girlfriend couldn’t handle the uncertainty that comes with our kind of job.”
Gillian was a little disappointed with his answer, but she couldn’t really blame him. He went on before she could say anything.
“And everything I told you before was true. I was afraid to get tied any closer to you because if you decided you couldn’t handle what I do, it would’ve killed me. As far as I’m concerned, you’re perfect. You have your own friends, you’re smart, funny, employed, and you’ve got an innocent soul. And I want all that for myself. I don’t want to corrupt you, or change you in any way, but I know that if you’re with me, I’ll end up doing just that. I guess that’s why I was holding back. But when I got home last night, dead on my feet and completely exhausted, and I saw that you’d gone out of your way to respect my need for space to clear my head after the mission and to feed me, it hit me.”
When he didn’t go on, Gillian asked, “What did?”
“That I’ve been an idiot,” Walker said gently. “I was keeping you at arm’s length when I should’ve been doing everything in my power to tie you closer to me. I know it’s only been one deployment, and it was a relatively short one at that, but do you think you can handle what I do? Being left on your own for unknown periods of time without having any idea when I might be back or what I’m doing?”
“Yes,” Gillian said simply. She wasn’t fond of being left in the dark, but if that was the only way she could have Walker, she’d deal. He was hers. She felt it in her bones.
“Fuck, I don’t deserve you,” Walker muttered before his head dropped.
Gillian didn’t have time to think about anything other than how his lips felt on hers. He physically tilted her head with his hands and the second she opened to him, he was there.
How long they kissed against the wall just inside his apartment, Gillian didn’t know, but when she felt his hands at her waist, pulling her shirt up, she gasped and pulled back.
“Arms up,” he ordered.
Bemused, she did as he requested and within seconds, she was standing in front of him in her bra. His gaze immediately dropped, and she heard him groan before his hand came up, pulling one of the cups of her bra down, exposing her rock-hard nipple. Then his mouth was there, sucking hard, making her back arch and her fingers spear into his hair, holding him against her.
One of her legs came up and Walker caught it in the hand that wasn’t at her chest. He pulled her into him, throwing her off balance. But she knew she wasn’t going to fall. No way would Walker let that happen.
His mouth moved up and he sucked on the fleshy part of her breast as his fingers pinched and rolled the nipple he’d just had in his mouth. She looked down and inhaled sharply at the eroticism of what she saw.
Walker’s slightly stubbled jaw was working as he sucked on her flesh. “Are you giving me a hickey?” she managed to get out between pants.
He lifted his head and grinned. “Yup.”
“How old are you?” she teased.
“Thirty-seven,” he answered as if she’d asked a serious question. “And I want to see my mark all over you. I’m claiming you right here and now, Gillian. Tell me to stop if you don’t want this. I’m a possessive and protective bastard. If we do this, you’re going to have to be all right with that.”
His eyes were serious and piercing in their intensity.
“Do I get to claim you right back?” she asked. “You won’t get upset if I put handsy bitches in their place when they try to touch you? Or have a stare-down with a pushy chick in a bar? Because I don’t share. If you cheat on me, I’m done. You’ll get no second chances.”
Instead of being concerned over what she’d said, Walker grinned. “I can’t wait for you to get all possessive on me in public. And as I told you before, I don’t cheat. Why the fuck would I when I’ve got this?” he asked, but it was a rhetorical question, because he once again lowered his head to her chest and ate at her nipple as if he were starving.
Gillian’s head fell backward against the wall with a loud thump.
“Ow,” she whispered, not