Draw (Gentry Boys #1)(84)

I checked my phone. “I got about an hour before I got to show up.”

When my cousin Declan had called following his run in with Saylor, I told him I was interested in his offer to show me the ink trade. Deck somehow got around everywhere and knew everyone. He got me in at a local shop on sort of an apprentice basis. Surprisingly, customers flipped over my designs and I liked the work. It wasn’t the mass payout of a fight but it was steady and it was good. I couldn’t go on forever getting my head knocked around, not when I had a reason to think about the future.

Saylor was being dreamy, looking down at her ring. I’d been almost embarrassed to give it to her. It wasn’t the kind of ring girls showed other girls. It was nothing fancy; just a slim band of sterling silver with a few words etched into it. But holy shit did she go nuts over it. She cried and hugged me and then dragged me into the bedroom to f*ck like crazy. I didn’t call it an engagement ring because that was a stupid word which smacked of dull formality. But she was mine and someday soon we were going to stand up in front of anyone who wanted to hear about it and speak the words.

I pushed her hair out of the way so I could see her face more clearly. “What are you thinking?”

She smiled broadly. “I’m going to be a Gentry.”

“You don’t have to change your name if you don’t want to.”

“Are you kidding?” she laughed, kissing me, and then resting her chin on my chest. Her pretty green eyes twinkled. “I can’t wait.”

I pinched her ass lightly. “Historically, being a Gentry isn’t exactly a point of pride.”

“Well,” she answered with stubbornness. “History is about to be transformed. I’ll be proud, Cord. Proud to be next to you and proud to be a Gentry. It’s who you are.”

I heard Chase getting up and banging around in the kitchen. I figured maybe it was time we took the leash off and let him bang around something else for a change.

“You want to go out tonight after work? Us and the boys?”

“Oh, we’re letting Chase out now?”

“Yeah,” I grinned, listening to him curse loudly in the next room. “I think it’s time to inflict Chasyn on society again.”

Saylor paused. “You think Creed will come too?”

My thoughts darkened as I thought of my other brother. He still owed a big favor which could be called in at any time. Whether it took a day or six months, Gabe was going to come for his fighter. There was no doubt about it. When that happened we would just need to deal with it the same way we’d dealt with everything. Together.

“He’ll probably come,” I shrugged.

Saylor licked at my earlobe. “Will you come for me, big boy?”

“I just did. You forget?”

“No,” she purred, getting all frisky again. “When we’re out tonight I want to do something bad with you.”

I spite of our recent workout I was getting interested. “Like what?”

Saylor had a vivid imagination. It served me well. She licked her lips and said all kinds of creative things involving my body and her body.

“Shit, you’re dirty,” I groaned. “In the best f*cking way.”

“That’s why you love me.”

“It’s one of the reasons.”

She flushed and glanced down, looking all serious in the way which always made my heart ache. “I’m so lucky,” she whispered.

I grabbed her and held on tight. She was a damn miracle. She really was. Sometimes I didn’t know how to tell her that but as she sighed in my arms I realized she knew. I’d make sure she never forgot it.

Saylor moved her palm to my chest and I closed my hand around hers, feeling the hard shape of the ring on her finger and thinking of the words which had been carved into its surface. The same ones which had been carved into her skin.

Amor vincit omnia.

Love really does conquer all.

We had taught each other that.

In this life it was the only lesson worth learning.




THE END