He saw it anyway and it made him move.

Before I knew it he was naked and in the bed and I was wrapped around him again and he was inside of me, thrusting into me with urgency and need that took me toward climax.

Twice.

Afterward, I curled into him, my body and mind so filled with contentment, sleep came for me easily.

I was almost out when another cry lit the air, this time louder and more feminine.

I moved to slip out from Marco’s arms and he tightened his hold. “I’ll go,” he said.

“My turn,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his shoulder before I left.

I pulled on my discarded nighty and tugged a robe on around it and padded down the carpeted hallway to my daughter’s room at the other side of the house.

She was sitting up in her bed, clutching at her duvet, the nightlight in the room showing tears in her eyes.

An ache moved through me at the sight and I hurried over to her, pulling her into my arms. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Mummy,” she hiccupped and clutched me tight.

I could only assume it was the disruption to her sleep tonight that set her off, so I lay back against the headboard and murmured the story of Cinderella to her until I finally felt her warm little body go limp against me. Carefully as possible, I settled her comfortably and tip toed back out.

Not wanting to wake Marco, I slid back into bed and curled up on my side.

Not two seconds later the mattress dipped and I felt his heat along the length of me as he put his arm around me and pulled me into him.

“Angel okay?” he said sleepily.

“She’s okay.”

“Good.” He kissed my neck. “Love you.” His soft snores followed quickly on the heels of those two words.

I smiled, my eyelids drooping with exhaustion. “Love you, too.”

Shannon and Cole

My eyes were boring holes into the wall.

The buzz of a needle had not sounded for the last few minutes and still Cole hadn’t appeared out of his room with the stunning brunette whose eyes had lit up at the sight of him like a kid’s on a present-surrounded Christmas tree.

I grumbled under my breath and propped my elbow on the reception desk and my chin in the cup of my palm. I continued to glare at the wall, the glare turning into a full on glower at the sound of a feminine giggle.

I huffed and pushed back on my chair restlessly, flailing my arms out to balance myself when the chair threatened to topple backwards with the power of my aggressive restlessness.

Everyone else had left INKarnate, the tattoo studio in Leith that we worked in. I was the full time receptionist and would continue to be the full time receptionist until I started art college after the summer. Then I’d drop to part time. Cole, my fiancé, was the manager and head tattooist. Stu owned the place but his visits were rare now. Rae, my best friend and ex flatmate, was the tattooist and tattoo removal specialist, and Simon, gorgeous, alpha-man gay Simon, was our other tattooist and piercings guy.

Both of them had gone home to their respective lovers an hour ago.

Why?

Because it was Valentine’s Day.

Actually it was Cole’s and my first Valentine’s Day together… and he was tattooing some flirty, giggling stunner while I waited impatiently for him to finish up.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered out at the street that was artificially lit up by street lights and the headlamps of passing vehicles. Now, I knew for a fact that Cole was not flirting back with the brunette. Somehow, after everything I’d been through, I managed to find the one guy in the world who looked like something out of a really sexy Greek myth (yes, he was that gorgeous), had the principles of a Disney hero, the style and attitude of a biker, the soul of an artist, and the honor and skills of an honest to goodness warrior.

I may have thought about how to describe Cole perfectly a lot. Really a lot.

Now of course he wasn’t perfect. If he was perfect we’d be on our first Valentine’s Day date by now, but he was definitely one of the good ones, which was why I trusted him implicitly.

Even when he had sexy women on his tattoo chair.

“Shortcake.”

I whipped around to see Cole standing in the doorway of the back hall where the tattoo rooms were. “Yeah?”

He nodded his head toward his room. “My customer is feeling faint. Do you have any chocolate?”

Hmm. The very suspicious part of me wondered how a girl could go from giggling to feeling faint all of a sudden. I swept my gaze over my fiancé, taking in his very tall, very athletic build. The tattoos, the scruff, and that face. And those eyes. Those green eyes that could make my underwear melt right off of me.

Yeah, I wasn’t buying that his customer felt faint.

I smiled sweetly. “I’ll bring some in.”

He smiled back at me. “Thanks, sweetheart. We’ll get out of here shortly.”

I nodded and he disappeared back to his room. Grabbing the chocolate from the mini-fridge in the cupboard behind my desk, I then hurried over to one of the mirrors we had set up in the studio so people could look at piercings or tattoos or whatever. When the brunette had first gone into Cole’s room for her appointment I’d changed into my dress for our date. I’d then covered it up with my coat so Cole wouldn’t see it until we were ready to go.

It was time to disband with that idea. I shrugged off the coat and dumped it on the couch. Staring at my reflection I gave myself a careful nod. I was wearing an LBD. My favorite one actually. Cole liked me in black. This one he’d seen me in but he didn’t get to appreciate it fully because we weren’t together. I wore it to his birthday party last year when there was animosity, misunderstanding and incredible sexual tension between us.