Not to mention the Cool Whip. We went through the whole tub.

My eyes went over my body in the mirror and I thought of Gwen, who was definitely curvy and even Naomi, who was curvier.

Tack liked it like that.

I put my hands flat on my belly and slid them across to my hips, back to my belly, up my midriff to my br**sts.

As I did, I was thinking I liked it like that too.

And I definitely liked Cool Whip.

My eyes caught their reflection in the mirror and I grinned.

Then I wandered back out of the bathroom and stopped at the side of the bed.

Tack had turned to his side, one arm thrown out, his other hand stuffed under the pillow under his head.

My eyes drifted over him.

He had the tattoo of a dragon taking up the whole of his upper right arm, its scaled, taloned feet slithering down the inside of his upper forearm. The tattoo curved around his bicep, over his shoulder and even up his neck. I’d asked why he got it and he’d explained it was because of Naomi. She told him when he got angry, he breathed fire. She was not wrong. Luckily, that tat was cool as all hell so even if it held nuances of his time with Naomi, that didn’t shadow its coolness.

I could also mostly see the tattoo on his bicep on his inner left arm. Swirling and spiking curlicues around the word “Cole”. The curlicues were so intricate, you actually had to study it to find Rush’s name in their midst (I knew this because I’d done it). He told me he got that because his bicep rested close to his heart. The same style curlicues around the mostly hidden word “Tabitha” was on his heart so no explanation necessary about that one.

Jutting up the wrist on his outer left forearm was another design, not in curlicues. It included wings, smoke, fire and parts of a motorcycle around four words randomly inked into the design, “Wind”, “Fire”, “Ride” and “Free”. Those words, he told me, were essentially Chaos’s motto. When a recruit was taken fully into the fold, they got the Chaos emblem emblazoned on their back and they also each had their own tattoo of their own design somewhere on their body that contained those words.

And last, all around the curve of his left shoulder was a kickass design that included a hooded skull and a set of scales. I had asked but he hadn’t explained that one to me.

That tattoo, as with a number of other things, Tack wanted to share, “later.”

I didn’t press. I was enjoying the now. And I knew, when he was ready, Tack would give me later.

Studying my man in bed, his tats on display, the sheet resting at his hip, his hard, defined muscles and the power of him at rest, his hair a mess, some of it falling over his forehead, he looked such that any woman, no matter their bent, would take a walk on the wild side if this was what she got to wake up to.

And she’d stay.

On that thought, I put a knee to the bed and Tack’s sapphire eyes opened, his head turned on the pillow and those eyes locked sleepily on me.

“Come ‘ere,” he muttered, his voice deeper, rougher, even in a mutter rumbling over my skin.

I went there, moving on my knees into the bed as he pulled partially up, his hands coming out to me and grasping my hips. He rolled to his back and I swung a leg over to straddle him. His hands slid down then up so they were warm against the skin on the inside hem of my cami and his eyes moved over me.

My eyes moved over his tats and I was thinking that beyond anything on this earth, I wanted me to be inked somewhere permanent on his skin. And not like Naomi, an admittedly kickass dragon but one that laid testimony to the fact she pissed him off so bad he breathed fire.

One like Rush and Tabby’s that was beautiful, it’s meaning hidden to anyone but Tack or someone who he allowed close enough to study it long enough to find out.

“Baby,” he whispered and my eyes moved from Tabby’s name to his.

“I’m gaining weight,” I announced and his fingers gave me a squeeze.

“Yeah,” he agreed but said no more.

“I keep going, I’ll need to buy more clothes.”

“So buy more clothes.”

There it was. Not, “Stop drinking beer,” not, “Quit eating the Big Grab of chips with lunch and dipping into the boys’ donut stash” but, “Buy more clothes.”

He didn’t care.

Good.

I bent over him and put my hand to his chest, my eyes dropping there and to watch my finger tracing the curlicue where Tabby’s name was written. While I did this, his hands slid up my cami and moved soothingly over the skin of my sides and back.

“You hungover?” he asked, my eyes went back to his, I shook my head but said, “A little bit. You?”

He shook his head.

My hand slid up his chest, his neck to his jaw and my thumb moved over his stubble on its path to glide along the edge of his goatee where my eyes had dropped to watch.

“You okay?” Tack asked and I looked back at him.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“You’re quiet,” he observed.

“I want to be inked on you,” I blurted.

Yes, I blurted that. Right out.

His hands went completely still.

Damn.

We were having fun. It was easy. It was good. No, it was great. We were in that time when we were getting to know each other, enjoying it, seeing how we fit into each other’s lives.

But it was too new, too soon for something that heavy.

Panicking, I blathered, “I mean… I don’t know, not now –”

I stopped speaking when his fingers tensed into my skin so hard they dug into my flesh. Then I was flying through the air as he lifted and rolled so I landed on my back with Tack on top of me and between my legs.

“You want you inked on me?” he growled and I stared up in his eyes, uncertain what I read there and for the first time in a long time I fought against biting my lip.

“No,” I finally answered and his eyes narrowed scarily. “Yes,” I amended hastily. “I mean, maybe. Eventually. Not now, of course, but –”

“I’m on you.”

I blinked.

He was but I didn’t think that was what he was talking about.

So I asked, “Pardon?”

He didn’t exactly answer. He spoke and maybe he thought it was an answer but he didn’t actually answer.

“I know what. I know where.”

“Tack, honey –”

“A dragon, upper ass, spanning it, near to your waist, almost to your hips. I wanna see it when I’m takin’ you from behind. I wanna see it when you’re on your hands and knees and I’m f**kin’ your face. And I wanna know it’s under my hand when you’re sleeping.”