“Everything looks brand-new.”

I set Jimbo’s stuff down and filled the bowls with food and water. The black ball of fur came barreling down the hallway to inspect the goods when he heard the food hit the dish. He jumped on my legs until I gave his ears a scratch and I figured we were friends again and I was forgiven for doing such awesome and unspeakable things to his master.

“I don’t spend much time here. Really I’m only home to shower and sleep.”

She made a face of disbelief at me and continued to prowl around. “That’s all?”

I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest. “I never took a vow of celibacy and I never said I slept alone.”

“So after I leave tomorrow someone else takes my place?”

That was the way it had always been. Now I didn’t think there was a woman alive that could take her place.

“No. When you leave tomorrow I’ll just lie in bed and think about the ways I can get you back there as soon as possible. I haven’t been a repeat offender for a really long time, Salem.” I made sure she was looking at me as I motioned between us. “You are a first for me.”

I could tell she wasn’t sure if she believed me or not, but whatever hesitation she had about getting into bed with me, both literally and figuratively, always lost out to the fact that she wanted me. That was always there, hot in her black eyes and clear on her expressive face. I decided the subject needed to be changed before we got into stuff that was too heavy to get out from underneath of.

“You said you wanted to show me something. I’m hoping it involves you taking of several layers of clothes in order for me to see it.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes at me.

“No. Just one layer.”

She shrugged out of the red cardigan she had on and held up her hands in a ta-da gesture. “What do you think? It’s the first mock-up of one of the shirts I had the screen printer make.”

She was wearing a black tank top that was molded to her curvy frame. There was a fine ribbon of lace around the neck and the bottom, making it look very feminine and pretty. The old-style gypsy was on the front, looking even more like the woman that had inspired her when I saw the two faces together.

She turned around and I saw the Marked logo on the back along with the shop’s Web address. It was a lot more fashion forward than anything I would have pictured when we started talking about doing a retail venue along with tattoos. The girls that frequented the tattoo parlors were going to eat it up, and if they filled the tops out the way Salem did, their husbands and boyfriends were going to be throwing money at us to make it happen. She was really good at this and I had to admit seeing my design stretched across her chest gave me a certain kind of pride that made me want to pound on my chest like King Kong.

“It’s amazing.”

“Right? Once I get the ones Rule and Nash finally finished done, I’m gonna have just a few made for the girls to wear so we can build up some buzz. You guys did a great job with the designs. They’re all a little rough but still girlie enough that they won’t alienate the female buyer. I think this is going to be a huge success.”

I couldn’t stop looking at the face that looked so much like hers.

“You picked the gypsy.”

She looked down at herself then back up at me. “She’s my favorite.”

I chuckled a little and rubbed the back of my neck. “She’s you.”

Her mouth quirked up in a grin and she took a few steps toward me. When she was within touching distance she put her hand in the center of my chest where my heart was beating out a tattoo that was totally foreign to me.

“I know.” She had to lift herself up on her toes so that she could kiss me on the underside of my jaw. “That’s why she’s my favorite. It makes me all gooey and squishy on the inside that that’s how you see me.”

I put my hands on her waist as she trailed kisses along the edge of my jaw and worked her way to my earlobe. I bit back a groan when her teeth closed over it.

“You’re beautiful. You have a darkness and a wildness in you. You look like a modern-day gypsy.”

“You make the darkness and the wildness calm down.” She had her hands under the hem of my T-shirt at my lower back and was tugging it upward. I caught the back of my collar in one hand and ripped it off over my head and tossed it in the general direction of the couch.

“Yeah?”

She ran her hands along the ridges of my ribs and then up and down my side where my mom’s name was. The reminder of what happened when I loved someone wholly and how hard the lonely was when that love went away was almost enough to have me pulling back, but her lips landed right in the center of my chest just as her hands found their way to the front of my pants. She made short work of my belt buckle, and between her determined fingers and the wet tip of her tongue tracing random designs on my skin, desire and want kicked fear’s ass to the curb.

“Yeah. You sort of feel like where I always wanted to be.”

Well, f**k me. Didn’t that put trying to keep a safe distance and not letting my heart get involved seem damn near impossible?

I threaded my fingers through her soft hair and held her head in my hands as she took a few steps forward and backed me up so that I was leaning my ass on the back of the couch. Her eyes gleamed up at me as she reached around my waist and started to tug my pants off. I kissed her because I had to. I kissed her because I wanted to. I kissed her because kissing her was starting to make me feel like I had found something I wasn’t really aware I had been looking for. Mostly I kissed her because every time she kissed me back I felt her settling a piece of herself even more deeply inside of me. I leaned forward a little to give her some clearance when she put her fingernails in my ass cheeks to get me to move, and grinned when she sucked in a surprised breath when she encountered nothing but na**d skin underneath the denim. She wasn’t the only one that knew how to dress, or underdress, for an occasion.

She used her index finger to trace a sensitive pattern between the piercings that decorated the head of my exposed c**k and told me in a quiet voice, “You always made me really happy, Rowdy. I’m sort of infatuated with all the different ways you make me happy now that we’re all grown up.”

Between the words and her touch there was no stopping my dick from twitching in her hand or the tiny bead of excitement that leaked out of the tip. She caught it with the pad of her thumb and looked up at me with a grin. I was going to ask her what she was smiling about when she suddenly dropped down on her knees in front of me and had the slick head between her red lips. If there was ever a sight that was going to push me into an orgasm with very little effort on her part, it was that. Her pretty mouth, with that glittery ruby above it, open wide, was sucking me in as I gritted my teeth and exhaled hard through my nose as pleasure raked its claws up and down my back in a ruthless way.