Every time Walker saw him, it only made the anger worse. The fury grew inside him and pushed at his body from the inside out. He should’ve punched the bastard back when he’d had the chance. He should’ve hurt him. Made him sorry.
He stared out at the trees until they went blurry. Then he stared some more.
After an excruciating half hour, a nurse finally broke up the reunion. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but it’s time for Mr. Pearce’s therapy.”
Walker turned and walked out without a word. When he got to the lobby, he breathed in deeply. It didn’t smell like bleach and urine out here.
“Hey.” Micah’s hand rested on his shoulder. “You don’t even look at him anymore.”
“He’s not Dad. And if he was, I wouldn’t set foot in this fucking place no matter how many times you asked.”
“Walker,” Micah said, but he didn’t add anything else. They’d had this discussion many times. Micah had forgiven their dad. Walker didn’t even want to.
“I miss you, Micah. You should try to switch up your schedule now that you’re the big man on campus. Come through more often.”
Micah pulled him in for a long hug, ending it with a painful slap on the back. “Come see us this winter, all right? I mean it. You do the long-distance driving for once.”
“I will.”
As he watched his brother step through the doors, Walker heard his father’s voice echoing down the hall. Some helpless, petulant tone he’d never heard out of that man’s mouth when he’d been himself.
He clenched his jaw and walked out without looking back. Micah could do this on his own next time. Walker was fucking done with it.
* * *
CHARLIE HIKED THE laundry basket higher on her hip and raced up the cellar stairs. She wasn’t crazy about the stone-walled utility room in the basement of the Stud Farm, but a little Stevie Wonder made it all better. Singing along to one of his best ’70s songs, Charlie danced across the entryway and cheerfully hopped up the stairs toward the second floor. It was her day off and she wasn’t going to let a creepy cellar ruin her good mood.
It was a glorious day. Cold and windy while she was alone and cozy in her little apartment. Nothing could ruin it.
Except a stranger waiting at the top of the stairs to murder her.
She shrieked and nearly tripped to her death before she registered that it was Walker. He raised his eyebrows and said something she couldn’t hear over the music. This iPod would be the death of her.
Knees shaking, Charlie took the last few stairs, set down the basket and pulled her earbuds out. “What?” she croaked.
“I said ‘good song.’”
“God. You didn’t hear me singing, did you?”
“Oh, I sure did.”
She cringed. She had the worst singing voice in the world. Too bad she loved music so much. “I’m sorry about that.”
“No, it was entertaining.”
“Shut up, Walker.”
He grinned unabashedly. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s my day off.”
“Mine, too,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
“Wanna help me fold laundry?”
He looked down at her basket. She’d piled all her unmentionables on top. “Just try and stop me.”
The way his voice dropped reminded her with sudden and violent force of how she’d gotten off the night before. Her blush had nothing to do with the lacy panties he was eyeing and everything to do with the ones she wanted him to tear off.
“Let’s do this.” She picked up the basket and led him toward her lair.
Turned out she didn’t have to do much leading. As soon as she set the basket on the coffee table, Walker spun her around and kissed her. A long, deep kiss that had her dizzy within seconds. “I’ve been wanting to do that since last night. You have no idea how crazy you made me.”
Oh, she had some idea. Smiling, she rose on her toes to kiss him again. She slid one hand over his beard, marveling at how soft it was. She wanted to feel it everywhere.
His kiss was more urgent today, his hands a little rougher when they slid over her hips and down to her ass. Had she really driven him that crazy? Apparently she had, because he was hard as a rock against her belly.
“Charlie,” he said against her jaw. “I’m sorry. I want to touch you again. Tell me to stop anytime. I swear I will. But I want to touch you. Please.”
God. Poor man. He still thought she wanted to take it slow. He was in for a surprise. “You can touch me, Walker.”
“Thank God,” he groaned. “I want to. So much.”
She pushed him toward the bedroom, and he went willingly, tugging her along as he kissed her and walked backward through the door.
She wished she was wearing something sexier than yoga pants and a T-shirt, but he seemed to like the feel of her ass through the pants, and at least she was braless and her shirt was easy access. He had it off and over her head before she’d even fallen back onto her bed.
“God, I love your tits,” he said as he followed her down to the mattress.
“You’re easy to please,” she murmured, then lost herself in a gasp as his mouth closed over her nipple. Yes, he was definitely rougher this time. He sucked her harder. His teeth scraped over her and she shuddered against him.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured against her skin. Then he drew her in again.
The contrast between nice Walker and sexual Walker made everything inside her tighten. They’d been friends so long, and she’d wanted him so long, and how many times had she fantasized that he’d say I’m sorry as he took advantage of her? God, yes. He was sorry but he couldn’t stop himself from touching her. He was so sorry, but he had to.
By the time he moved to her other breast, Charlie was squirming for more. She needed his hands on her pussy. She needed his mouth, too. Oh, God, she needed that and he’d promised her.
And now his mouth was moving down, his beard sliding over her belly as his hands went to the waist of her pants.
“Is this okay?” he murmured. He slowly peeled the fabric down, exposing her hip bones first, then the top of her panties. “This is okay, right, Charlie?”
She didn’t say yes or no. She wanted him like this, uncertain and desperate as he stripped her. She wore only her panties now, and he looked at her for a moment, his blue eyes shining and hot, cheekbones flushed above the edge of his beard. His hair was sweetly mussed from her clasping fingers. He was gorgeous. Even with all his clothes on, he was the kind of centerfold a girl could get off to.
Walker laid one of his hands over the front of her underwear. He just held it there, watching as his thumb traced the edge of the silky fabric. She watched, too. His hand was so wide, his blunt-nailed fingers thick, and the skin so scarred and dark against her most delicate flesh. He could hurt her if he wanted to, but he never would. Not unless she asked him very nicely.
As they both watched, his fingers stole beneath the edge of her panties and slipped down. She moved her thighs apart and eased up onto her elbows to watch. His fingertips traced over her plump lips, just the edge, then back up. Teasing her. Testing her. She held her breath as he did it again. Then his fingers slid along wetness and brushed her clit.
“Oh,” she gasped. Walker watched her face. She was breathing hard and fast already.
“I want to taste you,” he said, before he leaned forward and pressed one nearly chaste kiss to her mound. Then another. When he opened his mouth over her, she felt the shocking heat and wetness of him through that thin fabric.
She gasped his name and he licked her. His tongue slipped over her clit as she watched him, tormenting her through her pink panties. “Oh, God. Walker.” He did it again, and now that the fabric was wet, it felt even better. But not good enough. Not nearly good enough. Then his fingers slipped over her slick lips and this time, he pushed deeper. Just a little. Charlie’s hips bucked toward him in shocked pleasure.
Now his mouth closed over her and he sucked until she was whimpe
ring. “You want to leave your panties on, Charlie? It’s okay if you do.”
Fuck, he was teasing her. Working her clit with his lips and tongue, torturing her pussy with his fingers. “No,” she gasped.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to go too fast for you. We can leave them on if you feel shy.”
“Please. Just...take them off.”
He sucked at her one more time as his fingers slid slowly up and down.
“Please,” she begged again. “Please, I want to.”
Walker nodded and then he finally dragged her underwear slowly down. She was mortified to see her thighs were already trembling. His hands smoothed over them as if he’d noticed, too. But then his eyes were locked on what he’d uncovered. Her bare pussy, open and wet for him.
She saw the flash of his teeth in his beard, heard the low rumble of his growl. He stood and took off his shirt, his boots, his jeans, but his gaze stayed glued to her the whole time.
Her eyes, on the other hand, were roaming restlessly over him, catching on pleasing sight after pleasing sight. She’d need days to get her fill of just looking. Then weeks to memorize him with her hands. A few more to taste every inch of him. The innocuous parts like the inside of his wrist, the top of his hip. And the dangerous parts like his mouth, his fingers and that gorgeous cock he’d just released from his briefs.
Oh, God. Yes, weeks just for that.
He retrieved a condom from his jeans, and for a moment, she thought he was going to skip all the foreplay and just fuck her. Frankly, she was fine with that. She needed to feel him inside her. All her nerves went tight in perfect anticipation of him pushing into her.
But no... He set the condom beside her and met her gaze. “I’ll stop whenever you want. That’s just in case. Okay?” She nodded, and when he knelt between her legs, she scooted farther back on the bed, eager to give him room to work.
He put his mouth to her inner thigh first. Then a little higher. Then he sucked at the hollow at the very top of her leg. His beard brushed the sensitive skin between her thighs. “Just in case...” he whispered, dragging his mouth along her sex. “You like this...” His tongue flicked over her clit.
She tensed, her breathing filling the silence of the room.
“...as much as I know I will.”
Another faint little lick of his tongue. Charlie whimpered.
“Look at you, Charlie. So bare and vulnerable.”
Yes. That was what she liked about it. She was so sensitive like this. So—
He opened his mouth against her and sucked at her clit. The pleasure was so shocking that she cried out. Loudly. His eyes flickered up. And then he smiled, mouth still pressed to her flesh, his eyes crinkling with delight. He sucked at her again and pressed his tongue to her, and Charlie couldn’t stop the animal groan that tore from her throat.
Charlie let her head fall back when he started working her with his tongue. His thumb slid over her slick flesh, up and down, up and down. Then he pressed a little deeper, but just a little. His thick thumb traced her opening, teasing her with the possibility.
“Oh, God,” she panted. “Please.”
“Shhh,” he murmured. “Take your time, Charlie. I could stay here all night.”
Then his tongue was on her again and she was crying out and whimpering. When he kept teasing her and offering no satisfaction, she gave up her coy act completely and blurted out, “I need you inside me. Walker, please. Fuck me. I need you. All of you. Now.”
He only chuckled and kept up his teasing, the laughter brushing his beard against her screaming nerves. Finally she felt her release building. That strange, sweet wave of awareness prickling under the skin of her neck and then her chest and belly and thighs. The tension riding beneath her skin until it all built up into that one spot under his mouth, and then—
She screamed, her hips bucking against the arm Walker had wrapped around her thigh. He sucked at her again, bringing on an even stronger climax, a hoarser scream, as the pleasure pulsed through her, over and over, seemingly endless. When he sucked again, she twisted her hands into his hair. “Oh, fuck, stop. Please. I can’t...”
Walker lifted his head and offered her the most ridiculous, full-of-himself grin she’d ever seen. “Told you you’ve been dating the wrong cowboys.”
She groaned.
“Want to go again?” he asked, dipping his head toward her.
Charlie let out a squeak and tugged at his hair. “No! I need a minute. It’s...sensitive. Just give me a minute.”
He pushed up to his knees and reached for the condom. “Too sensitive?” he asked as he stroked his hard cock.
“Oh,” she said, already transfixed by the sight of him. “No. Not too sensitive.”
“Good.”
He rolled the condom on, watching her face as he did. “Say yes, Charlie?”
He was so sweet. Hadn’t she already begged him to fuck her? “Yes,” she said clearly, reaching for him as he stretched over her. She wound her fingers into his hair and looked him straight in the eye. “Yes, Walker.”
“Thank God.”
Holding her gaze, he gripped himself and she felt the delicious slide of him against her slick flesh. He notched himself just there, just where she needed, then pushed slowly in.
Oh, God. She was so glad he’d only teased her before, because his cock sliding in felt like everything she’d ever wanted. As if she’d been missing it for years. She winced as he stretched her, and Walker eased back, but she didn’t want it easy. She slid her nails down his spine.
“Fuck me,” she urged, and Walker’s hips jumped forward.
He cursed under his breath and tried to pull back again, but she lifted her hips and took him deeper. He surged into her with a hiss of pain or pleasure that got mixed up with her own shocked gasp. He felt bigger than she’d even expected, and she was thankful for the moment he took to press his forehead to hers and breathe.
“Walker,” she whispered, just for the joy of saying his name while she was so filled with him. She raised her hand to his jaw, to stroke his beard and urge his mouth to hers.
Tasting herself on his lips, she kissed him deeply, and Walker rewarded her by slowly, so slowly, moving inside her.
Her eyes fluttered closed. She needed the darkness. She needed to just feel him. His tongue against hers, his hands cradling her head and his cock moving inside her. Sliding, stretching, filling. In that moment, there was nothing else in the whole world except his body and hers.
“Walker,” she said again, as he kissed her chin, her cheek, her jaw.
“You feel so good, Charlie. Damn.”
Raising her knees, she curved her legs around his hips to take him deeper even though her heart beat harder at the thought, warning her he was deep enough. But he couldn’t be too much for her. She wanted him so badly. And when he groaned and thrust harder, Charlie threw her head back and cried out with tortured pleasure.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured against her throat. “I’m sorry.” When he tried to gentle his thrusts, Charlie dug her nails into his ass to urge him on.
She didn’t want it gentle, even though Walker seemed determined to hold back. What was the point of having a big, rough, beautifully hung cowboy in your bed if he wasn’t going to give it his all?
Her nails seemed to spur him on. He braced himself on his hands and fucked her harder. When she dragged her nails up his back, his hips slapped into hers.
“Oh, God, yes,” she groaned. “Like that.”
“Fuck. Charlie. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No,” she whispered into his ear. “Please. Hurt me.”
Walker twisted his fist into her hair. “Damn you,” he growled. “Damn you.” And then he gave her exactly what she wanted.
* * *
HE WAS SHAKING.
His hands trembled when he wasn’t holding her, so Walker gripped her harder. Her nails bit into him, the pain brightening the pleasure of sinking himself over and over into her body.
Sex
normally calmed him, but this wasn’t calm. This was need.
But it was Charlie, and his frantic brain kept telling him to slow down, to be careful with her. But Charlie was the one clutching him tighter, whispering yes, yes, the harder he took her. Begging him to hurt her, to fuck her.
He clenched his teeth at the awful pleasure her words released inside him. He liked women. He’d always been careful with them, conscious of their pleasure, but now he just wanted to get as deep as possible. To get more of her tightness stroking him, sliding, squeezing his cock.
More. Harder and deeper and wetter. More.
The need clawed at him from the inside as Charlie clawed his back, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He hooked an arm beneath her knee and hiked her leg higher, opening her to him completely.
She choked out his name, but she was still pulling him toward her, so he took her just the way he wanted. Fast and hard, loving the way their flesh grew slick with sweat, the way her hips jerked up to meet his. And, God, the way her neck arched and her mouth twisted with awful pleasure. He wanted to fill her with his body. Make her his. Just for that moment, maybe, but all his, filled with him in every possible way. He grunted with every thrust, waiting for her to protest, but she only pulled him tighter.
Her hips urged him on. Her cries drove him wild.
“Charlie,” he growled, the knowledge that it was her making it feel more deliciously wicked. “Ah, God, Charlie...I’m going to come.”
“Yes,” she moaned. “Come for me.”
Her words commanded his body, and his orgasm turned him rigid as he buried himself inside her with one last thrust. He grunted once, twice, as the pleasure tore through him, as it ate him alive for a dozen heartbeats. And then...it felt as if everything stopped for a moment. His heart. His breath. Everything.
He came back to himself in slow measures. First his pulse and pumping blood. Then the sound of his ragged breathing. Then the feel of Charlie’s arms and legs, slippery and tight around him. He stayed like that for a long minute, then another, not wanting it to be over.
When he finally pulled out of her, he winced at the grip of her around his sensitive cock. Charlie’s leg slipped slowly down his hip. Her fingers slid up his back. Her hands were shaking, too.
So Tough to Tame Page 13
