Ven

Ven

" I don't give a fuck if we're both water signs or whatever, you need to have dinner."

My girl is so relaxed after falling apart for me multiple times that she'd probably damn slip under the water if I leave her in here alone.

"Five more minutes?" She pouts.

"Save your adorable shit for the other two." I push her forward so that she has to sit up and let me get out of the bath from where I've been lying behind her. "The water's nearly cold anyway."

"I don't think my legs work." Fox hangs over the edge, resting her head to one side against her arm, as she watches me rummage around to find towels and clothes for us, with a loopy little smile on her face.

Little does she know, I'd gladly stay in there for a few more hours, but I don't know the last time my girl ate anything. Between orgasms and a full day of tattooing, she needs some food and her wheat bag.

"You can't walk? Then my work here is done, in that case."

A brilliant smile stretches across her features, lighting those baby blues as she giggles softly.

"Can we eat dinner in bed?"

"Sure. As long as Ky doesn't get back and join us and decide to leave fucking crumbs everywhere." I reach down to hook her arms, lifting her up to a standing position before guiding her legs over the lip and onto the floor mat, one by one.

"I was joking." She bats at my arm. "I can stand."

Wrapping a towel around her shoulders, we both enjoy that languid, warmth trickling through our veins. Fox lets me dry her off, as I work methodically over her tattoos, her arms, the damp hair around her nape.

Kneeling down in front of her, I roam the towel across the soft swell of her stomach, then down each leg.

Once I'm done, that leaves me on my knees in front of her, and our eyes lock. She pushes her fingers into my damp hair, shifting the strands back off my forehead, and gifts me a tiny smile.

A moment that seems unbelievable for someone like me, that I've ended up here. With a life like this to cherish and take care of.

Leaning forward, I let my lips meet the warmth of her skin just below her navel, as her tiny fingers thread with my wet hair. Keeping my mouth there, I tilt my eyes and find her still staring down at me, watching on.

"I know we can't ever give you that," I murmur before swallowing thickly. "I'm sorry if it was something you might have wanted."

There's a moment when her lips part ever so slightly. Probably just as taken off-guard by the intimacy of this moment as I am. The two of us have never talked about kids or children or anything like that before—although, I know she has had something approaching those kinds of conversations with Thorne and Ky.

Her head shakes ever so slightly from side to side.

"No, I never did." Those fingers brush across my forehead again, then along my temples, tracing my skin as she speaks. "What with the world I grew up in, I always knew, no matter what my future was gonna hold, that I didn't want to have kids of my own. I'd made that decision a long time before you all crashed into my life."

We pause there for a moment, as I see that she's piecing together some further thoughts. She sounds so sure, so certain, it eases some tiny part of me who still worried, on a certain hidden level, that maybe one day we wouldn't amount to enough.

"It's more than I could ever have dreamed of to get this kind of love with you all. It's more than I ever thought I'd be able to wish for… or that I deserved to have."

I kiss her stomach again before reaching for the fresh pair of her period underwear, sliding them up her legs.

Fox lets me set them in place before I get to my feet with one of my own t-shirts in hand. My girl chews her bottom lip a little, but dutifully raises her arms so I can slide the soft fabric over her head.

Cupping her face, I let my lips find hers for a long moment, not trying to start anything, but to tell her in the only way I know how much she means to me. How much I love her with every goddamn cell in my body.

"You deserve everything, little Fox. Know that." I speak against her lips, and I feel her smile against my mouth.

"So do you."