Maze’s maid of honor to-do list:
—Pick up Dillon’s wedding band and make final payment without letting Dillon know, since Caitlin was supposed to have done it weeks ago.
Maze had no idea what she thought she was doing, but she knew one thing for sure: She wanted this. She wanted Walker. They walked back to the house to get the keys to his rental car, trying to be stealth. But Roly and Poly sounded the alarm, barking so hard their back legs came off the ground, letting everyone within five hundred miles know that clearly there was an incoming zombie apocalypse and they were all going to die.
“Shh,” Maze whispered, trying to shut them up to no avail.
Finally Walker tucked a dog beneath each arm, lowering his head to talk to them in a quiet, low tone. The tactic worked. The dogs had to shut the hell up to listen to him, and listen they did, vibrating with intensity as they stared fondly and lovingly up into his face.
Then he gave them each a kiss on their smashed-in foreheads and set them in their beds, where they turned in circles and plopped down to go back to sleep.
“What did you say to them?” Maze asked, marveling.
“Told them they were my wingmen, and as such, they’d be entitled to half my breakfast in the morning if they’d just shut the hell up. They understand the language of food.”
When they took off out of the driveway, Maze expected Walker to head west and maybe hit the highway to the beach. Instead, he turned east, which took them on a narrow road around the lake. Soon the road ended, and he turned onto a dirt fire road she didn’t even know existed. They went straight up a hill.
And up.
The road was narrow and twisty, but Walker was calm and relaxed, which in turn kept her calm and relaxed. Well, sort of. Because watching in the ambient light as he maneuvered the car, the muscles in his shoulders and arms working, his hands corded with easy strength on the wheel, was definitely revving her up.
“This week must seem pretty tame to you,” she said, “just hanging out and not doing much.”
“The break’s been good. Work’s been . . .”
“Crazy?”
“More like unfulfilling.”
She turned in her seat to look at him. “I thought you loved your job.”
“It’s been years since I told you that. Things change.”
“What things?”
“Things,” he said, shifting into a low gear as he took the next curve.
“So clearly, Cat didn’t give you the same ‘be open’ speech she gave me,” she said dryly.
He glanced over at her. “Cat said you need to be more open to me?”
“No.” She laughed. “But good thing your ego is in check. She said to be more open in general.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything, and she had to laugh again.
“That’s it?” she asked. “Seriously?”
“What?”
“You do realize that you’re no more open than I am, right? I mean, you know everything about me: how I grew up, where, why . . . everything. And meanwhile, I know almost nothing about your past. And then there’s how you’ve kept tabs on me. I can’t do the same because you’re impossible to follow. You’ve got a low social media profile, and it’s not like I could just ask Caitlin or Heather. So . . . talk.”
He slid her an amused look. “Isn’t that usually my line?”
She shrugged. “I stole it.”
He kept driving, and she thought maybe he was going to ignore her, but then he spoke. Not about his early years, which was what she’d been hoping for, but about later.
“The military was good for me,” he said. “Gave me a sense of purpose and some badly needed discipline.”
She snorted her agreement, which won her a smile.
“Yeah, yeah, smart-ass,” he said. “I know you know. And after, when I went into the FBI, that was good for me in a different way. I thought I’d be helping people and fighting the occasional asshole, but . . .” He shook his head. “It’s more about red tape and political careers and winning, and I don’t think like that. The sense of purpose is gone for me. I need something else.”
“I can understand that,” she said quietly. “What else do you need?”
“I don’t know.”
The frustration in his voice was clear, and she realized he wasn’t nearly as relaxed as he led everyone to think. When she looked at him, really looked at him, she could see the lines of his body seemed tight and tense, and she frowned. Again, how had she let him fool her? “Are you happy here?”
“In Wildstone, with the others? Or here in this car, with you?”
Caught off guard, she stared at him.
“Yes.” He glanced at her, then turned back to the road. “To both.”
The answer should’ve scared her but actually had the opposite effect. Something deep inside her loosened, allowing her to sit back and more fully enjoy the ride now, because she wasn’t in this—whatever this was—alone.
Surrounded by the dark night and the utter lack of city lights, the interior of the car seemed to cocoon them, giving off a sense of intimacy she hadn’t felt in a long time. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of leather seats and sexy male. She listened to the sounds around her. Music drifting from the radio, low but with a beat that seemed to match the pulse of her heart. Wind rushing past the windows. Tires gripping the dirt road. The engine humming beneath her. Her own breathing. And Walker’s.
It was hypnotizing, leaving her body vibrating like Roly’s and Poly’s with a sense of anticipation she didn’t want to put a name to yet.
The night was lit by a half-moon and some clouds that caught the moon’s glow and amplified it. She could see the black outlines of trees against a sky littered with myriad stars. She could see the hills, mostly beneath them now. And then the black span of the lake far below. “It’s all so beautiful,” she said softly. “I always forget how much I love it here.”
“You haven’t been back.”
“No.” She heard the wistfulness in her voice, so she knew he heard it too, especially when he took another look at her.
“It’s been a good week,” he said. “Maybe things will change. Maybe you’ll come back more now.”
“Maybe.” Definitely. “You?” she asked, holding her breath.
He nodded. “You and I haven’t been okay since Vegas. But the things that happened there”—he glanced over at her—“I’m still feeling.”
Her body quivered. “You mean the ‘animal magnetism thing’?”
“You sure that’s all it is?”
“Yes.” No . . .
He laughed softly and made a turn where she couldn’t even see a road. He turned again, and then once more, the soft vibration of the engine continuing to spread warmth through her. She let her gaze drift over his body and up to his face and realized he was watching her as well.
A few minutes later, he steered off the road and into what looked like a clearing of wild grass with a few oak trees around them, creating a little haven. He glanced over with so much heat in his eyes it stole her breath. Then he exited the vehicle, quietly shutting the door behind him. Walking to the front of the car, he rested his perfect ass on the hood.
Taking a deep breath, she got out as well and joined him. They were at the top of a bluff, the night sprawled out in front of them. They leaned against the car in silence, taking in the light wind and singing crickets, the hoot of an owl . . . and for Maze, the delicious scent of Walker’s soap or aftershave, along with the undeniable strength and heat coming from him.
She wanted him. She wanted him bad.
“This wasn’t exactly my plan when I asked you to come with me,” he said quietly. “I really just wanted to give you a moment away from the house and thought a drive would do it.”
“Thanks.” She sent him a small smile. “I’m starting to think there’s some sort of a chemical disorder between us.”
His mouth twitched. “You make it sound like a bad thing.”
She wanted that mouth on her so much that she was shaking. “I blame the vibrations from every time you revved the engine, not to mention all the bumps on the fire road. I nearly had an orgasm on the drive up here.”
She’d meant to make him laugh, to lighten the heavy mood, but he turned toward her, eyes intense—oh so intense—and dark with desire. “The drive turned you on?”
No more than the low, rough timbre of his voice. “Maybe it was also a little bit the man driving.” She shrugged.
He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face to his. “Again, I want to say that this wasn’t my plan for tonight.”
She wrapped her hands around his wrists. “Then thankfully you’re a man who knows when to deviate from your plan.”
At that, he finally smiled, his playful, sexy smile. And it was a doozy. “Yeah. I’m a real flexible guy.”
He lowered his head slowly, clearly giving her time to change her mind—which was not going to happen. Unlike him, she worked from the heart, on impulse. Yeah, it’d gotten her burned before, but she still couldn’t help herself. Not when it came to this man. “Walk?”
“Yeah?”
She stared at his mouth, still an inch from hers. “It’d be great if you could deviate faster.”
“Sorry, I’ve been waiting a long time for another shot at you.” Lifting her onto the still-warm hood, he leaned over her. “You’re not going to rush me.”
“I’m not?”
“No.”
And then he finally kissed her, slow and deep. When their tongues touched, she moaned. At the sound, he pulled her even closer and looked into her eyes before dropping his gaze to take in the rest of her. She’d wrapped herself around him like he was a tree and she was a monkey getting ready to go for a climb.
“Maze.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m going to kiss you again. Tell me that’s okay.”
She nodded eagerly. If it was any more okay, she’d already be naked.
“The words, Maze.”
“It’s okay. Please kiss me, Walk. Now.”
He obliged with a sexy thoroughness that stole her breath. She heard herself whimper and slid her hands under his shirt to rest on his chest, where she could feel the steady beat of his heart. As they kissed, that heartbeat kicked into gear. She affected him, and the knowledge gave her a surge of power.
She had no idea how long they made out, she lost all track of time and place. She was adrift in the sensations, his lips on hers, his hands on her body, teasing her, bringing her to life, the sound of the wind and the night around them, the feel of the car beneath her. When they came up for air, his mouth moved down her neck, sending shock waves straight to her good parts, and there were most definitely more good parts than she remembered. Her fingers shook when she unbuttoned his shirt and shoved it off his shoulders. She was going for the zipper on his pants when he caught her hands.
“Don’t even think about stopping now,” she warned him.
He searched her gaze, his own dark and heated and sexy as hell. “Here then?”
“Here.” She ran her hands up his chest, cupped his head, and pulled him back in for another kiss.
With a rough groan, he tightened his fingers in her hair. “Do you remember what I said I was going to do if we got here again?”
“That you’d stop talking?”
He gave a low laugh. “That I wasn’t going to stop until you were panting my name.”
“I’m not much for making a lot of noise.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but he unzipped the back of her dress and pulled the top down past her shoulders. He kissed the curve of her throat, her collarbone, moving southbound to the swell of her breast above her barely there bra. Then that was nudged down too, baring her to him and his mouth, which he used liberally.
She already knew that Walker loved to touch, loved to kiss and taste . . . everything. He was a tactile guy, and he could say more things with his body than his mouth ever could. He lifted her higher onto the hood. Then, standing between her legs, he ran his hands up her thighs, bringing the hem of her dress along with him, until the material pooled on his forearms, his hands vanishing beneath. His fingers played with the edge of her panties, teasing her through the lace until she gasped out his name in both entreaty and demand, which made him laugh low in his throat.
“It’s a good thing you’re sexy as hell,” she muttered, her mouth busy on his throat. “Now stop teasing me and—” She broke off when he slid the lace aside and out of his way.
“And?” he murmured, not stopping anything he was doing. In fact, he lifted a knee onto the hood between her legs, adding a delicious pressure.
“And do me,” she demanded breathlessly.
He laughed huskily, and she might have killed him there and then, but their eyes met, and the need and desire she felt for him, everything was matched in his eyes.
“Be sure, Maze.”
“This is the one thing I am sure of.”
At that, he gave her the sweetest, most loving kiss. Then he took that mouth on a tour south, stopping when he got to the small tattoo of Harry Potter’s glasses and lightning bolt on her hip, along with the tiny script that said, HAPPINESS CAN BE FOUND EVEN IN THE DARKEST OF TIMES, IF ONE ONLY REMEMBERS TO TURN ON THE LIGHT.
He smiled and then licked it.
“Oh my God,” she moaned.
“I was hoping for ‘Yes, oh yes, please, more, ruler of my universe.”
She’d never laughed during sex before, but then he switched things up on her, adding his fingers into the mix, keeping her on the very edge until she tightened her fingers in his hair, holding him where she wanted him the most.
He laughed softly against her, but she didn’t have the bandwidth for anything other than what he was doing to her. Well, she did finally manage to get his pants open and her hands inside, which was a whole lot like opening a birthday gift that you already knew you were getting but wanted more than anything. “I’m going to cry if you don’t have a condom.”
“No crying necessary,” he said. “But if you want to scream out my name . . . I’m up for that.”
“You’re up for anything,” she said, the evidence in her hands.
He laughed and did something diabolical with his fingers and then she was flying, still gasping for breath as he protected them both and entered her.
They froze in shocked wonder at the incredible sensations.
Gathering her wits the best she could, she wrapped herself around him as the sensations took them both.
After, she had no idea how much time had passed before Walker lifted his head and looked at her with both tenderness and good humor. “I’m never going to go off-roading again without thinking about this.” He helped her right her clothing before reaching for his. And then they stood there on the cliff, beneath the moon, staring at each other.
Reaching out, Walker took one of her hands in his, using the other to push her damp hair from her forehead. “That was even better than all the fantasies I had about you.”
Yeah. Her too. But the anxiety he’d beat back with his magic body was slowly returning and she shook her head. “What are we doing?”
He held her gaze for a moment. “Whatever you want to be doing.”
“I don’t want to go back to the past.” The thought of losing him again, now, as adults, had panic swirling inside her. “I can’t—”
“I know.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “It’s okay, Maze. If you want this to be nothing, it’s nothing. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’ve got all the control here.”
She huffed out a sigh. “Well, that’s just great.”
He looked amused. “You can’t control yourself around me?”
She groaned.
“You can’t.” He was out-and-out grinning now. “Cute.”
“Look, not all of us can be Mr. Control,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Don’t mistake my restraint for lack of emotion, Maze. I do what I think is right, not what’s easy.” He held the car door open for her as she got in. Then, instead of closing the door, he crouched down on the balls of his feet so they were eye to eye. “To be clear,” he said, “I didn’t see tonight coming, but I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t have any regrets. Not then, not now. I’m sorry if you do.”
She held his gaze. “You’ve never been a regret to me, Walk.”
He didn’t move, didn’t so much as blink, for a long few seconds. “Good to know. But . . . ? Because I sense there’s a big but.”
“But what we did tonight?” She shook her head. “It stops here. It has to.” She felt herself getting emotional and felt silly for it, but she couldn’t contain her feelings, they were spilling out all over the place. “I can’t handle more, not with you. It nearly destroyed me the first time.” She gulped in some air. “Please don’t ask me to go back to that place.”
His eyes were dark and intense as he gently squeezed her hand. “I’ve never asked you for a single thing, Maze. I’m not going to start now.”
They rode back in silence.