“Now?”
“No, not now, silly. Maybe I’ll make an appointment, though.”
“You ladies ready?” Eddie calls out. He’s been prepping his station and the jewelry we picked out for the last few minutes. We lucked out; his previous appointment was just leaving as we arrived, so he had the time to fit in a couple walk-ins.
I’d be lying if I said my eyes hadn’t immediately swept the shop, looking for a certain tattooer when we first walked in. And, okay, maybe seven or eight times since. He’s not here, though.
“We’re ready,” Grace tells Eddie. “Elsie, you want to go first? Just in case anything comes up next door and you need to get back.”
“Sure.” I make my way over to Eddie’s chair, but I stop short when a hand snakes around my wrist. Afamiliarhand, because these same tattooed fingers have been wrapped around my wrist before. Apparently, he’s making a habit of it.
“What’s going on?” Declan asks, his voice low and, for some reason, a little bit lethal.
“Hey, man,” Eddie says. “Elsie and Grace are getting some ear piercings. Want to watch?”
“Fucking hell,” Declan mutters, so low that I don’t think Grace or Eddie can hear it.
Electricity pulses in the places where his fingers meet my skin. I should tell him to let go of me, but I don’t.
“You want to get your ears pierced?” he asks me, his voice still low.
“Just one,” I correct him. “I’m getting a helix in my right ear.”
Declan’s eyes sweep over my face and my ears, as if analyzing whether or not this is a good idea. My hair is tucked back into its usual braid and I’ve got two simple, faux diamond studs in each ear.
While he’s scanning me over, I glance down to where his tattooed fingers are still locked around my wrist. I raise an eyebrow pointedly at Declan and he drops his hand, but he takes a step closer.
“I’ll do Elsie’s piercing while Eddie does Grace’s,” he announces.
Eddie’s brow furrows and his eyes dart between Declan and I. “I really don’t mind doing both, man. I’m not busy right now.”
“I’ll do Elsie’s,” Declan insists. “I don’t pierce much these days, but I am still licensed,” he reminds his coworker.
“Hey, no problem,” Eddie says, holding his hands up. “As long as Elsie’s cool with it, go right ahead.”
Three sets of eyes swing my way. My gaze catches Grace’s first.
“Oh my god, he’s so hot,”she mouths silently, her eyes bugging wide. I ignore her.
“Sure,” I tell Declan and Eddie, shrugging. “I don’t care who does it.”
I’m lying. The thought of Declan’s hands on meagain, even if just to pierce my ear, makes my stomach roil.
Eddie hands him the earring I picked out and Declan grabs a set of packaged tools from the supply closet.
“Come on,” he says, tipping his head toward the other side of the room where his station is. He places a hand on my lower back and I swear, my insides melt into the toes of the brand new Keds Grace helped me pick out.
Get it together, Elsie.
Declan guides me to his station, which he assures me has just been sanitized. We pass by Maya, who’s hunched over her client’s back and doesn’t acknowledge us. She looks focused, so I don’t interrupt by saying hi.
I settle onto Declan’s chair and watch as he washes up in the sink at the back of the shop, then settles onto his stool to start prepping everything. I haven’t a single idea what the process entails, because I’m too focused on the way his biceps flex beneath the sleeves of his black T-shirt. When he snaps on a pair of gloves, my eyes zero in on his corded forearms and the way his tattoos dance with the motion.
We’re inevitable, Elsie.
His bold declaration has been rattling around in my head for days. Part of me wants to demandhow dare hemake such a brazen claim?
But the other part of me – the much, much bigger part – wants him to show me exactly what he means byinevitable. That part of me, the part I should really start ignoring, wants to find out just how electric it might be to have his hands on my body. And not just a hand around my wrist, or on the small of my back. I want his hands –
