Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Ten months without him. But the pain of missing him doesn’t even feel real now. Because it vanished with a single touch.
Now there’s only Stone. For however long I get to hold him.
* * *
“I think we missed the wedding rehearsal,” I say sleepily. He’s holding me with my head pillowed on his shoulder and my fingers tracing through the hair on his chest, because I can’t stop touching him.
“Yeah, and they better get used to me being late and missing things. I’ve got a wife with a pussy made of sugar and who squirms like the hottest fucking thing while she’s chasing her come. And why the hell do we need to practice walking down an aisle? It’s not like you can get lost on the way. You and I managed all right without a rehearsal.”
“We did.” I smile, remembering, but his better get used to me being late forces me to ask the question I’ve been avoiding, because I’m so afraid of the answer. “Are you staying for a while?”
“Forever, I hope.”
Sheer happiness swells through my chest. Except that last part doesn’t seem so certain. “You hope?”
He sighs heavily. “We didn’t get Papa. We figure he must have gone to ground—and since we got the rest of those fuckers, and most of the Cage’s network is dismantled, they didn’t want to keep paying for all the manpower. But I suppose if they get wind of him, maybe they’d pull me back in. Maybe they wouldn’t, though.”
“Oh,” I say softly. “You sound disappointed.”
“Just disappointed we didn’t nail that fucker to the wall. Sure as hell not disappointed that it was time to come back home.”
“I’m sorry, too. About Papa. Not about you here. That’s the best thing.”
“For me, too.” He brushes his thumb over my lips, his gaze searching my face. “How you doing? You’re looking real good, and you seem to be moving all right. But I probably ought to have been more careful down there in the kitchen.”
I shake my head. “There’s still a twinge now and then, but otherwise I’m a hundred percent. I’ve been doing yoga and some other things the doctors recommended.”
“Good.” Gently he kisses me. “And what about the rest of you? Your heart, your head. They’re doing okay, too?”
“Yes,” I whisper, my throat tightening up. “I really am. Especially now. And you?”
“I ain’t never been better than I am now, angel. Though I might be even better than this in about five minutes, when I’m inside you again.”
Unsurprisingly, that’s even better for me, too.
44
Stone
Maybe I ought to have gone to the rehearsal. As the best man, I assumed that I’d be escorting the maid of honor. But Saxon isn’t about to let any other bastard ever walk Jenny down any aisle, and it’s me and Zoomie instead. So aside from nearly getting an asskicking from the prez before he led Jenny up near the altar, the rest of the ceremony seemed to go all right. Not that I was paying a whole lot of attention. My heart felt real big while I watched my dad bring Anna down the aisle and give her to Gunner, but after that, I just kept eyes on Maxine, who’s looking so fucking pretty sitting between my mom and my cousin Penny. Her hair’s back to red, her emerald eyes are bright, and she looks so damn happy.
Life just ain’t never been better.
* * *
“You back for good, then?” Spiral asks me at the reception, then looks real disappointed when I say that I am. “Well, goddammit. Glad to have you back, brother, but I was this fucking close to getting your enforcer patch.”
Yeah, that patch ain’t going anywhere. “Sorry, brother.”
He snorts. “You’re not a bit sorry.”
True. And not gonna lie, it was a fucking knife to the gut when Saxon sent me a message saying that I’d been gone so long that he needed to give my patch to someone else. I didn’t blame him. The club needs an enforcer who’s present and accounted for. And I wasn’t.
But keeping my patch isn’t why I’m so glad to be back.
Instead my reason is in my arms a little bit later when the dancing begins. I ain’t much of a dancer. But I’m real good at holding Maxine against me, so I just sway a bit while I do, nuzzling her soft hair, loving the smell of her.
Hell, loving all of her.
“You doing anything this week?” I know she volunteers at an animal shelter and also helps the VP’s wife out at their stables, but she hasn’t taken up a steady job yet…and probably won’t before heading back to school next year, so she can take as much time as possible to heal. And that cash from her grandpa gives her a nice cushion, but I don’t want her to have to use it. So now that this job with the feds is over, I’ll need to figure out my own situation pretty soon. I don’t think I’ll be going back to work as a lumberjack for Widowmaker—or any other job that’ll take me away from her for days at a time. But I’ve got enough money socked away that I won’t need to sort that just yet. “Because I sure would love to spend every minute with you.”