Last Night

Chapter 3, LAST NIGHT

Chapter 3

She couldn't believe she'd said what she had, and Walker had taken it in a way she hadn't expected. It had been a shitty thing to say, really, she realized as she sat in the bath. The water had long since cooled.

Kate knew deep down that Walker was nothing like her dad. He wasn't a cheater, and he wasn't the type to walk away, so why was she harboring the fear that he'd wake up one morning and leave her? He'd do nothing like that. If she was being honest with herself, she had to admit how ridiculous her worries were. She could hear Walker downstairs shooting pool, something he did to work off his restless energy.

She climbed out of the bathtub, dried herself off, and stepped into the bedroom. She pulled one of Walker's T-shirts from his chest of drawers. She loved those shirts. There was something about wearing one that made her feel closer to him. She strode barefoot down the stairs, taking in Walker leaning over his pool cue, shirtless, with only a pair of sweats riding low on his hips. He took the shot and then watched her as she stepped off the last step. The hurt she saw there, and knowing she had put it there, made her feel like crap.

"Walker, seriously. I don't know why I said what I did." She stopped before him, sliding her hand over her chest and just watched him watching her. She was scared to take another step.

"Kate, your reasoning is totally fucked up, and for you to say what you did has me wondering if maybe you don't, in fact, believe some of it." He wasn't going to give her anything. Maybe she deserved that.

"You're right. It was wrong and thoughtless, and I believe that about my dad, my parents—others I know, but not you."

"Then why? Because it seems to me as if you're trying to find any reason you can to not marry me. You haven't answered the one question I've asked you."

She had to think for a minute as she stood before him. He sighed and looked away, shaking his head and readying his cue for another shot. It was rude and dismissive, and it pissed her off, so she stepped closer and put her hand over his cue, standing right in his space, a place she could live for the rest of her life.

"There's nothing I want more than to be your wife, to marry you...but I'm scared." Her voice sounded odd to her own ears.

"That makes no sense, Kate. It's an easy answer. You either do or you don't. I won't ask again." She could tell by the way he said it that she'd pushed too far. She'd hurt him, the one man she'd never wanted to hurt.

"I do, Walker." She had to stop thinking it to death, because she was questioning everything. Her head could take her places she didn't want to go.

He tossed his cue onto the table as his hand slid behind her, and he lifted her chin so she had to look at him. He was close, the man who had turned her world upside down and had her wanting to love him, yell at him, fight with him, and play with him all at the same time. He could be arrogant when he wanted, bossy, and he read her so well.

"Are you telling me now you want to marry me, or are you going to talk yourself out of it again, coming up with a hundred different excuses and scenarios about what could go wrong? Because, baby, I've got to tell you, life is a crapshoot. You have to take what you get and go with it, because tomorrow it could be gone."

She slid her hand over his wrist, looking into the sea of green in his eyes, and she pressed a kiss to his chest. Standing on her toes, she touched her lips to his. He didn't shut his eyes—he rarely did when they kissed—and she lifted her arms around his neck, pressing her body against him, feeling the way he responded to her. He reacted by lifting her onto the edge of the pool table, his hands on her ass, pulling her legs apart as he stepped in and laid her flat on the green felt. It was instinctive to reach for the hem of her shirt and lift it over her head. She could tell by the way his eyes flared that he wasn't immune to her, and she hadn't pushed him away so far that he didn't want her. He stepped closer, holding her legs wide as he ran his hands down the inside of her thighs before pressing against her. He hadn't entered her yet, and she couldn't keep from wiggling her hips, trying to make him slip inside her, but the man had control like she'd never seen, and he held himself still, teasing her. It was driving her crazy.

"Walker, please, I want you."

"Answer me, Kate, and you'll have me." He was watching her, holding himself far enough away that he wasn't inside her, just enough to torment them both, as was evident from the sweat on his brow.

He slid a hand over one of her breasts and leaned down to taste her, touching and teasing her, bringing her closer to the edge, but then he pulled back as if to deny her any satisfaction, and she wanted to whimper as she reached for him, tried to pull him closer to her.

She could only reach his chest, feeling the way his abs tightened. "Yes, I will marry you, Walker—now, please..."

He filled her hard and fast, drawing a squeak out of her and taking her lips in a kiss that made her realize that a lifetime of sex with a man who knew how to satisfy her would be one of the many pluses of being tied to Walker.