Walker (In the Company of Snipers #21) - Irish Winters Page 0,89

was so damned bewitched, whipped, and lost. She was his goddess. His North Star. Maybe his everything.

His hands sank to the delicate curve of her waist, his fingers splayed over the plush globes of the tops of her ass. Her palms balanced on his chest, over his pounding heart. And suddenly, all his aches and pains and worries vanished. There was only Persia and this beautiful thing between them in this shiny, wet, new world. Their world. There was only hope and trust and this gift of the one woman who, somehow, believed in him.

Tears sprang to Walker’s eyes. Persia Coltrane had saved him. Again. She’d reached out when all others had betrayed him, and she’d jerked his dumb ass up and out of the well he’d dug himself into. A woman he barely knew had just given him precisely what he’d needed to continue the fight. She’d given him hope and faith in himself.

Damn, she must’ve seen the raw emotion on his face. He couldn’t have hidden it if he’d tried. Hadn’t thought he needed to, not with Persia. Like one of those lofty angels of old, she bowed down from what had to be heaven and pressed the sweetest, lightest kiss to the center of his forehead—like a blessing.

He closed his eyes, not sure he wasn’t dreaming. It seemed unreal, the woman he’d run out on, kissing him like he’d never been kissed before. So tenderly. With such kindness. Such—love.

Almost made him believe in happily-ever-after. Too bad he knew better, but for now…

Walker held everything he’d ever wanted in the palm of his hand.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Easing away from the kisses she’d just rained all over his face, Persia looked down on the man she was beginning to care about enough to die for. Walker looked sad. Tortured. His eyes were closed, and those gorgeous laugh lines drooped down instead of up. She hoped she hadn’t been too rough on his poor battered body.

But he’d seemed to need her, and she’d gotten carried away. At least this time, he’d had no problems performing. In fact, they’d both come quickly and at the same time, which was a novelty in the less-than-grand scope of Persia’s limited, unsatisfying sexual experiences. Her previous male friends had usually left her feeling used and unfulfilled before they’d rolled over and started snoring.

Not Walker. She hadn’t ever climaxed so easily or this fantastically before. Not once in her life, and she really liked it. Her entire body still thrummed with rippling waves of the sweetest pleasure. Yet this delicious encounter hadn’t seemed to help him. His entire countenance had gone dark. He seemed totally bereft, lost, and lonely, as if he hadn’t yet found whatever he needed to be whole again.

Which didn’t sit well with Persia, not after the spectacular high he’d given her. Balancing on her knees and palms, she lifted her backside, intending to distance herself from him and let him finish his bath. She could take a hint.

But she didn’t get far. “No, stay,” he whispered, his fingers tight at her waist, his voice filled with anguish. “Damnit, Persia, don’t go. I’m sorry it’s over so fast, but I—”

“You’re what? Sorry?” she asked as she settled back onto his still ready-to-go cock. “For making me smile like a star-struck idiot?”

He opened his eyes and looked up at her then. “But I thought—”

She dipped down nose to nose with him again, her muscles still quivering from that spectacular orgasm. “You silly, silly man. Relax. You just made my day in a big way. And I do mean big.”

His chest lifted with a huff as his lips curled into a hesitant smile. “You’re just saying that.”

Persia grinned back at him. “Yeah. You’re right; I faked it. All of it. And this amazing body…” An aftershock shivered up her spine from her core. So fast and so hot, it took her breath. She closed her eyes to enjoy the sublime sensation of it. “Whew,” she breathed when it ended. “Wow. Now, as I was saying, my body doesn’t exactly know how to lie, so—”

A genuine grin lit Walker’s face. “You did?” he asked with amazement in his tone.

“Yes, I surely did. You did, too. And no worries, I’m protected.”

His face paled. “Shit, I forgot—”

“No, you got exactly what you deserved,” she purred, her fingertips fluttering over his flat, do-nothing nipples, teasing him. Wishing this was the start of something out of this world. “I make sure I’m protected because I never know when I’ll have to