you in my dirty fantasies.”
Gillian knew she was blushing, but couldn’t help it. “And you look as perfectly put together as you have every time I’ve seen you. How do you do that?”
But he didn’t answer her. Instead he asked, “Are you hungry?”
Gillian wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know.”
“I didn’t want to cook anything in case the smell of eggs or bacon made you sick,” Walker told her, and Gillian inwardly sighed. Fuck, he was perfect. How in the hell could someone be this perfect?
“A plain bagel,” Gillian blurted. “Toasted. Dry. I think maybe I could eat that.”
“Okay, Gilly, then that’s what you’ll have,” he told her.
The sound of him using the nickname her best friends called her felt good.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, his lips lingering for a long moment. Then he dropped his hands from her head and put his arm around her waist as he led her into the living area. He steered her to the couch and urged her to sit. Once she had, he shook out the blanket she always kept on the back of the couch and covered her with it.
“Stay put. I’ll make your bagel.”
Gillian watched as he strode into her kitchen. He opened her fridge and took out a bottle of water, breaking the seal on the top before walking back toward her. He handed it to her with a smile, then turned and went back into the kitchen.
She took a sip and watched as Walker started making her breakfast…such as it was. He looked completely at ease in her small kitchen. He knew where everything was and acted as if he’d been there hundreds of times before.
Lost in her admiration of Walker’s ass as he moved around her space, she blinked in surprise when he sat next to her, a plain toasted bagel on a plate in his hand. She turned in her seat and gave him a small smile of thanks.
She nibbled a piece of the bread cautiously, happy when it settled and she didn’t feel the need to puke it back up.
“We need to talk.”
His words immediately made her stiffen. It was the same four words he’d used the night before that had sent her into a downward spiral.
“No, don’t tense up,” Walker said, putting a hand on her thigh and leaning into her. “Listen to me, okay?”
The bite of bagel she’d managed to swallow threatened to come back up after all. It seemed to be stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t have said anything if her life depended on it.
“I told you this last night, but I don’t know what you remember and what you don’t.”
“I remember it all,” Gillian admitted softly.
“Right, well then, I’ll repeat this so you hear it again. Yes, I came down here to Georgetown to let you know about the seventh hijacker. But that was just an excuse. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. You impressed me three weeks ago. You were levelheaded and did everything right. You didn’t panic when shit hit the fan. I wanted nothing more than to be there to reassure you and help you navigate the interviews and shit that followed.
“I’ve missed you, Gillian. Which isn’t normal, considering I barely know you. I came down to deliver that message in person hoping that we could talk after. Get to know each other. So I could ask you out and see if you’d go to dinner with me sometime. I wanted to go slow, see if this obsession I seem to have with you is a result of the situation…or more.”
Gillian knew her eyes were huge in her face, but she couldn’t stop staring at Walker in astonishment.
“I knew I’d fucked up somehow when you left. I saw the light go out of your eyes, and it killed that I had done that. I didn’t know how, but it was obvious. So I found out where The Funky Walrus was located and went there with the intention of apologizing for whatever it was I’d said.”
Gillian huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah, and then you found me drunk as hell, saying the most embarrassing things.”
“They weren’t embarrassing,” Walker said earnestly. “They were honest. I hate that you thought for even a second that you were just a job to me. You weren’t. You aren’t.”
“It’s okay,” she told him.
“You’re way too forgiving,” he said with a small head shake, but he didn’t give her time to say anything else. “It was probably creepy and wrong