Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“I’ll take you to work tomorrow, and you can collect it then if this circus has calmed down. That okay for you?”
“Yeah.” I hopped into his Range Rover.
As soon as Walker started driving, he leaned over and squeezed my knee. “All good?”
I covered his hand with mine. “We’re all good.”
His expression was suddenly so intense, it made my heart speed up. “You mine again?”
I swear my pulse fluttered. “I’m yours again. Are you mine again?”
Walker squeezed my knee once more. “Never stopped being yours.”
Tears stung my nose, and he tensed at the sight. “Happy tears,” I promised him.
He relaxed for about thirty seconds and then was on alert as we approached the gates. Not only had the paparazzi camped out at the main gate, it seemed they’d cornered the staff entrance too.
“Jesus,” I muttered, seeing the crowd being pushed back by armed security as the gates opened to let us out.
They shoved past the team, lights flashing in my eyes as they snapped photos just in case. It stopped when they realized we weren’t anybody of note, but I gaped in the wing mirror as I saw Jamie tackle paparazzi who’d run through the gate before it closed.
“Holy crap.”
“Aye. They’re like rabid animals,” Walker muttered in disgust.
Their vehicles also lined the road along the woodlands as we passed. “How many are here?”
“About fifty.”
“Poor North.”
“You don’t believe the papers, then?”
“I don’t know what’s true regarding his past,” I replied. “But I know he helped me … and I don’t get bad vibes from the guy, you know.”
“Agreed. Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to him.”
This time I slid my hand down his thigh. “I know.”
We shared a quick, heated look before his eyes returned to the road.
“I missed you,” I confessed again. “It’s been really hard pretending to Callie like everything is okay.”
His voice was gruff. “Did you tell her we …?”
“No.”
“Good.” He relaxed a bit. “That’s good. Now she doesn’t need to know. And I’m in this, Sloane. You don’t have to worry about our relationship hurting Callie.”
The need to be realistic after the pain of the past few weeks forced me to say, “No matter what we feel for each other, neither of us can foresee the future or what might happen between us.”
Walker was silent for what seemed like too long before his fingers tightened around the wheel. “I can’t imagine wanting to ever let you go.”
My heart did that fluttering thing again.
“But you’re right. We can’t promise each other the future. No one can promise another person that. But I can promise you this”—he shot me a searing look—“whatever happens between you and me, I will always be there for you both. I will always be there for Callie.”
Emotion thickened my throat as I stared at him in wonder. How did I get so lucky to meet Walker Ironside? “I’m going to work my ass off to make sure I get to keep you forever, Walker.”
His lip curled slightly at the corner. “Woman, you don’t need to work your ass off. I have no intention of going anywhere.”
Heat bloomed sweet and hot between my thighs. “I know we should do the sensible thing and talk about our future, what we want, if we’re compatible going forward … but when we get back to my place, I’m going to need you inside me as soon as we cross the threshold.”
Those flutters moved to my belly as Walker grinned, big and slow and sexy. “What things do we need to talk about that we can’t sort out right now?”
“Marriage, babies.” I threw them out there, trying not to be worried I’d scare him.
He shrugged. “I never thought I’d get married or have children …” Walker glanced at me. “Until you.”
My breath caught. “So, you’d want those things?”
“Aye.” His voice was gruff. “I’d want those things with you.”
“Good.” The word sounded squeaky, even to my ears. I cleared my throat. “That’s good.”
He grinned again, and I wanted to jump him right there. “Then I guess we know where we stand.”
Forty
SLOANE
I tried to jump the man as soon as we got back to the cottage, but Walker gentled my kisses as he caressed my arms slowly, as if trying to soothe the fire in me.
Confused, I’d released him … and then read what he wanted in his eyes. First, he shoved off my coat and then his.
Then Walker curled his hand around the nape of my neck and drew me tight to him. The fever that crawled through me burned hotter, a fiery need only one man had ever inspired in me. Him. Maybe I was a foolish, lovesick woman, but I truly believed only one man had been put on this earth for me. Him. Walker cupped my ass. His erection dug into my stomach, and a flush of wet slickened between my thighs. I trembled under his ardent study.