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Unfortunately, my latest creation was now smudged from the drool river that had run through it.
Rubbing my face to wake up, I was surprised when I glanced down at my hands and spotted ink all over them. Crapola, I bet I’d smeared it all over me now. Lovely.
A poke in my arm reminded me there had been a reason I’d awoken, and I came face to face with the object of the poking. My brother, Noah, stood staring at me, patiently waiting for me to answer while I woke up. When he caught sight of my face, he let out a loud hoot.
“Oh man, your face.”
“What?” I played dumb. “Is there something on my face?”
Moving, I acted like I was going to wipe it on him causing him to take off running. Grinning, I popped up to chase him. Noah was one of my favorite people in the world, and despite our fourteen-year age difference, we got along splendidly. He was one of the few people I didn’t loathe being around on a regular basis. As I skidded to a halt in the kitchen, I ran smack dab into a body that wasn’t meant to be there.
“What the hell, James?”
Ignoring the voice, I grabbed onto the shirt of the body I was pressed against to keep from falling. I managed to right myself, my socks slipping on the freshly waxed floor just as Noah chased the cat into the kitchen from the other direction, and inevitably right into the middle of my huddle.
That was all it took, and down we went in a tangle of arms and legs.
In a surprise move, the body shifted before we hit the floor, and I landed with a resounding ‘oomph’ on top of the one person I never wanted to be this close to. The air was knocked out of us both as we laid staring at one another in mutual hatred and shock.
“Lennox James! What in tarnation are you doing, young lady? Get off the nice Mr. Evans right this instance!”
My mother stood over me, stomping her foot as she stared down at me in shock for presumably embarrassing her. As if the matter couldn’t worsen, my father, the police chief, entered along with my roommate and best friend, Simon. I just loved having an audience to my humiliation.
Si busted out laughing when he saw my predicament and how I couldn’t manage to figure out how to get out of it. Noah chuckled along with him, and my father shook his head, used to my shenanigans by now.
“Is there a reason you haven’t gotten off me yet,James?” the tattooed Adonis below me whispered.
Cheeks flaming, I scrambled and rolled off him, lying on the floor. I was unable to get up any further, the weight of embarrassment keeping me down.
Just kill me now.This day was going to be fan-freakin-tabulous.
Welcome to my life, where I just didn’t get crapped on. I got double-dipped crapped on. Pulling myself up to standing, I turned and looked at the crowd in the kitchen. When no one said anything, I tossed my hands up and pointed at the sexy man who was now smirking at me.
“Y’all going to tell me what the heckhe’sdoing in our kitchen?”
Huffing, I planted my hands on my hips as I waited for an explanation. Unfortunately, it only caused them to burst out laughing for my effort. Glaring daggers of hatred at them, I waited for someone to explain. Finally, my mother pulled herself together enough to answer me.
“Sorry, dear. Mr. Evans helped me out when my car got a flat, and he offered to give me a lift home while they towed it in since my spare was also flat.”
Nodding, I accepted my mother’s response. Dropping my hands, I started to relax when my father spoke up next.
“Now, can you tell us all why your face looks like you had a fight with a zebra?”
“Jiminy Cricket!” I yelped, turning, and racing from the kitchen into the bathroom. Before I shut the door, I stopped and listened to their banter, wondering why he’d stuck around.
Slade’s dark rumble was doing things to me I didn’t want to admit. I could picture him with his smirk, basking in the enjoyment of my humiliation as he leaned against the counter.
Yelling, “I hate y’all,” I finally closed the door and looked in the mirror. I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped as I took in my face. Grabbing a rag, I began to rub it off, clearing myself of any ink smudges. If Slade hadn’t been here, I would’ve laughed right along with them, not even blinking an eye at the embarrassment.
But his presence changed things and brought out the worst in me.
The part I was in denial about, though, was how good his body had felt beneath me.
The humid airblew through the shop as another customer entered the place. It was August in Kentucky, meaning it was as hot as Satan's balls and as humid as Hell itself. I didn't look up from my sketch pad, not caring who it was until they absolutely needed me.
My boss would yell at me later, but it was a semi-regular occurrence, and I'd gotten used to his shouting by now. Besides, some days, it was the most he spoke to me, and I think I'd become conditioned to expecting it. I tried to ignore how hot it was watching him get angry and keptthathidden desire to myself. My subconscious apparently wasn’t down with the idea, though, if my dream yesterday was anything to go by.
Slade and I weren't exactly sworn enemies, but you couldn't call us besties either. The best term was bossnemy and we merely tolerated each other. I didn't know what his beef was, but from moment one, he'd had a stick up his rear toward me. I’d honestly been surprised when he called to offer me the job since he'd spent the entirety of the interview glaring at me, and then grilled me on proper piercing techniques and my commitment to work for the last five minutes of it.
