouth with a cloth napkin and tossed it on the table. “I was able to get Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Miller an invite to a black tie dinner being held tomorrow evening at the presidential palace.”
Everyone looked between Garrett and Parker with smirks on their faces. Garrett and Parker refused to acknowledge them or each other. Garrett was hoping Parker would never, ever speak or think of the morning’s events again. He was appalled at his behavior even if it did happen while he was half asleep. But his hand had continued to linger after he woke up, and he had no excuse for that.
Even so, Garrett wanted her bare breasts in his palms and his hardness between her legs so badly it hurt to breathe. He needed to get away from her for a while and clear his head.
“Sounds good. Text me the information,” Garrett told Brady as he threw his own napkin down on the table and stood up. “I made arrangements for two rental SUVs. I’m going to take one and scope out the palace. Marshall, start digging into Fernandez’s financial records. I want bank account information, local and offshore investments, charity, real estate holdings, and anything else you can find on him.”
Parker listened to Garrett rattle off instructions to Brady as he backed away from the table. She stood up and followed him.
“Hey, you want some company?” she asked.
“Nope, I’m good. You can just wander around the resort and relax,” Garrett told her before throwing his hand in the air in a casual wave and quickly walking away.
Parker stood there squeezing her hands into fists in an effort to stop her from punch something, like the marble column next to her. She had to stop herself from running up behind Garrett and smacking him upside the back of his head.
“So, little lady,” Brady drawled, pulling her out of her murderous thoughts, “how about you sit down and tell us why the hell we never knew you were so bad ass you could accompany four guys on a top secret SEAL mission.”
<
br /> <> ~ <>
A few hours and several mimosas later, Parker made her way back to the villa. Against her better judgment, after a few minutes chatting with the guys after breakfast, she realized she liked them. A lot. She’d run into them several times over the years at different functions, but she never really sat down and talked to them. They were loud, hilarious, full of sexual innuendos for everything, teased her unmercifully, and they were easy to talk to. They made Parker wish she hadn’t been an only child and had been blessed with a few older brothers to watch after her and keep her safe
Not that Annabelle Parker needed to be kept safe. With her black belt in karate and taekwondo, her expert marksman status, lethal and non-lethal hand-to-hand combat training, and wilderness survival skills, Parker could take care of herself.
It was still a nice thought to have every once in a while when her defenses were lowered. She never asked for the life she'd been given. Sometimes she caught herself wishing for a normal one with parents and siblings—a group of people who cared about her well-being.
Parker dropped down on her side of the bed, dragged her laptop bag up from the floor, removed the computer from its case, and placed it on her lap. Garrett might be the computer genius, but Parker took a six month hacker course from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He didn’t know it was a hacker course, per say, but hind-sight was twenty-twenty, especially when you were with the CIA.
Parker fired up the laptop, plugged in her mobile printer, and got to work.
Garrett spent the rest of the day doing surveillance on the palace and meeting up with Brady every few hours for updates on what he found, which wasn't much. Fernandez's information was one big jumbled mess of dead ends. His business ventures, companies, accounts—they all looked legit for the most part. There were transactions that could have raised a red flag, but Brady was never able to find anything even remotely illegal about the business he conducted. He got to a certain point in his search when he thought he’d find something, and then the trail would end, producing nothing illegal.
Garrett tried his hand at digging for a few hours while he sat at the bar in the lobby of the hotel and ate dinner. He told himself repeatedly that he wasn’t avoiding Parker. He just had a lot of work to do and didn’t feel like going back to the room just yet.
When the bartender began cleaning up and shutting the bar down, Garrett knew it was time to face the music. He tucked his laptop under his arm and walked to the villa.
As he let himself into the room, courtesy of the extra key he got that morning from the front desk, he saw Parker’s laptop in the middle of the bed surrounded by hundreds of sheets of paper. The bathroom door opened just as he started to walk over to see what was printed on them.
Parker came out of the bathroom surrounded by a cloud of steam, wearing her usual tank top and draw string pants, this time in pale blue. Garrett froze for a moment, taking in her wavy, damp hair, freshly scrubbed face, and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. His face heated at the memory of that morning and how she hadn’t been wearing a bra then either.
Parker was still pissed at Garrett, but seeing him standing there after not being near him all day made her just want to throw her arms around him and pull him close. Waking up to him in the morning made her realize how much she missed being touched and how much she wanted to be touched by him. She resisted the urge to go to him, considering the morning’s events made him run away from her and disappear all day just so he wouldn’t have to deal with the embarrassment.
Parker turned and walked over to the bed, sliding some of the papers aside so she could crawl up to the pillows and lean back against the headboard. Garrett set his laptop on the counter leading into the kitchen and watched her cross her legs and pull her computer onto her lap. He realized just how stupid and immature he was being. Nothing that bad happened, nothing that couldn’t be easily forgotten about so they could move on and go back to the effortless friendship they always shared.
“It’s a good thing we got an invite to the palace tomorrow. Trying to break into that place would be impossible. I counted one hundred and forty-seven heavily armed guards there today,” Garrett shared, trying to get her to talk and hopefully forgive him.
“It’s not impossible. It can be done,” Parker responded nonchalantly as she typed on her laptop and never looked up.
Garrett was still having a hard time believing the things that came out of Parker’s mouth. He shook his head in wonder as he stared at her, moving closer to the bed.
“So, you’ve been here before?” Garrett asked.
The clicking of her fingers on the keys stilled, but she still didn’t look up.
“A few times, yes.”
Parker was surprised Garrett was asking her. He’d been nothing but ticked off and shocked about her job, and now all of a sudden he seemed interested. She couldn’t tell him the details of why she had been here, but now that he knew what she did for a living, she could give him a little.
“The first time was the year after you guys graduated from SEAL training,” she told him softly.
“Seriously? I remember that trip. You went to the Caribbean to take pictures of white marlin for Greenpeace. Or so you said.”
Parker finally looked up at Garrett, gauging the look on his face to see if he was being sarcastic. She was shocked to see that he wasn’t. He was smiling.
She couldn’t help but smile back. Just a few days without his friendship and support and she felt lost. That smile was like a lifeline that she desperately reached for.
“I didn’t lie about that. I really did take those marlin pictures for them. One of them is still hanging in their office in Amsterdam as a matter of fact,” she said proudly. “I just had to get the photos completed in a day so I could “borrow” something from Fernandez’s office.”
Garrett let out a little laugh, and Parker’s heart sped up at the sound. He moved forward until his legs came in contact with the edge of the bed.
“So what’s all this?” Garrett asked as he pointed to the mess all over the bed.
“I’ve been doing some research on Fernandez. Found a few surprising things.”
Garrett looked at her in confusion.
“I thought you were just going to relax by the pool today, maybe check out some of the stores and get your hair done or something,” he said.
Parker wondered if it was physically impossible for Garrett to stop being a jerk for more than ten minutes. She slammed the lid to her laptop closed and stared him down.
“I'm not just here to be your sweet little wife and look pretty. I have a job to do as well, Garrett.”
Garrett immediately started backpedaling when he saw how angry he’d made her.
“I didn't mean...I just thought you could use some down time. That’s all I meant by that.”
Parker shook her head at him and huffed in indignation.
“Down time? Garrett I've been on administrative leave for six months. I've had nothing but down time. What I need is to work. And to get some answers. So if you can stop being a chauvinistic ass for five minutes, we can talk about the things I found.”
Garrett refused to admit that his dick swelled a little as he watched her fiery attitude take control. He ignored it and concentrated on what she’d printed out.
He picked up a few pages and stared at them wide-eyed.
“Jesus Christ, Parker! This is a list of all of the shell companies that are directly associated to Fernandez,” Garrett said in amazement as he thumbed through the pages in his hand. He grabbed another piece of paper, scanning the contents. “Are these the offshore account numbers for these companies? How the fuck did you find this? Even I couldn’t get in that deep.”
Parker shrugged, “I have my ways.”
“So what? You can tell me, but then you'd have to kill me?” Garrett joked.
The smile on Parker’s face instantly fell, and Garrett watched as something erased the light in her eyes. She looked away from him and shove
d the computer off of her lap, not really caring where it landed; she just couldn’t look at him anymore.
“I could tell you, but then someone else could kill you,” she said so softly he had to strain to hear her.
These past few days Garrett had been pissed at her for not telling him the truth, and to be honest, he’d been a little jealous that she’d lived this life of excitement and espionage and all of the things movies were made about. He took his envy and anger out on her and blamed her for his insecurities about his own life. But in reality, this was the God damn CIA she had been dealing with for eight years. Who really knew what the hell they had done to her? The thought made his blood boil that they may have done something to hurt her or threatened someone she cared about. Garrett may not have the security clearance she did, but he still worked for the same government. He heard rumors; he knew the lengths they would go to get what they wanted. Garrett suddenly felt sick to his stomach, wondering what they might have done to prove a point.
Garrett swallowed thickly, still standing at the edge of the bed.
“Who?” he asked softly.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Parker immediately replied, turning her face away from him.
Garrett shoved the papers aside and sat down on the bed next to her. He tentatively reached a hand out and ran it up and down her arm.
“I’m here, Parker. I’m not going anywhere. Talk to me.”
Garrett watched a lone tear trickle down her cheek as Parker remembered her only friend from college.
Parker had met Lacie Butler the summer before her senior year of college. Lacie was another lost soul that had nowhere to go after class let out at the end of the semester. Her parents had left her to be raised by nannies for most of her life, and they traveled so much she saw them maybe once a year. That summer, they had been in San Tropez while Lacie was in the library on a Saturday evening.
When Parker walked into the library after dinner, she had her usual feelings of excitement knowing she’d have the entire place all to herself. Her happiness was short lived, however, when she spotted another girl sitting at Parker’s usual table. She sighed in frustration and made her way to a different table a few rows down.
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