Page 94 of Save Me

They’d made love by firelight and it was slower and sweeter and a lot less frantic than the way they were in his office and it was equally arousing. He knew he’d never grow tired of this. She’d opened up a whole new world to him he never thought he’d have, one that he convinced himself that he didn’t want.

He’d never been happier to be wrong.

But now, in bed, he had one last thing to confess to her.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Are you still awake?”

“Mmm…that depends.”

Chuckling, he asked, “On?”

“For sex? No. I’m asleep. Anything else, I think I can hold my eyes open for a little longer.”

Kissing her forehead, he laughed again. “That’s my girl.” Pulling her closer, he said, “Thank you.”

“I feel like we do this a lot,” she said sleepily. “We say thank you when the other one has no idea why.”

“Would you like to know why?”

Yawning, she nodded.

“You completely changed my life and gave me back something I thought I had lost,” he admitted softly. “When I stepped away from competing and working full-time at somebody else’s parlor, I started to just wander. I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to do it. The future was just a blank canvas, but not in a good way.” He kissed her forehead again. “And then I met you and everything changed. I suddenly had a goal. First, it was simply to get you to agree to go out with me, but then you awakened a creative side of me I’d been ignoring for far too long. I no longer have anxiety about what I’m doing or what I should be doing because you’ve helped me work through all of that and everything is so clear now.”

Twisting in his arms, she smiled up at him before yawning loudly again. “Sorry.”

“I love you so much, Ryleigh. And I’m really glad I was the guy in the parking lot that night.”

She hummed sweetly, and he knew she was almost asleep. “Me too.” She kissed his shoulder. “Love you.”

And yeah, those were the greatest words to end the day with.

ChapterFifteen

It took two months to get everything in place, but Ryker was finally opening the doors to his very own tattoo parlor.

The last several weeks had been exhausting. There had been so much to do and she wanted to be there to support him in all of it, but she had to admit that she was glad this day was finally here so she could settle back into her own normal working routine. As it was, getting Ryker’s site up and running took longer than usual because he was a perfectionist. And whenever she told him that, he reminded her of how he’d told her that in his initial inquiry email.

And man, he was not kidding.

Now, as she looked around at the newly-decorated space, she could say that it all looked amazing, even though it was wall-to-wall people and verging on claustrophobic.

But Ryleigh wouldn’t change a thing.

Across the room, Ryker was doing an interview with the local news crews and once he was done with them, he had several more lined up with the biggest tattoo bloggers and influencers in the world. They’d all shown up for the big grand opening of Tatuaggio Amore. Billie had outdone herself with the guest list and invites and it was incredibly exciting to be standing in the midst of this, cheering on the man she loved. With a happy sigh, she picked up her champagne and took a sip.

“That’s a good sound,” her mother said as she came to stand beside her. “And a beautiful face. Happiness looks good on you, Ryleigh.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Mom.” Glancing around, everything just felt right. “This is amazing, isn’t it?”

“It definitely is,” Kate agreed. “I love how he gave the walls that rustic look. If I didn’t know we were in little Laurel Bay, I’d swear we were somewhere in Italy.”

“His cousin is incredibly talented. I wasn’t sure how this was all going to turn out, but it’s gorgeous.”

“There’s a lot of talent in that family. I met Ryker’s parents a few minutes ago and, of course, asked to see some of his work. You know, just to be polite, not nosy.”

“Naturally.”

“And while I can see why he was a big deal back in the day, Ryker is ten times the artist he was.”

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