Chapter 17
Seventeen
SLOANE
Awoman should admit defeat when rejected by the man she wanted.
I flicked a hurt look at him as we drove through the village back to my cottage. The day had turned dreary like my mood. Drizzle speckled the windshield and clouds above had darkened the interior of the SUV.
Walker hadn’t called Jamie yet.
Brodan had been so sure Walker would say yes that I hadn’t expected this to backfire. Didn’t Walker believe me when I said I wanted it to be casual? Was that the issue? Because I’d caught him looking at my breasts several times in the past half hour. Walker wanted me. Right?
The SUV pulled up outside my empty cottage.
Despondency threatened, but determination edged it out.
One last shot. That’s how much I wanted the brooding bastard.
“I really meant it.” I stared into those aquamarine eyes with resolve. “I don’t want anything serious from you, and I’m not asking for a commitment. Just sex.”
The muscle in Walker’s jaw flexed, and it was a few lengthy seconds before he replied, “I’m not crossing that line with you.”
“Then give me a real reason why.”
His eyes flashed with frustration. “Because I’m not … I don’t do sweet and gentle, Sloane. I fuck. And I doubt, somehow, even if you say you only want casual, that you’re looking for what I’d give you.”
Hurt, worse than his rejection, scored through me. Was that how he saw me? As a tepid, lights-off, under the covers, single mom who needed to be gently made love to? But those other women … oh, he’d fuck them.
I felt not rejection, but indignation. He might find me attractive … but Walker didn’t see me as a truly sexual woman. He didn’t see me, period.
I scoffed, the sound bitter even to my ears. “You don’t know a thing about women, do you, Walker?” It was a rhetorical question.
But he looked annoyed. And confused. “I know enough.”
“Yeah?” I unclipped my seat belt. “Let me ask you a question … all those women you see as sexy enough to fuck … how many of them afterward suddenly wanted to date? Like Chloe, for example?”
Walker’s eyes narrowed. “Sexy enough?”
“I bet it’s a fair few. Because while you’re so sure those gorgeous, childless women are the ones who want to be wild and free in bed with no strings attached, it’s actually the opposite for many of them.
They’re all out there desperately looking for love and lying to you about what they want in the hopes that while you’re fucking them, you’ll fall for them.
“But my priority is my kid. And while you might look at me and see an exhausted single mom who needs to get gently laid and have a so-so, satisfactory orgasm, it’s us single moms who genuinely want a guy to fuck them wild and hard and give us multiple orgasms. And then go home so we don’t have to explain you to our kids or deal with you on top of the millions of other things we have to deal with on the daily.
“But thank you.” I opened the car door, my expression disdainful. “For making me feel as attractive as a wet towel and proving once again that even the most perceptive males are clueless when it comes to women.” With that, I jumped out of his car and slammed the door behind me.
WALKER
Stunned, I stared after Sloane as she disappeared inside the cottage.
Go home.
Call Jamie and go home.
I didn’t move.
My blood was up.
I’d hurt her.
I couldn’t have said a worse thing to her.
But she got me, didn’t she? She put me in my place.
Go home.
I’d never heard her swear before, not like that. I wanted to hear it again. I wanted to hear her beg me to fuck her.
Go. Home.
SLOANE
How dare he?
Skin hot with indignation, I’d thrown my cardigan off and paced my living room, heart racing with the confrontation, trying desperately to focus on my anger and not my rejection.
No one … no one made me feel like Walker did, and to have him look at me and see me like a mousy, sexless, single mom …
Don’t think about it.
It was crushing to think about.
Ugh. I thought I was being so brave putting myself out there, and I’d just screwed everything up. How would I look at him again?
A small cry startled out of me as the cottage door flew open and Walker strode in like a freaking avenging Viking warrior.
His expression was hard as he slammed the door shut and locked it.
“How many times do I need to tell you to lock your door?” he demanded, his voice guttural.
Walker’s hands fisted at his sides, his body tense.
But it was the look on his face that made my belly clench low and deep.
Hunger.
Pure, unadulterated hunger etched a harshness into his handsome face.
“If we do this, there are rules,” Walker stated.
My heart leapt, but his words from earlier still burned. “I don’t need a pity fuck.”
He bared his teeth, a wicked half smile, half snarl as he stepped toward me. “No, you need it wild and hard. Is that not what you said?”
Yes, yes, YES! My breathing grew shallow as my body reacted to him. This man was sexual radioactivity.
“Yes,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared as if he could see how turned on I was. “Just sex. No strings. When one of us wants it to end, it ends without harm or hurt. Or we don’t do this.”
“Agreed.” I nodded. “I promise.”
Decided, he lifted his chin toward the staircase. “Then get upstairs.”
Thrill filled me even as nervous butterflies fluttered wildly in my belly. “Are you going to be this bossy all the time?”
“Did you think I would be anything but in charge when we fuck?”
No.
No, I guessed not.
The man was a dominant, sexy bastard.
And I realized that was part of his appeal. I’d spent my whole life making decisions for my daughter, for myself. Everything came down to my choices, my actions. It was exhausting.
But with Walker … I trusted him to take charge in the bedroom and make me feel good doing it.
In answer, I bit my lip against a smile of anticipation, and his eyes darkened with heat. Then I turned on my heel and walked as calmly as I could up the stairs. My heart lurched into my throat as I heard his heavier footsteps behind me.
I didn’t know what I expected once I reached my bedroom. I crossed the room to lower the blinds and when I turned, Walker stood in the doorway, staring at me like he wanted to devour me.
I was absolutely ready for that.
However, I’d expected it to be a controlled seduction. Because that was Walker. Always in control.
So when he rushed me like he had lost all control, my entire being ignited.
Our bodies collided seconds before our mouths did, Walker bending to steal the breath from me. His kiss was ravaging. Possessive. Dark, deep, and sexual. His beard prickled softly against my skin.
His hand fisted in my hair as he held me to him, and I grasped onto him as he plundered my mouth as if he couldn’t taste me deep enough.
I knew it.
I knew it would be like this between us.
I whimpered against his tongue as his other hand gripped my ass to pull me into the hard-on straining the zipper of his jeans.
The whimper turned to a moan, reverberating into his mouth.
Walker ground his hips harder into me, squeezing my ass.
I slid my hands under his tee in answer, shivering at the delicious feel of his smooth, hot skin, the dips and curves of his muscles beneath my fingertips.
He grunted as I touched his nipples. The sound rumbled in my mouth as we kissed harder, bruising each other’s lips.
I needed him inside me. I needed that thick drag and pull. I needed him to obliterate my emptiness.
Fumbling for the button on his jeans, I made that very clear.
But Walker stalled my movement by lifting me into his arms. I was in the air for a second before I landed on my bed with a startled gasp. I gazed up into Walker’s face, etched with the harshness of uncontrolled desire.
I’d never felt sexier.
Then suddenly I was overwhelmed by him, his heat, his scent, as he covered me with his large body and stole my lips again. He cupped my breast through my dress and squeezed, and lust exploded through me. I became frantic, pulling at his shirt.
“Walker, inside, inside.” I broke the kiss to whisper mindlessly.
“Tell me what you want?” he demanded against my lips.
I looked deep into his beautiful eyes, confused. “I just said it.”
“Give me the words. Tell me you want me to fuck you.”
Understanding dawned and, if possible, my skin flushed hotter. “I want you to fuck me. Hard.”
With a growl of satisfaction, Walker sat back, straddling me. His erection strained against his jeans as he took hold of the hem of my dress. I sat up to help him as he whipped it over and off. Before he could, I unhooked my bra and removed it. Walker’s fiery eyes devoured my naked breasts.
“I’ve fantasized about sucking your nipples more times than I can count,” he admitted.
Wet slickened between my legs. “Suck away, my friend.”
Walker reached for my breasts, caressing them, plucking at my nipples as they tightened into hard points. “You’ve been driving me fucking nuts, you know that.”
“Only fair, since I’ve been permanently turned on since we met.”
Walker’s lips twitched. “Is that so?”
“I think I might have used the term ‘I want to climb that man like a tree’ several times.”
This time he grinned, and a whoosh of feeling fluttered through my belly. He was so sexy. Why was he so goddamn sexy? “I’ll let you climb me later. Maybe.”
He whipped off his shirt. Holy … “Oh my God.”
Walker didn’t seem to be aware of how beautiful he was.
His broad shoulders, his muscled, hard pecs, and a six-pack.
A few scars marred his smooth skin, what looked like a healed long, deep gash at his ribs and a scar that looked very similar to the one on my arm.
He’d been shot. And there was another on his belly. A cluster of smaller scars on his side.
I wanted to ask him what happened, but I knew from his expression that now was definitely not the time.
Instead, I reached for him, trailing my hands over his chest in awe at the power straddling me.