Wanting Shaw (Rockers' Legacy Book 5)

“It might be my bed…for the most part.” I muttered the last four words under my breath. “But I was hoping you would have regular sleepovers. I want you to be comfortable.”

Her brows pulled together. “You mean that?”

“Of course I mean it!” I grabbed her hand and lifted it to my lips without taking my eyes off the road. “My favorite place to be is beside you, Dimples. I dream about holding you in our bed.”

When I had a safe chance to glance at her, it was to find her baby blues glittering with emotion. Then she blinked her thick lashes and turned her head to look out the windshield. “I prefer a firmer mattress, but the few times you’ve been in my room, you always complained my bed was too hard.”

“Maybe we should get one of those mattresses we can each control the firmness of, then,” I suggested. “Or…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her turn her head to look at me again. “Or?”

“You can just sleep on top of me. I’ll be your firm mattress.”

I heard her gulp then laugh softly. “We can call that ‘Plan B.’”

“I like contingency plans.”

It took us an hour to pick out the perfect king-size mattress and another hour for us to agree on a bed frame. By the time we got to dinner, both our stomachs were complaining, and I was in fear of my life with Shaw getting hangry. As soon as we got to our table and the waitress set down a basket of bread, I picked up a roll and smothered it with butter before offering it to Shaw as a sacrifice.

Her giggle did crazy things to my chest, and she bit into half of the roll. After she swallowed, she licked her lips and then sighed contently. “You just get me,” she said with a shake of her honey-blond head. “I kind of like that.”

Her pink cheeks told me she more than kind of liked it, but I didn’t call her out on it. Instead, I tore apart another roll and snacked on it while she buried her face in the menu. She was hiding from me, because we both knew she was going to order the rib eye. I loved that she didn’t care about eating in front of me, unlike girls I’d taken out in the past who were scared to even eat a salad.

As expected, she ordered the steak, along with a baked potato and steamed veggies. I ordered the exact same thing, asked for another basket of bread with our meal, and then sat back to watch my girl. She didn’t have her phone out. Instead, she was covertly watching me while debating the dessert menu.

“How was your day, Dimples?” I asked, wanting to hear her voice.

She dropped the menu onto the table with a shrug. “It was boring, like the last week of school always is.” Her phone announced a text message, and she glanced down at the screen before rolling her eyes and turning off her phone.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, not liking the way her jaw clenched at whatever she’d read.

“Nothing. Just Cannon being an ass, like usual.” She put her phone in her purse and then leaned back with a dark frown on her beautiful face.

“Is he giving you problems?”

“He just runs his mouth. After what he said to me last night, Mom made him do the dishes and then clean the downstairs guest bathroom this morning before his meeting.” She smirked. “If he keeps it up, and she continues to punish him by making him clean, maybe he’ll move out.”

“He and I always talked about getting an apartment together when we graduated,” I told her, and she clenched her hands into fists before hiding them in her lap. “That’s not going to happen, Dimples.”

“Why not?” she demanded, her nose flaring. “He’s your best friend. I figured you two would be back to being thick as thieves as soon as he got off the plane.”

“He’s nothing to me except the brother of the girl I love.” I heard her sharp inhale, saw the glitter of tears in her pretty eyes before she quickly looked away. “Unfortunately, he’s also the idiot I have to work with for two more albums because Ma can’t get me out of our contract.”

“Aunt Emmie had the lawyers come up with that contract to protect you and Cannon,” she defended my mom. “She didn’t imagine you and my brother would stop being friends.”

“I know. That’s why I’m going to suck it up and do what I have to. Maybe if we go ahead and record everything now, I won’t have to go back into the studio with Cannon. They can just take everything and divide it between two albums.” Under the table, I trapped her legs between mine and squeezed my knees together since she was hiding her hands from me. “But just because I’m working with him doesn’t mean I’m picking him over you. Tell me you understand that, baby.”

She sighed but nodded. “I know. It’s just that you two will be in the studio together a lot, and eventually, you’ll talk about more than work. When you guys would argue as kids, it never lasted long once you talked it out.” She swallowed hard and gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens this time.”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” I growled.

Shaw didn’t even look at me, and I’d had enough of the table being between us. I was out of my side of the booth and sliding in beside her before she could blink. Thrusting my fingers into her hair, I turned her head so she had to look at me. “Sorry, baby, but you are stuck with me. I won’t give you up for anyone. I’ll kill your brother, and anyone else who dares to get in my way, before that ever happens.”

I felt her tremble and brushed my mouth over hers. The kiss was quick, just a simple caress of my lips on hers, before I pressed my forehead to hers. “I’m yours, Shaw. My loyalty, my love, every fucking part of me is right here, ready and waiting for you to grab on to. Nothing and no one will ever change that.”

She looked up at me from beneath her lashes. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon to get birth control.”

I?