FORMERLY

Chapter 12

Her face stayed warm with the flushed embarrassment and slight rejection. It refused to fade away even as the two of them sat down to eat. How Laurielle did not initially notice the dinner setup in the middle of the room she did not know.

The flush kept her cheeks pink and blood rushing to her head. She could not begin to form a full sentence since she came in and continued to play with her fingers. But deep inside, she felt relief that Parker wanted to eat and talk with her like normal people. It brought her out of her life as an escort and made her feel as if she was eighteen again.

"I'm sorry." She spits out after a few minutes of silence.

Parker looked up from his food with a confused stare. "About what?"

Her face turned even more red if that was possible, and she moved a strand of hair out of her face.

"About before...when I thought that...that..." her voice trailed off hoping that Parker would get the meaning of her words.

Instead, Parker's eyes lit up in amusement and a small smile found its way to his lips. He edged closer to the edge of his chair leaned his body over the table so that his face was in front of hers.

"When you thought what?" Parker asked in feigned confusion.

"When I... you know..." She leaned back so that there was some space in between the two of them.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Parker asked, this time with a wide smile.

"Yunno..." she trailed off again, not catching Parker's smile.

He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue. For a femme fatale, she was sure naïve.

"When I thought you wanted to...spend the night some other way." She hid her face with her hair.

Parker held back his grin and slid his hand towards hers.

"I did want to...I do want to." He hooked his pinkie through hers.

Laurielle's chest burned at his intimate gesture.

"But even more than that, I want to get to know you more." He entwined his fingers through hers. "I like you."

Laurielle swore her heart stopped when he said those three words. She liked how straightforward he was.

"There's not much to know about me. I'm just a simple girl who ended up going down the wrong alley" She paused to slide her hand out of his. "I left home, dropped out of high school, left everything that was good in life."

Parker wasn't fazed by her sob story; his eyes held no disgust or pity.

"Tell me about home. What was home like?" He replied with soft and sparking eyes.

Laurielle looked taken aback by his intimate question. She hadn't expected that.

"Well, um, I was born in Oregon. I lived with my parents and my little sister." She felt uncomfortable sharing such hidden parts of her life.

"You have a little sister?" He asked, "how old is she?"

Her eyes softened and Parker could see her guard down for a moment.

"Her name is Delilah, she's seven years younger than me." She lowered her eyes. "She must be all grown up now." Shaking her head to shake away how much she missed Delilah, she continued. "She was the smartest, prettiest, and most charming little girl. My parents obsessed themselves over her."

Parker could see Laurielle's eyes light up at the mention of her sister.

"It must have been hard for you being the older child."

"Maybe. But everyone loved Delilah and so did I. I was an awkward kid growing up; I would have hated the attention anyways." She replied.

"I can't imagine that, you being awkward." He said.

"I know right? I turned out pretty well, didn't I?" She said jokingly.

Parker let out a laugh and his eyes crinkled. "Yeah, you did."

The rest of the dinner went on smoothly and they both enjoyed each other's presence. More than once did their gestures turn flirty with a touch here and there, but Parker never pushed too hard.

Laurielle was more than disappointed when she noticed that it had been well past midnight and it was time for her to leave. But Parker was even more disappointed than she was.

"You don't have to leave. I can open another room for you, it's far too late." Parker said holding onto her wrist.

"That's too much. I feel like I didn't even do anything for you tonight and you're still paying." She said, moving to pick up her purse and coat.

His hand reached hers wrists and wrapped around it. Turning to look at his face, Laurielle could see that his eyes were more somber now.

"You don't have to do any of that stuff with me. You don't own me anything."

Laurielle felt tingles where his hand met her wrist and she smiled shyly.

"Thank you—for the dinner, and your company. I really enjoyed it."

Parker's lips fell into a comfortable smile.

"Yeah, me too, Laure, me too."