I look around at the various accessories. There’s a camera bag, a tripod, a chest mount harness and a bunch of different lenses, along with other random things. “It did NOT come with all this, Memphis. You bought it all separately. I can’t take this.”

Turning me around, he pins me against the table and bites onto my bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth before releasing it. “You can . . . and you will. It’s all yours.” He kisses me again. “And so am I.”

My heart melts from those words alone. That’s all I needed to hear. That does me in, helping me feel complete. Looks like things really are perfect now. I have Bailey, Alex, and Memphis.

That’s all the family I need . . .

One month later . . .

LYRIC HAS BEEN WORKING IN the studio a lot lately, so I have decided to kidnap her and take her out to dinner. I’m so damn proud of her for all the hard work she has been doing, but she needs a damn break at some point. She doesn’t know this, but I canceled her appointments for the rest of the day, asked Styles if she could take Monday off and rescheduled her appointments for that day. She may not like it at first, but it will be worth it.

I pull my truck up at the studio and notice that she’s still working with her last appointment. I quietly let myself in and stand off towards the back so that I won’t disturb her while she finishes up.

I don’t make it ten minutes before she spots me leaning against the wall as the fancied up family she was working with gathers their things and says their goodbyes.

I don’t even give her the chance to come to me. Fuck, I missed this woman all damn day. Walking toward her, I back her up against the wall and pin her in with my body.

“Memphis.” She laughs as I playfully kiss her neck and run my hands up her sides. “What are you doing here? I have another family coming in like ten minutes.” She starts struggling and giggling as I start kissing her all over. “Stop . . . Memphis. I’m so going to hurt you.”

I laugh against her neck before pinning her arms against the wall. Smiling mischievously, she realizes that she’s stuck. “I’m taking you with me.”

“I can’t . . .” I press my lips against hers, shutting her up. This woman is coming with me no matter how hard she fights.

Pulling away from the kiss, I pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, and walk around to gather her purse and keys. “You can and you are.” I slap her ass when she tries escaping me, causing her to squeal. “Trust me,” I say. “I took care of everything.”

Right as I get to the door I feel her bite into my ass as she reaches between my legs and grabs my cock. I slap her ass again before squeezing it and biting my bottom lip.

“That’s not helping you any,” I say as she grabs it harder, making me go hard in her hand.

Damn this woman is getting it later.

I keep her over my shoulder as I lock up behind us before opening the passenger door and placing her inside. “I’m going to fuck your ass good when I get you home,” I say while adjusting my erection. “You know that, right?”

Lyric bites onto her bottom lip while nodding her head, but then she pushes me away and shuts the truck door in my face, teasing me.

She’s playing with me now. I love it.

“There better be a damn good reason you’re taking me away for my work, Memphis,” Lyric growls out. She tries to look mad, but that crap doesn’t work on me. I know her enough to know when she’s really mad or just putting on a front. She loves this and she knows it.

When we arrive at the restaurant I make sure to park on the opposite side of the building that I know everyone else will be parked on. It was like gathering up children when trying to get everyone to show up, so I left it up to Bailey to gather up Landen and Liam and instructed Alex to gather up the guys at the shop. He even talked Ryan into coming back home for the weekend.

Lyric sits up and looks around, confused. “You dragged me out of the studio because you were hungry?” Lyric runs her hand up my thigh, stopping at my cock. She grins and then rubs her hand over its length. “How about we go home instead? You’ve already dragged me away from my work, might as well make it worthwhile, big guy.”

I grab her chin and bring her face up to meet mine. Smiling against her lips, I suck her bottom lip into my mouth before releasing it. “Oh we’re going there as soon as we finish eating. You better be damn sure of that.” I reach over and undo her seatbelt. “Let’s go.”

Hopping out of the truck I walk over to her side and open the door, grabbing her hand to help her out.

“Thank you, my sexy caveman.”

I grin at her playfulness and guide her to the door, opening it to let her walk in first. She’s too busy wrapping her arms around me to notice that the table off to the left is filled with all of our friends.

She starts walking us to the right, but I pull her by the waist, guiding her over to the left. She gets ready to fight me until she looks up to see Bailey waving her over.

“Holy . . .” She looks around us with the biggest smile I have seen from her in weeks. “You did this?”

I nod my head and pull out the chair next to Ryan.

She spins around to face me, throwing her arms around my neck in excitement. “Thank you so, so much. This is awesome. God, I love you.”

I pull her body flush with mine and kiss her slow and passionately, giving her a taste of what she’ll be getting as soon as we get home. This woman is mine and I want the whole damn world to know it.

Spending dinner with all of the people she cares about is enough to brighten up even the worst day for her. I’d pull this crap off for her every week if I could, even if I had to drag each and every one of them out of work myself.

She deserves this and so much more . . .

IT’S THREE O’CLOCK IN THE morning and I have spent the last hour or so sitting out here on the back porch with my guitar. I came to the conclusion that being out here with my guitar on my lap seems to bring the same peace it used to give me before everything went wrong in the world. I no longer feel the need to fight. Everything I have is enough.

On nights that I can’t sleep I’ve been coming out here and playing, just enjoying the peacefulness of my surroundings. Some nights, late at night, Alex comes out and brings his guitar and we play together. We play for Mom. Seeing the smile that it brings to Lyric’s face reminds me a lot of my mother and the joy that my playing used to bring to her. It makes me feel good inside . . . complete.