A Wanton Woman

“Tomorrow is soon enough,” he said, pulling me into his arms. He felt different than Luke, his scent was different.

CHAPTER SIX

Celia

I was so warm, overly so and I tried to push the heavy blanket off of me. When I put my hands over me to move it away, it wasn’t a blanket, but an arm. My breath caught and my heart skipped before I remembered. Luke and Walker. I was in bed with one of them.

Glancing down, I saw an arm, sprinkled with dark hair, about my waist. Based on the hair color on the arm, it was Walker. The hand was so big, it reached from my hipbone to have the thumb brush the underside of my breast. My bare breast. I’d worn Luke’s shirt to bed, but it had ridden up well past my waist and Walker’s hand was beneath it.

It all came back to me then. Arriving in Denver, the luxurious hotel room, the men’s pressure into having me admit hard truths, the fucking. God, the fucking.

The blanket had fallen about my waist and I was pressed against a solid wall of man, his front against my back like two spoons in a drawer. I felt every hard inch of him. The hair on his chest tickled my back, his strong thighs tucked behind mine. That meant the hardness pressing against my bottom was his—

“Don’t be frightened, doll.”

Walker’s voice was rough and deep from sleep.

I should have been frightened. I was in a stranger’s bed, in his arms, practically naked. I’d done such wicked and carnal things with his brother.

A whimper escaped just before he shifted so that I was on my back and he was looming over me, settled up onto one forearm. He began to undo the buttons down the front of the shirt, slowly exposing me, inch by inch.

I looked up at Walker. His dark hair, which last night had been neatly combed, fell over his forehead, tousled from sleep. His shoulders were so broad he blocked out the pale light coming in from the window. His eyes were on the skin that he was exposing.

“Sleep well?” he asked, as he parted the fabric so it fell off to the sides. Except for my arms, I was bare to him.

I heated at his honest and blatant perusal. Had I slept well? Yes. I hadn’t slept that well in a long time. I barely remember being tucked beneath the covers and Walker climbing into bed and pulling me into his arms. I remembered Luke settling on the other side of me, but nothing more.

I nodded.

He smiled then and the harsh edges he bore the night before were gone. “Good. You had a long trip and if you weren’t weary enough from that, Luke certainly wore you out.”

I flushed then and he grinned broadly, as he brushed one finger across my collarbones.

“You turn pink when you’re embarrassed. Everywhere.”

I looked away from his mesmerizing eyes. “Where’s Luke?”

His hand stilled. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No. I just… wondered.”

Walker sighed. “He had an errand to run but will be back soon.” He glanced over his shoulder to the window. “The weather is fair again today, but there are clouds over the mountains, which means it’s snowing up there. While I wanted to stay at least a day, if not two, with you in this bed, we need to get home.”

My mind cleared then and I remembered Carl Norman. “Oh!”

I tried to move away from Walker, but he didn’t shift. Big as he was, I wouldn’t be able to get up unless he let me. The idea of him keeping me in bed—of wanting me beneath him—was quite nice, for John had never even held me. Not once. But the longer we remained in Denver, the chance of Carl finding me grew. While I couldn’t be sure he would follow through with his threats, I couldn’t ignore them. I had to keep moving. The sooner we were in Slate Springs and the pass closed behind us, the better.

“Yes, we should hurry.”

Walker moved his arm and I pushed up and slid to the side of the bed. Sitting up, I realized I had no covers, no way to shield myself except to tug the sides of Luke’s shirt together, but it still gaped open. While he’d seen me the night before, naked and beneath Luke, the morning light hid nothing.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that Walker hadn’t moved, just remained relaxed and comfortable as he watched me. While he had a gleam in his eye that indicated interest, he was not making any kind of advances. He did not seem the least bit bothered by waking up with a woman he barely knew.

“You seem quite at ease. Is this something you do often?” I bit my lip as soon as the words escaped, for they were sharply barbed and not deserved.

Walker’s eyes narrowed, but he did not offer any other indication that he was bothered. He studied me quietly for some time, long enough for me to want to squirm under the intensity of it.