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But then she startled him by touching his arm. He looked over at her in question.
“Thank you, Liam.”
“For what?”
“For this. All of this. I know this wasn’t the intention, but I know that I’m never going to be the right fit for Sullivan. I’m not what he needs.”
He wasn’t sure what had made her come to that conclusion but he was starting to think what Sullivan needed or wanted wasn’t at all relevant at the moment. Sullivan wasn’t ready for a relationship yet. “What doyouneed, Lilly?”
“I need more than what he can give me. I deserve more than what he can give me.”
He had come to that conclusion himself. “I completely agree with you. You deserve to be truly, deeply, madly loved.”
She stared at him with those deep blue eyes, wide and full of an emotion he couldn’t decipher. She licked the ice cream and his gaze was drawn to the movement. Damn it. He wanted that pink tongue to tangle with his. He wanted to see that tongue sliding across his flesh.
But more importantly than any of that, because he was a grown ass man and could control his lust, was that Lilly understood that she did deserve more. She deserved everything.
“I want to be truly, deeply, madly loved. I really do want that,” she said earnestly.
Something shifted inside him. He felt dangerously close to doing something stupid.
Like kiss her. Instead, he put his hand over hers. “Some man will be lucky to love you.” He laced his fingers through hers. “Come on. Stand up. Let’s go get a tattoo.”
“Right now?” she squawked, standing up at his urging.
“Sure. Why not?”
“I… I don’t know. I guess no reason.”
“I’ll get one too if it makes you feel better.”
“But… you don’t have to do that.”
He was amused by that. “Have you noticed how many tattoos I have?”
She nodded quickly. “I have.”
Something about her tone gave him pause. Did she think his tattoos were hot? It almost sounded like she did. He could have sworn the night before she’d been staring at his back piece. “Then what’s one more? I miss the buzz of the needle.”
“You miss the buzz of the needle?”
He nodded. There was truth to that. “And the pain.”
“That’s crazy,” she said, with a laugh.
“Oh, trust me, you’ll get it in about forty minutes. Tattoos are addictive.”
Lilly had started out with her eyes tightly closed and squeezing his hand with a death grip, but after the first few drags of the needle she had opened them and was watching the tattoo artist with fascination.
“It’s not as awful as I imagined,” she said. “I mean, it hurts, but it’s not horrible.”
“Told you.” Liam was seated next to her. She was on the bench so that her foot could be raised up so the tattoo artist could ink the tiny butterfly on her ankle.
It was a solid, safe choice. He felt confident she wouldn’t regret a tiny butterfly, especially considering it represented her friendship with Kendra and Kendra’s life.
“What else do you guys have planned for today?” the tattoo artist, Travis, asked. “Anything fun?”
“We’re playing it by ear,” Liam said. It occurred to him suddenly that if Lilly had decided that her future wasn’t with Sullivan, maybe she didn’t want to spend another night in Minneapolis with him.
