Guts & Glory: Walker (In the Shadows Security Book 4) Read online

  And she couldn’t wait for the next one.

  He dropped his lips to hers, making sure she got a good taste of what he had. Then he shifted enough to latch onto one of her nipples, sucking it hard and deep, just to the point where it could turn painful, but he knew how far to take it. To take it to that very edge.

  He rolled her other nipple between his fingers and slid his cock along her thigh. It was hot and hard, the tip slick, making her pussy pulsate in anticipation.

  She scraped her nails down his back, grabbed two handfuls of his ass and squeezed. “Trace.”

  It was just his name, but it was enough to let him know she was ready. To encourage him.

  But he suddenly became still.

  Was this another one of his waiting games?

  He groaned and moved up, pressing his forehead to hers. “I have no condoms in the house. I’ve never brought a woman here before and never planned to.”

  She bit back a whimper. No condoms? How could a single man have no condoms?

  I’ve never brought a woman here before and never planned to.

  While she found that surprising and interesting, she had a more pressing matter to deal with at the moment. “Not in your wallet?”

  “In my car and under the seat of my bike. Do you want me to go and grab them?”

  That meant he’d need to pull on at least his boxers, find his crutches, and work his way through the sprawling house and come back.

  Her fingers flexed against his back. “No, I don’t want you to go. I’m covered.”

  He lifted his head. “The pill?”

  “An IUD.” Pregnancy wasn’t the only worry when it came to sex, but she’d only been with two men in her life. And Trace was one of them. The other she was married to for over sixteen years.

  So, while he didn’t have to worry about her history, she had to worry about his.

  “Do you trust me?” he whispered.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Then know I’ve never once had unprotected sex.” He hesitated. “Can I trust you?”

  She nodded again. “Yes. I—”

  “No. Don’t say it.”

  Right, he didn’t want her mentioning another man in his bed. Well, she didn’t want to think about any other man while in his bed, either.

  She grabbed his face and pulled him down, capturing his lips, this time taking control of the kiss. Showing him how much she wanted him.

  And she was tired of waiting.

  As she kissed him, he dug his fingers into her hair, holding on, and settled between her thighs. With his other hand between them, he slid the head of his cock through her wetness, from her clit all the way through the crease of her ass and back up until it caught.

  He stopped right where she wanted him.

  Then it hit her. There was no going back from this.

  Seeing each other had ripped open old wounds, but maybe, just maybe, this would heal them.

  Or maybe it would make them worse.

  Because in the end, things were still raw between them. And her future was still up in the air.

  If she ended up having to disappear, she’d never see him again.

  If she was smart, she wouldn’t let herself fall because it was going to be even harder this time to pick herself back up.

  Even so, it was too late to be changing her mind. She could, and she was sure Trace would accept her decision, but, in truth, she wanted him to continue.

  Consequences be damned.

  She realized she had stopped kissing him and his mouth hovered right over hers. She focused on him and he was looking at her with concern.

  “You sure about this?”

  She wiggled her hips, but he managed to only give her the tip and no more. “Yes.”

  He pulled her arms straight over her head, ran his hands from her armpits up, and when he got to her wrists, he not only drove them into the bed, he drove his cock inside her with a grunt.

  The air rushed from her lungs as he did so, then stilled. Her body stretched around him, accepting him. Squeezing him.

  He pressed his forehead to hers and he began to move, his breath puffing with each thrust, his eyes locked with hers, even though they were too close to focus, his fingers circling her wrists tightly.

  “You fit me like a glove, El. A perfect fucking glove.”

  El. Funny enough, no man had ever called her that but him. Just like sweetheart.

  He glided in and out of her with each tilt of his hips.

  “Fuck,” he whispered and closed his eyes. “Fuck.”

  Yes, she agreed, it felt that good, that right.

  She had missed him, missed this.

  Missed them.

  She expected him to go slow, to tease her, like he did when his mouth was on her, but he didn’t.

  He ground deep at the end of each long, full stroke. And his pace quickened.

  “Legs around me.”

  She pressed her thighs to his hips, and held onto him with her calves, doing her best not to dig her heels into his thighs.

  He drove harder and deeper and faster, with a power she had forgotten.

  “Ellie.” Her name was a ragged whisper that made her nipples ache as they pressed against his chest.

  His weight on her should be too much, smothering, but it wasn’t. It was perfect.

  She wanted more of it. She wanted him to absorb her, protect her. Keep her safe.

  Then she was rising, climbing, her climax building.

  His pace became more fevered. “Ellie.” He released her wrists, gripped both sides of her face, driving his fingers into her hair and he took her mouth as hard as he took her pussy.

  Claiming her.

  He drove the air from her lungs with each thrust, then gave it back to her. Until finally she felt the peak. Right there. She was there.

  But she said nothing because she didn’t want him to pull back. Not this time. This time she just wanted to let go. To set them free.

  She struggled to keep her mouth on his when the orgasm ripped through her like a tornado. She swore it swept through her from her head to the tips of her toes.

  She knew he felt it because he groaned into her mouth but didn’t let up. He continued to pound her, taking what he wanted, giving her what she needed.

  She gasped as another orgasm came from nowhere, curling her toes, forcing her to rip herself from his mouth to gulp air.

  But he didn’t move away, he held her head in place and stared down into her eyes.

  “Sweetheart,” he breathed, then he tensed, curled over her one more time, driving deep, holding even deeper, never losing her eyes as he let go, filling her, marking her.

  Then she saw it. The slight flinch.

  Reality had suddenly reared its ugly head.

  Whether that flinch was from discomfort because of his leg or from the realization of what they just did, she didn’t know.

  She just knew she didn’t want it to be either.

  “I’ve added another rule.”

  She lifted an eyebrow but waited.

  “You’re in my bed while you’re here.”

  Ellie finally breathed.

  Walker laid on his side in bed, waiting.

  Ellie had gone to the bathroom to clean up, and dropped a wet washcloth off for him on her way out the door to the kitchen.

  All of this while naked.

  Maybe he needed to set another rule. When she was in his house, she was forbidden to wear clothes.

  Yes, her body had changed, but, fuck, he loved every single one of those changes. She had grown from a girl into a woman.

  And just like she was sorry she missed him turning into a man, he was sorry he hadn’t been around to watch her mature and get comfortable within her own skin. Which apparently, she was, since she stepped right over his shirt she could’ve thrown on in her travels.

  A few minutes later, she was back, her face soft, her lips holding a slight curve and two glasses of water in her hands. She set one down on his side, the
n rounded the bed to put the other on the far nightstand.

  Her side of the bed.

  He kept his back toward her as the mattress shifted as she climbed on. “You sure you want me to stay in here with you? I’m afraid I might kick you during the night.”

  “It’ll be fine,” he murmured, grabbing the glass and taking a few gulps.

  He had just put the water down when she fitted herself to his back, her arm snaking around his waist.

  He flattened his lips to keep from smiling like a fucking fool.

  She pressed a few kisses over his shoulder and the top of his back, and he was disappointed when she pulled away just slightly. “Tell me about the tattoo.”

  One of his rules had been that she not ask questions or get personal.

  But with what they just shared, he was ready to throw that rule out the window. However, he’d keep it in place just in case she wanted to know things he couldn’t give her.

  Especially about his job. Or his time in the service.

  Or how he coped after she gave him the boot.

  Those were things he’d keep to himself.

  But the tattoo? Not off limits.

  “It’s the insignia of the Night Stalkers.”

  “What are the Night Stalkers?”

  “Soldiers who specialize in nighttime operations. We flew choppers.”

  “You were one.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I had heard you became Airborne, right?”

  “Yeah. That was the first step.”

  “Was it difficult?”

  Walker rolled to his back, taking her with him and pulling her into his side. Her thigh curled around his right leg—his good leg—and he liked the weight of it. He also liked the feel of her cheek pressed to his chest, her breath sweeping over his skin, her soft tits pushed into his ribs. He liked his fingers in her hair.

  He fucking liked all of it.

  He had missed this. Missed her.

  He never thought life would come full circle.

  No, not full circle. Not quite. Some things would never go back to being the same.

  “I did. After I finished basic training and you...”

  Her fingers drifted up his stomach to his chest. He tucked his chin into his neck to glance down at her. She was avoiding his gaze.

  “After that, I completed my Green Platoon, and moved on eventually joining the 160th.”

  “160th?”

  “A unit that specializes in nighttime operations by air.”

  She lifted her head just slightly, her soft hair sliding along his chest and side. He curled his fingers into the long reddish-brown strands, rubbing them back and forth between his fingers.

  “Like Black Hawks?”

  “And others.”

  “You were a pilot?”

  “I’m still a pilot,” he murmured. That was one thing they couldn’t take from him. He earned it, he was keeping it. Whether he ever flew a chopper again or not.

  “Is that how you lost your leg?”

  He’d been expecting it, but he also wasn’t ready to have that conversation. It was time to shut it down for the night, anyway.

  “Not tonight.”

  “When?”

  “Not tonight, El. I need sleep so I can work on your case first thing in the morning.”

  He needed sleep, whether he’d get any was questionable.

  Bringing Ellie into his house wasn’t smart. Bringing her into his bed even less.

  But keeping her there...

  That might just destroy him.

  Chapter Nine

  With a huge coffee mug in one hand and his cell phone in the other, he strode down the narrow hallway in the warehouse. Hunter was going to meet him in “Badass Central,” their electronics room in which their boss’s ol’ lady dubbed it so. She had even painted a little sign and tacked it over the door, saying she could get pregnant just walking into that room with all the testosterone that filled it when the whole team was present.

  As if his thoughts conjured up the boss’s ol’ lady, Jewel came waddling down the hallway from the opposite direction. He could pretty much guess where she was coming from. The bathroom.

  At this late in the game, her pregnancy had her in and out of there so many times she said she should just set up a desk in there.

  Jewel’s belly was huge and leading the way since she was due to give birth to Diesel’s third child any day now.

  Diesel.

  Third child.

  Walker snorted.

  Not one of them—not one—could’ve guessed he’d even get tied down to a woman, forget producing babies.

  But he had. And if anyone was perfect for their grump of a boss, it was Jewel, who took no shit from D and knew how to shovel it right back when he tried.

  And this was why she was about to pop again for the third time. Because she frustrated Diesel so much, he was always “teaching her a lesson.” In turn, those “lessons” knocked her up.

  Her hands were under her protruding belly like she was afraid the baby was just going to split her open and walk the fuck out.

  She stopped toe to toe with him—more like belly to waist—and gave him a frown. “Last one.”

  Since that had been her mantra for the last few months, he knew what the hell she was talking about.

  “That’s what you said last time.” He snorted again, then took a sip of his coffee to hide his grin.

  She shook her head, her dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail flipping around as she did so. “No. This is it. My vagina can’t take anymore.”

  Walker opened his mouth, then shut it. He quickly took another sip of coffee. There was no way in hell he was commenting on his boss’s ol’ lady’s snatch. Even in jest.

  No fucking way. There could be hidden microphones. And then he might die.

  So, no.

  He tried to switch gears with, “Did you guys ever find out the sex?” If they had, he’d heard nothing. As long as the baby was healthy and his boss didn’t drop over dead from worrying about Jewel suffering through another labor, he couldn’t care less what they had.

  “He wants it to be a surprise.”

  Walker raised his eyebrows. Just like the three pregnancies. “Afraid it’s not gonna be a boy.” That was his best guess.

  “He wants a boy.”

  After two baby girls, Walker would want a boy, too. In the past, females had always only been a sexual outlet for D. Until Jewel. Then his household went from one female to three. And if they had another girl? That would mean four.

  And once they were all the age where their cycles synchronized?

  Fuck. Poor bastard.

  Walker bet D was also rethinking all the things he did to women and where he did them for all those years. Now he had daughters and he bet it drove D nuts to think one of his own daughters could be getting fucked against the wall in a bathroom somewhere in the future.

  Oh yeah. Walker was pretty fucking sure D was wishing he’d done things differently.

  “He’s gonna need help kicking the asses of teenage boys when Violet and Indie get to that age.”

  “I’m already signing him up for blood pressure meds, even if I have to crush them up and hide them in cheese.”

  Walker laughed. “This being the last one, he gonna get snipped?”

  “You’d think that would be the easiest solution, right? But fuck no. The way he acts, a vasectomy would be the same as a sex change operation. Thinks his voice will get girly and he’d have to start wearing a bra.”

  “He probably should wear a bra,” Walker teased. “And a thong.”

  Jewel laughed then her eyes went wide.

  Oh shit. “What? Baby coming?”

  She shook her head. “No, I just fucking peed a little again. Fuck my life.” She turned carefully in the narrow hallway, trying not to bump her belly and waddled back toward the bathroom. “Last one!” she screamed.

  “Should I remind you of that next time?” he asked, following more slowly.<
br />
  Jewel flipped him the bird over her shoulder.

  He chuckled and stepped into “Badass Central,” closing the door behind him.

  Hunter was leaning back against one of the desks, his own travel mug full of caffeine in his hand. “Should I ask?”

  Walker moved around the desk, set his coffee down and settled into one of the leather desk chairs. They were fitting for “Badass Central” since they were designed for gamers.

  “You can ask, doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

  Hunter sat at the computer next to him. Both consoles had three screens that were set up in a curve around the user.

  “You start digging yet?” Walker asked.

  He shook his head. “Just got here a few minutes ago.”

  Walker cocked a brow at him. Hunter was normally up before first light.

  He shrugged. “Got a woman at home now. Gotta take care of business before taking care of business.”

  “Jesus,” Walker muttered. “Didn’t need that image in my head.”

  Hunter grinned. “Gotta make son number two before I get to be old like you and it’s too late.”

  “I’m only like a year or so older than you, asshole.” He turned his head to study Hunter. “How’s son number one holding up?”

  Hunter sobered. “Okay.”

  “No nightmares?” Leo, Frankie’s son, who Hunter was in the midst of adopting, had been kidnapped and traumatized by his real father before Hunter’s woman took the man out with a Louisville Slugger to the melon.

  “Nothing out of the ordinary. Doesn’t mean we’re not watching.”

  “Yeah,” Walker said softly. “He’s a good kid. I hope it doesn’t fuck him up.”

  “Agreed. There are enough of us fucked up around here.” Hunter logged into the computer and began to type. “So, you guys work out your shit?”

  Walker was typing in his own password when he paused. “You guys?”

  “You and Ellie.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Expected you to walk in here this morning ready to snap everyone’s head off. You didn’t. You came in here like you had a taste of the sweetest pussy on the planet. Though, I know that ain’t right since I’ve claimed it already, so maybe the second sweetest.”