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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: The Pretender and its characters don’t belong to me. But since those who do own them won’t use them I’ll just borrow them for a while as we wait for the DVD release. (March 15th, 2005 in the U.S. – Pre-order is available. See for details. )
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Author’s notes: Okay, this part gets a tad racy. I think it’s still within PG-13 guidelines but please let me know if you think I should bump up the rating.
The Door of Memory
Part 9 – By Phenyx
12/05/04
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By the time Jarod arrived in Blue Cove, it was quite late. Out of habit, he parked his rental car a couple of blocks away and walked the remaining distance to Parker’s house. He didn’t even realize he’d done it.
As he climbed the front steps to Parker’s door, Jarod glanced at his watch. It was a few minutes past eleven o’clock. Only one light could be seen burning inside the house. Jarod knew from previous experience that the single lamp in the livingroom was always left on. The possibility existed that Parker wasn’t home.
Jarod gave himself a mental shake. It was more likely that Parker had gone to bed. She’d crossed multiple times zones twice in the last few days. Even though Parker was a well-traveled woman, getting ready for the wedding had been rather hectic. The party itself had gone on for hours. The poor girl was probably exhausted by now.
Smiling mischievously at the thought that he may be waking her, Jarod reached out and pressed the doorbell. He waited for a full minute after hearing the muffled chimes from within. When no additional lights clicked on, he rang the bell again. Just as he was about to try for a third time, a slender shadow wavered across the livingroom curtains and Jarod knew that Parker was near.
“Open the door, Parker,” Jarod called. He felt the hairs at the back of his neck tingle, indicating that he was being watched through the peephole. “Open up, or I swear I’ll climb through a window.”
The front door swung open to reveal Miss Parker. She leaned against the brass knob and eyed Jarod wryly. “You stay away from my windows or I’ll call the police,” she said.
“Nah,” Jarod replied. “You won’t do that. The paperwork would be too much of a hassle.”
Parker’s lips twitched in a half smile. “You’re probably right.”
Jarod shrugged. “I usually am,” he said.
“Get in here you cocky son of a bitch,” Parker groaned. She stepped back, allowing Jarod to enter.
After Parker closed and re-locked the door, she turned to stare at her visitor. Taking in her appearance, her silk robe and tussled hair, Jarod smiled. “Did I wake you?” he asked.
“Another five minutes and you would have,” Parker answered. She sighed and ran one hand through her hair in an anxious motion. “Was there a point to this visit, Jarod? Or do you just get your kicks out of disturbing my sleep?”
Jarod stepped close. Unable to control his need to touch her, he gently reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I don’t disrupt your slumber that often, do I?” he asked softly.
“All the time, Pez-head.” Parker’s voice dropped into a low, husky sound. “All the time.”
Confusion whipped through Jarod’s mind. This warm, soft bed-rumpled creature was not the same woman he had put on a plane several hours ago. Her body language and tone were inviting and seductive, not at all the stern ice queen from this afternoon.
“I don’t understand,” Jarod whispered plaintively. He ran his fingertips across Parker’s shoulder and down one satin covered arm. She didn’t pull away or glare at him. When his fingers retraced their path, she nuzzled her cheek against the back of Jarod’s hand.
“What’s to understand?” she purred. “You think too much, Jarod.”
“I can’t think at all anymore,” he answered. Their bodies were only inches apart. The heady scent of her was nearly intoxicating. “My brain ceased to function the moment I saw you on the stairs in that dress,” he added with a groan.
Parker laughed, a slow sexy sound. She leaned toward Jarod, so close that her robe whispered against the front of his leather jacket. “I’ve always felt that your brain was highly over-rated,” she said. “It isn’t the part of you that I’m really interested in anyway.”
Jarod’s eyelids fluttered shut and he sighed as Parker’s hands slid into his coat and pushed it from his shoulders. The leather fell to the floor with a soft thud. His heart pounded so loudly he could hear it.
“Parker,” he whispered. He opened his eyes and clasped Parker’s roaming hands between his own. “Tell me what’s happening. Do you care about me at all? Or is this all chemical? Is this anything more than sex to you?”
“Does it matter?” was the hushed reply.
“Yes!” Jarod squeezed her fingers hard. He was probably hurting her but she made no sign of it. “I can’t be your plaything, Parker.”
“I can’t give you what you’re looking for, Jarod,” Parker said sadly. “It isn’t in my nature.” She slipped her hands away from his and pulled back. Though she withdrew only a few inches, Jarod could feel the chasm reforming between them.
“Parker,” Jarod pleaded.
She shook her head in defeat. “It’s very late. I’m going to bed,” she said as she turned away from him. “Sleep wherever you like.”
She left Jarod standing alone in the middle of the room. As he stood there, his body began to shake uncontrollably. Whether the trembling was caused by agony, lust or rage he didn’t know. He didn’t care. He just didn’t want to feel like this anymore.
Frowning with determination, Jarod strode through the house. He entered Parker’s bedroom without knocking and halted in his tracks. It was dark in the room. Only one small sliver of moonlight penetrated the heavy curtains covering the window. Jarod could just barely make out Parker’s shape on the bed. He could tell that she was sitting up and looking at him.
“What do you want, Jarod?” Parker’s voice sounded weary and sad.
“I want you,” he practically growled. “Don’t act as if you don’t know it.”
Her heavy sigh filtered across the room. “Nothing is stopping you,” she told him. “You’re the one trying to make a big deal of it.”
“But it is a big deal,” Jarod said. “It should be at any rate.”
There was a long silence between them. “What are you afraid of?” Parker finally asked.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Then why are you still standing way over there?” Parker’s tone was lightly mocking. “When you could be here with me?”
“I don’t want to screw an old friend,” Jarod said bitterly. “I want to make love to someone I care about very much.”
“Do whatever you like, Jarod,” Parker replied. “I promise to be exceedingly cooperative.”
Jarod moved forward, stopping when his legs hit the foot of the bed. “Do you have any feelings for me at all?” He was glad it was dark. She couldn’t see the dampness on his cheeks. “Can you feel anything?”
“Oh yes,” she whispered. Parker crawled across the bedspread toward him. Kneeling on the mattress before him, Parker grabbed fistfuls of Jarod’s shirt in her hands. “Let me show you what I feel,” she murmured against his lips.
Then Parker’s soft mouth was pressed against his and Jarod was lost in the kiss. Any remnant of rational thought vanished. Jarod was reduced to nerve endings and impulses. He gathered Parker in his arms and crushed her to him as he savored the taste of her.
With a tortured groan, Jarod climbed onto the bed and eased Parker backward until she was lying beneath him. Her feelings for him, or lack there of, didn’t matter anymore. Jarod felt that he had to be with her, take whatever she was willing to offer, or this need would surely kill him.
“Parker.” Her name was like a prayer as Jarod buried his face in her hair.
“Hush,” she gasped when Jarod’s tongue found the hollow at the base of her throat. “Don’t talk. Don’t think,” she begged. “Just be with me.”
The night that followed was the most intense experience of Jarod’s life. Parker offered herself again and again while Jarod selfishly took every bit she gave. His passion seemed unquenchable and Jarod sought pleasure with the woman at his side throughout the night.
As dawn crept over the horizon, Jarod roused Parker from a deep slumber. Rolling onto his back, he lifted Parker onto his lap so that he could look up at her. As they made love, Jarod tried to memorize every minute detail; her sleepy, satisfied smile, her tangled hair shimmering with early morning sunlight, the soft look of pleasure in her eyes.
Afterward, Jarod snuggled the soft body against his chest. Parker quickly fell back to sleep, despite her precarious perch. The warmth of her seemed to spread straight through Jarod and into his soul. Kissing the crown of her head, he spoke for the first time since Parker had shushed him last night. “I love you, Parker,” he whispered. “I love you more than I ever dreamed was possible.”
The next thing he knew, Jarod was alone in bed. He snapped into wakefulness with a start and realized with surprise that the light in the room had drastically changed. A quick glance at the clock told him it was well into the afternoon. He sat up, letting the tangled sheets pool around his waist.
“Parker?” Jarod called. She wasn’t in the room and the cold space at Jarod’s side told him she’d been gone for a while. “Parker?” He could hear a faint edge of panic in his voice, but didn’t bother trying to hide it.
“I’m here,” her soft voice answered. When Parker appeared at the bedroom door Jarod nearly gasped with relief. She was barefoot, wearing only a light blue cotton shirt and a pair of jeans. She leaned against the doorframe and smiled at him. “You plumb wore yourself out, poor baby.”
Jarod grinned as a surge of happiness bolted through him. “Are you going to file a complaint?” he asked.
“Oh no,” Parker said.
“In my own defense,” Jarod added. “I was on my third day without sleep. You’re not the only one having problems with that you know.”
“I’m impressed,” Parker drawled. “Imagine the performance we could get out of that engine if you’d been fully rested.”
“The batteries are charged now,” he replied with a suggestive smirk.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Parker asked.
“Starved,” Jarod growled. “Come here.”
Parker’s laughter turned into a squeal when Jarod hooked her by the belt loop as soon as she was within his reach. He tumbled her onto the bed and started kissing her.
“You, dear lady, are over dressed,” Jarod observed.
“What do you plan to do about it, Rat?”
“I’ll think of something,” he promised. Parker’s laughter rang like music as Jarod bit a button from her blouse and dramatically spit the piece of plastic across the room. He reverently kissed the bit of cleavage that had appeared during the loss of the button. With a contented sigh, Jarod murmured against Parker’s flesh. “Let’s stay here forever.”
The soft body in Jarod’s arms went very still. When Parker spoke, her voice was filled with a sad acceptance that sent a shiver of fear down Jarod’s spine. “We don’t have forever, Jarod. It doesn’t exist for people like us.”
Jarod lifted his head and frowned. “Don’t say that.”
Parker looked up at him tearfully as she ran one hand through the hair on the side of Jarod’s head. “It’s true. The Centre stole forever from us a long time ago.”
Leaning in close, Jarod kissed Parker tenderly. “Then what is this?” he asked kissing her again. “I can taste my lifetime on your lips.”
“It is only the past, Jarod,” she whispered. “There is no future here.”
“Don’t do this to me, Parker,” Jarod begged. “Please don’t.”
“Hush,” Parker soothed. When she kissed Jarod back, he could taste salt on her lips. “Let’s not talk about it. We’ll enjoy the time we have together. Be it one day or one week, I want to treasure every moment with you.”
“I won’t leave you,” Jarod vowed. “I’ll never leave.”
“Everybody leaves.” Parker’s voice was so forlorn and filled with misery that Jarod’s heart wanted to break.
“Oh, Baby,” Jarod groaned. He held Parker in a crushing embrace as if he could love her enough in one moment to erase the years of loneliness she had been forced to endure. “Just because we’ve never been happy, it doesn’t mean we can’t be someday.”
“Make love to me, Jarod,” Parker pleaded. “Right here, right now, in this moment, make me believe that you love me.”
“I’ll show you, Parker,” Jarod murmured against her skin. “I’ll show you exactly how much I love you. If you can’t trust the words, believe in what I do.”
“Shut up, Jarod,” she said. “Just stop talking and show me.”
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Author’s notes: Okay, this part gets a tad racy. I think it’s still within PG-13 guidelines but please let me know if you think I should bump up the rating.
The Door of Memory
Part 9 – By Phenyx
12/05/04
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By the time Jarod arrived in Blue Cove, it was quite late. Out of habit, he parked his rental car a couple of blocks away and walked the remaining distance to Parker’s house. He didn’t even realize he’d done it.
As he climbed the front steps to Parker’s door, Jarod glanced at his watch. It was a few minutes past eleven o’clock. Only one light could be seen burning inside the house. Jarod knew from previous experience that the single lamp in the livingroom was always left on. The possibility existed that Parker wasn’t home.
Jarod gave himself a mental shake. It was more likely that Parker had gone to bed. She’d crossed multiple times zones twice in the last few days. Even though Parker was a well-traveled woman, getting ready for the wedding had been rather hectic. The party itself had gone on for hours. The poor girl was probably exhausted by now.
Smiling mischievously at the thought that he may be waking her, Jarod reached out and pressed the doorbell. He waited for a full minute after hearing the muffled chimes from within. When no additional lights clicked on, he rang the bell again. Just as he was about to try for a third time, a slender shadow wavered across the livingroom curtains and Jarod knew that Parker was near.
“Open the door, Parker,” Jarod called. He felt the hairs at the back of his neck tingle, indicating that he was being watched through the peephole. “Open up, or I swear I’ll climb through a window.”
The front door swung open to reveal Miss Parker. She leaned against the brass knob and eyed Jarod wryly. “You stay away from my windows or I’ll call the police,” she said.
“Nah,” Jarod replied. “You won’t do that. The paperwork would be too much of a hassle.”
Parker’s lips twitched in a half smile. “You’re probably right.”
Jarod shrugged. “I usually am,” he said.
“Get in here you cocky son of a bitch,” Parker groaned. She stepped back, allowing Jarod to enter.
After Parker closed and re-locked the door, she turned to stare at her visitor. Taking in her appearance, her silk robe and tussled hair, Jarod smiled. “Did I wake you?” he asked.
“Another five minutes and you would have,” Parker answered. She sighed and ran one hand through her hair in an anxious motion. “Was there a point to this visit, Jarod? Or do you just get your kicks out of disturbing my sleep?”
Jarod stepped close. Unable to control his need to touch her, he gently reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “I don’t disrupt your slumber that often, do I?” he asked softly.
“All the time, Pez-head.” Parker’s voice dropped into a low, husky sound. “All the time.”
Confusion whipped through Jarod’s mind. This warm, soft bed-rumpled creature was not the same woman he had put on a plane several hours ago. Her body language and tone were inviting and seductive, not at all the stern ice queen from this afternoon.
“I don’t understand,” Jarod whispered plaintively. He ran his fingertips across Parker’s shoulder and down one satin covered arm. She didn’t pull away or glare at him. When his fingers retraced their path, she nuzzled her cheek against the back of Jarod’s hand.
“What’s to understand?” she purred. “You think too much, Jarod.”
“I can’t think at all anymore,” he answered. Their bodies were only inches apart. The heady scent of her was nearly intoxicating. “My brain ceased to function the moment I saw you on the stairs in that dress,” he added with a groan.
Parker laughed, a slow sexy sound. She leaned toward Jarod, so close that her robe whispered against the front of his leather jacket. “I’ve always felt that your brain was highly over-rated,” she said. “It isn’t the part of you that I’m really interested in anyway.”
Jarod’s eyelids fluttered shut and he sighed as Parker’s hands slid into his coat and pushed it from his shoulders. The leather fell to the floor with a soft thud. His heart pounded so loudly he could hear it.
“Parker,” he whispered. He opened his eyes and clasped Parker’s roaming hands between his own. “Tell me what’s happening. Do you care about me at all? Or is this all chemical? Is this anything more than sex to you?”
“Does it matter?” was the hushed reply.
“Yes!” Jarod squeezed her fingers hard. He was probably hurting her but she made no sign of it. “I can’t be your plaything, Parker.”
“I can’t give you what you’re looking for, Jarod,” Parker said sadly. “It isn’t in my nature.” She slipped her hands away from his and pulled back. Though she withdrew only a few inches, Jarod could feel the chasm reforming between them.
“Parker,” Jarod pleaded.
She shook her head in defeat. “It’s very late. I’m going to bed,” she said as she turned away from him. “Sleep wherever you like.”
She left Jarod standing alone in the middle of the room. As he stood there, his body began to shake uncontrollably. Whether the trembling was caused by agony, lust or rage he didn’t know. He didn’t care. He just didn’t want to feel like this anymore.
Frowning with determination, Jarod strode through the house. He entered Parker’s bedroom without knocking and halted in his tracks. It was dark in the room. Only one small sliver of moonlight penetrated the heavy curtains covering the window. Jarod could just barely make out Parker’s shape on the bed. He could tell that she was sitting up and looking at him.
“What do you want, Jarod?” Parker’s voice sounded weary and sad.
“I want you,” he practically growled. “Don’t act as if you don’t know it.”
Her heavy sigh filtered across the room. “Nothing is stopping you,” she told him. “You’re the one trying to make a big deal of it.”
“But it is a big deal,” Jarod said. “It should be at any rate.”
There was a long silence between them. “What are you afraid of?” Parker finally asked.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Then why are you still standing way over there?” Parker’s tone was lightly mocking. “When you could be here with me?”
“I don’t want to screw an old friend,” Jarod said bitterly. “I want to make love to someone I care about very much.”
“Do whatever you like, Jarod,” Parker replied. “I promise to be exceedingly cooperative.”
Jarod moved forward, stopping when his legs hit the foot of the bed. “Do you have any feelings for me at all?” He was glad it was dark. She couldn’t see the dampness on his cheeks. “Can you feel anything?”
“Oh yes,” she whispered. Parker crawled across the bedspread toward him. Kneeling on the mattress before him, Parker grabbed fistfuls of Jarod’s shirt in her hands. “Let me show you what I feel,” she murmured against his lips.
Then Parker’s soft mouth was pressed against his and Jarod was lost in the kiss. Any remnant of rational thought vanished. Jarod was reduced to nerve endings and impulses. He gathered Parker in his arms and crushed her to him as he savored the taste of her.
With a tortured groan, Jarod climbed onto the bed and eased Parker backward until she was lying beneath him. Her feelings for him, or lack there of, didn’t matter anymore. Jarod felt that he had to be with her, take whatever she was willing to offer, or this need would surely kill him.
“Parker.” Her name was like a prayer as Jarod buried his face in her hair.
“Hush,” she gasped when Jarod’s tongue found the hollow at the base of her throat. “Don’t talk. Don’t think,” she begged. “Just be with me.”
The night that followed was the most intense experience of Jarod’s life. Parker offered herself again and again while Jarod selfishly took every bit she gave. His passion seemed unquenchable and Jarod sought pleasure with the woman at his side throughout the night.
As dawn crept over the horizon, Jarod roused Parker from a deep slumber. Rolling onto his back, he lifted Parker onto his lap so that he could look up at her. As they made love, Jarod tried to memorize every minute detail; her sleepy, satisfied smile, her tangled hair shimmering with early morning sunlight, the soft look of pleasure in her eyes.
Afterward, Jarod snuggled the soft body against his chest. Parker quickly fell back to sleep, despite her precarious perch. The warmth of her seemed to spread straight through Jarod and into his soul. Kissing the crown of her head, he spoke for the first time since Parker had shushed him last night. “I love you, Parker,” he whispered. “I love you more than I ever dreamed was possible.”
The next thing he knew, Jarod was alone in bed. He snapped into wakefulness with a start and realized with surprise that the light in the room had drastically changed. A quick glance at the clock told him it was well into the afternoon. He sat up, letting the tangled sheets pool around his waist.
“Parker?” Jarod called. She wasn’t in the room and the cold space at Jarod’s side told him she’d been gone for a while. “Parker?” He could hear a faint edge of panic in his voice, but didn’t bother trying to hide it.
“I’m here,” her soft voice answered. When Parker appeared at the bedroom door Jarod nearly gasped with relief. She was barefoot, wearing only a light blue cotton shirt and a pair of jeans. She leaned against the doorframe and smiled at him. “You plumb wore yourself out, poor baby.”
Jarod grinned as a surge of happiness bolted through him. “Are you going to file a complaint?” he asked.
“Oh no,” Parker said.
“In my own defense,” Jarod added. “I was on my third day without sleep. You’re not the only one having problems with that you know.”
“I’m impressed,” Parker drawled. “Imagine the performance we could get out of that engine if you’d been fully rested.”
“The batteries are charged now,” he replied with a suggestive smirk.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Parker asked.
“Starved,” Jarod growled. “Come here.”
Parker’s laughter turned into a squeal when Jarod hooked her by the belt loop as soon as she was within his reach. He tumbled her onto the bed and started kissing her.
“You, dear lady, are over dressed,” Jarod observed.
“What do you plan to do about it, Rat?”
“I’ll think of something,” he promised. Parker’s laughter rang like music as Jarod bit a button from her blouse and dramatically spit the piece of plastic across the room. He reverently kissed the bit of cleavage that had appeared during the loss of the button. With a contented sigh, Jarod murmured against Parker’s flesh. “Let’s stay here forever.”
The soft body in Jarod’s arms went very still. When Parker spoke, her voice was filled with a sad acceptance that sent a shiver of fear down Jarod’s spine. “We don’t have forever, Jarod. It doesn’t exist for people like us.”
Jarod lifted his head and frowned. “Don’t say that.”
Parker looked up at him tearfully as she ran one hand through the hair on the side of Jarod’s head. “It’s true. The Centre stole forever from us a long time ago.”
Leaning in close, Jarod kissed Parker tenderly. “Then what is this?” he asked kissing her again. “I can taste my lifetime on your lips.”
“It is only the past, Jarod,” she whispered. “There is no future here.”
“Don’t do this to me, Parker,” Jarod begged. “Please don’t.”
“Hush,” Parker soothed. When she kissed Jarod back, he could taste salt on her lips. “Let’s not talk about it. We’ll enjoy the time we have together. Be it one day or one week, I want to treasure every moment with you.”
“I won’t leave you,” Jarod vowed. “I’ll never leave.”
“Everybody leaves.” Parker’s voice was so forlorn and filled with misery that Jarod’s heart wanted to break.
“Oh, Baby,” Jarod groaned. He held Parker in a crushing embrace as if he could love her enough in one moment to erase the years of loneliness she had been forced to endure. “Just because we’ve never been happy, it doesn’t mean we can’t be someday.”
“Make love to me, Jarod,” Parker pleaded. “Right here, right now, in this moment, make me believe that you love me.”
“I’ll show you, Parker,” Jarod murmured against her skin. “I’ll show you exactly how much I love you. If you can’t trust the words, believe in what I do.”
“Shut up, Jarod,” she said. “Just stop talking and show me.”
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