I reach over and thread my fingers through her delicate ones while I readjust my hand on the wheel. “It’s gonna be alright, babe. Give them time to adjust.”

She bites her bottom lip to try and keep it from quivering. “How can you say that after how they treated you? I hate them.”

I bring her knuckles to my mouth and kiss them gently. “No you don’t. You’re angry right now. I’m used to people treating me like that. Before I became ‘Riff’ days like today were what my life was like. People, especially ones with money, would watch me like a hawk, thinking in their head I was a thief and a low life.”

“Didn’t you hate that? Being treated like a criminal?”

I glance over at her beautiful questioning face. “It wasn’t exactly a fucking picnic, but I get that some people don’t understand rock culture and tattoos are just another outlet for us to express creativity.”

She looks down at her lap. “I’m sorry.”

I reach over and tap her chin up. “What are you sorry for, Kitten?”

Aubrey sighs. “For everything. For the shitty life you led, for the way people treated you and above all how my family treated you. I expected so much more from them. I thought they would at least have enough faith in me to trust my judgment and see you are a great person—someone I love.”

I pull into the first decent hotel I see and park the Fusion. I pivot in the seat and turn her face in my hands and force her to look at me. “No one has ever stood up for me like that before—chosen me over basically their entire world. It means a lot that you did that, but I also want you to know even if they treat me like shit, I always want you to have a relationship with your family.”

“Zach, I won’t have anything to do with them if they don’t accept you.”

I stare into her green eyes. “They don’t have to accept me, Aubrey. All that matters to me is that you do. You know my darkest secrets, and all the fucked up details that make me who I am, and you haven’t run for the hills screaming. I’ll do anything for you. Anything. I want you to be happy and I don’t want you to fight with your parents over me. I don’t want you to resent me one day.”

A tear leaks from her right eye. “I would never resent you. Ever.”

I brush away the fallen tears from her face with my thumbs and lean in to press my lips against hers. “I love you, Kitten. I’ll always treat you right.”

After I pay for a room at the front desk, we take the elevator up to the fifth floor and roll our luggage down the hall to our room. I swipe the room card and open the door, ushering my girl inside. It’s a typical king-sized bedroom, with neutral walls and white bedding.

Aubrey flops down on the bed and kicks off her shoes. Her bare legs dangle off the side, and the green dress she’s wearing rides up her thighs as she stretches her arms above her head. She’s fucking beautiful and perfect. There’s nothing about this girl that doesn’t turn me on. Instantly, the need to hold her in my arms overwhelms me and I can’t help but give in to it.

I remove the hat I’m wearing and toss it to the empty chair in the room before I crawl into bed next to her. On my side facing her, I prop my head up with my left hand and stare down at her. I trace the bare skin on her left shoulder before slipping my fingers under the spaghetti-strap holding up dress. It hooks with ease around my index finger and I slide it down, exposing the top of her left breast. A white lacey bra covers her nipple, but I pull my fingertips down the curve of her breast and feel its silky-softness. My cock jerks in my jeans from the simple contact and almost as if she knows how fucking turned on I’m getting she smiles the most perfect smile.

Aubrey opens her eyes and brings her hand up to my cheek, touching it softly, and I turn my face into it, kissing her wrist and inhaling the sweet scent of her perfume. Before her I was lost, constantly at war with myself. I didn’t believe I was worthy of a love so simple and pure. It’s something I still battle with, but with each passing day I grow a little more at ease with having something so great in my life. I fucking love this woman, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Aubrey and my band are all that matter to me in this fucked up world.

“What are you thinking?” she whispers as she stares into my eyes.

I lean down to kiss her lips, and the necklace I’m wearing rests on her chest. “About how lucky I am to have you.”

She bites her lip. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Liar,” I say and then kiss the tip of her nose.

She pulls my mouth back down to hers. “Let me prove it to you.”

“You’ll get no arguments from me, babe.”

Her leg swings around and hooks on my hip as she pushes her weight against me, throwing me back against the bed. Long strands of hair frame her face as she straddles me and shoves my shirt up in order to rake her nails down my abs.

I suck in a quick breath from the amazing feeling of pleasure and pain it creates. “Fuck.”

I sit up, wrapping my arms around her before crushing my lips to hers and plunging my tongue in her mouth. A soft moan vibrates out of her mouth and I feel the sound it makes as I deepen the kiss. My hand runs up her back and then threads into her thick hair. My dick strains against my jeans, begging for entrance into my most favorite place on the planet—buried deep in her pussy.

She tosses her head back and I drag my lips down her neck to her collar bone. “God, Zach. I want you.”