"Why?" I cut the distance between us, stopping close enough so that I could slip my fingers beneath the band of his jeans. Warm skin greeted the backs of my fingers.
Dex reached up and pulled the elastic out of my messy bun. "'Cuz." He twisted the hair around his fingers, not watching my eyes. "I didn't want anybody botherin' you."
How the heck was I still standing?
"You think I want that douche-bag comin' around for you when your pa didn't pay up? Fuckin' asshole wasn’t even plannin’ on payin’ them back, babe."
I thought it was a little less him not remembering and a little more him just not choosing to remember. Dick head.
Dex's fingers made their way to my temple, the tips sliding down, down, down behind my ears and the column of my throat. "Don't like thinkin' about him wantin' you."
Him as in Liam.
Oh boy.
Everything in me that had been crushed and stomped on by my father's careless words and stupid actions, regenerated itself with Dex's touch and words. Slipping my fingers out of his jeans, I reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it up enough to bare the lower half of his abs.
"I'll pay you back the rest of the money," I promised, slipping my hand up his shirt to palm the space between his pecs. "It'll take me a while but—"
Dex's hands cupped the top of my head, stroking me tenderly. "No."
"I'm serious. I promise I'll pay you back—"
"No," he repeated. "You aren't payin' me back a cent."
Discomfort tingled the back of my neck. I owed him for a lot of things, but almost ten thousand was too much. The last thing I wanted was for him to think that I wanted to take advantage of him. "I am."
"No. You won't. Ritz, look at me." I tipped my eyes up to meet his blue ones. "I don't give a shit about the money. I'll make more."
A groan vibrated through my throat. "It's too much."
His lips pulled into a grim line, eyes searching mine. He wanted to argue with me, I could tell. But he didn't. That beautiful face was tight. "You wanna pay me back? Enroll in school and take over all the accountin' for the Club and the shop, yeah?"
My mouth drooped. "That's not the same."
"I'm not sayin' for a few months or somethin', baby. I'm sayin' you take it over from now on," he clarified.
From now on.
Oh friggin' hell.
"Take it or leave it," he murmured, his mouth losing that tight vector. "Don't care one way or another."
This man. “It’s too much money. Way too much money, Charlie. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“You’re not, babe. I know you and you know me. Either take the offer or leave it, but I’m not takin’ any of your money. You got the rest of your life to pay me back by doin’ shit I don’t like.”
My rib cage clenched all of the organs and muscles within it. It pulsed, full of life and warmth and gummy bears and glitter. This was... I don't know how to explain it—it was like Christmas morning when you were a kid. It was everything I’d wanted since my dad first left, in a way.
And there was nothing better than that.
"It's a deal," I agreed with him in a breathless whisper.
Each of his thumbs curved over the shells of my ears. "That's my girl."
His girl.
After all the crap that I'd gone through today, there couldn't have been three better words to hear.
Well, there were three other words I'd like to hear but I'd take these from him. That didn't mean that he was the only one who knew how to give. He'd given enough. My bones and heart knew that there was nothing for me to fear. I loved him and sometimes there were consequences of it that were scary, but it—the emotion itself—wasn't. I knew that now.
What kind of life was I living if I let my fears steer me? This was a gift I’d forgotten to appreciate lately. For so long I’d been happy to just be alive but now...now I had Dex. I had my entire life ahead of me, and I needed to quit being a wuss and grab life by the balls. In this case, I’d take his nipple piercings.
“What’cha thinkin’, Ritz?”
I held my hands out for him to see how badly they were shaking. “I’m thinking that I love you so much it scares me. See?”
Dex's thumbs tipped my chin back so that I could look at his face—at his beautiful, scruffy face. "Baby." He said my name like a purr that reached the vertebrae of my spine.
I curled my lips behind my teeth and took a deep breath, overwhelmed by the good things that nipped at my nervous system. "And even though it really scares the living crap out of me, I love you, and I want you to know that. Everything you've done for me..." Oh hell. I had to let out a long gust of breath. "Thank you. You're the best thing that ever yelled at me."
He murmured my name again, low and smooth. The pads of his thumbs dug a little deeper into the soft tissue on the underside of my jaw. "If all the shit I do for you, and all the shit I'd be willin' to do for you doesn't tell you how deep you've snuck into me, honey, then I'll tell you."
He lowered his mouth right next to my ear, his teeth nipping at my lobe before he whispered, "Love you."
The feeling that swamped me was indescribable.
He gave me hope. This big, ex-felon with a temper, reminded me of how strong I was, and then made me stronger on top of it.
"Dex," I exhaled his name.
He nipped my ear again. "I love you, Ritz." The scruff of his jaw scraped my own before he bit it gently. "Love your fuckin' face, your that's what she said jokes, your dorky ass high-fives and your arm, but I really fuckin' love how much of a little shit you are. You got nuts bigger than your brother, baby."
I choked out a laugh.
Dex tipped my head back even further, holding the weight on his long fingers as he bit the curve of my chin. "And those are gonna be my nuts, you little bad ass."
Fire shot straight through my chest. "Yeah?" I panted.
"Yeah." He nodded, biting my chin even harder. "I already told you I keep what's mine."
Epilogue
I was going to puke.
Literally.
"You're gonna have to pull over."
Sonny turned to look at me over his shoulder, eyes wide in exasperation. "Again?"
This was only the third time.
Well, the third time in the last hour.
The overly enthusiastic nod I gave him must have been enough for him to jerk the rental car over to the side of the road. The uneven payment made my stomach roll even harder. We'd barely come to a rolling stop when I threw the back passenger door open and jumped out, throwing up things that shouldn't have even been in my stomach after puking my guts out twice before.
To think that Dex's mom had told me I'd be suffering through this for the next two months.
Two months. If I was lucky.
Why? Why?
It wasn't as often anymore that I missed my mom but when the morning sickness had finally kicked in—just weeks after that friggin' test came back positive—it had hit me like a battering ram. Who would I go to for advice? I didn't know the first thing about....that. So even though I'd been excited—and terrified out of my mind—missing her, needing her, had dampened all of that those first few days.
Until I'd gone to the doctor and known for sure that my life would be changed forever.
Then again, I guess it'd only been a matter of time. I'd swear on my life that Dex had been working toward this goal from the moment...well, knowing that smug dick, probably from the moment he'd decided to tell his two best friends to—in his words—"Go fuck themselves."
"You okay, babe?" Two hands landed on my shoulders, kneading them as I stood hunched over the overgrown weeds.