The water was only knee deep and they lay in it and kissed passionately, like they hadn’t just made love five minutes before. Nicole could feel Zack getting hard again underneath her and she reached down and took him in her hand. As she began to stroke him slowly, she felt his fingers graze her still swollen and sensitive clit, and she sucked in a hard breath and sighed out his name into the kiss. She felt him smile against her as he slid a finger up inside of her. The water was cold, but what he was doing to her had her body so hot that she felt like she was boiling from the inside out.

They stroked each other in a rhythm for a while, neither one of them in a hurry this time. After a while Zack used the arm he was holding her against him with and sat up in one smooth motion until her legs straddled his hips and the tip of his cock pressed into her opening, once again demanding entry. He tipped his head back slightly and they looked into each other’s eyes. Nicole loved the way his blue eyes filled with desire when he looked at her. She kept her eyes locked into his as she rocked her hips back slightly and then, using her hand to guide him, she settled back down on his now rigid cock. He held her tightly as he went all the way inside of her once again and when she was filled with every delicious inch of him, they began to rock together in a slow, sexy rhythm that kept time with the gentle thrumming of the water all around them.

Nicole discovered in that moment that sex didn’t have to be fast, or hard, or rough to be exquisitely erotic. She had been used for so long that she didn’t remember what it was like to simply be pleased. She used her hold on his shoulders to move herself up and down, slowly, and he just stayed steady in one spot and offered her body support as she pleasured herself on his throbbing erection. With each smooth stroke, she felt hotter and wetter, and without ever picking up her pace, the waves of her second orgasm of the night began to pass through her in almost the same gentle way he was touching her. She could feel her muscles tighten around his shaft and a tingling sensation in the rest of her body that caused her to shudder hard against his chest.

“I love you,” she whispered as her body began to relax once again. She felt his lips against her shoulder. He kissed her there and then let them slide up along her neck until they pressed against her ear. The heat of his words and the feeling behind them gave her goosebumps as he said:

“I love you, Nicole. So. Fucking. Much.” Zack continued to hold her tightly against him, using his knees and his hold on her to stroke himself slowly in and out of her. He repeated her name, and told her that he loved her again just as she felt his shoulders tighten underneath her fingers and his chest harden even more against her own. A rumble and growl came from somewhere so deep inside his chest that she felt more than heard it, and then he released his second orgasm and collapsed down into the water still holding onto her and rocking her gently back and forth.

* * *

The first thing Nicole did when they made it back to the blanket was check her phone. She wasn’t used to the quiet Spider had offered her lately, and as much as she was relieved that he was staying away, she knew the reprieve wouldn’t last forever. It was after midnight and her internal clock told her it was only thirty-six hours until she had to face him and his attorney and probably his mother in court.

“Everything okay?” Zack asked as he pulled his shirt over his head.

She smiled at him. “Everything is perfect.” She wasn’t going to let her anxiety ruin this beautiful night with her man. She slipped on her clothes and picked up the blanket. Zack once again held her hand and helped her up the embankment toward the bike. She stuffed the blanket into the saddlebags on top of a small, black leather bag that she hadn’t noticed earlier and picked up her helmet.

“Do me a favor?” Zack said. “I’m going to ride the bike around the lot really quickly before we take off.”

A shudder ran through her. “Why?”

He tried to play it off, but she heard the worry in his voice as he said, “I’ve just been having a little trouble with the engine. I want to make sure it’s okay before we head back into the city.”

“Zack…”

“Really, baby, it’s okay. I just want to be sure all is okay before you get on.” She nodded, unconvinced that he didn’t have another reason to worry, and stepped back out of his way. He motioned her back further before starting the bike and revving the throttle. She watched as he drove the bike in a circle, stopping several times and speeding up and stopping again. When he was satisfied, for whatever reason, he rode up next to her and smiled. “Good to go,” he said. Nicole stood rooted to her spot until Zack raised an eyebrow and said, “You can get on now, baby.”

“No.”

He chuckled. “Excuse me?”

“No. I’m not getting on until you tell me what is going on. You were completely preoccupied earlier, and now again. This thing with the bike is just weird. So, since I can’t have sex with you to loosen you up twenty-four hours a day, you need to talk to me.”

Zack shot her another sexy grin and said, “We could try that twenty-four-hour sex thing…”

She folded her arms. “Zachary Leoni…what’s your middle name?”

He laughed. “I’m not telling you just so you have something to call me when you’re mad. Look, baby, everything is okay. I just had a meeting with the scum of the earth earlier and it unnerved me a little, I guess.”

“Oh my God! You saw Spider and you didn’t tell me?”

He looked remorseful at least as he said, “I didn’t want to upset you as soon as I got back…and then you had this incredible suggestion, so who was I to ruin that?”

“Where did you see him?”

“At a bar in Nashville,” he said with a sigh. “He said we needed to talk, and I thought he might have something worth saying so I went. I was wrong.”

“What did he say?”

“He thought he was going to coerce me into helping him get full custody of Liam.”

“And how did he think you could do that?”

“I didn’t let him get into the details before I told him to fuck off. That was it, baby…except that I made him bleed again and that felt good.”

She reached out and put her hand on the side of his face. “Oh, Zack. What a fucked-up mess I’ve gotten you into.”

He reached for her, putting his hand around her waist and pulling her toward him. “Hey, I met you on one of your worst nights. I knew that your life wasn’t perfect. Trust me, baby…neither is mine. That’s not what this, or any relationship worth having, is about though, right? Fuck Spider. You’re going to walk into court day after tomorrow and blow that judge away with your parenting abilities. You have no criminal record, you work hard, your apartment is spotless and baby-proofed, and Liam is thriving. Even a paid-off judge couldn’t get around that and the fact that Spider doesn’t even have a place to offer to live with Liam other than a club full of outlaws. Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”

She leaned forward and kissed his lips softly. “Thank you.”

He winked at her. “Don’t thank me. I’m getting something out of every minute I spend with you. But right now, baby, I’m fucking exhausted. Can we go home and get some sleep now?”

She smiled and slid on the helmet before getting on behind him. Zack started the bike back up and drove out of the parking lot and along the paved, winding road that led back up to the main highway. They were almost to the stop sign when they passed the two state police cars parked side by side in the dark. Nicole was trained, through her affiliation with Spider, to seize up at the sight of cops since he almost always had a reason to worry. She looked over her shoulder at them as Zack turned onto the highway, and she was relieved that they stayed put in the dark. She felt silly. She didn’t believe Zack had done anything that the cops would want him for. But still, she was relieved that they weren’t interested.

They drove along the highway in light traffic since it was so late. They were almost to the turn-off for downtown Memphis when she saw Zack look in the rearview mirror and mouth a curse. That was when the red and blue lights reflected off the mirror and hit her in the face.

Zack pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the bike. Nicole looked back. The two state police cars were pulling up behind them. “What’s going on?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “I have no fucking clue. I wasn’t speeding.” They sat silently and waited and suddenly things started happening fast…way too fast. One of the officers approached from Zack’s right and the other from the left and they were both yelling at them to get their hands up. Panic was rising in Nicole’s chest, but she raised her hands and noticed that Zack had his raised as well.

“Get off the bike.”

“What is this about?” Zack said, staying put.

“I said get off the fucking bike!” Zack looked back at Nicole and nodded. She slid off and so did he, both keeping their hands in the air. “Are you armed?”

With an annoyed groan Zack said, “There’s a gun in my left saddlebag.”

“You?” he asked Nicole.

“No!”

“Both of you on the ground on your knees, hands on top of your heads.” Nicole looked down where the other cop had motioned with his flashlight. It was pavement and not smooth. She was wearing shorts. While she was still considering that the cop yelled, “Now!”

They dropped to their knees and Nicole chanced a look at Zack. He looked worried, which made her panic swell further, because that wasn’t a normal look for him. One cop held his gun pointed at them both while the other went over and opened Zack’s left saddlebag. Holding the gun with two fingers, he pulled it out and held it up to show his partner. “I reckon you have all the necessary paperwork for that gun?” the man with the gun on them asked.

“I’ll have to take a look in my bank deposit box,” Zack said, sarcastically.

The cop snorted out a “Yeah, right.” Nicole wanted to scold Zack. It was hardly the time for sarcasm. She glanced over at the other cop, who was pulling everything out of the saddlebag. The rest of what was in the left side looked like a couple of dirty t-shirts and some toiletry items. He walked around to the other side then and opened that one. He pulled out the blanket that Nicole had stuck there earlier and then stuck his hand down inside the saddlebag, and she heard the sound of a zipper. Again, she looked at Zack. He was watching as curiously as she was.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” The cop reached into his own pocket and pulled out a pair of latex gloves. He looked at his partner and said, “I’m going to grab the camera.” He started toward the car and Zack said:

“What does he need a camera for? What’s in there?”

The cop just rolled his eyes like he thought Zack was trying to play him. Nicole was staring at Zack, and he finally looked at her and gave her a slight shrug. A few seconds later the other cop made it back to the bike, this time taking photos of the open saddlebag. When he finished that, he reached inside and pulled out the little black bag that Nicole had seen earlier. It was unzipped and she could see a Ziploc baggie hanging out the back, but not what was inside. “Check this out,” the cop told his partner. With two of his gloved fingers he pulled out the baggie. Simultaneously his partner whistled, Zack cursed, and Nicole realized she’d made a big mistake by letting this relationship develop while she was fighting for her son. “That’s a lot of methamphetamines, son.”