Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
What was it about impending danger that made you want to jump the nearest sexiest guy for a little fun-time distraction?
Yeah, keep telling yourself that’s all it is.
“Walker?” I asked, my back to him as I opened the cupboard where I kept the tea bags.
“Aye?”
“I’m going to tell you things only a handful of people know.” At his silence, I glanced over my shoulder. Walker leaned against the opposite counter, arms crossed over his powerful chest, ankles crossed too. Waiting. Patient. “What’s your background? I’m not asking for super personal information. I just want to know … how did you become a bodyguard?”
With a slight exhale of breath, Walker pushed off the counter and came to my side. I tensed as he reached for my hands until I realized he was taking the box of tea from me. It was then I noted how badly my hands trembled.
“It’s all right,” Walker reassured, eyes on me even as he began making tea for us both. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Or Callie.”
Tears burned my eyes. But I needed to know if that was true. If he could truly protect us. And I know I had no right to interrogate a man who offered his services without asking for payment … but I was scared.
As if he read all of that in my face, Walker gave me a small nod as he filled the mugs with hot water. “Tea bag in or out?”
“Out.”
A few seconds later, he handed me a hot mug. “Keep that between your hands. It’ll help with the jitters.” Then he gestured with a tip of his head toward the living room and began speaking as I followed him toward the sofa. “As I told you, I’m a trained martial artist. I started training in jujitsu at ten years old. I was the Scottish junior champion at sixteen. At seventeen, I joined the Royal Marines Commandos. I kept up jujitsu through my service and still attend a class every week in Thurso. In that way, I’ve known self-defense since I was a child. Yet I consider that training basic compared to what I learned in the marines.
“I was in for ten years. In the first six, after training in simulated warfare in extreme conditions, I was deployed to Afghanistan on operations.” He spoke with matter-of-factness. No emotion. Like he hadn’t fought in a freaking war. “After those operations, I joined 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group. Its primary mission is to prevent unauthorized access to the UK’s nuclear deterrent. We also conducted specialist maritime security tasks throughout the world.”
Holy crap. So, he was like … super commando.
“Four years after I joined 43 Commando, an ex-marine friend recruited me to join his close protection security team in the US. We provided close protection for politicians and celebrities and high-profile businesspeople and their families. I’ve faced real-time threats to the people under my protection, and no one has ever been hurt or killed on my watch. Brodan hired through the company, but he and I got along, and he needed a permanent bodyguard. I’ve been his private security for the last six years.” He sipped his tea, observing my reaction to all of this. “Sloane, I don’t say this out of arrogance. There are very few people as well equipped to protect you as I am.”
His confidence, lacking in arrogance, was the sexiest thing ever. It was shocking that I felt that little twist of need low in my belly when I was in the middle of a crisis. But there I was. All turned on by Walker’s … well, by everything that was Walker.
“So, you’re a badass.” I grinned, trying to free myself of the sexual tension I hoped he couldn’t sense.
Walker’s stony expression cracked a little. “I’m the biggest fucking badass out there, and anyone who thinks they can terrorize you is going to wish they were dead by the time I’m done with them.”
It took everything within me not to jump him. To throw myself in his arms and start kissing that hard mouth into softness. I knew it wasn’t particularly modern of me to get turned on by such overt masculinity, but I was a woman and he was all man … and I wanted to taste what it was like to be with him.
Suddenly, in that moment, I wondered why I didn’t go for it.
My body reacted to Walker like it had never reacted to anyone, ever. Just because Walker was Mr. Commitment-Phobe didn’t mean I shouldn’t make a move on the guy. Why pass up the chance at what I was guessing would be incredible sex, because that’s all it would ever be? That was more than most people got! Did I really want to go through my entire life not knowing what it was like to have sex with a man who turned me on like Walker did? Just because it would be temporary?