“Yeah?” He ducked his head.
I tucked the hair behind his ear. “You saw me, and you captured it here for me. Thank you.” I kissed him, trying to say all I’d left unsaid.
I love you. Never leave me. I’ll always be yours.
“Beautiful.”
“Yeah, you are.” He smirked at me. “Let me finish this, so I can start something else.”
The cold ointment made me shiver as he finished sanitizing and bandaging my new tattoo. My shoulder burned but his kisses down my spine distracted me. Heat spread through me when his tongue danced up my spine.
Licks and kisses caressed my back. I longed to press my clit into the side of the table until I came apart. His mouth skimmed my ass cheek and bit down.
He worked his way up my body. “Dare,” I groaned, moving my ass back into his groin.
“On the table, baby.” His voice sounded like velvet, smooth and luxurious.
I complied, spreading my legs and arching my back.
He stroked my hip. “Never needed you so much. My art on you. My cock inside you.”
“Yes, please.” I stared up at him, showing him the emotion burning inside me.
He was undressed in minutes. “Yeah, I’m going to possess you, mark you in a way you’ll never doubt it. You. Are. Mine.”
I shuddered at the possessive words because I wanted to be his more than I wanted to breathe. He spent the next hour claiming me inch by inch inside and out. By the time we came together, I’d lost myself with no idea where I started or he ended.
I sucked in air, unable to speak or move with my heartbeat echoing in my ears.
“You amaze me.” He hauled me up to him, turning me to his chest.
I nuzzled into his chest, wanting to be as close as possible.
“You don’t hold back. When I think we’ve pushed it to the limit, there’s more with you.” He smoothed my hair. “You reach me in places I thought gone.”
“Why? Are you so good to me?”
“You, Red, deserve only the best.”
I absorbed the emotion of the moment. This was as close to I love you as Dare would ever come.
* * *
The next week Dare surprised me with a trip to the lake—another club tradition, but it was hands-down the most relaxed I’d ever seen him. During the week at the lake, we came to some kind of peace, or understanding. I finally started to understand the club life and he’d embraced the fact that my sobriety didn’t change anything. But the most surprising part, Bear and I had become non-enemies, maybe even on the road to friendship.
After the lake, the intimacy of our relationship spiraled deeper. We talked all the time, on the phone, in person and in my bed. I no longer felt like I was on a runaway ride destined for the catastrophic crash.
Halloween passed and November blew colder winds while I wrapped myself tight into his world. We even progressed to the point he kept a couple changes of clothes at my place, and the bathroom stuff. Last week he’d called it home, and I’d almost come unglued.
Tonight I’d gone to dinner with Rachel and Andi while Dare and a bunch of guys played poker. He’d told me not to expect him, so after dinner I hit the bed early and fell into a deep sleep.
My phone rang and rang. I grabbed for it and hit the answer button.
“Red,” Dare slurred into the phone. “Too fucked up to work tomoday. Cancel...”
“Dare?” I wasn’t sure he hadn’t hung up. “You okay?”
“Feelin’ no pain but tomoh sucks,” he mumbled.
“Sleep it off. See you tomorrow.” I laughed at his gibberish and hung up.
I didn’t even know he got hangovers since I’d never seen him acknowledge one, if he’d had them. By ten the next morning, I had caught up my books, canceled Dare’s two appointments and paced my place in restless indecision. I didn’t want to open, I wanted to go see Dare hungover. Part of it was just morbid curiosity, but more I wanted to make sure he was good, taking care of himself. I knew a lot about hangovers, and hangover remedies, from my dad and loser boyfriends.
I called Zayn and he agreed to open the shop and warned me to stay away from Jericho—apparently his hangovers were epic.
Bikes littered the club parking lot, probably for Thursday morning breakfast. Wanting to avoid the crowd, I walked around to the back door.
“What are you doing here?” a voice called from behind me.
Bear sat in the blue porch swing that hung on the rusted swing set frame.
“What are you doing swinging? Missing your childhood?” Sarcasm mixed with scathing comments was Bear’s language of choice. Once I’d started dishing it back at him at the lake, we’d formed our semi-relationship.
“He’s in no condition to fuck. Not even you.” He laughed. “Come make a movie with me until he wakes up.”