Page 13 of Adoring Ink

She smiled widely, and he had to hold his breath to keep from sighing or saying something even more stupid. He’d been in her presence for all of three minutes, and he was already afraid she’d turn and run the other way. And, honestly, he wouldn’t have blamed her.

“So, we’re taking your truck, then?” she asked.

He nodded. Time to get his head in the game. “Yeah, we’re going up some back roads, and it’s not safe on the bike.”

She tilted her head. “Are you taking me to an undisclosed location to bury my body or something?”

He wanted to do something to her body but it wasn’t bury it. He cleared his throat and put on his most charming grin. “I can give you the location now if you want, and you can text it to Maya or something so she knows where we are. I already told my friend Harper this morning since he called to ask me to hang out at the gym today.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was kidding about the whole serial killer thing. A little. But if Harper knows where we’ll be, then that’s fine. Not that I’m afraid you’re going to kill me, but it’s always good to have someone know where you’re going. Harper is the new guy at Montgomery Inc., right? Alex mentioned to Maya, who mentioned to me, that they’d hired him on and that you were all friends. I’m rambling. You can tell me to stop anytime you’d like, you know.”

He shrugged. “That’s the same Harper. I like how you ramble. You tell me more about yourself that way.” He had to be careful not to like that too much. Because he couldn’t afford to like her as much as parts of him wanted to. It would be dangerous for them both.

“Why are you doing this, Brody?” she asked suddenly. “I don’t even know why I’m doing this.”

He met her gaze as he stepped forward, knowing his answer had to mean something. And it did, though he wasn’t sure why. “I saw a friend of a friend who wanted to try something new, something exciting. And, I don’t know, I wanted to be the person to help you. Maybe we’ll figure out the other reasons together.”

He swallowed hard as she blinked up at him. Then she put her hand on his chest and moved forward. It was all he could do not to wrap himself around her right then and kiss her hard.

Instead, she went on her tiptoes and brushed a soft kiss against his lips. “Let’s figure this out together, then.” She paused as he gathered his control. Damn, she was a sweet temptation and all wrong for him. But Brody was good at doing the wrong thing. Excelled at it even. “Where are you taking me exactly?”

“We’re trying out some hot springs,” he said gruffly. Hell, he had no idea what he was doing so he might as well jump in headfirst and hope he didn’t break anything on the way down.

Her eyes widened, and she smiled. “I’ve always wanted to try those!” She snapped her fingers. “Hence the suit and the fact that you need a truck to get there.” She narrowed her eyes a bit and leaned back. “This isn’t a hot spring on some national park land that will get us arrested, will it? Because as much as I want to try new things, trying them in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs really isn’t my idea of fun.”

Of course, now he was thinking of her in handcuffs.

Why his brain had devolved into his teenage self, he didn’t know, but he had a feeling it was because of the woman in front of him. He was going to have to try to be a bit more careful if he were going to make it through this.

Whatever this was.

He shook his head. “It’s a hot spring owned by a buddy of mine, but it’s on his private property and not for the public. I called him and asked if we could use it, and he said fine. It’s one of the few hot springs owned privately rather than on commercial or park land, so it’s a rare find. But I figured it would be a little more fun to hike there once we park off the beaten trail a bit rather than go to a commercial lot where there are tourists everywhere trying to breathe in the mountain air.”

She nodded. “That does sound fun and different than what I would normally be doing right now. But hiking? You didn’t say anything about hiking.” She looked down at her worn boots and back up at him. “I don’t actually own hiking boots. I just picked these because I figured they’d work for the bike. And since we’re not taking the bike…”

He shook his head. “You’ll be fine. It’s not that far of a hike, and I’ll be right by you. I promise, I’m not going to let you get hurt. Okay?”

She looked up at him and nodded, and he hoped to hell he wasn’t lying to her when he said he wouldn’t let her get hurt. Because while he’d do his best to keep her from twisting her ankle or falling along the path, he had a feeling that he was the real danger, and not the risks she wanted to take.

The drive up took over an hour, and the two of them talked the entire way. He was surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. He felt like he could tell her almost anything. Almost. There was no way he was going into his childhood or crap like that with her, but he felt comfortable sharing everything else.

He learned more about her work at the school and the fact that her best friend owned a bookstore—the same bookstore he shopped at when he was downtown, in fact. He told her about his job and his coworkers who had become his friends over time. They talked about his ink and the fact that he didn’t have a dedicated artist, but rather his body was a mural for the shop as a whole.

“And you don’t want a tattoo of your own, I take it?” he asked as they walked up the narrow path toward the hot spring. She was in front of him slightly so he could catch her if she stumbled, but she had been doing well on her own so far.

“Oh, I want one,” she said with a smile over her shoulder. Of course, because she’d taken her attention off the ground she stumbled a bit. He reached out and gripped her hip to keep her steady, and she let out a laugh. “Well, I’m surprised that didn’t happen sooner. Thanks for saving me.”

He squeezed her hip. “You just wanted my hands on your hips, don’t lie.” He held back a curse as the words tumbled out. Despite the fact that they’d kissed multiple times since they met, he’d honestly been trying to keep his distance. But, apparently, his brain wasn’t quite on the same page.

Or maybe it was his dick.

She shook her head at him, a small smile playing on her lips. “Maybe.” She turned her head again, her attention on the path in front of her. “As for a tattoo, I want one. I have for a while, in fact. But I don’t know what I want yet. And since that’s kind of the important part, I’ve been holding off.”

He let his hand fall from her hip and reached out to grip her hand.

Stupid Decisions: 156. Brody: 0.

She squeezed his fingers, and he let out a breath.