I smiled slightly at the fact the dress my mom picked out was suitable for the back of a Harley.

"See you there, kids, don't take too long." Lucky winked at us and clutched Bex's hand, dragging her off while she hissed in his ear.

Asher yanked me flush with his body, stroking my hair. "We don't have to go, flower," he began softly.

I put my finger over his lips. "Yeah, we do," I replied. "That's your family. My family now, too. I want to," I told him firmly He frowned for a moment before his face cleared and he regarded me. "If it gets too much, promise you'll tell me?" he said firmly.

I kissed him lightly on the mouth. "I promise. But it's already too much," I murmured against his mouth. "But that's a good thing," I continued.

Asher made a sound in his throat and kissed me, not lightly.

Asher toyed with the simple, yet beautiful square cut vintage diamond on my finger.

"You happy, Mrs. Breslin?" he asked quietly.

I turned my head up to meet his eyes. "Yes," I replied simply. "I never thought it would be possible to be this happy ever again," I whispered.

Asher stroked my head. "I didn't think this kind of happiness even existed, babe. Being able to call you my wife, nothing's ever tasted sweeter on my tongue, apart from your pussy," he said in a low voice.

I squirmed, even though we had just thoroughly consummated our marriage, many times. We started in Asher's small room in the clubhouse. That was after we had a huge and boisterous welcome from a massive, intimidating crowd when we arrived. I'd swallowed the lump in my throat and smiled brightly at them all, taking all the congratulations and gruff well wishes in stride. Asher hadn't let me go the entire time. Not until Gwen and Amy had both descended on me with tears in their eyes.

"I can't believe you got married," Gwen squealed when she let me go.

"And that you didn't tell us," Amy added with a grin. "Good call. Biker weddings are the hardest things to plan, trust me," she said seriously, looking over to her husband with a small grin.

"I can't believe you got married," Gwen repeated.

Amy gave her a look. "Are your batteries malfunctioning?" she asked. "We got that memo. Plus, the dress is divine." She touched the fabric. "You are divine. Asher's right to lock this down. You're stunning, honey, though we knew that already."

I smiled shyly. "Thanks," I replied.

Gwen beamed. "And you're moving back to Amber, which means you can come back to the store," she managed to get to complete sentences. "After the honeymoon," she added hastily.

I laughed. "We don't get much of a honeymoon. I've got class on Monday."

Amy waggled her eyebrows. "You'll be surprised what your hubby can fit into two days."

I reddened slightly, my stomach tightening in expectation. It was like I was a virgin all over again. As if Asher had telepathic powers, I felt his hands on my waist, and he pulled me back into a firm chest.

"Excuse me, ladies," he murmured. "I'm going to have to steal my wife away."

Amy winked at him. "Yeah, you do."

Gwen blew me a kiss as Asher dragged me through the bodies and directed me to a familiar room.

He closed the door, the party a dull rumble in the background.

"I know it's not hearts and flowers or glamorous," he explained, grasping my hips, "but this is where you gave me the greatest gift I've ever received. Where I fell in love with my shy and beautiful little flower. I wanted our first time as husband as wife to be here," he murmured against my mouth, his hand snaking up the skirt of my dress.

I sucked in a breath when his finger danced at the edge of my panties. "It's perfect," I replied throatily.

He smiled against my mouth. "You're perfect," he countered. His mouth covered mine at the same moment his finger entered me, and I gasped into his mouth.

The kiss that had started reverent and gentle turned frantic. I was suddenly desperate for him, to get him inside me. Asher seemed to feel the same as his finger left me and my panties came off in a rip. His mouth plundered my mouth while he lifted me, pressing me against the door. I wrapped my legs around his hips and clawed at his back.

"This isn't going to be gentle, flower," Asher growled against my mouth.

"Good," I replied, breathless. "I don't need gentle. I need real. I need you. I need us," I pleaded.

Seconds after the words left my mouth Asher plunged inside me, rough, hard and amazing. His forehead rested against mine, and he pumped into me mercilessly. I took every inch he gave me, ecstasy overwhelming every inch of me.

"It's just us. You and me, babe," Asher grunted out. "Forever."

I cried out as he brought me to the edge of the precipice. "Forever," I repeated.

After he had rocked my world and cleaned himself from me tenderly, Asher straightened, a strange look on his face.

"I meant to show you this before, but I didn't realize how much of a sex demon my little wife was," he teased lightly, though his eyes were hesitant.

I grinned at him lazily. "Show me what?"

He stared at me a moment longer before unbuttoning the collar of his shirt. I gasped when he unveiled his chest.

My fingers trailed around the edge of the red skin of his pec. Tears blurred my vision as I stared at the skin covering his heart. At the fresh tattoo. It was beautiful. A watercolor lily that dripped with every color of the rainbow, my name scrawled underneath it. I remember the words he had uttered in this very room, almost four years ago.

"Tattoos are for life, apart from the club, I've never loved anything that much to commit to a lifelong reminder of it on my body."

I looked closer and the breath got caught in my lungs. I tore my gaze up from his chest.

"Is this?" I choked out.

Asher's eyes softened. "Yeah, babe, saw it when I was in her studio," he told me gently A single tear trailed down my cheek, and I moved my attention back to his chest. To the flower that my mom had painted. The one that was mounted on a wall in her studio.

"You're my muse, baby girl. My beautiful Lily. The thing that lights up my life," Mom had told me when I was twelve, right after we moved to Amber. It was the first thing she painted.

"Do you like it?" he asked, a strange kind of uncertainty in his voice.

"Like it?" I repeated. My eyes met his once more. "There aren't words to describe how much this means to me. How perfect this is," I whispered. "This is the greatest thing anyone's ever done for me."

Asher smiled and wiped away my tear with his thumb. "Get used to this feeling, Lily. This is what you deserve. What I'm gonna give you," he promised.

After today, I found myself believing him. Believing the worst might be behind me. And that we might ride away into the horizon to something better.

Hours later, we lay in bed in a beautiful room in "The Cottage." It had been a surprise wedding gift from Mia and Bull. Mia, Bull's wife managed it. I had the pleasure of meeting both her and her daughter Lexie a few months ago, and though they had been through drama that dwarfed mine, they were happy. Bull's demons were gone and I was hopeful mine were going too.

We could hear the waves crashing through the French doors that opened onto a sea view balcony, the salt air clinging to our bodies. I didn't even appreciate the beautiful surroundings. I was too busy being ravaged by my husband.

We had lain in beautiful silence, letting the sound of the waves wash over us. Asher's hand trailed my back lazily.

"You got classes on Monday?" he asked quietly.

I didn't move my head from his chest. "Yeah," I sighed, not wanting to think about the work awaiting me.

"I don't want to rush you, but have you thought about where you want to live?" he probed softly. "If you don't want to be at your mom's, we got options. Apart from shit for my bike, I don't live an extravagant lifestyle, I've got a nest egg. A significant one. Enough to get us a house...." he paused. "I haven't used it 'cause I've never had a home, not since Benjamin. The place I grew up in was four walls that held pain, memories that were tainted with my father's whiskey stained imprint." He pushed the hair from my head. "The club was my home. I didn't want four walls of my own until I was sure I wanted to share those walls with someone. Make memories with," he stated.

I kissed his chest, his words making my heart soar and bleed at the same time. My neck craned so I could look at my husband.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "That you don't have a place to remember him ... Benjamin."

He smiled a sad smile. "I do, babe," he replied softly. He moved my hand and placed it lightly over the tattoo on his chest. "Right here, I got the memories I need." He let that sink in a moment, the beauty of his sentiment, of his pain etching into my soul. "I don't want to rush you, but you're not going back to your apartment, and I'm not too crash hot on sharing our matrimonial bliss with my brothers," he joked lightly.

He had already "talked" my landlord out of letting us out of our lease, and we were in the process of moving all of our things to Mom's.

I regarded his tattoo, trailing my fingers around the red edges of healing skin. Asher was silent, giving me the time he knew I needed to think. I chewed over his words, what he said about Benjamin, about memories, about a home. When I thought of home, I thought of Mom's little cottage by the sea. Of the heavily decorated rooms. The vibrancy that hit you the moment you walked through the door. The vibrancy that hit me when I walked in there for the first time since losing her. That's what made it hard. Impossible. My house was missing the thing that made it a home. My mom.

But when I thought about home I also thought of Asher. He was my home.

"What do you want?" I asked finally. Asher hadn't ever had a home, he deserved a choice.

His hands tightened around me. "I've got what I want, Lily, right here in my hands. I've got my wife. I've got my bike, my club, everything else is a bonus," he declared.

I moved up on an elbow. "In that order?" I teased.

A grin tickled the corner of his attractive mouth. "You're always first, Lily. It's always you and me before anything out there."

We stared at each other a moment. "Every memory I have of that house is full of happiness. Until three years ago. Then it all turned dark," I spoke quietly, fighting the prickling of grief in my throat. "I don't want it to end dark. I want our lives to color it again."

Asher took me into his arms so I lay completely on top of him. He kissed my nose lightly.

"Then that's what we'll do, flower. Color your world so you don't even want to remember what the darkness even looks like," he promised.

And his promise held true. For a time.

Two Months Later "You'll do great," Asher told me kissing me firmly.

I kissed him back distractedly trying to remember the correct terms and procedures for someone suffering a heart attack. My mind drew a blank. I was so screwed.

"I'm going to fail," I whined dramatically. The pressure on my chest seemed to intensify with the building in front of me waiting, staring, holding my future within its walls.

Asher grasped my neck, forcing my gaze to move to something else. My attractive husband.

"You're not going to fail," he replied firmly.

His eyes, the certainty in them had me believing him.

Despite the fact I'd been on clinical placement for the past two months, that my life was constant motion once more, I was happy. I found joy in nursing that I thought would be lost with my mom. I wasn't shy or anxious with my patients. I was confident, the only time I felt confident. I wasn't running on empty, dragging myself out of bed every morning. I seemed to float out of bed, only after my husband woke me up in the most delightful way possible. I loved it. Loved him. Being married to Asher was like living a dream. Though news of a marriage wasn't so well received everywhere.

I was hidden in my corner of the library once more, chewing on my pen with frustration. It was my day off from placement, but I realized how rusty I was, how much I needed to brush up on.

"Lily?" a familiar voice called my name, I glanced up, and my body stiffened. "Aiden," I greeted him coldly, mindful of our last conversation.

He pretended not to notice my chilly greeting and sat down. "I haven't seen you around, I've tried calling you," he said, putting his books down on the table.

"My phone ... broke," I explained. "I haven't been around. I've been on placement."

Aiden glanced at my books. "You're obviously working hard. I'm happy for you," he told me quietly.

"Thanks," I replied softening. I was about to ask him how law school was going, but his eyes focused on my finger. My left hand.

"Please tell me that isn't what I think it is," he said quietly.

I followed his gaze, lifting my hand slightly. "Well, if you think it's an engagement ring, it is what you think it is," I responded.

His face paled. "You're engaged, to him?" he spat out.

"I'm married," I corrected.

Aiden's eyes bulged, and he sat back in his chair. "Married?" he repeated.

I nodded.

"Jesus," he muttered to himself. "You barely know him," he added.

I frowned. "I know him," I said firmly.

Aiden shook his head. "You've changed, Lily, you're not who I thought you were," he stated with disappointment.

I sat up a little straighter. "I haven't changed. I've just found someone who lets me be me. Who sees me," I informed him, gathering up my books. I stood, looking at the person I had thought was my friend. He wasn't, he just saw that I was someone he thought he could mold into someone he wanted.

"Goodbye, Aiden," I said quietly, turning my back on him.

Aiden wasn't the only person gone from my life. As soon as Lucky found out the truth about Bex, the night of my wedding, in fact, he'd spirited her away to some cabin in the middle of nowhere. I knew this because she'd called me to let me know she was okay. Pissed off with a certain alpha male, but okay.

She arrived back a couple of weeks later, looking much better than when she had left. Though she and Lucky seemed to have some kind of arrangement, she was refusing to be labeled "his" or turn it into anything more. She also moved out of my mom's, much to my dismay.

"You're married now, Lil, you don't need a roommate. Especially not an ex-junkie stripper," she joked.

My eyes had narrowed. "You are never to refer to yourself in such a way ever again," I commanded seriously. I clutched her shoulders. "You don't have to leave. I don't want you to leave."

She smiled. "I know, but I'm not going far. Rosie's got a spare room and has offered it to me. I'll be five minutes' drive," she reassured me.

I felt my eyes water. "Five minutes is too long. I've spent three years having you two doors away," I choked out. She'd been with me since freshmen year.

Her eyes turned sad. "It's time, as much as I would love to live with you until you're old and gray, you're a married woman now, that's your husband's job. That's the bad news, nothing lasts forever, not even our kick ass living situation." Her kohl-rimmed eyes turned serious. "It's the good news too, Lil. Nothing lasts forever," she squeezed my hand.

I pulled up to the empty parking lot of the strip club owned by the Sons. I'd been in a couple of times since Bex started working there. It was a vast improvement on the last place. It had class. An oxymoron for some, a strip club with class owned by bikers. But they did it well. The bouncers were respectful, not that they said much, and most of the women who Bex worked with were friendly. It wasn't seedy, she was treated well and she seemed happy.

I frowned down at my phone.