“You have a girl’s name tattooed on you?”
That had him rolling his eyes. “Let me tell you, yeah?”
I widened my eyes, watching as he gave his shirt another tug at the collar.
“I’ve got some tattoos…”
“I know. I’ve seen some of them.”
He shot me a look as he scrubbed at his head again. “Luna, I gotta tell you before I show you, all right?”
I nodded.
“I told you what I did with about twenty years of my life.”
I nodded because he had. How could I forget he’d been in a freaking motorcycle gang… club… whatever it was called?
“I got a lot of tattoos from those days, and I haven’t gotten around to covering them up,” he said in a quiet voice, and something justpulledat my heart. It just yanked it tight and crazy.
I loved this man. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.
“Rip, I don’t care about your tattoos from back then,” I told him gently. “Unless you have another girl’s name on you somewhere, but you don’t, right?”
His face instantly softened so much I couldn’t help but smile. “Quit with the dumbass questions, yeah? And no, I don’t fucking have somebody’s name on me.”
“Okay then.” I tipped my chin up. “You have gang tattoos. Thank you for telling me.”
“They’re notgangtattoos.”
“Club tattoos, whatever you want to call it.” I raised my eyebrows and wiggled my fingers in the sliver of space between our bodies. “Show me the goods.”
His laugh took the edge off his word. “Luna—”
“I’m being serious,” I told him carefully. “I don’t care.” I held my hand out for him and opened and closed it to get him to come closer to me. “None of us are who we used to be, and luckily for you, I think you’re the hottest man on the entire planet, and that’s with me only seeing you fully clothed.” I smiled. “Show me.”
Rip watched me with those heavy eyes, and the breath he took in and then out was deep and rough.
I recognized the uncertain expression that made the lines at his eyes deepen, and it made my heart clench up again.
I loved this man. I had loved this man for a long time, but I had never loved him more than I did right in that moment as he stood there, with dread in his eyes. Because he was worried what I would think.
“Come here,” I said again, smiling.
The tiny little breath he took in through his nose just made me love him even more.
So I gestured him toward me again. “I don’t think I ever told you about how many times I stole things from the grocery store or from people’s wallets.”
This huge man blinked. “You?” he asked, but it sounded more like he didn’t believe me.
And that only made me smile wider as I nodded. “Yeah, me. If it was small enough for me to hide it in my hoodie pocket, I was taking it. I was hungry, and I didn’t want to spend my money when I started to run out,” I explained, not struggling at all to remember what that Luna had felt when I’d gotten to the last of my money.
“I stole all kinds of things before that too. Usually candy from the convenience store since no one ever took me to the store or anything like that. And when I could take money from my parents, I’d go back and give the owner money. I’m pretty sure that old man knew exactly what I was doing, but he never called me out on it or called the police on me.”
Ripley took a step forward as his fingers dropped away from the collar of his shirt. “They never got you candy?”
I shook my head. “I used to make my own birthday cakes.” I shrugged. “After I stole the cake mixes from the grocery store. My dad loved milk and eggs, so there was always some at the house. He’d always give me money for that.” I blinked. “He’d ask for his receipt and make sure I brought every penny back.”
This man took another step closer to me. “February thirteenth, yeah?”
