(Juan's POV)

Except for that brief exchange with Chloe when she'd first arrived, I hadn't seen her. I'd had my wife to focus on, and finding the other Irishman who'd kidnapped her. I also had had to deal with the Matthew debacle. I planned on getting that situation completely handled today. If she wanted to see him, I'd let her, but one way or another, I was getting him out of town. I was tired of him trying to come between my wife and I. I may have forgiven her for letting him kiss her, because I understood why she did it, even if she hadn't at the time. I had gotten back at him for kissing my wife, but I was done putting up with him. He needed to stay gone, now.

As for Chloe, she wasn't on my radar yet. I'd deal with whatever she wanted once I got other things taken care of. I would probably let Krystal decide what action was best, depending on what Chloe wanted. I had nothing I wanted to say to her. I couldn't understand why she'd chosen now to come back. If she wanted something from me, she wasn't going to get it. I know it had hurt her to realize I wasn't in love with her the way she had been with me, but by the time I'd realized that it had been almost too late. I never should have said yes to her when she asked me to marry her, but at least I'd realized the truth before actually marrying her.

Waking up to my wife was always the best part of my day. It really set the mood for my whole day, actually. If I didn't get to wake up and find her next to me, I found my temper was often easily triggered, and I was irritable for most of the day. If I woke up smelling her, with her wrapped in my arms, or at least close enough so I could roll over and pull her into me, my day just seemed to go a whole lot better. I was in a better mood, and that just seemed to make every moment afterward better, and that was whether or not we had morning sex, which we usually did, but I knew it wasn't the sex, but simply her that made everything better for me. The sex was just a bonus.

Honestly, I'd meant what I'd told her when I said she was my type. She wasn't tall or blonde or willowy. She preferred her hair dark. She was short, though she was always adamant about being average height, which I thought was cute as hell. She had curves; an amazing ass and fantastic rack. I knew she thought both were too big, but I thought she was perfect as is. None of that was why she was right for me though. She was my best friend. I held her and everything felt like it would be okay. I could tell her anything, talk to her about anything, the things I'd done, mistakes I'd made, and she still accepted me, still looked at me with loving adoration. I didn't have to worry that she'd find something out and turn heel and run screaming.

With Chloe, she had an idea of what the life was. She had been a Cro Eater for years before we'd even started fucking. I didn't tell her about most things I did though. I didn't let her in that way. Jax had once told me that you either told your Old Lady everything, or nothing, otherwise it wouldn't work. There was no other way. I hadn't been able to tell Chloe everything, even though that hadn't been the reason it hadn't worked. I was completely the opposite with Krystal, though. I couldn't keep anything from her. Keeping my previous engagement from her hadn't really been intentional. I hadn't thought about Chloe in ages, and even if I had, I never thought Krystal would meet her, but I'd known she'd be upset to hear about her.

Trust was the one thing we had that I'd never had with anyone else. We trusted each other with anything and everything. I knew the guys were a bit prickly because she'd kissed Matthew, but she told me she didn't want him and I believed her. I had known as soon as she walked away from Chloe and I that she was reeling. I knew she was trying to process, and I knew a part of her had felt jealous and insecure. I realized that before she did, and that's why when I abandoned Chloe in the hallway, and followed Krystal to find her kissing Matthew, I knew why she'd done it. I'd understood. I'd hurt her by keeping Chloe from her, perhaps worse than she'd been hurt when Ima had shown up saying she was pregnant with my kid.

Just as I'd understood her feelings, she always understood what I needed from her, how I was feeling, sometimes before I did. We'd always been that way with each other. I knew that now that we'd talked it all out, we'd be able to move past it, as we got through everything. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for her, and she would do anything I needed her to do, sometimes without me knowing to ask. It wasn't a question of if we'd be able to get through a problem. Failure wasn't an option. The only question would ever be how and when we got through anything life threw at us.

Instead of waking her immediately, I just watched her. She almost always slept on her stomach, and she was laying that way now, her face turned toward me, so I could see the peacefulness on her face. It had taken some time after Opie's death, but I was relieved she was sleeping normally again. I'd been worried. I started tracing the many tattoos on her back with my fingertips, watching as her eyelids fluttered and she slowly woke up. She smiled without opening her eyes, reaching out to drape her arm over my chest and her leg over my hip, pulling herself closer. "Jesus fuck, sex fiend. An all-nighter and you still want to go again?" she murmured.

Despite her words, her hips rolled, rubbing her sex against my cock, and she placed a kiss on my chest. "All I did was trace the tattoos on your back. You're the one who's bringing up sex already," I told her, and she shrugged, snuggling closer to me. My fingertips kept moving on her back and she finally opened her eyes, her brows raising in a silent challenge due to my words. I'd implied that I wasn't thinking about sex, and I knew she was seeing it as a personal challenge to prove me wrong.

Moving so she was straddling my waist, she leaned down, meeting my lips in a sweet kiss, while she shimmied her hips, rubbing her already wet sex against my cock that was indeed getting harder by the minute. She trailed her nails down my chest as she pulled back far enough to smirk at me. "You're not thinking about sex?" she asked, an innocent tone to her voice that was the complete opposite of the seductive, sensual, lust-filled look in her bright green eyes.

Reaching up to hold onto her, I rolled us quickly, so before she could do anything, she was on her back and I was settled between her legs, resting on my forearms to keep my weight off her, but letting our bodies touch all the way down. "I didn't say I wasn't thinking about sex. I said you're the one bringing it up, which you did," I said, shifting my hips so my cock rubbed against her, illustrating the double meaning of my words. She rolled her eyes, but wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me into another kiss as she wrapped her legs around my waist, drawing me closer.

An hour later, we were still in bed, spooning. She didn't have any appointments until the afternoon, and I didn't have to be anywhere for a while. She had fallen back to sleep, and I was starting to drift off, too, when my phone went off. I reached over to the nightstand carefully so I didn't wake her, and looked at the screen. It was a notification. My search for the other attacker had turned up something. I pulled my arm out from under her and slowly slid out of bed, but she woke up anyway, regarding me with sleepy eyes as I started getting dressed. "I got a lead on my search. Found who the bike belongs to. Hopefully we can find the guy, too. I'll see you later, angel. Be safe today. I love you," I bent to give her a kiss after I was dressed.

Reaching up, she grabbed my hand as I headed for the door. I turned to look into her concerned gaze. "I love you back, ace. You better be safe, too," she said and I nodded, dropping another kiss, this time on her forehead, and promised I would be fine before I left the room. I called Rat to ask him to come by to escort her to work, and then called Jax to let him know what I'd found out. He said he'd get a couple of the guys and meet me at the address I'd gotten, so that was where I went. I didn't know how long it was going to take the guys to get here, but I saw the same bike that had been fleeing the scene parked in the driveway. I looked through the garage window to see there were no other vehicles, so it was a safe bet that no one else was home.

Still, I should have waited for Jax and whoever was coming with him. I didn't have the patience, though. I knew better, but I decided to handle it on my own. I drew my gun, creeped up to the front living room window. I peeked in, but only saw one guy, watching the television, so I walked back over to the front door, cautiously trying the knob. It turned and I slowly eased the door open. I closed it behind myself as quietly as possible, even though the TV was pretty loud and I was fairly sure he couldn't hear me.

As I creeped silently into the living room, my gun drawn and aimed at him. "Are you the Irish bastard who attacked my wife?" I asked when I was a few feet away. I studied his face as he jumped, because I'd startled him, then he looked at me, and for a moment, I saw recognition set in, then fear, before he schooled his expression. I knew everything I needed to know when he leapt to his feet, threw the TV remote at me, because it'd been in his hand, and tried to bolt from the room.

After I dodged the remote, I got off a shot that hit him in the foot and he stumbled into a desk. I saw a flash across the front lawn and was momentarily distracted, but when I turned my head it was only a squirrel. I shouldn't have looked away, though, because the guy slid open a drawer and next thing I knew there was a gunshot and I felt the bullet slice through my right thigh. I fell, but didn't drop my gun, so I aimed and shot him multiple times in the head and chest before he could get another shot or get away. I cursed as I tried to figure out what I was going to do now, but then I heard bikes approaching finally and just waited for them to come in.

A/N: I didn't have this planned, to be honest. This or the last chapter. I've had most of the rest of this series outlined in my head for a while now, but some of these story lines are just itching to be written in. I have no choice but to comply with the characters. I hope you enjoy and thank you to everyone who reads, and especially thank you to my loyal reviewer! I appreciate it so much! Every time I read a review from you I smile, so thank you. =]

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.