“A few days ago.”

He frowned. “Let me take a look? It shouldn’t still be that painful.”

“I don’t want you looking at my butt!”

He raised an eyebrow at her mortified expression. “I’ve seen it before, babe.”

“Yes, but that was different.” She pouted, hugging Baxter close as if he would protect her from Travis’s prying eyes. “And don’t call me ‘babe.’ ”

Ignoring her objections, he stepped toward her and spun her around so she was facing away from him. As he reached out and eased her skirt up, bunching it around her waist like a belt, she sucked in a breath and steadied herself on the counter. Despite the erotic nature of their position and the way he peeled back her panties to look beneath, he wasn’t thinking sexual thoughts when he laid his eyes on her tattoo.

“Jesus, Billie.” Not only was the skin raw and puffing along the ink lines, it was swollen. It was one of the mostly badly infected tattoos he’d ever seen, but not so bad that he couldn’t make out the design. That was no dog on her right butt cheek, it was his name and his bike—he guessed a miniature image of the picture she’d sketched, the picture he had yet to see. Something primal shifted inside him.

“I thought the pain was normal,” she whispered.

He was more off balance than he’d ever felt in his life. This mark wasn’t in pen like the pictures his mom had drawn on his skin when he was a child. This was permanent. “Why’d you get it?”

“Because I’m a fool.” She tugged away from him, yanked down her skirt and glared at him again. “For some crazy reason I fell in love with you and believed you when you told me you felt the same way. I got this so that every time we had sex, you’d be reminded of what you meant to me and also to show my willingness to accept and become part of your way of life.”

Each word she uttered felt like another tug of barbed wire closing around his heart. She was angry, raw and laying her heart on the line.

“Then why’d you go see Lorna behind my back? You know how I feel about her.”

“I do.” She sighed, sounding defeated. “But you never told me I couldn’t see your mother and, as I made clear, if you did I would have told you to go to hell. Not because I want to be best friends with Lorna, not because I don’t love you, but because I have some self-respect. I’m not going to be ordered around by anyone anymore.”

He raked a hand through his hair, frustrated because a part of him respected and admired her stance. But…his mother?

“And I understand why you feel the way you do,” she continued. “Lorna was a pretty monumental fuck-up, but she has to live with her guilt about that forever. I know what you think, but she’s not a bad person. Just like you’re not a bad person either. You’ve both done some bad things, but they’re not who you are.”

“And that was your plan?” He was desperately trying to hold on to his anger. “To bring me around to your way of thinking? To set up some kind of mediation between me and her?”

“I’ll admit, I thought about that to start with, but that was before I gave you my heart. Then I realized that no matter what I felt, something like that had to be your decision and my only business was to love you as you are. I hoped that for your sake, one day you’d be able to let go of your anger, but the other day when I went to Lorna’s it was to tell her that I wouldn’t sneak around behind your back. It was to say goodbye.”

And that was it. He believed her. No one had ever truly loved him before, but he knew he could trust her. Her love had changed him. Unable to put how he felt into words, all he could do was pull her into his arms and kiss her like mad.

Kiss her like he never wanted to let go. Which he didn’t.

—

Travis’s lips crashing down on Billie’s was the last thing she expected, and she froze for a moment in shock. Then the thoughts invaded—what did this mean? Had he changed his mind about her? How did she feel about that? Next came the feelings, the taste of him as his tongue pushed into her mouth, the familiar sensations deep inside her as he cupped his hands around her face and rocked his body against hers. He was hard, and she wanted him like an addict wanted her next fix.

But, summoning all the willpower she had, she tore her lips from his and pushed her hands against his solid chest—she needed more than just a quick fuck up against the counter. Quite aside from the fact that she wasn’t sure her butt could handle such an act in its sensitive state, she loved this man, and it would break her heart to be with him and then watch him run again.

“What are you doing?” She panted a little, trying to catch her breath.

“I’m kissing my woman. I’ve missed it.” He stepped closer again, but she increased the pressure of her palms on his chest.

“Whoa…let’s slow down a moment. You don’t evict someone you care about, you don’t order her around, you don’t—”

He interrupted her. “Do you want me to grovel? Because I will.”

“Huh?” Her head spun.

“Maybe I’m not making myself clear.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and she tried not to mourn the loss of them on her skin. It would be easier to maintain her head if there was distance between them. “I’m sorry, Billie. I shouldn’t have told you who you can and can’t see. I fucked up. No one’s ever offered me love or any kind of shit like that and I just…I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’m even considering talking to Lorna. Do you know how scary all that is?”

His lips lifted at the edges, and she felt the tension and sadness that had been plaguing her these last few days ebbing away. “I didn’t think anything scared you, Cash.”

He chuckled, reached out and brushed his thumb over her finger. Her nerve endings stood to attention; the gesture was sweet and hot all at once. “Love does,” he admitted. “It fucking terrifies me. You do, too. The thought of losing you is scarier than anything I’ve ever faced before. And trust me, I’ve faced some pretty scary shit.”

“So you’ve told me.”

“Yes.” He lowered his head and leaned his forehead against hers. “And yet you still want to be with me. At least I hope you still do.”

“I do,” she whispered. “And I promise you I’ll never go behind your back about anything else ever again. I only went to see your mom without telling you because I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Shh. I know everything you do is with the best intentions. You’re too fucking good for anything else.”

“I can be bad if I want to,” she protested, thinking of the tattoo on her butt and all the naughty things she’d done with him.

“And I like the bad you just as much as the good you.”

Her lady bits flared in anticipation and desire. She gave him her most seductive smile. “Wanna show me?”

“Yes.” He nodded, smoldering heat in his tone and his eyes. “Definitely yes, but first I think I need to do some first aid.”

“What?”

“Your ass.” He pointed toward her butt.

“Oh, that.” Funny, his kiss and his confession had almost obliterated the pain.

With a chuckle, Travis took her hand and led her into the bedroom. With a gentleness she’d never expected of a big, bad biker, he hunted down first aid supplies and started tending her butt.

She lay flat on her stomach on the bed, her backside fully exposed, yet under his soft caress it wasn’t long before she forgot about her wound. Instead of pain, when he touched her, all she felt was heat and need and want.

“Travis,” she hissed, squeezing her thighs together as his fingers rubbed in some kind of antiseptic cream. “Forget about playing Florence Nightingale—I’ve got other needs that need seeing to.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of needs?” he asked, crawling up her body and lowering his mouth to her ear.

“Um…” She couldn’t think with his breath so close to her neck. “Carnal ones?”

In reply, he pressed his mouth against her neck, biting her, branding her, making her want him more than she thought possible. “I think I can help with those as well.”