it. I hugged him, and after a small hesitation, he hugged me back. But it only lasted a few seconds before I pulled back and pointed my finger in his face as I glared up at him. “This means nothing. I’m still mad at you for everything.”
His mouth tilted up on one side in a sad excuse for a smile. “That’s okay. I’m still pissed at myself for everything, too.” He grabbed my shoulders, turned me, and I came face-to-face with Jagger. “See ya later, Shaw,” Luca said with a hard laugh as he left me there to face down a pissed-off rocker.
Dressed in black slacks, a blue button-up, and his hair styled back from his face, Jagger looked edible as his angry yet hungry eyes ate up the sight of me.
He caught my hips in his hands and pulled me into his heat, forcing me to bite back a whimper at how damn good it felt to be back in his arms. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
I lifted one brow as I lost the battle to keep my hands to myself and flattened them against his chest. “That was kind of the point. I needed time to think, and so did you.”
“Thinking is overrated,” he breathed as he lowered his head and trailed his lips down my neck. The overcrowded bar disappeared around us, and I dropped my hands, clutching at his arms to steady myself. “I know what I want. You.”
Reality set back in, and I turned my head so he couldn’t distract me with his lips. “All of me?”
“Every last inch,” he said, with such conviction, I began to melt against him. “I hate your job, but I won’t let it come between us, Dimples.”
“I don’t want it to come between us either.” I tilted my head back and smiled. “So, I was thinking.”
His eyes narrowed. “That could be dangerous.”
I playfully tapped him on the cheek—hard—but snickered. “I talked to Gina and told her to put in all of my future contracts with any and all clients that I refuse to do any commercials or ads of any kind where I have to kiss or be in a sexually compromising situation with anyone. The skimpy bikini and outfit issue isn’t something I can change because most of my contracts are with clothing lines that require I model their products, and they are typically small for a reason.”
Releasing my hips, he cupped both sides of my face as wonder filled his eyes. “You did that for me?”
“I love my job, but I love you more,” I told him honestly. “And while I’m not willing to give up my career, I will make compromises so I don’t lose you.”
“Baby, you’ll never lose me,” he vowed as he lowered his head. “No matter what. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing,” I murmured, lifting up to meet his lips halfway. “But it’s really the only thing I’ve ever wanted.”
Chapter 36
Jagger
As soon as we got home, I wasted no time in talking Shaw into moving in with me. Although she didn’t want to label it as us living together.
Mia snorted her drink out her nose when I told her that we were calling Shaw’s things scattered around the apartment, her simply being on an extended sleepover.
“That sounds so familiar,” my sister had snickered when she was able to catch her breath after laughing herself silly. We were going to have dinner together with our parents that night, and Mia had stopped to pick us up so we could ride together with the excuse that she missed me and wanted to spend a little extra time with Shaw and me. But I knew it was because she’d been so nosy about our relationship since the wedding. “Where have I heard that before?”
“It wasn’t an ‘extended sleepover,’” Barrick corrected her as he pressed a kiss to her forehead, making her sigh happily. “It was an ‘indefinite sleepover,’ firecracker.”
“Whatever,” she said with a roll of her green eyes. “It’s the same thing. You watch, little brother. You’ll have a ring on her finger before you know it.”
I didn’t argue with her on it. For one, because Shaw had come into the kitchen at that moment, announcing she was ready to go. For another, because I’d already been looking at rings. Maybe it was moving fast, but I knew what I wanted, and that was Shaw as my wife.
The need to put my ring on her