Page 79 of Sunshine & Sinful

“It’s not too bad. You?”

“This is a walk in the park compared to tonight.”

“You don’t have to take the brand.”

His nose scrunches up like I’m being ridiculous. “Yeah. I do. It’s tradition.”

“Nothing about us is traditional.”

“I know, but all of us old-timers in the club brand ourselves for our old ladies. It wasn’t long ago I watched Gunz do it for his old lady. They fucked like rabbits outside the clubhouse afterward.” A sinister grin curves at the corners of my man’s mouth.

“We aren’t fucking like rabbits outside the clubhouse,” I reply, shooting that notion down right now. There will be no public fucking. I understand that’s a thing in the club world, but I’m not a biker chick. Not in the normal sense of the word.

Sunshine frowns, but it’s fake. I can tell by the twinkle in his eye. “Come on, Sweets. The brothers would love to hear you scream.”

I flip him off. “Shut up. They would not.”

“They probably would,” Pixie throws out to be a total pain in the ass.

My husband winks. “See.”

“No. That’s final. You and I both know you don’t want a bunch of men seeing me naked.” He would carve out their eyeballs with a spoon. Trust me, they want to keep their sight.

“Who said they’d see anythin’?” he teases. “I said they’d hear it. I’m a big man. None of the brothers will wanna watch my bare ass bangin’ my old lady. But they’d be hard as a spike hearin’ you come.”

I sigh. “We are not talkin’ about this, Colton.”

“It’s just a suggestion.” He shrugs.

Reaching into my bra, I extract whatever boob rock I find, and I chuck it at his head. It smacks his shoulder and rolls down his pec. Sunshine bursts into gruff laughter as he claims the small crystal and shoves it into his front jeans pocket.

Pixie chuckles.

Jade doesn’t react.

I glare without any anger at my guy.

He raises his free hand, the one not getting tattooed, in mock surrender. “I love you. Don’t poison me.”

“Shut up. I would never do that. Just like you would never actually fuck me in front of a bunch of your brothers.”

When the naughty jerk doesn’t confirm my statement, I throw another boob rock at his head, and it lands on his lap. He breaks into another chorus of deep, sexy man laughter, and I don’t know whether to murder him or fuck him senseless. He’s in so much trouble. Then again, I’venever seen him like this before. Smiling big. So carefree. He’s practically glowing, and I know it has everything to do with us. Finally getting what he’s always wanted. To claim me. To have his name on my thigh. To have my brand on his skin.

We continue teasing each other for the rest of the tattoo session. It’s lighthearted and more fun than I’ve had in ages.

Once we’re done, cleaned up, and covered in a thin layer of cocoa butter to protect our tattoos, I hug Pixie, thank Jade, and practically float out of the shop on a high I’ve never felt before.

Sunshine mounts his bike first, and I slide right behind him. Wrapping my arms around his middle, my cheek on his shoulder, I watch the world fly by as he takes us to places unknown. I’ve only visited the mother chapter, where the club began, a handful of times. This is where Sunshine grew up and watched the current national president take office after his father passed.

Pulling up in front of a single-story white house with green shutters in an average neighborhood, Sunshine turns off the engine, but we don’t dismount. “This is where I grew up.”

I squeeze him around the middle, touched he wanted to show me. “It’s cute.”

“My father was a businessman who beat me and my mother. When he was out of town, my mother would take me to the Sacred Sinner compound with her. It wasn’t much back then. Not like it is now. They didn’t have the wall built around the compound yet. There was no gate. She liked it there, and I did too. It felt like home.”

Kissing his shoulder to show my appreciation that he’s opening up to me and that I’m here for him, no matter what, I don’t speak. I want him to continue. Over the years, Sunshine has let bits and pieces of his childhood slip through the cracks. But as soon as he let his wall down, even a little, he threw it back up.

Covering my hand on his abs with his own, Sunshine continues, “My mother died young. Brokenhearted. My father rotted in a state-run facility after he started to lose his mind to dementia. I never visited him. Not once.”

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