Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Jessie
Eva invited me over for some drinks while the guys have their monthly poker night. Lincoln’s wife, Kylie, is here too, with their son, Max. We are sitting outside on the terrace with Max playing on the rug with his blocks while Eli and Addie are asleep in the nursery.
Eva set up a separate crib for Eli. This is apparently their test to see if they can sleep in the same room. The monitor is attached to Eva’s hip, which she keeps checking on every couple of minutes.
I smile, thinking about how Walker does the same.
I haven’t really had a chance to even say hi to Walker yet. I’ve been outside with Kylie ever since he came in with Eli. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do in this kind of environment.
I spent three nights at his place this week. The other two nights, we video-called for hours. No sex on the calls. Just talking about our days.
We laughed about how he’d walked into work with a burp cloth still on his shoulder without even realizing it. Apparently, no one noticed, and his assistant, Bradly, ripped it off him the second he walked into his office.
I don’t understand why he won’t tell the other partners at the firm about Eli. It’s starting to bother me that he wants to keep her a secret.
He’s had her for three weeks now. It’s all working out with the nanny, and he’s managing his caseload. I don’t understand what the big deal is. I want to say something to him, but I’m afraid. I don’t even know what the hell we are doing right now.
That’s another topic that keeps sounding in my head, telling me I need to ask him before this gets too far.
It’s gone beyond sleeping with each other a couple of times. We are now actively planning on seeing each other, talking every night, sharing our deepest secrets. That’s not casual.
“So, how are things going with my brother?” Eva asks with a smirk behind her wineglass.
Kylie’s eyes bug out, and she nearly chokes on her sip of wine. “I’m sorry … what?”
Eva looks at me curiously. “Turns out, Jessie and my brother have a little thing for each other.”
I study the contents in my glass. “Yeah, it’s not like that.”
“Well”—Kylie leans forward—“what is it like?”
My chest rises and falls with my deep breath. “Honestly, I’m not sure yet.”
Eva sits up tall. “Do you need me to beat him up? I’ve done it before.”
I chuckle. “No, Eva. I appreciate the offer, but I don’t need you to beat him up. We’ve just got this weird history, and we haven’t talked about what all of this means now. He’s got a lot going on right now.”
“And you’re not going to elaborate on what this history is with my brother?” Eva raises an eyebrow.
“Will you hate me if I tell you I’m not ready to talk about it?”
She offers a small smile. “I could never hate you.”
“Ditto.” I smile back at her.
“What’s he like in bed?” Kylie whispers. “He seems like he’d know his way around a—”
“Whoa!” Eva throws up her hands. “I’m sorry. Too weird. Nope. I cannot hear about how good my brother is in bed. I don’t need the images.”
Kylie and I both laugh. I get it. Though I might need to pull Kylie aside to finish because Walker absolutely knows his way around a pussy. Like … blow your mind and leave you speechless kind of good.
After an hour and a half of picking on snacks and gossiping while the guys play, Roman opens the door of the terrace.
“You ladies interested in playing?” He smiles at Eva.
Eva jumps up excitedly. “Me! Me!”
I know she loves playing poker. I, on the other hand, don’t play often, but I’m always up for anything.
Kylie looks at me and shrugs. “I managed to get Max to fall asleep in the guest room. I might as well. Though I must warn you, I’m not very good.”
“That makes two of us.” I smile and wink.
“Perfect.” Roman claps his hands and rubs them together.
You’d think he was excited to take our money, but after we walk back to the table, he shocks me.
“All right, I’m putting in the money for the ladies. Go easy on them.” Then he looks at Eva. “Well, maybe not her. She’s too good.”
I find an empty seat next to Sawyer, who I’ve known to be a ladies’ man, just like Walker, who is now watching me from across the table. The soft uptick of his mouth when he looks at me has my heart fluttering.
“All right”—Sawyer shuffles the cards as he looks around the table—“does everyone know how to play Texas Hold’em?”
Lincoln pinches Kylie’s side. “Let’s just say, this one here is lucky she’s playing with Roman’s money.”
She gasps. “Hey, I know how to play. And I might just surprise everyone and walk away with everything.”
Lincoln winks at her, and she smiles, then bats her eyes at him. They are so cute together.
“Deal the cards, Sawyer. Don’t talk to us like we don’t know how to play because we’re women,” Eva scolds.
Speak for yourself, girl.
He’s spot-on with his assumption that I don’t know how to play—at least very well.
The cards are dealt, and we are now on the fifth card that just got flipped over. I’m sitting on three sixes. Half the table has folded, leaving it down to Walker, Sawyer, Eva, and me.
I’d feel a heck of a lot better if I had three of a higher number. And I really don’t know the odds of people getting better hands.
I throw my cards down in defeat. “I fold.”
When Sawyer eventually shows his full house, I feel justified in my decision. We play for another hour before I lose all of my money. Well, Roman’s money.
But it’s been filled with laughs and jokes that have had me almost in tears. Sawyer has been his usual flirty, touchy-feely self next to me. Not that he knows at all that there’s anything going on between me and Walker.
Walker, on the other hand, is stiff and serious as he watches Sawyer lean closer to me.
“Don’t worry; you can play with me,” he whispers.
I try not to roll my eyes at what I’m sure is a sexual innuendo. “I bet you’d like that,” I joke but grab my wineglass. “I’m gonna go refill my glass.”
Kylie, who was out before me, jumps up. “Oh, oh, me too!”
“Okay.”
She tiptoes over to me like she’s on some secret mission. We are at the island, resting against the edge as I refill both of our glasses.
“Now you can tell me about Walker.”
My head falls back as I laugh uninhibitedly at her eagerness to know the details. “Have you been holding that in all night, just waiting for a time to get me alone?”
She shrugs like she isn’t embarrassed. “Hell yes!” She looks over at Walker, who happens to be watching us.
I can tell by the look of amusement on his face that he knows we’re talking about him.
“Come on. You’ve got to tell me.”
I smile at Walker, then direct my attention back to Kylie. “Fine. He’s incredible in bed.”
“I knew it!” she exclaims. “I bet that man has a mouth on him.”
I nearly choke on my wine, covering my mouth as laughter bursts out of me. “Kylie!” I hiss, my cheeks burning.
She only grins wider, clearly pleased she’s struck gold.
“What? Don’t play innocent with me. I can see it all over your face.
” She points between me and Walker, lowering her voice even though it’s obvious he’s close enough to catch every word.
“The man practically oozes sex. I just knew he’d deliver. ”
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Walker leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, that damn smirk tugging at his mouth like he’s enjoying every second of this interrogation.
“God, you’re impossible,” I mutter to Kylie, feeling like I’ve known her forever.
“Impossible and right,” she singsongs, clinking her glass against mine.
When I finally dare to glance at Walker, his gaze pins me in place, hot and unyielding. The look in his eyes makes one thing crystal clear: later, when we’re alone, I’ll be paying for every word Kylie just dragged out of me.
When it’s down to Eva and Sawyer, everyone else starts to gather around the island to munch on the food. Walker makes his way to my side, then rests his hand on my hip and leans forward to whisper into my ear.
“You talking about me?” he asks, his cockiness evident in his tone.
I peer over my shoulder to look him in the eyes. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll get it out of you tonight,” he whispers.
I turn around to face him and cross my arms over my chest. “I’ll tell you,” I reply, and his eyebrows lift in surprise. “If you admit you were jealous, watching Sawyer flirt with me.”
He scratches the back of his head. “I mean, Sawyer flirts with everybody. It didn’t really—”
I push him in the chest. “You’re so full of it. I saw you pouting in your chair.”
He grabs my hand before I can bring it back and pulls me forward. “Watch yourself, or I’ll remind you how easily I can take that sass right out of you.”
“Promise?” I say with a wink.
He shakes his head. “You’re something else.”
A cheer from behind us pulls our attention from each other. Eva is pointing and laughing in Sawyer’s face, and he looks like he is less than thrilled at her gloating.
Roman comes to her side. “Babe, let’s take it down a notch.”
Eva scowls. “He’s the one who assumed we didn’t know how to play because we were girls.”
While everyone is busy joking around about Sawyer losing to Eva, Walker walks up to me. “I’m going to get Eli moved to her car seat. Come home with me?”
I should say no. We are moving fast. I need to pump the brakes and take a little breather. But I ignore that part of my brain because the truth is, every time he looks at me like that, resistance doesn’t stand a chance. So, instead, I find myself nodding my head in agreement.
He walks back to the bedroom to get Eli. I walk over to Eva, where she is cleaning up the chips.
“I think I’m gonna head out. Thanks for having me.”
She chuckles to herself as she places the chips into their slots. “If you and my brother think you’re being subtle, you’re wrong.”
I open my mouth to respond, but then I’m pulled in the direction of the other side of the room, where Walker is holding a screaming Eli.
“Oh, I don’t think she liked being woken up,” Eva sighs.
Walker looks flustered as he tries to grab the stroller and diaper bag. I give Eva a peck on the cheek and run over to help Walker, no longer worried about what it looks like.
I swing the diaper bag over my shoulder and place the car seat in the stroller while he tries to soothe a screaming Eli.
He waves a distracted goodbye to everyone as we shuffle out of the door and ride the elevator down.
Once we’re out on the street, we get Eli placed in the stroller.
I hold the pacifier in her mouth while Walker begins to push the stroller.
The movement soothes her just enough until we make it the couple of blocks to his place.
The moment we get into his penthouse, we work as a team to get her bottle ready and her changed for bed. While Walker feeds her and rocks her to sleep in his room, I walk into the kitchen to find something to eat.
I have a sweet tooth that’s calling. After several minutes of rummaging the pantry for cookies, chocolate—anything—I come up short. This man needs to get some sugar in here.
The only thing I find are maraschino cherries in his fridge. I prop myself up on the island and pop the jar open. If it wasn’t weird, I swear I’d drink the juice out of the jar.
I don’t hear him walk out of the room. His presence startles me when I see a shadow creep up next to me.
“Ahh!” I jump, and cherry juice hits my chest and runs down my shirt. “You scared the crap out of me.”
A lazy smirk appears on his face. “What are you doing over here?”
He stands directly in front of me, in between my dangling legs. The warmth of his hands on my knees spark an immediate fire low in my belly.
“I was eating the only sweet thing you had in this place,” I say as I chew the rest of my cherry. “But now I’m covered in sticky cherry juice, thanks to you.”
His eyes are dark and thoughtful as they take in the mess running down my chest. His right hand ascends to my inner thigh.
“I can think of another sweet thing in my house,” his deep voice replies as his fingers graze over my pussy through my jean shorts. “And it’s a hell of a lot tastier than those cherries.”
“I’m all sticky and gross,” I breathe as I glance down at my white shirt, now covered in red juice.
He reaches for the bottom of my shirt and lifts it over my head. “There,” he says, “that’s better. I can help clean you up.”
His tongue glides across my chest, lapping up a section of it like it’s his favorite dessert. He hums his approval, then moves to the center of my chest. His tongue goes between my cleavage and licks all the way up to my neck, where he bites down with his teeth.
“Tastes so sweet,” he whispers.
My body is trembling with excitement.
“But,” he continues as he descends down my stomach, “there’s one spot that is sweeter.”
He unbuttons my shorts, and I lift my ass off of the counter to help him shimmy them down, along with my panties. Then he places one of my feet up on the counter so I’m open and exposed to him.
His warm breath hits my clit and sends waves of anticipation down my spine. My jaw hangs low as I wait eagerly for the first swipe of his tongue, but he just hovers above me.
“One last thing,” he says in a commanding voice. “Just remember that no one will eat this pussy like me. Especially not Sawyer.”
Then he winks and gives me exactly what I want, his tongue from my ass all the way up to my clit. I know that’s his admission that he was jealous and it makes me smile and nearly cry at how good it feels to be worshipped by him.
He pushes my leg up to my chest, giving him better access to me—all of me. Then he starts swirling his tongue around my back entrance, and I gasp.
I love the look in his eyes as he does it. It’s a sinister one that tells me he knows that I like it.
He then replaces his tongue with his finger and moves his mouth back to my clit, where he does exactly what I like—sucking on it, followed by fast flicks. I am like a wild animal as I thrash around the counter, clutching at his hair, as if that’s going to do anything but suffocate the guy.
But I can’t help it. This is what he does to me. He owns every single piece of me like nobody has ever done before.
I come all over his face on a high that I’m not sure I’ll ever come down from.
When he pulls up and I see my wetness all over his face, my pussy clenches with pleasure. He doesn’t even wipe it off. He goes straight to his pants, where he unbuckles his jeans and pulls out his cock.
I try to contain the tsunami of emotions that floods inside me, but it’s no use. I’m gone for this man, and there’s no coming back.