No Strings Attached

Chapter Two

He looked up at her softly, everything Shannon had always known he felt for Tori shining in his eyes, just as it always did whenever he so much as uttered her name in idle conversation. They were so ridiculously cute that sometimes it turned her stomach ... or made her listen to Celine Dion with three bottles of wine and a box of tissues.

“Where is she anyway?” she asked, looking around the garden as though she might magically appear at any second.

“She’s gone shopping for some food,” he answered, still distracted with Ava, who looked set for sleep now that her giggles were done with, “I promised to work on doing the alloys with Nate later, so I said I’d stick around here with Ava while she went. She looked kind of tired.”His face was full of concern and anxiety as he looked back at Shannon.

“She’s got a newborn, Jay,” she chuckled softly, picking up the empty laundry basket and taking the washing off the line as the dark clouds loomed over the bright sky threateningly, “I’m guessing she’s more than ‘kind of tired’, she’s probably utterly exhausted!”

“She has me,” he frowned slightly, “I can help, she knows that!”

“Course she does, Jay,” she soothed, stopping what she was doing to meet his eyes, “But its feeds and stuff, its completely natural to get tired. She knows you’re there, she’s always saying how good you are!”

“She is?” he looked up at her like a child, his smile was so wide – pride literally oozing out of him.

She went back to her task, laughing softly and shaking her head, “Yeah Jay, she is, should I text her and tell her to pick up a few gold stars?”

Throwing back his head on his shoulders, he laughed, baby Ava so soundly asleep that she didn’t stir with the deep vibrations of his muscular chest, and it was just at that moment that Nate rounded the corner of the new extension, watching them silently.

As ever, he made the entire space around her seem ... smaller somehow, he was so powerfully charismatic. His plain v neck t shirt was tight across his broad chest, and she could see the monotone dragon tattoo through the thin material – extending across his muscular torso, and down over one bulging bicep, with flames that licked right up to his wrist, and a tail that lay down the centre of his abdominal muscles, stopping just above his pelvis, where the muscle protruded from beneath his pale flesh, on either side of his crotch, so that it framed his manhood perfectly.

She knew this because she’d designed the ink work.

She’d also laid over his body, and trailed her tongue across every smooth inch of it, feeling the muscles bunch and tense beneath his skin with every teasing touch.

“Hey man,” Jay greeted, still chuckling softly between words, “How you doing?”

Nate didn’t look happy, but what was new? Shannon lowered her head slowly, a faint blush darkening the olive tones in her skin as she realised exactly what she’d been reminiscing.

“So so,” he replied tersely, switching his attention to Shannon, “You’re back then?”

“It would seem so,” she replied nonchalantly – turning into a cocky teenager all over again, “Unless I’m a figment of your imagination.”

“Fucking hilarious Shan,” he rasped out from between gritted teeth.

“Excuse me, I’m holding my daughter here, watch your language!” Jayden broke in, holding one palm tenderly over the sleeping baby’s ear.

“She’s asleep Jayden,” Shannon chuckled, “And even if she wasn’t, she can’t sit up on her own, let alone learn her p’s and q’s!”

“Whatever,” he grumbled in a low voice, “I’m going to put her in her crib to sleep, are you okay to watch her while I’m out here with Grouch?”