Groaning, I squeezed my eyes closed, pressing my fingers against my eyelids. “I know he will. He always understands.”
“Is this related to that wholecan’t really be togetherthing you mentioned?” She asked, but her tone was genuine and sympathetic. She wasn’t making fun of me, at least.
“Yeah.”
“So? What’s the big secret?” She asked. “Is he married or something? Is this like a side piece situation?”
“No!” I snapped. Now even the offhanded idea of Jordy being married to someone else had my temper flaring up and burning in my guts. “It’s not like that. It’s just…” I stopped, shaking my head. “It’s kind of a…”
Was I really going to tell her? Would she judge me for messing around with my younger stepbrother? And that was even without all the context of him being this perfect golden boy, destined for success and a great life, slumming it with someone like me.
Both of us turned to look at the door with a snap, as the little bell rang, signifying someone had come in.
And there he was, all golden-haired, blue-eyed and doll-faced. He’d put on the hoodie I’d had laying on my bed before leaving the house, so I guess he didn’t hate me that much.
Barbie looked at him, looked over at me incredulously, then back to him with a snort. “Well, aren’t you just adorable,” she noted. “You’re cute enough to be the main character of a web comic,” she added, reminding me of that stupid lie I’d told her when she’d found all my sketches of him.
He giggled, looking a bit confused, but still blinked his long eyelashes at her as he tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.
“Thanks!” God, he was such a fucking flirt. It drove me crazy. “Do you… work with Kieran?” He asked, innocence andsweetness oozing from every pore. No wonder everyone was always so charmed by him.
“Kieran works for me,” she explained kindly.
“Oh!” He answered, rocking back on his heels a bit. “I’m Jordy.”
“I gathered that,” she said, with a small, smug grin.
“You know who I am?” He asked, eyes widening as he tilted his head in surprise.
“Jordy, what are you doing here?” I asked quickly, hoping to veer the conversation in a direction that didn’t involve her revealing all my embarrassing drawings of him, though I was sure he’d probably be delighted to see them.
“Ah, well…” And suddenly, he looked hesitant and shy. The way he could flip like that, from a giggly little sex kitten, to looking so timid, peering at me through his lashes, made my dick twitch in my jeans and my pulse skip. Everything about him was so… Perfect. Sexy. Incredible. “I’m here for a tattoo. If you’re not busy,” he tacked on quickly. “I-I mean, if you want to…”
“You want a tattoo?” I repeated, my mouth and throat going dry. Fuck.
He nodded, flushing a little. “I, um, have this picture on my phone of what I want, so…”
He actually, seriously wanted me to tattoo him. We’d kind of joked about it before, in the truck, but I hadn’t known he’d really want me to do it. The idea of being the one to break up that perfect, smooth expanse of creamy, unblemished skin was daunting, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone else do it.
I glanced over at Barbie, giving her a questioning look. It was kind of late to start something new. Understanding, she pursed her lips.
“You don’t want a whole sleeve or anything, right?” She asked, and he shook his head.
“It’ll be small,” he assured her, before dragging his finger down to his hip, tapping the pocket of his tight jeans. “Right here.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Her eyebrows raised a bit, before she turned back to me.
“Uh, yeah, I mean… I’m not, you know, busy or anything,” I managed to stutter out.
She sped through the preliminary process of checking his ID and making him fill out liability paperwork.
“Well,” she said as she took his finished form to file away, gesturing down the hall to the room where my station was set up. “Get to it, Kieran.”
Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Uh, yeah. Okay. Come with me,” I ordered, jerking my chin toward the hall. He scampered to my side, following me.
“You know,” Barbie commented, falling into line behind us. “For a hip tattoo, most people wear something loose they can kinda hike up or down, so they don’t have to be ass out for the whole tat.”
