‘You were jealous!’
‘Very.’ Walker’s fingers were trailing a line to her knee under the water, and she felt every millimetre he crept upwards.
‘That’s why I got on the bucking bronco at The Bolthole,’ she confessed.
‘You looked so sexy riding that thing,’ he admitted with a rueful grin.
‘I was jealous of the girl you were talking to.’ Gabi had never in her life admitted her feelings like this before. Not to any man. Not ever. And he was listening, and taking her seriously, and. . . it felt good. It felt as though with everything she said, every feeling she admitted to, they moved closer towards each other. Not just physically, with his hand still moving up her leg, but emotionally too. Her heart was expanding with every sentence.
Walker laughed.
‘Believe me, nobody else has had a look-in since a daredevil stuntwoman arrived in town.’
‘Same here, since a handsome firefighter caught me on a pole.’ Oh my God, she was actually saying it out loud. That since that day, all she’d thought about was Walker: impressing him, making him laugh, touching him, kissing him.
‘So.’ Walker stroked her thigh beneath the bubbles but held her gaze. ‘You do feel something for me?’
Gabi’s heart swelled. Every cell felt on fire; her skin was hypersensitive to his touch. She stopped worrying about how the words sounded and instead just said what was inside her heart.
‘I do. I can’t stop thinking about you. I look for you everywhere. When I was frightened in the river, you were all I could think of.’ She shook her head in disbelief at the memory. ‘And you came when I called.’
‘Of course,’ he said simply.
Their eyes were locked on each other now. She wet her lips, felt the heaviness of her breathing. There was no going back now. She just wanted to go forwards, with Walker, with this man who walked through fire to save people. The man who challenged her, who she craved, who saved her every time.
‘What now?’ she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Walker smiled, as if it was a simple question to answer.
‘I want to see you all the time,’ he said.
‘And I want to be with you as much as I can.’ Her words came out in a rush. It was as easy as that.
He stood suddenly, water cascading from his wet arm. The towel still hanging on his hips, low under the line of his taut abs. He towered over her, eyes scanning the surface of the water, hungry for what it concealed. She pressed her thighs together, wanting him with a desperate, sudden need.
‘Still scared?’ he asked.
She swallowed.
‘A bit,’ she said, wondering if it was more excitement now than fear.
He bent at the waist and put both hands on the side of the bath. His face was close and her stomach was doing somersaults.
‘Thought you told me there was a rule for stuntwomen?’ It took her brain a second to recollect a rule she’d lived by for many years.
‘Don’t be scared of falling. . .’ she said, her stomach lurching.
‘Well then,’ he said as he leaned in slowly and lowered his face to hers.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Walker
Walker kissed her with everything he had. Holding her head in his hands, he tasted her mouth, softly at first, and then building to a ferocity that made him drop to his knees beside her on the bathroom floor. He pulled her towards him, lifting her up from the water, feeling the silk of her skin, oiled by the bubbles. Gabi wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with the same urgency, her tongue finding his, her lips soft, her mouth hot. He’d never known a kiss like it. She broke first, gasping for air.
‘Walker,’ she said. ‘I’m nervous.’
He ran his hand down the delicate front of her throat until his hand spanned her collarbones. He tipped her head backwards so that she looked at him. Her chocolate eyes were soft and dark, questioning him. ‘Trust me,’ he said. This felt different now. It felt like suddenly they understood each other. They knew this was something, more than just attraction. It was connection.
In response, she caught his hand in hers and brought it to her lips, kissing the palm before gently sucking on his index finger, enveloping it in the heat of her mouth, tugging at it until his cock was hard as rock under his towel.
