ANXIOUSLY, I POUNDED ON the hotel door. I paced two steps one direction and then two steps in the opposite, before I rapped my knuckles on the wood again.
“All right…all right…cool your fucking jets, man, I’m coming,” echoed from the other side.
Metal scraped before the door opened enough for my baby brother’s face to come into view, brown hair a mess, baggy boxers sagging on his narrow hips the only thing covering up his tall, lanky body. “Where’s the damned fire?”
Upstairs, still asleep in my suite.
I shouldered into his room. “What, I can’t just stop by my baby brother’s room to say hi?”
“At seven thirty in the morning? Uh…no.” Slanting a hand through his bedhead, he narrowed suspicious eyes on me. “What’s up?”
“Who said anything was up?”
He barked out a knowing laugh. “I don’t know…you come in here at the ass-crack of dawn, day after your birthday, mind you, cheesy-ass grin on your face and a bounce to your step. Looks like something’s up to me.”
He was right. Couldn’t wipe the fucking grin from my face even if I wanted to.
Which I didn’t.
Never felt so good in all my life.
“Yeah…you’re right. Something’s up, and I wanted you to be the first to know.”
Ten minutes later, I was letting Austin’s door slam shut behind me, and hauling ass back to our suite.
With all of me, I needed to get back to my girl.
Sliding the keycard through the slot, I unlatched the door and slipped inside. A stilled quiet echoed back as the sun climbed past the horizon. Rays of morning slanted across the city. Right now, it was probably the most mellow it could possibly be.
Crazy, considering I was the most wound up I’d ever been. Last night I couldn’t catch even a wink, hadn’t even skated in the direction of sleep as I let everything that’d transpired over the night catch up to me.
Fuck, was I floating on air. Riding on the commitment and music we’d made, something so fucking brilliant and intense and real that I’d felt it sinking in, becoming one with my bones. Same way as I felt that girl sinking deeper into my spirit last night, holding me hostage with her voice and freeing me with her words.
Sure. People were going to say we were rushing things. Say both of us were nothing but irresponsible fools diving heart first into this unending ecstasy that could only shift. Trouble just waiting to swallow us whole.
I didn’t give two fucks about that.
Wasn’t like I’d ever been known to play by the rules, anyway.
And when it came to Shea, I was ready to break them all. Bust up all the presuppositions and projections, those stating we were setting ourselves up to fail before we ever got the chance to fly.
She was the answer for my soul.
I headed straight for the stairs, footsteps light, not wanting to wake her. Unlike me, Shea’d been snuggled in my arms, long lost to sleep when I’d finally untangled myself when I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling I needed to talk to my brother.
At the top of the stairs, I paused when I looked at the bed on which we’d done all that consummating.
Empty.
Blankets shoved to the floor.
Water ran from a faucet in the bathroom, and my heart skipped an anxious beat.
Shea.
In four steps, I cleared the bedroom floor and nudged open the bathroom door.
My chest tightened, need and love and devotion washing me through.
She stood in front of the dressing table mirror with her back to me.
One glimpse and every inch of me grew hard.
My wife.
Still couldn’t believe it.
That same silky white sheet was tucked under her arms. It dipped down low enough on her back to reveal that delectable expanse of creamy skin, draping the rest of the way down to pool like liquid ivory on the floor. Waves of blonde spilled and spilled, those locks falling free over her delicate bare shoulders and framing her face, just begging for my hands to get wrapped up in it.
Fucking gorgeous.
Shake the earth kind of gorgeous.
Outshine the stars kind of gorgeous.
Yeah, that kind of gorgeous.
And. She. Was. Mine.
Caramel eyes flew up to meet my gaze when she caught my reflection in the mirror. Slowly I advanced. Her storm gathered strength. All that dark and light and life crashed over me. Like this girl was surrounded by electricity, a current sparking in the air.
Second I’d seen her, there was no doubt in my mind she held the power to turn my world upside down.
Should have known better.
She’d shattered it.
Redefined who I was and who I wanted to be.
Stripped me of all control and left me bare.
Found a way to seep through those cracks inside my scarred heart and somehow made it whole.
“There you are.” Her voice was rough with sated satisfaction, still groggy from sleep.
My footsteps echoed across the floor as I edged up behind her. My hands went to her flat belly then roamed over the soft curve of her hips, traipsing right back again, the silky fabric the only barrier as I tugged all her soft against my hard.
“Did you miss me?” I mumbled at her ear.
Tongue darting out to wet that lush bottom lip, she released a tiny moan into the thick tension holding us captive in this room, that invisible tether that tied us together once again drawing taut.
“Always. I woke up to an empty bed and thought maybe you’d gotten cold feet.”
One side of her mouth curled with the tease, and a low chuckle rolled from me as I nuzzled along the slope of her neck.
Running my nose from her ear to the cap of her shoulder, I whispered my truth. “Never.”
Longing searched for a way out, intense and visceral. Something instinctual. A harsh breath pushed from my lungs, and I took a step back and toed off my shoes. Intent becoming clear.
Shea’s stare was just as heavy as mine as we watched each other through the mirror, like she fed from my every move, little earthquakes vibrating through her as that energy collected like a palpable mass.
Suffocating.
Reaching up to my collar, I dragged my tee over my head and tossed it to the floor, took another step back as I ticked through the buttons of my jeans. Shea’s attention tracked the movement. My pulse volatile and wild.
I shrugged off my jeans and my underwear. Baring myself. My cock, eager as ever, sprang free of its confines, at the ready and beggin’ for more, more, more.
Wasn’t ever gonna get enough.
Desire swirled through her eyes as they traced across my skin like she would give anything to consume me. To sink inside and disappear.
But I didn’t think she had the first clue the way she possessed me.
That she was already there.
“Turn around,” I ordered, words scraping like a lash from my throat.
So slowly she spun to face me, anticipation thick, and I knew she was waiting for me to strike. To take and take and take.
But, no. Instead, I climbed down onto both knees and knelt at her feet.
Figured one just wouldn’t do.
Not for Shea.
Not for my wife.
I was going to give it all.
A halo of light shone around her, hair lit up like white fire, my girl wrapped loosely in that silky sheet.
Lust cut a path through my veins and knotted in my stomach.
Shea stared down at me like the temptress she was.
An angel.
A goddess.
Slipping my hands beneath the sheet, I ran them up the outside of her legs, chasing the tremors that rolled beneath the surface of her skin. Palpable and alive. Slipping from her and sinking into me.
I sucked in a breath and cupped her ass, pulling her forward in the same second I pressed my nose to her silk-covered sex.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled, relished in her heat and desire while my girl gasped, that sweet, seductive sound spurring me on.
Meeting her eyes, I slowly parted the sheet and revealed smooth, honeyed skin. I gave it a firm tug and pulled it free. Fabric floated to the floor.
And there she stood with me kneeling at her feet, my hands on the outside of her thighs.
A vision.
Dark.
Light.
Heavy.
Soft.
Fucking perfect.
My wife.
“So fucking beautiful, Shea. Every inch of you. Got the best everything. Now I’m gonna spend the rest of my life cherishing it. Adoring it. Adoring you.”
Protecting you and loving you and giving it all.
Would lie, steal, and defeat.
Kill.
Die.
Anything it took, just as long as this girl lived the life she deserved.
Wrapping my hands farther around to the backs of her thighs, I spread her, just enough to gain room to press my tongue to her clit.
Fuck. Would never grow tired of the way she tasted.
Ripples of pleasure shook through her, and I delved a little deeper, running my tongue through her slick flesh. Her hands fell back to grasp the counter, perfect round tits jutting forward as her head rocked back.
“Sebastian.”
My chest tightened with my name begging from her mouth, and I spread her more. Gave and took, fingers pushing into the well of her tight, hot body, mouth sucking and licking and feeding on that sweet spot that had her writhing, desire running wild.
“Please,” she whimpered, and I knew she was already close, gaining speed, a flutter of her walls and a quiver of her thighs.
“I know, baby, I know. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
Shea broke and her entire body convulsed when her orgasm came with a vengeance. Fingers ripped fistfuls of my hair, and God, if I didn’t love that, too. Loved it rough, loved it when Shea gave just as good as she got. Those pricks of pain sent chills skating down my spine.
Lust.
Flames licking my insides.
Dick so fucking stiff it was hard to breathe.
I rode it with her, continuing to lave her with soft sucks and deep pulls, as I drew out every last ounce of pleasure I could. Her fucking insane body trembled and shook around me, before my girl slumped back, breaths panting and searching for air she couldn’t seem to find.
I pushed to my feet and dug greedy fingers into her hips, quickly hoisting her onto the edge of the counter.
A throaty sound rumbled from her when I ran my hands up and down the backside of her thighs, her hands propped back on the counter to hold her weight.
Shea gave me a look that was pure and utter destruction. This girl so damned sexy laid out under the bathroom lights, all aglow, flushed with remnants of pleasure still rippling through her body. But her expression promised she was ready for so much more.
Trouble.
Trouble.
Trouble.
This girl was gonna be the end of me.
Grasping her by the knees, I spread her wide. My lips latched onto the sensitive skin at the inside of her thigh, the intense urge to mark her taking over as I let my itching fingers go trailing back through her perfect pink pussy.
Shea whimpered and writhed as I sucked at her flesh while my fingers staked their claim.
“So fucking wet,” I groaned, pressing my cheek to the spot where I’d just left my brand, and she jerked when I ran my stubble all the way up the inside of her thigh.
Damn it all if I wasn’t dying for another taste.
I ran my tongue from the cleft of her sweet little ass all the way to her clit.
“Oh God,” she whimpered. Trembling fingers rustled through my hair. “One look and I forget who I am. One touch and I’m gone. You are my everything.”
Urging me to straighten, she leaned forward enough to trace along my jaw, dragging slow down my neck to my chest, glancing softly over my scars.
Love.
Belief.
Beauty.
Trust.
Trailing a path down my body, her fingertips brushed over the green monkey immortalized on my side.
This girl was so damned in tune with who I was. Like she shared in this loss without needing insight to the details. Shea just got every bit of me.
My heart lurched when I thought of the brown monkey laying on the entry table downstairs, that baby girl just as sweet.
I deserved none of it.
And here I stood, covered in Shea’s light, cloaked in her darkness, surrounded in her scent of satisfaction, lost beneath the surface where she became the air. My air.
Drowning to Breathe.
“God, I love you…so much…so much,” I said, hand going to her cheek while the other continued to wind her right back up, because if I was going, then I was taking her along with me.
“I know.” She said it like she’d received a gift, her words again taking on that reverent tone, seeing through all my bullshit to what mattered underneath. “I love you…with all of me.”
She continued tracking down, fingertips gliding down my stomach that jerked beneath her touch.
She wrapped her hand around the base of my cock.
So damned soft.
I grunted through a groan.
Pure seduction kicked up at the corner of her mouth as she gave me one good stroke, thumb running around my throbbing head.
“Shit,” slid from between my clenched teeth, and I wrapped my hand around hers, let her pump me once more, before I took over and pressed the tip of my dick to her drenched center and nudged in an inch.
Sweat gathered at the nape of my neck and my entire body twitched with restraint.
“You ready for me?” I bit off. Everything about it came across like a threat, because every cell in my body screamed at me to take my wife. My guts were twisted with need and my thighs shook like a goddamned leaf.
Wanted to fuck just about as bad as I wanted to adore.
“Yes,” grated from her mouth.
I surged forward and Shea screamed out as her body adjusted to mine. Streaks of pleasure rippled from my body as I drove into her.
“Every time…every fucking time,” I muttered, trying to recover my composure considering I’d lost it the second I’d walked through the door. There wasn’t anything in the world that felt better than this. Better than her.
Shea.
She whimpered and dug her fingers into my shoulders, holding on when I began to move, every move frenzied with my body’s demand. Miles of long, toned legs were wrapped around my waist, and each greedy thrust jarred her back.
Wrapping an arm around her back, I held her by the base of the neck to keep her steady, my hips meeting hers as I continued at the savage pace.
Needed to consume.
To take it all.
With my free hand, I dipped two fingers into the warm, wet well of her mouth. Shea moaned, then sucked, cheeks hollowing out as her tongue pulsated around my fingers.
Fuck, she was a dream, this girl a fantasy. Like she’d been offered to me. Wrapped up with a big red bow. But tucked inside was more. Something fragile and soft, her love a guiltless trust that struck me deep. Just drove me a little madder, crazy for this girl who owned every part of me.
I pumped my fingers in and out of her mouth while strangled words tumbled from my own. “You have no idea how sexy you are. You are amazing.”
Withdrawing my fingers, I slid my arm under her thigh. I dragged her farther off the counter and ran my fingers around where we were joined. My breaths turned ragged when I turned course, and moved to run them up and down the crease of her ass, everything going silent when I started making circles at that tight little hole.
Lust clouded her features, caramel darkening the darkest dark. A slow slide of desire. A glimpse of fear immediately was eclipsed by the fire lapping between us. Her lips parted and her energy swelled. Lifting us higher.
“Love it all,” I murmured rough as I pushed those two fingers inside.
“Sebastian,” she cried. Fingertips scraped at my skin as she clung to the bunched muscles of my back, a sharp, pleading gasp falling from that sweet mouth, my girl simmering sex yet entirely innocent at the same time.
Vulnerable.
Entrusting all her pleasure to me.
I began to pump them in time with my cock, and with every stroke, I took her deeper. “Love that you let me touch you…love you know I’d never hurt you.”
She wheezed sharp breaths. Everything tightened to a pinpoint around us, our pants and our future and the air. The girl dragging me beneath the surface, pulling me under. Her head rocked back and I took the opportunity to latch onto the dusky nipple of one of those perfect, round tits.
I bit down and she screamed. She clenched hard on my cock and my fingers, and we both let go. Let the world shatter around us. Pleasure burst, strobes of fragmenting color and light. The ground fell away and the sky drifted into nothingness.
For a moment, we got lost in it, in the depths of that place that belonged only to us. In the shadows and the light. In the power of her undying storm.
She whimpered again and again. My name. My name. My name.
My hips jerked and my body spasmed as I poured into her, praying it was taking hold. Thinking maybe I was a fool to think for even a second I deserved something like this.
But it was a true fool who rejected the gifts they were given.
“Shea…baby…Shea.”
On a shuddered breath, she slumped forward and buried her face in my chest, and I buried mine in her hair as I slowly eased out of her.
“You are incredible,” I mumbled at the top of her head. I kissed across that invisible crown, running down to her temple where I felt the strength of her pulse beat.
Inclining my head back, I studied the lines of her face. “You okay?”
Her expression one of awe, she mindlessly chewed at her bottom lip, as if she couldn’t make sense of the connection we shared any more than I could. Her tone brimmed with emotion. “I would never describe what I’m feeling right now as okay.”
I chuckled then kissed her mouth. “Come on…let’s get you cleaned up.”
I swept my girl into my arms—holding her like I was always gonna do—and strode toward the shower.
Giggles rang through the room, and I felt the carefree sound bang around somewhere in my chest. Shea’s grin brightened the entire room as she fought to break away, jerking this way and that, but totally failing considering she was wrapped back up in that sheet.
Right where I’d tossed her in the center of the bed after we’d showered.
Didn’t bother letting her get dressed.
Figured that was nothing but wasted time.
Besides, she looked damned good rolling around in that bed with nothing but a flimsy piece of fabric outlining that killer body.
“Not a chance, buddy,” she warned on a gush of exerted air when I narrowed my predatory gaze on her. She rolled, having another go at skirting my advances, but I shifted farther to the right where I stood at the end of the bed.
My hands were on the mattress, my body bent as I tracked her movements, my dick already pointing to the sky.
She shrieked when I grabbed her by the ankle and flipped her onto her back. I scrambled onto the bed, climbing over her, putting just enough of my weight on her to hold her down.
“What?” I smirked when I pressed her hands into the bed above her head.
More giggles erupted from her. Was going to be sure I coaxed that sound from her every goddamn day.
Raving, she shook her head, wet hair flying, but that grin provided me her tell. “Sebastian, you’re going to kill me,” she wheezed. “I can’t take any more.”
“What can’t you take?” I teased.
“Uh…” she groaned then laughed when I rubbed my cock against her belly. “Stop it…you’re way too tempting for me to resist.”
“Then why are you resisting?” I dipped down, pressing a smattering of kisses under her chin, causing her head to rock back and those perfect tits that were already puckered tight to press into my chest, the beat of her heart running wild against mine.
“You sore, baby? I’ll be gentle,” I cooed, trying to bite back laughter when she gave me a look that promised she knew I was nothing but a liar.
“You’re never gentle.”
“Oh, come on, Shea. I can be gentle.”
Teasing eyes went wide. “Pretty sure that’s only reserved for special occasions.”
I let that laughter roll, then pressed her hands a little deeper into the bed, rocking over her, tone going harsh. “Tell me you don’t like it.”
A seductive sound rumbled at the base of her throat, and she arched, lifting her chin. “I don’t like it.”
I began to frown, before she brushed her lips along the shell of my ear. “I love it.”
“That’s what I thought. Besides, we have something kind of important we need to work on, don’t you think?” I said with a suggestive raise of my brows.
Shea drew a shoulder to her cheek, like she was swimming in the thought. “There’s always next month.”
“And the next,” I murmured back, “and the next.”
And the next and forever.
Didn’t mean I didn’t want it now.
She flashed me another grin. “Don’t get your hopes up, rocker boy. This is probably going to take some time.”
I growled, diving in for a kiss. “And I’ll gladly oblige all the hard work it’s gonna take. Starting. Right. Now.”
She giggled again. “Pretty sure you started last night. Right here in this bed. On the bathroom counter this morning.” With each spot she called me out on, her voice grew deeper. “How about that shower?”
Hell yeah, we’d gotten a good start.
“Doesn’t mean I’m finished with you.”
Apparently my girl didn’t remember the promise I’d made her yesterday when we’d first rolled into this ridiculous suite. Seemed as good a time as any to remind her.
A shrill ring bleated from the nightstand, and my phone vibrated on the glass.
I groaned, leaned down, and nipped at her nose. “Don’t move.”
That smile only widened, and she rolled to her side to face me, clutching the sheet to her chest, watching me with deep affection while I fumbled for my phone.
Lyrik.
I flopped onto my back, couldn’t contain my own smile because I was so damned happy.
Accepting the call, I pressed it to my ear. “Lyrik, seriously, man, can’t this wait? I’m trying to get my wife pregnant.”
“Your what?” There was no missing the shocked disbelief through the phone, then his silence. For a few awkward beats nothing was said, before I felt the dark smirk slide to his face when he spoke again. “Tell me I didn’t just hear what I think I heard.”
“And what is it you think you heard?”
“Think I heard one of my asshole best friends telling me he went and got married without letting any of us know. And I think I heard him saying something about his naked ass doing some kind of filthy deed where his sweet girl would be tied to his ugly ass for the rest of her life.”
My grin just grew. “Sounds about right.”
“Holy fuck.”
“Yep.”
Ash’s elevated voice carried across the line, like he was shouting toward the phone Lyrik held. “What the hell, dude? Tell me Lyrik is fucking with me, because this shit ain’t cool.”
Lyrik answered, “No fuckery man…asshole went and ditched us for his girl.”
“Holy fuck is right.” Ash just got louder. “You over there corrupting my girl, man? Beautiful Shea,” he hollered, “I’m coming, baby. I’ll save you.”
If I didn’t know my punk-ass friend was completely full of shit, I would’ve knocked him a week from Sunday. But that’s just the way we were. Giving each other crap every chance we got, acting like we were tearing each other down when we were just building each other up.
Shea played right along, yelling toward the speaker I tried with no avail to cover. “Save me, Ash. I’ve been taken against my will, by a sex fiend who won’t let me out of bed, no less.”
She was gonna be tied to it if she kept that shit up.
“On my way, baby girl!” Ash was shouting again, and there was a scuffle, muffled words shouted between Lyrik and Ash, and the faint inclination of Zee coming in on the conversation on the back end.
Knew without a shadow of a doubt my entire crew would have my back. That they’d support this decision I’d made to permanently make Shea a part of my life, because I no longer knew how to go on living without her in it.
Would it affect them? Yeah. You can’t make life-altering changes without it altering your life.
A door slammed and the line went quiet before Lyrik spoke again, this time subdued and without any of the prior mocking in his tone. “What are you gonna do, man?”
“Don’t know yet.”
More silence.
“I get it, Baz. Totally get it. Do what you feel you have to do. Do what makes you happy.”
“I am,” I said, completely honest.
I glanced at Shea who reflected empowering light back at me.
Happy.
For once, I felt it above anything else.
“We’ll figure this shit out.”
It was all encouragement mixed up with his own worry. For so long, it’d just been us, the band and me and my baby brother. Nothing else in this fucked-up world had mattered.
Not until now.
“Talk soon,” he said, before the line went dead and I rolled to my side, Lyrik’s questions raising my own.
A tiny frown bridged Shea’s brow, like she caught onto it, too.
Needing the connection, I wove my fingers through hers. “What are we going to do, Shea?”
Unease slithered through her, before she quietly offered an answer that had no solution. “We kind of rushed into this, didn’t we?”
Soft, admissive laughter fumbled from my mouth. “Yeah.”
No use in lying to ourselves.
We’d rushed.
The reality was we’d been rushing since the moment I’d looked up and found her standing in front of me at that horseshoe booth at Charlie’s. She’d arrived like a flood to a parched desert, quenching a thirst I’d never realized I felt, my life barren until she’d breathed across it with her life.
My voice went soft with sincerity. “But I don’t regret it. Not for a second.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, held it there while she gave the slightest shake of her head. “Me, neither. Not at all.”
I swallowed over the lump forming in my throat. “You know, you and Kallie were planning on coming to California to stay for a few days after we wrap up this tour.”
She nodded like she was following my mixed-up train of thought.
“Right after, we have to hit the studio.”
Another nod.
The words grew rough. “I can’t stand the idea of you and Kallie not being there. Of not coming home to my wife every night. Want you falling asleep in my arms and waking up there, too. Come. Stay with me for a while. I’ve got an extra room we can set up for Kallie.”
Mark’s room. Hadn’t touched it since he’d died. The four of us had done nothing more than figuratively board it up, yellow tape and hazard signs posted all around it, because none of us had been ready to deal with the heartbreak we knew would be waiting behind it. Once I’d asked Zee if he wanted to go in and clear out his brother’s stuff, but he’d resisted, saying he wasn’t ready to go there yet.
But maybe it was time we moved on.
“I’ll be sure the guys are all on board. Make sure there’s no nonsense going down while we’re there. We can stay there as long as we need, until you and I figure this shit out. Figure out where we want to live. Where we want to raise our daughter.”
Where we wanted to make a home. Add to it. Make a family.
God, just the thought had both fear and devotion knocking around inside me, the innate need to see it through, to protect and love them, ensure they got everything in this world they deserved.
Joy pulled at every inch of her.
“What?” I asked quietly.
Those eyes flashed. “You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you call her that.”
I squeezed her fingers wrapped in mine. “You don’t know how happy it makes me to be able to call her that. You don’t know what you’ve given me, Shea…bringing her into my life.”
“I’d like that,” she finally said through the emotion gathered in her throat. “I can’t wait to tell her.”
I pulled her hand to my mouth and kissed the vacant spot on her left hand ring finger. “First order of business will be puttin’ something pretty on this finger. Told you I wanted you to be showing off my ring. We’ll go find someone who can design you something special…something different. Something you can show off everywhere you go, so people are gonna know you are mine and I am yours.”
Something as unique as my girl.
Sadness traveled through her features that somehow glowed with hope, and her lip trembled as her gaze darted to the wall, before she settled her attention back on me. “I know what I’d like.”
“Anything.”
“My grandma…”
Second she said it, something deep within me tuned in, quick to listen, because I knew whatever was getting ready to pass from her mouth was important.
“You know she left me the house.”
I gave her a slight nod, encouraging her to continue.
“She also left me most of her jewelry…most importantly her wedding ring.”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and she got that expression again, eyes creasing with regret and mouth pulling with remorse. The one she got when she shared the painful moments of her past. “He…it was…it was stolen.” She winced and forced a smile. “Losing it broke my heart.”
My girl fluttered her fingertips along my jaw. “I’d do anything to replace it. To get the spirit of it back so I can wear it to honor her. To honor them.”
Her smile trembled, so full of love and loss, and I gathered her closer. “Shea,” I whispered, and she just continued on. “She and my grandpa…they loved each other unlike anything I’ve ever seen, Sebastian. In a way so pure and beautiful that I remember, even as a little girl, hoping someday I’d get to experience a love like that. My grandma always told me she’d been given a fairy tale. She told me to go out and find one of my own.”
She drew her head back to look at me. “It was unlike anything I’ve witnessed…until you loved me.”
My chest tightened.
Affection profound.
Wrapping me up, layer after layer.
Didn’t think I had the capacity to love like this.
But this girl?
She proved to me I did.
“Nothing would make me happier than giving that to you, Shea.” My smile was soft, and I kissed along the line of her temple where it met with the defined curve of her jaw, part of me wanting to jump out of this bed and track down the fucker who’d taken it from her. Take it back.
“We’ll recreate it.”
Didn’t know if I was talking more about the ring or her grandparents.
Knew all along how much she’d adored them. It had been where she’d felt safest.
And that…that was what I wanted. For her to feel that with me.
Safe.
To know I would always protect her. Stand up for her. Fight for her.
She took my hand and held it up, like this girl was imagining what it would look like for the ring to grace my finger.
“My grandpa’s was simple. Just a platinum band engraved with the word “always” on the inside. And my grandma’s…hers was beautiful.” She squinted, lost in the memory. “Antique and delicate and somehow striking.”
“Do you remember the details?” I asked.
“I will never forget it.”
“Then we’ll make it happen.”
Downstairs, someone pounded on the door. I frowned, hating the idea of breaking up the moment.
“Just ignore it,” I told her.
Fists pounded again, although this time it sounded like a herd of wild animals trying to bust their way in.
Shea’s smile made a resurgence. “We should get that.”
“Do we have to?” I pretended to whine through my grin, and the new onslaught of battering told me we most definitely did.
“Um…yeah. I’m not sure at this point a lock would keep them out.”
I pressed a resigned kiss to my wife’s mouth and rolled from bed. I grabbed a pair of jeans from my suitcase and pulled on a fresh tee, eyeing my girl while she quickly dressed, shorts and tank and everything sweet.
God, I was done for.
I hooked her hand in mine, knuckles pressed to my mouth, before I gave it up and towed her behind me downstairs to the unruly echo of my crew getting rebellious outside.
Quickly, I undid the lock and let the door fly free.
Ash waltzed in with two champagne bottles lifted over his head, knowing smug smile denting the lines on his face. Zee followed closely behind with a handful of flute stems wound between his fingers, Lyrik riding in on all his cool intensity.
Austin came shuffling in behind.
Ash made himself right at home, popped the cap on a bottle of champagne. “Think this calls for a celebration.”
“You think everything calls for a celebration,” I told him wryly.
He just smiled my way as he held up a glass and filled it. “And you say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
We spent a couple hours celebrating with the guys, the mood easy and light, and when they finally left, we texted April and asked her to set Kallie up on Skype.
Told her we had big news.
Through the screen, Kallie grinned at us, blonde curls wild, wild, wild, that toothy smile filling up my heart and my world. She frowned in confusion when we told her we got married and said she already thought we were.
And I wished I were there to wrap her up, take her in my arms, because there was nothing better in this world than a child’s innocence. Especially hers. Her belief in what we were long before it’d even come to pass.
A family.
It seemed word traveled fast. Soon I accepted a congratulatory call from Anthony, laced with some frustration about my impulsiveness getting me in trouble, forgetting details like a pre-nup there was no chance in hell I would have asked her to sign, anyway. Guy was always looking out for me. I got a text from Kenny, then fielded a call from Charlie that was chockfull of encouragement and dripping with warning.
Apparently if I hurt his girl he was gonna track me down and I’d be pissing from a bag for the rest of my life.
Noted.
But I just smiled, knowing there was no risk at all.
Shea got a snarky text from Tamar, something about being sure she had me by the dick.
Mission accomplished.
I gave Shea some privacy when April called and they sat on the phone for close to half an hour. Both of them had cried. I totally got it, understood the bond they had. They’d grown up together and had dreamed together. Lived together. Mourned together. Now I’d come in and shaken up that dynamic. Both of them knew the way things had been was coming to an end.
Sometimes when you welcome in something new, the old can no longer remain.
But I’d also been around April enough to know she wanted the best for Shea. The best for Kallie. And just like my guys, she would support Shea through whatever decisions she made.
The day passed, and Shea and I ordered dinner in, sat at that big table set for eight and ate over candlelight. We fed each other pieces of lobster and steak and cheesecake, pretty much acting like a couple of lovesick teenagers, which was exactly the way I felt.
When we finished, I pushed our spent plates aside and set Shea in their place. In the gentle flames of the candles flickering across her face and glowing against the vast bank of windows in the backdrop of night, I made love to my wife.
I spent the rest of the weekend taking her in every room, on every surface, in every way. Fucked and tasted and adored.
Then just like I warned her I would, I turned right around and did it again.
Best. Birthday. Ever.