I’d swear I could already feel his lips on mine. “I listen, I told you.”

“What else have you heard?”

“Everything.” His head moved, his mouth brushing my throat so lightly it was the best tickle of my life.

And just as soon as he brushed his pink lips over me, he pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him, trying to smile so he would know I was happy… and I hoped he was too.

One of those big hands went up to the top of his head and he scrubbed it back and forth across the top, still watching me with these eyes that said a dozen different emotions. The only one I could focus on was that uncertain one though.

“What is it?” I asked him, still holding on to my smile. At least until it hit me. Maybe… “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

He blinked those long eyelashes, and I couldn’t miss the way his eyes just kind of sort of squinted at me. “Baby girl, that’s not it at all.”

“What is it?”

But he still looked off. His hand came up and moved across his chest, from one massively rounded pec to the other and then going up to the base of his throat, where his fingers curled into the material of his compression shirt and he peeled it away from his neck maybe an inch. “I should tell you something first.”

Oh, no. “There’s something wrong with your…?” I dipped my eyes toward the lower half of his body.

That got me a blink. “Excuse me?”

All right, maybe that wasn’t it. “You have three nipples? Because that wouldn’t be a big deal. I’ve got stretch marks if you—Why are you looking at me like that?”

Because he was looking at me weird. He really was. “I couldn’t give less of a fuck about you having some marks, and I don’t have three nipples.”

I wasn’t surprised that my hands were steady as I set them on his hips, feeling the warmth of his body through his shirt. “What is it then?”

His hand tugged at his shirt again, drawing my gaze down to the inch of tattooed skin I could see… and then it finally settled in my brain.

Ohhh.

“You have a girl’s name tattooed on you?”

That had him rolling his eyes. “Let me tell you, yeah?”

I widened my eyes, watching as he gave his shirt another tug at the collar.

“I’ve got some tattoos…”

“I know. I’ve seen some of them.”

He shot me a look as he scrubbed at his head again. “Luna, I gotta tell you before I show you, all right?”

I nodded.

“I told you what I did with about twenty years of my life.”

I nodded because he had. How could I forget he’d been in a freaking motorcycle gang… club… whatever it was called?

“I got a lot of tattoos from those days, and I haven’t gotten around to covering them up,” he said in a quiet voice, and something just pulled at my heart. It just yanked it tight and crazy.

I loved this man. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.

“Rip, I don’t care about your tattoos from back then,” I told him gently. “Unless you have another girl’s name on you somewhere, but you don’t, right?”

His face instantly softened so much I couldn’t help but smile. “Quit with the dumbass questions, yeah? And no, I don’t fucking have somebody’s name on me.”

“Okay then.” I tipped my chin up. “You have gang tattoos. Thank you for telling me.”

“They’re not gang tattoos.”

“Club tattoos, whatever you want to call it.” I raised my eyebrows and wiggled my fingers in the sliver of space between our bodies. “Show me the goods.”

His laugh took the edge off his word. “Luna—”

“I’m being serious,” I told him carefully. “I don’t care.” I held my hand out for him and opened and closed it to get him to come closer to me. “None of us are who we used to be, and luckily for you, I think you’re the hottest man on the entire planet, and that’s with me only seeing you fully clothed.” I smiled. “Show me.”

Rip watched me with those heavy eyes, and the breath he took in and then out was deep and rough.

I recognized the uncertain expression that made the lines at his eyes deepen, and it made my heart clench up again.

I loved this man. I had loved this man for a long time, but I had never loved him more than I did right in that moment as he stood there, with dread in his eyes. Because he was worried what I would think.

“Come here,” I said again, smiling.

The tiny little breath he took in through his nose just made me love him even more.

So I gestured him toward me again. “I don’t think I ever told you about how many times I stole things from the grocery store or from people’s wallets.”

This huge man blinked. “You?” he asked, but it sounded more like he didn’t believe me.

And that only made me smile wider as I nodded. “Yeah, me. If it was small enough for me to hide it in my hoodie pocket, I was taking it. I was hungry, and I didn’t want to spend my money when I started to run out,” I explained, not struggling at all to remember what that Luna had felt when I’d gotten to the last of my money.

“I stole all kinds of things before that too. Usually candy from the convenience store since no one ever took me to the store or anything like that. And when I could take money from my parents, I’d go back and give the owner money. I’m pretty sure that old man knew exactly what I was doing, but he never called me out on it or called the police on me.”

Ripley took a step forward as his fingers dropped away from the collar of his shirt. “They never got you candy?”

I shook my head. “I used to make my own birthday cakes.” I shrugged. “After I stole the cake mixes from the grocery store. My dad loved milk and eggs, so there was always some at the house. He’d always give me money for that.” I blinked. “He’d ask for his receipt and make sure I brought every penny back.”

This man took another step closer to me. “February thirteenth, yeah?”

He was asking me for my birthday, and the fact that he even knew what day my birthday was…. “Yeah.”

He took another step forward. “I’ve got you from now on.”

“For birthday cakes?” I asked, hoping that I didn’t sound as… hopeful as I was sure I did.

“Yeah.” He took another step. “I’ll make you that red velvet cake you like.”

“Okay.” I smiled. “Now let me see what you’ve got since you know you’re not the only one who’s done some shady things.”

He took another step closer, another step that got him to stop directly in front of me, his fingers coming up to nudge me under the chin. “You are a shady shit under there, aren’t you?”

“When I’ve needed to.”

His finger traced along the line of my jaw up to my ear, and his voice was low as he said, “Yeah, I noticed when you had me break your cousin’s hand. I’m not gonna lie, Luna, I was ready to kill his ass, but I was too busy thinking about how you kicking his ass and throwing that fucking shoe like a ninja star was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Reaching forward, I pressed my fingertips against the band along the top of his jeans where the belt loops went. “You still like me even after that?”

His smile was gentle. “You could steal the Mona Lisa, and I know you’d do it for a good reason. I don’t think there’s anything you could do that I wouldn’t be all about, baby girl.”

I laughed, and that just made him smile wider and drag his finger the opposite direction of my jaw, his thumb just lightly brushing the skin under my throat.

“You are the goodest, sweetest thing I have ever had in my life, and I don’t want you to go screaming the other way, you understand me? One day I’ll tell you about everything,” he said softly.

I just stared up at him, and if he would have taken a picture, I’m sure my mouth would have been partially open, and if there could have been big, pink hearts behind my head, they would have been there.