Dawn had defeated her. There was no mystery to solve. No reason behind anything. The woman was just bored and eaten up with jealousy. Over her husband or Charlie’s adventures or something else that no one knew about. There was no evidence to acquire. Nothing she was missing. Dawn just needed therapy.
Charlie probably did, too. She’d assumed the worst about her brother because he was a gruff talker and...sometimes an asshole, truth be told. But he’d helped her out and hadn’t even taken the credit. She’d have to find a way to repay him.
Damn it. She hated being wrong. Especially with Brad.
She tossed her shirt on the couch and unfastened her jeans as she headed straight for the bathroom to fill the tub with hot water. She was tying up her hair and sinking into the steaming water before the tub was even half-full. “Oh, God, yes,” she moaned as she slid deeper. This tub wasn’t nearly as nice as the jetted number she’d left behind at the resort, but the water felt so good on her tired legs that she nearly wept.
Maybe she was getting too old for wearing heels for five hours. Maybe she was getting too old for all of it.
Was it possible that Dawn was right? Had Charlie taken her life in the wrong direction?
She could’ve married some rich man and been living in the kind of luxury she now protected. Granted, she hadn’t envisioned the society-wife life for herself. When she was young, she’d planned to go to college, have a good career and then meet a nice man and settle down in the country.
Then she’d gone to college in Colorado and fallen in with a fast crowd.
She burst into laughter at her own ridiculous thought as she switched off the faucet and sank farther into the tub.
A fast crowd. Right. What she’d fallen in with was the tiny group of women isolated within the Systems Security program at school. Charlie had learned that she could be successful and smart and still have fun. She didn’t have to choose between being perfect or being her mother. There was a middle ground, and she’d found it. She and her girlfriends had gotten the same grades as the boys, and they’d had fun while they did it.
The bath cheered her up, and she was almost ready to fall peacefully into bed when she heard a noise from the other side of the wall.
Walker was home. She closed her eyes and listened to the creak of floorboards as he moved about. A door opened very close by. She jumped when the sound of his shower suddenly rumbled through the wall.
She couldn’t help smiling then, picturing him as he stepped into the tub and the sound of the water changed. God, he was a gorgeous man. All muscle and dark hair and smiles. Maybe she did have the energy, after all. Maybe she could go knock on his door as soon as the shower stopped. Better yet, just walk in. He never seemed to lock his apartment. She could walk in and drop her towel and tell him she was ready for him.
But then she heard it. A low grunt that rumbled through the apartment wall. Then a soft gasp that she only heard because she was holding her breath.
Was he having sex? Was he with that woman?
But no. She’d only heard one set of footsteps and definitely no heels. He was alone. He was getting himself off. He was thinking about Charlie.
Despite her earlier jealousy, she was almost sure of that. The way he’d held her tonight. The things he’d whispered. She tipped her head and let it rest on the cool tile of the wall so every sound would have to go right through her.
He grunted again and murmured something. Something low and urgent. It could have been her name. It could’ve been anyone’s name, but she didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care whose name he said or who he thought of. Because she could picture him then, wet and hard, his fist wrapped around that gorgeous, thick cock. Stroking it.
Charlie slipped a hand between her legs. She was already wet, slippery despite the water. She bit her lip to keep from crying out at the pleasure, but that didn’t stop the feeling. It didn’t stop her thighs from clenching or her hips from jumping. Her other hand toyed with her hard nipple, pinching and teasing it as she stroked herself.
She wished she could watch him. God, she’d love to see him as he jerked off, one hand braced against the shower wall as water sluiced down his back.
“Walker,” she whispered as he grunted again. God, she wanted him inside her. Wanted to barge in and stop him from getting himself off so she could have it all. His cock, his come, his gasps of pleasure. She wanted him making that sound because he was pushing into her body, because she was squeezing around him. She wanted him whispering her name as he tried to hold back.
She squeezed her nipple harder, her teeth sinking into her lip as she tried to hold back a cry. He thought she was trying to slow him down, but she wanted everything with him. Every taste, every sound, every feeling.
Charlie rubbed herself faster, pushing her hips up as she clenched her teeth. She imagined him watching as she touched herself, urging her on, pumping his cock as he—
She heard another faint sound from his side of the wall, then a curse and a strangled moan. He was coming. Right there. Oh, God. “Yes,” she whispered as her own orgasm built inside her. “Yes.”
And then she came. Biting her lip, her eyes clenched shut as she tried not to scream. She came as she pictured him, naked and wet just a few feet away, come still dripping off his fist.
Yes. One more day. She could wait. But just barely.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WALKER STOOD IN the parking lot of the roadside restaurant, watching his breath cloud his vision every time he exhaled. A cold front had moved in overnight, which was good news for him. It meant he’d have steady hard work soon, as ranchers hired extra hands to drive cattle down from high grazing land. But there w
as no work today. No excuse not to meet his brother for breakfast.
Not that he didn’t want to see his brother. Micah only came through town a few times a year, making the circuit of hospitals in the Mountain West, reviewing critical-care systems or so he’d explained several times to Walker.