And he knew this because he had all of the first four times since they woke up that morning and he’d had all of the last since he’d met her.

He looked to the floor behind her and saw her two bags had exploded since they took a shower, after which she commenced getting ready.

He also saw Xun was not wrong. The bitch did not pack light, not by a long shot. He had no idea how long she planned to stay in Serpentine Bay. But by the clothes, shoes, toiletries, and cosmetics bags he’d noted as he saw her pawing through them, which contained makeup as well as jewelry, it looked like she was moving there.

Something unpleasant shifted through his gut, but he buried it, deciding instead to continue to feel amused that he’d get the only biker bitch he’d met who couldn’t travel with a couple of clean tees and pairs of panties, an eyeliner pencil and mascara, and an extra pair of earrings to shake things up.

Not that he’d had a biker bitch. Losing Hui, then Mei, and after her Sying, and more before them and after, he’d learned not to form attachments to humans outside the family. Just being with his family, he knew gut-wrenching loss would eventually come, so he didn’t court more of it.

That didn’t mean he didn’t have friends over the last fifty or so years who lived the life, their women on the backs of their bikes, wearing leather cuts, proudly proclaiming they were the “property” of their men. These women existing on what they could shove in a saddlebag.

This meant Abel had never had what he had right then—the smell of a woman, his woman, his mate, permeating his space. All of her smells, every nuance, from her shampoo to her body wash to her lotion, her perfume, the shit she slid through her hair before styling it, and the underlying scent that was all her, her skin, her cunt, her essence.

And he fucking loved it, every note, every trace. He loved that her bag had exploded behind her. He loved watching her frantically teasing her hair in the mirror, shifting from foot to foot in agitation and excitement to see her dad (both of these he could smell too, and both were fucking brilliant).

He also loved the fact that that night, he’d sleep beside her. He’d also wake up beside her tomorrow morning.

And repeat the next day.

And the next

He’d brought women to his space, slept with them, woke up with them, then took them home and erased their mind of where they were, giving them different memories. These being that he’d fucked them and slept with them in their beds, all so they wouldn’t remember where he lived.