I was rubbing a towel over my hair and walking back into the living room to watch TV until he woke up when I drew up short. He was most definitely awake, leaning against the back of the couch and watching me with heavy-lidded, purple eyes. The boxers were navy blue this time and his arms bulged enticingly where they were crossed across his delectable chest. As always, my gaze followed those wings that disappeared into the waistband of his underwear.

“Hey.” I couldn’t help the husky drop in my voice.

He lifted a black eyebrow at me and the corner of his mouth kicked up in a grin.

“Thanks for taking care of me, Saint.”

I took a few more steps into the living room and he caught the end of the towel that was now hanging limply in my hand and used it to tow me in until we were mere inches away from each other.

“Anytime, Nash.”

He reached out and coiled a hand under the wet fall of my hair around my neck. He removed the space remaining between us and I was plastered against his bare chest. It was the best place in the world to be.

“How about you let me take care of you for a while?”

Well, what kind of fool would I be to pass up an offer like that? Only the last time we had been on this couch in any kind of sexy way together I had left him in a pretty unfair state and I wanted to make it up to him. I wanted to take care of him in all ways there were from this point on out.

“How about we just take care of each other?”

Both of his eyebrows shot up and finally, after way too long, a full-fledged smile crossed his handsome face.

“Sounds like a good deal.” Then he bent his head and kissed me like it was the first and last thing he wanted to do every single day from here on out.

Our tongues tangled together, hands slid eagerly across bare skin, and all the best parts of us lined up perfectly. I gasped into his mouth a little when his hands crawled up under the hem of my borrowed T-shirt and cupped the curves of my bottom. He hefted me a little closer so that our pelvises were pressed tightly against one another and I felt his erection throb insistently where it was resting in the cradle of my legs. He made short work of the T-shirt and guided a wide palm from the base of my neck all the way to where my spine dipped in right above my ass. He blew out an appreciative breath that I caught because our mouths were still sealed together.

I pulled back and kissed him on the throat, shivered when he moved a hand across my ribs and up to cup a breast. It seemed unfathomable that I hadn’t enjoyed being touched like this. I guess I just needed the hands, the skilled touch, to belong to him. He rotated the pad of his thumb across one of my ni**les and it made my entire body clench in response. If he kept that up there would be recompense for the last scene of romance in this living room. I pulled back a little and kissed him in the center of his chest. I loved how resilient, how taut and hard his body always felt under my mouth. I put a kiss that left a mark right over where his heart was beating steady and strong and let my tongue twist and turn around the flat disk of his nipple. It made me giggle a little when it beaded up in response.

I tickled his abs with my fingertips and rubbed my palms over the wings that covered his sides. I thought the white boxers were my favorite against his swarthy and darker-toned skin, but I decided on the spot as I pulled him free that my favorite from here on out was going to be none at all. His erection was pulsing, practically vibrating in my hand. It was still topped with the metal ring and the barbell and it quivered eagerly in my hand when I gave it a little squeeze at the base.

Nash made a low noise in the back of his throat when I sank down in front of where he was still leaning against the couch. His eyes were midnight dark and there was a high flush on his cheeks. The power, the pride I felt that I could make this man react like that made me really feel like the most beautiful woman in the entire world.

My teeth clicked on the metal ring, which made me want to laugh but had him groaning. He collected my hair up in both his hands as I started rolling, sucking, licking the thing in a way that had his abs contracting and his thighs quivering. I had to keep my hands involved, all of him was never going to fit in my mouth at one time, and I had to admit it was way more fun to do this when there were things my tongue could play with. I heard him growl my name, which was super hot, felt him tug at my hair, which meant he was close. I wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying, I was too busy thinking about how heady the sensation was, how delicious making him react felt … sure, this was more about his pleasure than my own, but his taste, his feel, it was enough to light me up just fine.

I had my hands around the base of his cock, was using them in time with the sucking, swirling motion of my mouth, so I was surprised when he literally yanked me off of him, which resulted in a drag of teeth and a squeeze that was probably rougher than felt good. He yelped out a swearword and I was going to demand to know what he thought he was doing, but my panties were unceremoniously stripped off my legs, leaving me bare and open. He wrenched us around while breathing hard and put my hands on the back of the couch. With a palm in the center of my back between my shoulder blades, he bent me over just a little and used his knee to nudge my legs open enough so that he could fit where he needed to be.

He dropped a heavy kiss on the back of my neck, reached around the front, and covered each of my br**sts with his wide hands. He didn’t say anything, just slid inside me, and I thought I was going to die. In this position he went deeper, I felt him more intensely, and the drag and pull of that little extra he was working with made stars dance in front of my eyes. I had to clutch the couch cushions, had to bite my lip—hard—to keep from screaming out each time he pulled out and pushed back in. We had had a lot of sex over the last few months but nothing that felt this raw, this unhinged, and potent.

I felt like this was him leaving his undeniable mark, and as the pleasure grew, as his rhythm and tempo increased, as one of his hands started to slide across my stomach headed for the spot that would push me over at the barest touch, I was ready for it all, I was practically ready to shatter. Nash’s breathing shifted, his driving h*ps stilled for a fraction, and his hand stalled on my stomach.

“Holy f**k.” We were both so close, it was hovering so right there, and I had no idea what he was doing but I was going to strangle him if he didn’t start moving again. He was panting like a marathon runner, and when I looked at him over my shoulder, in question, he grimaced and kissed me hard on the mouth all while pulling out of my body as slowly as was humanly possible. It made both of us groan and swear at the same time.

“Do you want to talk about the seriously unprotected sex we were just having or do you want to just go in my room and finish?”

I squealed and buried my face in his chest. “Jeez, no wonder it felt so good.”

He snorted a laugh and I yelped when he swung me up in his arms and headed to the bedroom.

“Maybe you wanna add birth control to your to-do list sometime soon?”

I ran my tongue along the shell of his ear and rubbed my fingers over the flames inked on his shoulders and grinned up at him. If he hadn’t attached his mouth to the side of my neck, started sucking and swirling his tongue along the sensitive cords there, I would’ve told him that I had taken care of that little detail shortly after our rendezvous in the Charger just to be safe. If I had known it would bring on a hasty end to all the delicious things he was doing to my body in the living room, I would’ve sent him a memo about it.

I hit the center of the bed with a little “ouf” when he gracelessly tossed me, and I leaned back to watch him while he got himself all situated. I blinked up at him with wide eyes as he crawled up over me and settled himself back between my legs.

“You are so beautiful.” He really was from the inside out.

He lifted an eyebrow and placed a sweet little kiss on the end of my nose.

“So are you.” I used to just ignore him, to think they were just words he was saying because he thought they needed to be said. Now I understood he meant it and it didn’t matter if I looked the way I did now or if I looked the way I did then, it was the person I was he found beautiful.

“Thank you.”

He slid back inside of me, and since my body was already primed, already on the the brink of going over, it didn’t take much to have me hollering his name into the ceiling and digging my heels into his back. He curled my legs up high on his sides, rose up a little on one knee, and powered into my compliant body until he found his own release and collapsed on top of me in a heavy heap.

The ring in the center of his nose was a tactical thrill against my shoulder as he kissed my collarbone and muttered drily, “I’m done trying to have sex on that couch. It never ends well for me.”

I had to laugh as I wrapped my arms across his wide shoulders. “I think it ended just fine.”

“I love you, Saint.”

“I love you, too, Nash.”

Nash wanted to live a life with no regrets, I wanted to live a life that was fulfilled. We needed each other to accomplish that, and now that we had each other there was no then versus now, there was just this life we had together.

I got the promotion. It was awesome and I was really proud of myself, but what made it even better was how proud Nash was of me. My job didn’t have to be important to him, but because it was so much of who I was, the fact that he inherently knew what a big deal it was made me love him even more.

Our schedules were still crazy and all over the place, even more so now that I was trying to learn the different parts of my new job. It didn’t matter, though, we never spent a night apart. My place, his place, one of us was always in the other’s bed, and as long as I woke up next to him in the morning, I didn’t care where I put my head at night.

I was also branching out my social skills. I went out with Sunny, tried to join Nash’s friends on their Thursday girls’ night out if it didn’t conflict with work, and had taken to having coffee with Royal every morning I stayed at Nash’s place. I enjoyed the time spent with all of them, but there was something about Royal, something about watching another young woman struggle with a selfless, emotionally taxing job, that drew me to her. I didn’t have to try and be her friend anymore, I was just her friend … period.

I was running late. Nash had called on my lunch break and asked me to meet him at the new tattoo shop when I got off of work. I had a late admission and ended up having to stay an extra half hour until the doctor could get to them. I knew the contractor had just finished with everything in the new space and all they had left to do was get the final members of the staff in place so they could open up for business in a few weeks. It had been a labor of love, cost a pretty penny, but all of the Marked family was super excited for the new adventure to begin. I figured he just wanted to show his baby off, and I felt bad I was holding him up, so I reminded myself to oooh and awww with appropriate vigor. I was really proud of him.

I had to park around the corner and make my way through the typical after-work, LoDo crowd to get to the shop. The location was dy***ite; he wasn’t going to know what to do with himself when it took off like I knew it would. Nash was leaning against the glass storefront talking on his phone. He caught sight of me and gave me a wink. He couldn’t really stand around waiting without finding something to do with his hands. I think that’s how he avoided reaching for a cigarette. He was doing a great job quitting and every time he was tempted I reminded him he had made it all the way through the ordeal with Phil without lighting up, so there was no way he needed one now.

When I got to him he scooped me up in a rib-crushing hug and kissed me like we hadn’t had wild shower sex just that morning. I would be the luckiest girl in the world if he was always going to be that happy to see me.

“Did you get my text that I was going to be late?”

“Yep. It gave me time to wrap up the surprise.”

I gave him a funny look and noticed that the huge pane of glass that was the front of the store was covered in brown butcher’s paper.