Epilogue
Gillian held on to the couch with fingers that had turned white with strain as Walker took her from behind.
It had been three months since Andrea had tried to kidnap and kill her behind The Driskill. She’d had to throw away the green dress Walker had liked so much, but she’d gone shopping with Wendy and Clarissa, and had found the dress she’d worn tonight.
It was shorter than the one she’d worn all those weeks ago. Cut low, showing off her cleavage, and she’d hoped after Walker had seen her in it that this was how their night would end.
She’d met him at the restaurant for dinner, since he’d had to work late, and his reaction to the dress, and her in it, had been everything she’d hoped for. His eyes had widened, then his pupils had expanded, and he swore low under his breath.
Throughout dinner, he couldn’t keep his hands off her, his fingers frequently straying into indecent territory on her leg as they sat next to each other on the same side of the booth in the steak restaurant. He wasn’t as chatty as usual either.
It was probably a good thing they both had their cars and had to drive separately to their apartment, because otherwise, Gillian had a feeling she would’ve been naked and he would’ve been on her in the car.
As it was, the second the apartment door was shut behind them, Walker had grabbed her, pulled her into him, and kissed her as if he hadn’t just that morning had his wicked way with her.
Now she was bent over the side of the couch as he took her from behind, just as she’d imagined he’d do after the Howard party when they’d arrived home.
She was still fully dressed, except for the white silk panties he’d ripped off her right before he’d entered her from behind. They’d stopped using condoms a couple weeks ago, and Gillian still couldn’t believe how amazing Walker felt inside her.
His hips sped up as he neared his climax. One of his hands pushed under her belly and down, and he roughly strummed her clit as his cock slammed in and out of her.
“Come for me, Di,” he ordered.
Gillian had tried to explain to him once that just because he ordered her to orgasm, didn’t mean it was going to happen, but tonight she was right there with him.
She’d been soaking wet and ready for him before they’d gotten home, and seeing him completely lose it, unable to hold back, had pushed her close to the edge.
As usual, he didn’t back off manipulating her clit when she got close. One second his touch almost hurt, and the next, she closed her eyes, arched her back, thrust her ass against him and came. Hard.
She felt him slam inside her once more then hold himself as far inside her as he could as he came, as well. His groan echoed around them, but his fingers didn’t let up on her clit. Gillian tried to squirm away from him, but it was no use.
“One more,” he croaked. “Let me feel you squeeze my cock.”
That did it. Another, smaller orgasm ripped through her, every muscle in her body tightening. She swore she could feel him still throbbing inside her.
They stayed like that for just a moment, their hearts beating out of their chests, sweat dripping from their brows.
“Holy crap,” she muttered when she could get her brain to work.
Walker chuckled and slowly pulled out of her soaking folds. Gillian felt a rush of his come slide down her inner thigh.
“I know it’s inconvenient for you, but I’ll never get sick of seeing that. It’s sexy as fuck,” Walker told her. “Come on, I’ll help you get cleaned up.”
He helped bring her upright and kissed her gently before putting his arm around her waist and walking her down the hall to their bedroom.
Cleaning the evidence of their lovemaking away and changing for bed didn’t take that long, and within ten minutes, they were snuggled together in their bed.
“In case I forgot to tell you, which I think I did, you looked beautiful tonight,” Walker told her.
“Thanks. I’m glad we finally got to do the whole bent-over-the-couch thing,” she told him honestly. “I was beginning to think you’d treat me like a fragile piece of glass for the rest of our lives.”
She felt Walker shudder, and even though she knew he didn’t like talking about that night, she needed to.
“You’re the strongest person I know, Di. Seriously. But I just…that night…fuck.”
Gillian smoothed a hand over his chest. “I know.”
“No, you don’t. When I saw her lift that gun and point it at your head, my life flashed in front of my eyes. I don’t get scared a lot, just ask the guys, but at that moment, I was terrified.”
Gillian got up on an elbow so she could look him in the eyes.
“I know. I think I was more scared that night than on the hijacked plane. Maybe because of the hatred I saw in Andrea’s eyes.
She legit despised me. It was a hard thing to reconcile in my brain because of how nice she’d been to me since the hijacking, and how bad I felt because of what I’d thought had happened to her while we were on that plane. ”
“How do you feel about what happened to her?”
“About her being killed in prison?”
“Yeah.”
Gillian tried to sort through her feelings before she answered. “Relieved,” she said after a beat. “I know that’s bad, but—”
“It’s not bad. I celebrated with the team today when I heard,” Walker admitted.
“I was so damn glad she was dead, and you wouldn’t have to testify, and that hopefully any threat her connection with the Sinaloa Cartel might’ve caused you is now over and done with for good.
It’s not as if the authorities don’t already have the cartel on their radar, and since it’s not a secret that Andrea was the seventh hijacker anymore, there’s no real need to be concerned about Salazar coming for you. ”
Gillian lay back down, her head resting on his shoulder once more. “The news said she was targeted at the prison?”
“Yeah,” Walker said. “She’d been in isolation, but someone fucked up, or maybe they did it on purpose, and she was let out into the yard with the general population.
My guess is that someone connected to Sinaloa took the opportunity to take her out.
She wasn’t exactly on their good list. They have long memories and a certain code they live by. ”
“I do feel bad for her,” Gillian said on a sigh.
“Uh-uh,” Walker said, shaking his head. “She gets none of your goodness. None of your sympathy.”
“But her husband was killed,” Gillian protested.
“They chose that life,” Walker said as he rolled her onto her back and loomed over her.
His eyes were intense as they stared down into hers.
“No one forced them to get involved with the cartel. No one forced them to be drug dealers. Luis was a murderer. It’s not like he was on an innocent business trip and was killed in a car wreck.
She doesn’t deserve one ounce of your goodness. ”
“Okay, Walker.”
“I mean it, Gillian. She got what was coming to her.”
“I said, okay.”
She watched as he took a deep breath and relaxed when he rolled back over and pulled her back into his side.
“I’m proud of you, Di,” Walker told her. “I wasn’t thrilled to have to leave you a month after it happened, but you were tough as hell through that deployment.”
“I wasn’t thrilled either, but I hung out with my girls and got a lot of work done on the few upcoming events I was planning.”
“I almost begged my commander to let me stay back stateside, before I figured it would be just as hard to leave you the next time we got called out, so I bit the bullet and went. But I thought about you every second.”
“Which isn’t safe,” Gillian scolded.
Walker chuckled. “The guys knew I wasn’t one hundred percent and made sure I didn’t take point on anything.”
Gillian wasn’t sure what that meant, and she didn’t really want to know. “They’re good guys,” she murmured.
“They are.” Walker moved then, reaching over her to a drawer in the small table next to the bed.
She grunted as she was mushed against his chest for a second before he lay back down. “What the hell?” she grumbled. “Sniffing armpits is not sexy, Walker.”
Before she could shift and get comfortable again, Walker had taken hold of her hand, which had been resting on his chest. Her eyes got huge as he slid a beautiful, perfect princess-cut diamond ring onto her ring finger.
“Wha—”
“I love you, Gillian Romano. I can’t imagine spending my life without you. Will you marry me?”
The proposal came out of nowhere…but then again, it didn’t.
They’d settled into living together so easily it was as if she’d lived with him forever.
She’d officially canceled her lease for her apartment in Georgetown, and the stuff that wouldn’t fit into his apartment was sitting in storage, waiting for them to find a bigger place to live.
Walker told her, and showed her, every day how much he loved her, and they’d had a long conversation one night about souls and how he truly believed they’d known each other in another lifetime, and that was why they’d clicked so immediately.
“Of course I will,” she told him with a huge smile. “On one condition.”
“Name it,” Walker said.
Gillian loved the carnal look in his eyes and knew she was about to get thoroughly ravished…
again. “I’m not planning our wedding. I don’t want something big.
I have to think logistics and plan parties every day of my life.
I want something low-key and stress-free.
I just want to get it done, hang with our friends, and get on with the rest of our life. ”
“Will your parents freak if they don’t get to participate in a huge wedding for their only daughter?” he asked.
Gillian loved how respectful he was of her parents.
They’d once again flown out to Texas when they’d learned she’d been shot, and although it wasn’t how she would’ve wanted Walker to meet them, she couldn’t have been happier with how that had turned out.
Her parents loved Walker immediately, which wasn’t surprising.
“No,” she told him. “Will your parents be upset?”