When I placed her on our bed, she scooted over and I climbed in beside her. When she lifted her head for a kiss, I gently brushed my lips across hers before pulling her closer. I hadn’t rushed back to fuck her, have sex with her, or even to make love to her. All I wanted was to hold her.

She cuddled against me, her head on my shoulder and her hand over my heart. The smell of her sweet shampoo filled my nose and I inhaled deeply. This. This was what I’d been aching for all evening as I’d sat in a bar drinking beer with the guys. This was my new favorite thing to do. I would never get tired or bored of it.

It was then that I realized that I wanted to marry this girl. Up until right at that moment, marriage had been something I’d been against. Marriage was like a prison sentence; you couldn’t go do what you wanted when you wanted… Or so I’d thought. But now I realized that when you cared about someone this much, needed them this much, all you wanted was to be with them.

Marriage wasn’t a prison sentence. It was the Happy Ever After that I wanted to give my girl. That I wanted to give myself…

“You’re awfully quiet,” Natalie murmured after a few minutes of silence between us. “Everything go okay with the guys?”

I kissed the top of her head. “Yeah. It was fun, but I missed you,” I told her honestly. “All I could think about was coming back and doing this.”

She pulled back until she could see my face. “Oh yeah?” A small smile teased at her lips and I lowered my head to kiss them. Unable to resist tasting her, I skimmed my tongue over her soft bottom lip. When she moaned, I slowly lifted my head.

My body was one big ache for her, but I didn’t want to make love to her right then and ruin the peace that had settled over me right then. “Can we just hold each other?” I lifted a hand and traced my thumb over her cheek.

Her lashes lowered in pleasure, a soft sigh escaping her. “Yeah,” she breathed. “That sounds perfect to me.”

Natalie

I didn’t know how Emmie did what she does. Between kids, work, and handling everything down to the smallest detail would have driven any normal woman batshit crazy long before now.

I had to admit, however, that helping her with Wroth’s special surprise for Marissa was fun. And seeing the look on Marissa’s face when Wroth asked her to marry him brought tears to my eyes. The wedding that followed was beautiful and I sat between Linc and Zander as the bride was kissed breathlessly.

From across the aisle, sitting with Harris and Jenna, Devlin shot me a steamy look and I bit my lip to keep my moan of anticipation from escaping. I knew that look and knew that he would be tearing my clothes off me as soon as we were closed off in our roost tonight. That look had my panties dripping and thinking of how soon we could leave the party that Emmie was throwing back in the parking lot where our buses were.

Maybe we could sneak off and have a quickie on the bus during the party. I hoped so, because I didn’t think I could handle going much longer without the feel of him inside of me.

When I felt an elbow nudge my arm, I was forced to pull my attention away from Devlin and look up at Zander. “What?” I whispered.

“Shane is watching you and Dev eye-fuck each other.” Zander nodded his head toward where my brother was sitting with Harper and Jenna.

I glanced over and saw him staring hard from me to Devlin and then back again. I could actually see the wheels turning in my brother’s head. When he caught my eye on him, he lifted a brow and I forced a smile for him. His jaw clenched and he turned around without returning my smile.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Zander draped an arm around my shoulders. “I have a feeling that your bro is going to be kicking someone’s ass before the end of the night.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “But maybe he won’t tell Drake.” I could hope at least.

When Wroth finally let Marissa up for air, we all followed the newlyweds out to the parking lot, throwing confetti at them as they got into the back of the limo. I stayed far away from my brother and Devlin, hoping that Zander had been wrong and that as long as I avoided both of them, Shane would just let it go.

When everyone was climbing into the vans that had brought us out to the warehouse, I climbed into the back with Linc and Rhett since that van only had one seat left. I watched from the side window as Devlin shot a glare in my direction before climbing into the van across from mine. Damn, I hadn’t wanted him to get mad. Just wanted to protect him from Shane’s wrath for a little longer. From the third van I saw Shane glancing around and when his eyes landed on Devlin, I knew that Zander had called it right.

From the front of the bus Zander was watching exactly what I was watching. When he blew out a long, worried breath I met his gaze and gave him a grim smile. We both knew that by the end of the night someone was going to be bloody, and most likely it was going to be him and Devlin.

The ride back to the buses took over an hour. It was too much time to have to worry about what Shane was going to do. I could picture the conversation going on the bus that he’d be pulled into by Harper. Drake and the other Demons were also in the same van along with Jenna and Emmie.

Ten minutes into the ride, I got a text from Jenna saying that the shit had officially hit the fan. Another text quickly followed from Emmie who said that all the Demons were now pissed. I leaned forward and beat my forehead against the seat in front of me.

“Going to start up another headache,” Linc warned.

“Already got one,” I told him, but I sat back and looked at Zander. “So, what would you like written on your tombstone?”

He laughed—actually laughed—and it made a small smile lift my lips. Leave it to Zander to find his impending death hilarious. “I think ‘Here Lies Stupid’ would be appropriate.” He pointed to the bus behind us, the one that had Devlin on board with his son and a few members of Trance and Alchemy. “But his should probably read, ‘Here lies Stupider’.”

“That’s original,” Rhett muttered, hiding his grin.

“You should probably warn the poor dude,” Linc said, but I already had Devlin’s name pulled up on my messages.

Me: Shane knows about us.

Less than a second later he sent a reply. About time. Maybe now u won’t run and hide from me with fucking Z. Or did you WANT to go with him?

I blinked down at my phone for several seconds before the message finally made sense. Did he really think that I’d picked this van because of Zander? Was he jealous and that was why he’d been shooting me the death glare before we’d left the warehouse?