Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
I’m not sure how long passes before Matty’s face comes into my line of sight.
“Look who’s sober,” he says, hovering over me, and I flip him off. Turning to Dare, he says, “That’s sick,” jerking his chin toward my thigh.
“Thanks. Now stop distracting my client,” Dare replies, but there’s no bite in his tone. Matty holds up his hands in surrender as he walks away.
“Can you turn onto your side?” Dare asks, pulling the machine away from my leg. I do as he says, rolling onto my right. When he doesn’t say anything or make a move to continue, I look behind me, careful not to look at my tattoo, only to find him staring at my very exposed, very bare ass.
“This was a bad idea,” he says, seemingly to himself, blue eyes full of heat.
“Get back to work.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He smirks, shaking his head before rolling his chair toward me. The tattoo machine whirs back to life. He leans over me, one gloved hand on my hip, wiping away the excess ink every once in a while with a napkin, while the other one controls the needle that digs into my skin incessantly.
After a while, my right side starts to go numb from lying in the same position, and Dare must notice my squirming, because he stops.
“Let’s take a break. We’re halfway done.” Dare puts his tattoo machine down and snaps his gloves off, tossing them into the trash, before pulling me to a sitting position. The tattoo stings a little, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I stand to stretch my legs, pants still below my ass, and pull my hoodie off over my head. I’m only wearing a thin camisole, but I feel hot and sweaty. Maybe it has something to do with the adrenaline coursing through me.
“Should’ve taken you to the private room,” Dare grumbles. I look behind me to find three sets of eyes on me—Matty, Cordell, and Cordell’s client. All three snap their heads down as if they weren’t looking.
Dare takes my discarded hoodie and ties it around my waist, effectively covering my butt, but not touching the tattooed area. I wonder what I’m supposed to wear when we’re done, but I decide to cross that bridge when we come to it.
Dare grabs a water bottle, taking a swig before handing it to me. I guzzle it down.
“How you feeling?” he asks, rotating back and forth on his rolling chair.
“Fine.” I shrug. “Just wondering how I’m going to wear pants after this.”
“Ah, yeah. That. You’ll just have to skip those for a few days.”
“Oh, is that all?” I laugh.
A smile pulls at the corners of Dare’s lips. “You ready to go back in?”
“Let’s do this.” I untie the sweatshirt around my waist and lie back on my side. Dare slaps a palm against my ass cheek before leaning down to bite it.
I squeal, pushing his head away.
“Sorry. Had to get that out of my system.”
Out of his system. We both know how well that worked last time. The needle hits my skin, and I close my eyes, trying to think about anything other than the pain. It’s hurting more than before now. Almost like scratching a raw sunburn.
“Tell me what you wanted to talk to me about earlier?” I ask, abandoning my plan to let him bring it up.
“What, now?”
“Yes, now. I need a distraction.”
Dare clears his throat. “Did you find a place to stay yet?”
A wave of sadness crashes down on me. I didn’t want to have this conversation right now. “No. The place I wanted fell through.”
“You and Jess should move in with me.”
Well. Ask for a distraction and you shall receive.
“What?” I say, turning my head to face him.
“Easy,” he says. “Try not to move.”
I lie back down, waiting for him to continue as my pulse kicks into high gear.
“It doesn’t have to be like what you’re thinking. You can even have your own room, if you wanted to,” Dare explains.
“As tempting as your offer is, I can’t do that.” My voice is quiet as I focus on the glowing pink light of the Bad Intentions sign in the window.
“Why the fuck not? You need a place to stay. I have the space.”
“Because if things between us ever get…messy, what does that mean for Jess and me?”
“I would never—” Dare starts.
“I know,” I cut him off. “I know. But Jess needs to be able to depend on me. To have stability and consistency and to always know that he has a place to stay.”
“And I can give you guys that. Or you can just stay with me until you find a place.”
“Why are you pushing this?” He’s done enough. The job. The clothes. It feels like all I ever do is take take take from him.
“Aside from the obvious?”
“What’s obvious?” I ask, clueless. The tattoo machine ceases in its buzzing, but I don’t turn to face him.