More Pleasure than Pain

To be read after Ride Steady in the Chaos Series

Tabby

I lay in bed, fully clothed, tangled up with my man (who was also fully clothed), staring at the poster-sized picture of us on the back of his bike that was on the wall over our dresser.

"It's time, sugar," he whispered.

It was. It was actually time five minutes ago.

But I wanted this. I wanted these few minutes that were the last of the best of us before that became even better.

"Just a couple minutes longer," I told Shy.

"Whatever you want, Tabby," he murmured, pulling me closer in his arms.

I already knew the answer to the question that the test that was sitting on the bathroom counter brewing was going to provide.

And that answer was what I wanted. That answer was what we wanted. In fact, I had a feeling Shy wanted it even more than me considering all he'd lost and how much it meant to him. He wanted to rebuild that. He wanted it for himself. For me. For his brother. And in honor of the memory of his parents.

And we were going to have it.

But now, I just wanted these last moments of just him and me.

So I laid tangled up in Shy, my cheek to his chest, my eyes on that picture.

As I stared at it I thought what was in that picture was us and always would be. We would always have that no matter what. No matter what we added. How we grew. When we grew old.

That picture of me wrapped around Shy on the back of his bike would always be us.

"We should get a dog," I blurted.

I heard the smile in Shy's voice when he replied, "Sounds good."

"A mutt. A rescue," I decided.

"Okay, babe."

"We should get him before."

"Probably smart."

I tipped my head back until my nose was pressed to the underside of his jaw.

I felt him. I smelled him.

He smelled good. He felt great.

"Do you know how much I love you?" I asked.

The smile was gone from his voice, it was quieter, rougher, when he said, "Got a fair idea."

"Take that fair idea and times it by ten thousand and there you go."

He slid me up and onto his chest so we were eye to eye.

I looked into his green eyes, saw his messy dark hair, and fell in love even more.

God, my man was gorgeous.

"Let me go look," he whispered.

He couldn't wait.

"You want this," I whispered back.

"Yeah," he said.

"Me too," I told him, but he already knew that. We'd talked about it. This was not unplanned.

"Then let me go look."

"Whatever you want, baby."

Those green eyes told me things I loved to see before he slid his hand up into my hair and pulled me down to kiss me.