Page 32 of Joy Ride

Joy dropped the towel and stared directly into his eyes as she unbuttoned her jeans and peeled them down her legs.Her underwear followed next.And if the rumors she’d heard about him in the Wildfire clubhouse were true, she taunted him most of all by turning around, daring him to avoid looking at her bare ass while she swept her hair off her shoulders.

“If you insist on staying, at least make yourself helpful and unhook my bra.”She stared at him so she saw the instant his gaze dropped.

“Walker?”She snapped him out of his ogling.“That’s not my bra.”

“Sorry,” he rasped, though he clearly wasn’t.

The very tips of his fingers brushed her flanks on both sides as he lifted his hands.Despite her tremor when she shivered, he undid the garment and slid the straps down her shoulders in a single fluid motion that spoke to how practiced he was at doing it.

Joy tried not to be jealous, but she couldn’t quite manage that much grace.

She let the nursing bra fall near her toes, wishing she’d had on something sexy and lacy instead.But fuck it, this was who she was and if he didn’t like it, he could go like she expected him to any second.

Except he didn’t.

When she turned to step into the tub, she caught sight of Walker licking his lips in her peripheral vision.Then he was there, putting his arm around her to lower her into the warm water.The strong, steady band of his muscles hugging her did nothing to douse the sparks threatening to ignite between them.

Walker knelt at the side of the tub.He put his hand under her chin and applied gentle pressure until she faced him.“Don’t tempt me, Joy.It’s hard enough to be around you all the time and keep my hands to myself, but if you’re going to challenge how I feel about you and expect me to have enough self-control to do the right thing, I think we’re both going to be disappointed in me again.”

Joy swallowed hard.Things were pretty decent in general.The temporary hands-off truce they’d somehow all fallen into—her, Walker, and Dane—was working.They were living together and making it work.She would be a fool to jeopardize that.

Fine, she was a horny fool.A lonely one, too.

“Making love with you could never be a letdown,” Joy said quietly.“I can still feel your touch burned onto my skin like a brand.I miss it.I miss you.Shouldn’t I be the one who gets to decide what’s right for me, not you?Or Dane for that matter?And certainly not Clive.”

That did it.Comparing him to that monster seemed laughable to her but obviously hit home for Walker.He would never take her choices away—at least not when it came to physical intimacy—the way Clive had.But what about the rest?

Would he let her have her way?

“Fuck.Joy.”He groaned, then reached for her.He took her into his arms, instantly making everything else fade away.They pressed together at their shoulders, the wall of the tub between their lower bodies.Water splashed onto the floor and across his shirt, making it stick to his pecs so that he looked like a superhero action figure.

Joy crushed herself to him, afraid of leaving even a millimeter of space between them for him to change his mind.She slid her fingers through the sides of his beard, loving the way the coarse hair abraded her skin.

She would have fisted it to hold him still as she advanced, but she didn’t need to.

Walker came to her.

He took the lead, turning aggressive and possessive all at once.Where kissing Dane had been wild yet playful, making out with Walker was serious business.He parted her lips and licked her, letting her know he was there and not planning to leave anytime soon.

Hopefully.

Joy hated the whimper that escaped her throat as he plundered her breath like a pirate who stole kisses.Her hands ran down his neck and onto his shoulders, where her fingers kneaded the pads of muscle that bulged as he held her even tighter.

Her nails dug in and he cursed before kissing her with so much passion that she realized precisely how wrong she’d been.

Walker needed her like she needed him.Fuck him for hiding it for so long.

The fact that he’d been willing to sacrifice his chance to do this with her every day for the rest of their lives meant he truly loved her, and Dane.He’d been prepared to forsake the most incredible rush she’d ever experienced to make them happy.

Okay, now she might be in danger of falling in love with the thickskulled, sexy, alpha man.

And that was much more dangerous than the potential for drowning.

Joy pushed away from him, struggling to catch her breath.He stared at her, the tendons in his neck standing out as he gulped in air of his own.

Walker balled his fists, staring at the water swirling around her calves as she sat—her feet flat on the bottom of the tub, her knees bent.Silence stretched between them.Then he retrieved a clean washcloth from the cabinet beneath the sink and proceeded to lather it with soap.

He started at her toes, plucking one foot from the bath and massaging her muscles while cleaning her skin.The water rose and rose along with her desire as he worked his way up her legs.He paused before dipping between her thighs and cleaning her pussy.

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