and me a little time to leave our past behind and move on to something different. I think we were both so used to the roles we played that when the roles disappeared, we really didn’t know what to do with ourselves. The money my mom gave us helped support us until we figured it out. With some help and guidance from Micah, Shepherd started working as a bodyguard. While I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of Shepherd putting himself in danger, he promised to only take jobs that were safer.
“Good. I have a job next week, but I promise I’ll be safe and boring,” he assures me.
I grin. “Just the way I like it.”
When he first suggested it, I was hesitant, but after he explained to me that he wanted to do something to help people in order to make up for the wrong he’d done, it was like everything clicked.
I needed something like that, something to make up for what I did. Something to make the burden of guilt a little easier to handle. So I started to go to school for technology, specifically in the hopes that I can branch toward cybercrime investigation or something.
“Don’t you miss me being badass?” Shepherd asks.
I roll onto my side to watch him. “Honestly? No. I like you alive and healthy and well. And mine.”
“I’m always yours. You don’t have to worry about that,” he says as he kisses me.
“Good.” I slip my fingers between his and feel the cool metal of his ring.
“Dave wants to know if we’ll come over for supper, and if we do can we keep from reminding him about how he sold us to your father.”
“Tell him I’ll stop bringing it up when I’ve forgiven him,” I say.
“I thought your joke about the mashed potatoes being drugged last time was really funny. Especially because Esther was extremely confused. She thought we brought some weed,” he says.
“Good. I hold grudges.”
“I’ve been with you over two years, I know that quite well,” he says with a grin.
I glare at him. “You’re not funny or cute when you say shit like that.” I try to push away from him but he rolls into me and wraps me in his arms.
“Don’t run away.”
“But I want to run away,” I say. “The only thing that might keep me near is if you take your pants off.”
He snorts as he unbuttons his pants. “What about this? You gonna leave me now?”
“Depends what’s in those pants of yours.”
“You think you’re special enough to find out?” he teases.
“I am more than aware that I’m special enough to find out,” I say as I point at the newly placed ring on my finger.
Once he sits up, he pulls me onto his lap before trying to pick me up. My weight must put him off balance because he immediately staggers and nearly drops me.
“Put me down! I want to enjoy this! Not go to the hospital!”
“No! I will carry you to my bed,” he says as he lifts me up.
“But now it’s not like a sexy carry, it’s me clinging onto you in horror carry,” I say as I hold on to him tightly.
“The best kind,” he jokes as he heads toward the house. He’s still determined to be romantic and shows it by squeezing my ass and kissing my lips while I cling onto him like I’m determined he’s going to drop me off the side of a mountain. “Your lips say you’ve been waiting for me all day and your body is saying that you’re closed for business,” Shepherd says.
I start laughing as I loosen the grip on him. “You nearly dropped me! I was just trying to survive.”
“Nearly is not the same as actually dropping you,” he reminds me.
“True,” I say as I cup his cheek to aim his mouth toward mine before kissing him.
“Now you’re making it hard for me to see where I’m going when all I can see is your face,” he says.
“I believe in you.”
“Says the man who literally didn’t trust me three seconds ago.”
“Yes, yes. This is what marriage is like. A mixture of being terrified and turned on.”
He grins as he carries me into the bedroom and drops me on the bed. “Is it?”
“Definitely,” I say.
“I think it’s the ability to wear no pants all the time,” he says as he unbuttons my pants and whips them off. “Ooh, let’s see that naked booty.”
I roll over and pull the edge of my underwear down enough for