Walker had just popped the cap off a beer in the kitchen when he heard the gravel crunch as the Escalade pulled up. He breathed a sigh of relief that Ashleigh was back; he’d been worried about her all day.

He wanted to respect her wishes to do the dress shopping thing by herself, but more than once he’d considered borrowing Colt’s truck and following her anyway.

He’d spent the day half out of his mind. On the one hand, he knew the kind of demons she was facing going back there and was desperate to protect her from them, while on the other hand he was imagining her trying on wedding dresses and spending most of the day half naked.

And so worry warred with horny until it felt like his head was going to split in two if she wasn’t home soon.

He grinned as he headed to the door to greet her, kiss her senseless and beg her never to go there without him again.

As soon as he laid eyes on her, he felt like he’d been sucker punched in the gut.

What the fuck happened?

She was visibly shaken, and her eyes were red-rimmed and weary.

He pulled her into his arms without hesitation.

“It’s okay baby, you’re home now. You’re okay,” he said against her ear, repeating the words over and over again until he felt her relax against him.

“What happened? Did someone hurt you?” he asked as he took her hand and sat her down at the kitchen table, handing her the beer he’d just opened.

She accepted it and rolled the icy bottle over her forehead before taking a long pull from it, composing herself.

“Some girls from the club took pictures of me having lunch with Remy and Rose,” her voice shook as she started recounting the tale of the last few hours.

“They must have sent them to Dimitri because Eli, he’s also a bouncer at the club, was waiting for me when I left the restaurant. He threatened me, told to come with him or he would… There are still some things about my past you don’t know, Walker. Horrible things…” She trailed off, biting back a fresh wave of tears.

He stared into the distance, contemplating her words. He gave a curt nod as he turned to face her once more.

“Everyone has stuff in the past that makes them sad, Ash. Things that they wish they could change, take back.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her gently, grateful that whatever had happened, she was back home, that she was safe and not hurt -- physically, anyway. Anything else he could deal with. He'd fix things with assurances, with his kisses, with his promises that things would be better in her future than they had been in her past.

“Do you want to leave, Ashleigh? Do you want to go far away from here? I can do what I do from pretty much anywhere, even a beach in Thailand or Bali,” he offered, repeating the words he had said to his brothers years ago, just after they’d all returned and when they had been debating whether to stay or leave again.

“You don’t understand, Walker. This… It won’t leave me alone,” she stammered and trailed off once more.

“I promise you, Ashleigh, that I do understand. Better than most would,” he insisted, but she still looked hesitant to believe him, so he tried to explain.

It felt like he was ripping his own chest open by unlocking these memories, but she needed him to.

Someone had already ripped hers open today and if that’s what it took for her to trust him, to believe him, he was just going to have to suck it up and be as brave as she was being, as she had been already.

“When I was in the SEALs, I did some things, some really bad things. I killed people, Ash. I killed some men, I took their lives. I wish it hadn't happened, but it did. I still see their faces in my dreams, I still hear the screaming and the gunshots and the explosions. I still smell the blood and the acrid smoke and the sulfur and despair. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. I just have to live with it, so there it is. I do understand, Ashleigh. I really do.”

She started to cry quietly when his voice hitched with the pain of the memories. It surprised him when she embraced him as he let out a staggered breath when his confession was over.

He’d never shared this part of his past with anyone, and not even his brothers knew, but it seemed that this was becoming a pattern of late.

His deepest, darkest secrets were being revealed on a far more regular basis than he was comfortable with.

Never, that’s what he was comfortable with actually, but recently it kept feeling like these things needed to be said and he was stripping his soul bare in the process.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that, Walker. I’m so sorry!” she sobbed in his arms, shoulders wracking as she channeled his pain.

He held her for a long time, both of them trapped in their own memories.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, really. Just know that I accept you just as you are, with whatever happened in your past. With everything that happened in your past, everything that turned you into the woman you are today. I'm sorry for whatever you had to go through though, and I’m sorry you had to relive it today.”

His eyes were tender when they met hers, his arms still wrapped around her waist. He lowered his head and brushed a soft kiss over her lips. Her hands wrapped around his neck, pulling down at his nape, pulling his lips back to hers.

He tasted tears on her lips, and a sudden determination to make her happy again overwhelmed him.

He kept their kiss gentle at first, drawing her closer to him until her breasts were pressed to his chest.

Slowly, he started applying more pressure, alternating between soft, short strokes of his tongue and deeper, longer ones. He slipped his tongue over her teeth and tunneled his hands into her hair, holding her mouth to his.

He rubbed his tongue over hers, encouraging her, trying to swipe all of her painful memories away with his mouth. She moaned as she surrendered herself to his kiss, kissing him back just as hungrily as he was kissing her.

His hands started roaming her body, settling on her ass. He lifted her and her legs wrapped around him as if acting of their own accord.

He walked them over to the wall without breaking their kiss and pushed her up against it. She pulled his body closer to hers with her legs, and he groaned as she ground against him. She reached for the edges of his shirt and he lifted his arms helpfully, keeping her in place with his hips.

He sighed as she ran her hands up his bare biceps and crushed her mouth to his again. He rocked his hips against her and swallowed the resulting moans. He slipped one of his hands under her breezy sundress and gripped her thigh, moving up until he skimmed the edges of her soaked panties.

He slid his fingers underneath the lacy fabric and found her hot and dripping wet. She felt his thighs quiver as he felt her and deftly slid a finger into her core.

“Walker, please,” she begged, her voice a hoarse whisper against his mouth.

His lust-filled gaze fixed on her, but he was conflicted between wanting to make her feel good and not wanting to take advantage of her vulnerability.

She must have sensed his hesitation, because she drew one of his earlobes between his teeth and bit down softly before licking up the shell of his ear and moaning softly between rapid breaths.

He growled as she bit down his earlobe again, making what she needed clear with her actions. Without further thought he carried her down the hallway to the bedroom as she continued her ministrations, making his cock pulse in his pants and quite sure he was going to explode before they made it to their bed.

He lay her down once they finally did and carefully removed her shoes, her clothes and finally her underwear.

Once she was bare to him, he took a moment to drink her in and then kissed up her legs, sucking lightly as he did. He paused when he reached the apex of her thighs, gripping her hips with his hands before descending on her clit. He licked and sucked and stroked without preamble and within no time, she erupted on his tongue.

He finally divested himself of his own shoes and pants and his cock sprung up proudly from his boxer briefs, as hard as steel and its head coated with his own desire.

She gasped as she saw it and immediately leaned forward to take it into her mouth. She cupped his already tingling balls and licked up his shaft, all the while staring into his eyes. The sight nearly made him come undone right then and there, so he squeezed his eyes shut and groaned as she wrapped his tongue around his head and gave it a few light swipes before drawing him all the way into her mouth.

Her hands and her mouth moved as one and had him tumbling over the edge before he had time to think about stopping her, as worked up as he was from her moans and biting at his earlobes and shattering on his tongue.

Other men his age might not have the stamina they once had, but Ashleigh brought out the teenager in him and by the time he’d kissed her senseless once more and was positioned between her legs, he was as hard as ever and rearing for round two.

He slowly pushed into her, both of them moaning as he retreated and then pushed deeper with every stroke.

For the next few hours, they were completely immersed in one another, building and climbing to each new peak, their lovemaking slow and passionate. He worshiped her body as she worshiped his and they didn’t let up until they were both well and truly spent, falling asleep in each other’s arms coated with a sheen of sweat and slick with their juices.