“Damn right you are,” he muttered and slammed into her, grinding his hips against her.

She whimpered at the assault, his body rough with hers in all the best possible ways. Her gaze on his as she came, she fell into those dark blue eyes, losing herself in this man who’d all but sworn he would never truly be hers.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she let her body enjoy the peak and slow tumble back to reality, coming to with his big body on top of hers. With a grunt, he rolled to his side, pulling out of her, and she felt the loss in more ways than physical.

He pressed a long kiss on her lips. “Be right back,” he said and rose to walk into the bathroom. She heard the water run, and he returned, helping her clean up before pulling her back into his arms.

They dozed for a while, and when she woke up, he was staring into her eyes. “Thank you,” he said in a gruff voice.

“For what?”

“Letting me take what I needed. Giving me more than I deserve.”

She lay her head in the crook of his shoulder. “You carry a lot of pain inside you. It’s good to let it out.”

He merely grunted in reply.

“I have a question,” she said, having realized earlier that this was the one thing he hadn’t addressed.

His arm pulled her tighter against him. “What’s that?”

Drawing a deep breath, she asked, “Who’s the woman and the little boy in the picture on your desk?”

He exhaled slowly. “When Levi died, he had a girlfriend, Amber. He didn’t know it at the time but he’d gotten her pregnant.”

“Oh, God.”

She felt him nod. “Yeah.”

“In the beginning, there wasn’t much the guys and I could do but be there for her, but after the club started bringing in money, we helped her out. LJ, that’s his name, Levi Jr., means a lot to all of us.”

“That’s so sad,” she whispered, unable to imagine how difficult the woman’s life had been. A single mother, still in college…

“She doesn’t live in the city, so we don’t see them nearly as much as we’d like, but the relationship is strong.”

And LJ was the child he already had, Faith realized, her heart pounding hard in her chest at the thought. These men and the bond they shared with each other, and with Amber and her son, gave Jason all the family he believed he needed.

They lay in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. After today, Faith understood Jason more than ever. She’d never felt so close to him … and he’d never felt further out of reach.

* * *

The next morning, Jason woke up before Faith. Last night, they’d stayed up late, ordered in pizza, and … dammit, he couldn’t call it having sex. He’d made love to her.

After the hard, punishing way he’d taken her the first time, they’d fallen asleep again, and then he’d found himself sliding into her slowly. Rocking against her as she woke up to him pumping in and out of her, their gazes locked on each other, emotions passing between them. Despite his vow to remain detached, he hadn’t been able to do it. Not with this woman who was burrowing her way deep inside him.