I stiffened.
His hand immediately came up to cup my jaw, his body stopped shaking and his smile died clean away.
“Take me as I am,” he whispered, and I noticed his voice had that tone, his face had that look, and I melted beneath him.
“Yeah,” I whispered back.
“Love you, Ally.”
I grinned. “Love you more, baby.”
He didn’t grin.
He said, “Impossible.”
I frowned.
“If you make me cry, no sex for a week,” I declared, but my voice was husky.
“Then I better not make you cry,” he murmured, lips twitching.
“Damn straight,” I mumbled.
That was when he grinned.
Then his lips came to mine and he ordered, “Go clean up. That went fast. I wanna eat you and fuck you again before you go learn how to bypass security systems.”
My entire body trembled.
“’Kay,” I agreed immediately.
He touched his mouth to mine, slowly slid out while watching, and said, “Meet you in bed.”
He so would.
He rolled off. I rolled the other way, got to my feet and let my panties drop down my leg. I stepped out of them and sashayed, wearing nothing but a pair of stiletto sandals, to and up the stairs.
I hit the bathroom and did as ordered.
Then I met my man in bed.
*
“Tonight, you watched. Next time we go, you watch again. The time after, you’re up.”
This was Vance.
We were standing by the driver’s side door of my Mustang in Lee’s parking garage in the dead of night, and he was being bossy.
He had also taught me sick good things that night, so I decided not to give a shit that he was being bossy.
“Right,” I agreed.
He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a small black leather pouch with a zip around three sides and handed it to me.
“Those’re yours. Picks. You buy locks at a hardware store and practice. When you’re up, I’ll be timin’ you. You got thirty seconds.”
I looked up at him and nodded but said, “I didn’t bring anything to give you.”
He gave me his shit-eating grin.
I decided to get serious.
“Appreciate you doing this, Vance.”
“The grip you got on that guy’s junk, no hesitation, bringin’ him down to his knees. Fuck. His face,” Vance replied. “Half the team’s terrified of you. Bobby’s having nightmares. I had no choice. Jules and I want more kids. Don’t wanna piss you off.”
It was clear he didn’t feel like being serious so I lifted a hand and socked him in the arm.
He lifted a hand and caught me at the back of the head.
Then he shocked the shit out of me by pulling me in and kissing my forehead before letting me go and murmuring, “You did good tonight.”
“Do you kiss Mace’s forehead when he does well?” I asked and his eyes got intent.
“Learn now, you’re a woman. This is a man’s job, not because more women don’t have the stones to do it, but because they think they need to have stones in order to do it. The way of the world, men can do shit you can’t. What you gotta remember is, you can do shit that men can’t. You play to that. You use it. I am not gonna treat you like one of the guys ‘cause you’re not one of the guys. That doesn’t mean I won’t treat you with respect. And what you learn now is, even if you get treated differently, there’s no difference. Yeah?”
This was very profound. And wise. And I’d never thought of it like that.
But I liked it.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Now I gotta get home to Jules and Max,” he muttered.
“Right,” I replied. “Give Max a cuddle for me.”
“Will do,” he said, moving toward his Harley.
“Vance?” I called and he turned back. “Really. Thanks for tonight. I appreciate it.”
“You’re a Nightingale,” he replied then finished enigmatically, “Anything.”
He roared off on his Harley and I was in my car following him when it hit me what his “anything” meant.
He was an ex-con, recovering alcoholic. And Lee had taken him on, trained him, and offered him a different life. A better life. And when he won Jules then they had Max, he got the best life there could be.
And he appreciated it.
I parked outside Ren’s, the jazzed feeling I had expiring and fatigue setting in. So I wasted no time getting in and quietly changing into a nightie, washing my face and brushing my teeth.
I slid into bed next to Ren, turned into his heat by curling into his back and snaking an arm around his waist.
He grabbed my hand, slid it up his chest and held it there.
“How’d it go?” he mumbled sleepily.
I pressed closer.
“It was righteous.”
His hand gave mine a squeeze. “Good.”
He was right.
He fell back to sleep.
Not long after, I followed him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Completely Happy
I moved into the middle aisle of bookshelves and did it stealthily.