Page 98 of The Ones We Fight For

Walker nodded and sucked in a breath as he pushed through the door. The second he was inside, Amala locked him in. His nerves were screaming with anxiety, but it was time for Talia to have the truth. His feet somehow started moving, carrying him to his fate across the store.

When he finally made it back to her office, his skin flushed at the sight of her. She was filing some papers away into a cabinet in the back. Judging by the quiet sound coming from her headphones, she was listening to her grunge playlist. Talia’s voice belted out lyrics as her body swayed, back turned to him. She was a horrendous vocalist, so he couldn’t tell what song it was, but, God, she was so beautiful.

“Hey, Ponytail,” Walker called out, setting one hand on her shoulder. Talia jumped and flung herself around to face him, fists raised and ready to start throwing punches. He stepped back and held up his hands in a gesture of peace. Talia shoved her headphones down to her shoulders when she realized who he was.

“You scared the shit out of me, Walker! I thought you were a serial killer or something!” As usual, her attitude came out with a fling of her fist, hitting him in the shoulder.

“If you’re expecting a serial killer, you should probably not listen to your music so loud you literally can’t hear your surroundings.” Walker poked her headphones with a lopsided smile that fell serious. “I’ve been pounding on the door for the last five minutes, Talia. Do you know how unsafe that is?”

“How’d you get in?” Talia crossed her arms, blatantly ignoring his occupational safety suggestions.

“Amala.”

“And… are you just here to tell me to turn down my music, or—”

“I figured it out,” Walker started hastily. When Talia just stared back at him, he forged ahead, starting to pace the length of her office. “You told me to let you know when I figured it out, and I did.”

“Okay?” Talia warily set her headphones down on her desk. “What did you figure out?”

“I haven’t asked you what you want because I’m scared.” Walker searched Talia’s face for any sign that she might reciprocate his feelings, but her features were frozen.

“Are you going to ask now?” She took a step toward him, and he froze.

“First, I need to tell you exactly how I feel.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Walker cleared his throat and shifted his stance, playing with his hands to divert some of his pent-up anxiety. “I can’t go an hour, let alone two minutes without thinking about you. You’ve completely ruined me for anyone else. I love you, and not just as a friend, Tal. I’m in love with you.” He watched her face soften before he continued, growing more confident, “I want you so badly, and not just underneath me, but with me. I love that you chew those coffee stir sticks. I love that your organization skills are borderline sociopathic. I love your fucking ponytails. I even love that you were blasting your music so loud it was downright dangerous and that you made it damn near impossible for me to come in here and tell you that I love you.

“I can breathe around you, Talia. I can just fucking breathe.” Walker let out a small puff of air, shaking his head. “The pain of everything doesn’t go away completely, but it dulls a little bit when I look at you. I don’t feel so damn alone when I’m with you. It’s like I don’t have to try so hard just to survive anymore because you’re breathing for me when I can’t do it. I’m not hopeless when I’m with you. I’m not worthless when I’m with you, because sometimes I think I breathe for you too when you can’t do it yourself. Sometimes I think that… maybe you love me, too.”

“Walker,” Talia said, her voice low and breathy. Her dark, honey-colored eyes shined back at him. “Ask me what I want.”

“Ponytail,” Walker gulped. “What do you want? And please tell me that it’s me, or I guess let me down easy if you don’t want me, but I need to know because—”

“Walker.” Stopping him mid-ramble, Talia closed the distance between them, cupping his face with one hand and looking deep into his eyes. “It’s you. You breathe for me, too.”

“Thank God,” Walker sighed in relief and dipped his head down, crushing his mouth to hers.

Their lips moved against each other with a fire that was even more consuming than the last time. Walker placed one hand on the small of Talia’s back to press her further into him, his desperation fully unleashed. He groaned against her mouth and pushed her backwards until his hand hit the filing cabinet, guiding her back to safely lay against it. The desire spread through his body like the wildfire on his forearm, the good kind of wildfire that burnt away the unnecessary foliage that suffocated a forest. He could feel it in her body too in the heat of her torso pressed to his. She was wound so tight that every swipe of his tongue made her let out a soft moan.

Walker smiled against Talia’s mouth when she rolled her chest into him and granted him access to cup one of her breasts, grabbing his hand and guiding it there while he dragged his lips over her neck, kissing down to her collarbone.

“I,” Talia panted, thrusting her hips against his. “I love you, too, in case that wasn’t obvious.” Walker paused for a moment, reaching up to cradle the back of her head to kiss her again with one slow smack of his lips before letting go and giving her a playful grin.

“Show me?” he challenged, spreading her legs with his knee and shoving his thigh up between them. Talia gasped, her eyes snapping shut, head falling into the cold metal of the filing cabinet.

“I need you,” she whispered, rocking herself against his leg. “Walker, please. All this talk about breathing and you’re making it so I can’t breathe.”

“That was the plan. I was hoping to take your breath away.” He grimaced and let out a laugh. “That was corny as fuck.”

“I liked it,” Talia giggled. “But I’d like it more if you followed through.” She bore down hard onto his thigh and bit her lower lip to hold back a groan. Walker leaned forward, swiping his tongue over her mouth and the flash of teeth embedded in her lower lip.

“You know what you’re doing every time you do that, don't you? When you bite your lip. You know I want to bite it for you.” He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, and Talia chuckled.

“Yes.” Her response got him to push his knee harder into her, eliciting another choked sob from low in her throat. He was so hard for her under his jeans that it was starting to hurt, pushing against the fabric near his groin and begging to come out.

“That's a bit manipulative, Ponytail,” Walker teased. “You'll have to be punished for torturing me. Did you also know that every time you do your hair like this, I want to pull it?” Reaching a hand up, he encircled his palm around Talia’s ponytail, wrapping it and tugging backward with a firm yet gentle grasp. Her head tipped obediently, and his mouth landed on her neck, sucking hard to mark her as his. When he was done, he pulled her head back further still using her hair so she could see how serious he was when he made his next statement. “I gave you that nickname because I want to fuck you. I imagine you on your hands and knees, screaming when I pull your hair. Every. Single. Time you wear your hair like this. Would you like that?”

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