The aftershocks started a moment later, gently racking my body with the leftover adrenaline and hormones.
He held me for a long moment, stroking his hands up and down my spine, sinking into my hair, massaging the back of my neck.
When they didn't immediately subside, his hands grabbed me, pulled me until I moved off of him, lost our shared body, and pressed me down on the bed.
"Just one second," he said, getting up, and making his way to the bathroom, coming back before I could even get myself under the covers.
He joined me, closing us into the warmth, pulling me against the good side of his chest, hands running up and down me. But not just my back this time. My arms, shoulders, butt, thighs, like he was trying to put every curve to memory, like he wanted to know every inch of me in perfect detail.
It was a thought that made my insides go melty again.
"Didn't know that was possible."
I had been at the edge of sleep, body dreamily content, when he spoke, making me jerk, not sure I heard him. I pressed up slightly so I could look down at him, watching as his eyes went soft again, as they often did when he looked at me.
"Hm?"
"I didn't know that was possible," he repeated, looking confused. "I don't even know the word for that."
My heart squeezed hard in my chest and, in that moment, I knew.
I loved him.
All the good, along with all the dark and sad. Every bit of the man whose arms were around me, whose eyes were looking at me with wonder.
"Right," I said, shrugging a shoulder. "It was right," I added, leaning down to press a kiss into his chest before reclaiming my place, feeling his arms squeeze me tight.
"Yeah," he agreed, voice deep. "It was right."
We stayed like that for a while, long enough for my eyes to want to find sleep again, my body spent from everything.
And it was right about then that there was a slamming on the door, and a quick bark.
"Church!" Reign's voice called, and you could hear his boot-clad feet moving back down the hall toward the living room.
I pressed up, a little disoriented, sure I misheard. "Church?"
"Biker term for meeting," he said, giving me a small, somewhat sad smile. "Attendance is mandatory," he explained, and I understood the look. He didn't want to leave. I didn't want him to leave either.
"I'll be right here," I told him, giving him a little smile. "When you're done with your meeting, come back to me." I rolled off of him to my side of the bed, watching as he curled up slowly, careful not to jostle his ribs when he twisted, and moved out and over me, kissing my lips hard as he went.
"I won't be long," he promised before going off in search of clothes, then leaving to join his brothers.
Alone, my hand went to my chest, feeling the warmth there that I wasn't sure had ever existed before, at least not like this.
Love.
In the most unusual of places.
With the most unexpected of men.
Life was a crazy, unpredictable, beautiful thing.
I wasn't sure what I believed in terms of the afterlife, but sometimes, when things were very bad, or in this case, very, very good, I spoke out loud, hoping that maybe there was something after this life, and Babcia could hear me.
"You would really, really love him, Babcia. I know I do."
And I did.THIRTEENMARCOI was man enough, secure enough in my masculinity to admit that I was worried about Reign.
Things had been rough enough the first day or two with just his men trying to question me, trying to extract answers that I simply didn't have.
Like where she was.
Who she was affiliated with.
How to contact her.
What her plans were.
I will say one thing for this group, they were some cold-blooded bastards when it came to someone threatening their safety - and the safety of those they loved.
It was odd for me.
I guess because I never had someone to give a fuck about, had no one who gave a fuck about me.
And Roan, thanks to his background, yeah, that fuck knew how to make you hurt. In ways you didn't know you were capable of hurting. In ways that you were sure you couldn't survive.
But you did.
Then he did it all over again.
I knew, though, that he wasn't the worst of it.
The worst was coming.
If the sounds from above me were anything to go by, the worst was here.
I knew enough about Reign to know he would go to any length to protect his men and his family. I knew how he had slaughtered the entire Abruzzo line to do so.
Cash, he did what he needed to, but as a whole wasn't the biggest threat.
Wolf, though.
Fucking Wolf.
Great name for him too.