God help him.
“Anyway,” Dean went on, “we’ve made some headway, at least. She likes cornflowers, which bodes well for blue being her favorite color. She’s into art. She obviously cares about her health, since she does yoga. I’m starting to get a sense of her. You?”
Parker gulped. Oh, he had a sense of her, all right. The kind of sense that hummed in his cock and made him want to pull her over, yank her out of her car, and fuck her until they both couldn’t see straight.
“She seems pretty level-headed,” he answered, considering the brief words they’d exchanged at yoga. “I don’t think she’d go for anything overly extravagant. No mariachi bands singing to her at dinner, or big displays that make her the center of attention.”
Up ahead, Lynn changed lanes. A second later, she parked in front of a Fresh Mart. Parker quickly followed suit, steering the SUV through the lot and choosing a space not too far from hers.
Both men watched as Lynn slid out of her car.
Parker hit his door release. “I’ll follow—”
“Bullshit.” Dean shoved his hand in front of Parker’s face, a receiver and speaker dangling from his fingers. “You’re not thinking that one through, bro. Are you nuts? She just saw you at yoga. You show up in the same grocery store as her five minutes after class, and she’ll call the cops.”
Shit. “You’re right.” Parker sat back with far more reluctance than he should have while simply deciding who would follow a target.
Of course, Dean, the observant asshole that he was, picked up on the hesitation immediately. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a full report of everything she’s buying.”
“Great.”
“Every stick of celery.”
“Fine.”
“Every bag of chips.”
“Good.”
“Every dirty magazine off the rack—”
“Fuck off.”
Dean tucked his earpiece into place and attached a tiny mic to his collar. “Just think—she could have chosen to stop at an adult shop like The Pleasure Chest or something. How’d you like to hear a live-action report on that?”
The idea was far too tempting. “How about you focus on the things she buys that might help us plan the damn date.”
Dean was out, both feet on the pavement. He paused to lean on the doorframe, teasing grin firmly in position as he looked at Parker. “Wonder if she’s the type who goes for a rubber ducky?” he cracked.
Parker rolled his eyes. “A grown woman in her late twenties? I highly doubt that.”
“No, bro, I was talking about a rubber ducky. You know, that new brand of vibrator that chicks can bring into the tub?”
Parker’s cock twitched. Christ. Dean just had to plant that image in his head, didn’t he? “Go follow her, you ass, and shut up about sex. She’s getting groceries.”
“Shut up about sex?” Dean muttered softly the entire way to the front door of the market. “Shut up? Everything is about sex, and you know it. Dating is about sex. Clothes are about sex. Hell, even this magnificent display of tomatoes I find before me as I enter the store—even this is about sex.”
Tomatoes. “Right. Explain that one as you find our mark, please.”
“Grabbing a cart.” There was a rattling noise, and then a steady squeak, squeak, squeak began in the background. “Heading down the cheese and bakery section. No sign of her. And the tomatoes—obvious, bro. Breast fixation. Stock boy set up the display in pairs.”
Parker gave in and let his head collapse forward, hard enough he set off the horn. He jerked upright, glancing around to make sure no one had witnessed his mistake. “Dean…”
“Looking. Looking.” Squeak.
Squeak.
Squeak.
“Oops, okay, found her.” Dean’s voice dropped to a faint whisper. “A couple instant noodle dishes—looks like Thai, some spaghetti sauce in a jar. Whole wheat noodles.”
“Healthy stuff. Got it.”
“Pecans…oh, shit.” The squeak in the background stopped mid-screech. “Umm…”
“What?” Parker demanded.
“Contraceptive section.”
Damn it. There went his final hope that the blue-eyed goddess wasn’t really involved with Phil the slime. “Don’t let her spot you,” Parker warned.
“Fuck you, too. I know my job. And I can multitask. For example, I can stand here, completely out of her line of sight, and observe that she’s pulling lube off the wall. At the same time I’m being Mr. Observant, I can think what a shame it is that such a fine woman isn’t on the market. Imagine all the dirty, dirty things we could do with her…”
Parker had indulged in enough threesomes with Dean to know the other man excelled at dirty.
“She’s smoking hot,” Dean added.
“Tell me about it.” He made a frustrated noise. The woman was pulling lube from the shelf? His cock was far too interested in that bit of information. “You weren’t the one who had to watch her during yoga.”