Page 48 of Painless
“Youmatter,beautiful.” Gunner spoke each syllable with heavy weight and intention. “Not just because you’re a medic, or that you’re gorgeous and smart and care so much. You’re even more than the sum of those things. You’reyou.” He squeezed around me tightly, like I would slip away at any moment. “And you’re ours. And you’re loved. You’re never alone, Mari. I promise you.”
I touched the tip of my tongue to his ear, my insides fizzing like a bottle of champagne. “Thank you, but you didn’t let me finish.”
“Oh, sorry.” He grinned, planting a kiss on me. “Go ahead.”
“I was about to say,” I nestled my head into the crook of his shoulder again, “that I’d go through that all again if I knew the outcome would be this.”
“Thisbeing?”
“Loved. Supported. Beyond any measure that I could ask for.”
“You deserve it,” he told me, blue eyes shining. “Reaper was right, as usual. You deserve more love than a single man can give.” He brushed a gentle caress across my cheek. “I just hope mine is good enough for you to hold on to.”
“Gunner.” I caught his hand, threading my fingers through his. “That’s never once entered my mind. If what I giveyouisn’t enough, just—”
“Stop right there, baby girl.” He held our clasped hands over my mouth. “You’re more than enough. You’reeverything.”
He leaned us over slowly, until my back pressed into the couch and he hovered above me. His hands supported my head when our lips came together, while my palm kissed the beat of his heart.
Every kiss and touch throughout that night was heavy with the weight and depth of his love.
Seventeen
MARIPOSA
“Did Gunner tell you about the bikers we met?”
I looked at Reaper over my shoulder, watching his eyes narrow in concentration as he gently washed my back with a damp, sudsy cloth.
“He did.” Reaper squeezed the water out of the cloth and hung it over the side of the bathtub. “They must be what’s left of the torched club we checked out. Must’ve not been home when the match got lit.”
“You think they’re on our side?” Freyja kept peeking at us over the edge of the tub with wide, concerned eyes, so I reached up to boop her nose with a soapy finger. She zoomed out of the bathroom and Hades took off after her with a bark.
“Seems that way, although it’s still unclear what they actually want.” Reaper reached around my waist, pulling me back to lay on his chest. “I think their little hand gesture was to test Gunner’s loyalty, to see how he’d act when faced with his uncle’s brutal death.”
“Especially if he was away from the rest of you guys,” I mused. “Like, in case we had another hidden betrayer. I wonder if they had one of those too.”
“It’s possible. Tash likes to fuck around with people’s loyalty.” The bathwater sloshed around our naked bodies as he picked up his whiskey glass from the edge, then held it in front of my face. He laughed at me shaking my head, kissing my hair before he sipped from it. “You didn’t develop a taste for it last time?”
“It tastes better on you,” I purred, leaning my head back on his shoulder.
“Mm, hang on.” He took another sip before pressing his mouth to mine. When my lips parted, expecting his tongue, I got a mouthful of warm, bitter liquid instead.
“Ugh,Rory!”
He just laughed and laughed as I coughed and sputtered over the whiskey. The sound of his laughter was deep, throaty music echoing off the bathroom walls as he wiped tears from his eyes.
“Sorry, sugar,” he grinned, reaching for me across the bathtub. “That was a lot sexier in my head than real life.”
“Hmph,” I pouted, but allowed him to pull me back into his arms. “You owe me.”
His body went stiff for a moment. I felt his heartbeat accelerate in his chest. “I might have just the thing.” He dropped a kiss to my shoulder. “Ready to get out?”
We stood and dried off with fluffy towels. I grinned to myself as I rubbed the towel over my face and hair. Every day that I washed up or got dressed in here, I felt like a princess, not a biker’s old lady. Sometimes I still had to pinch myself to realize I wasn’t dreaming.
Hades and Freyja watched us from the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom as we made our way out of the bathroom.
“What you lookin’ at, perverts?” Reaper muttered to them as he tied the towel around his waist. He seemed nervous, and started rummaging through his dresser drawers in search of something.
