AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Stone laughed.
“Ah, buddy. Not everybody is like that. I just think you choose the wrong women on purpose,” Stone said.
“I choose women for sex and nothing more. I’ve got a baby mamma and her lawyer making my life hell. All I care about these days is getting this job done so I can get back to Blaze,” he said with a smile, squeezing the phone against his shoulder as he buckled on the chaps.
Just thinking about his son made him smile. He needed to get this job done so he could get back in time for his son’s winter break. He had big plans for a beach holiday over Christmas. Maybe something down Florida way.
“… parlor you’re going to be at?” Stone asked.
“Uh… come again?” he asked, pulling his mind away from beach house rentals.
“Which tattoo place will you be at?” Stone repeated.
“I was hoping you could suggest a good one for me,” Ryder said, then sighed when an abrupt knock alerted him to the door opening again.
“For the road,” Tally said, shaking a brown lunch bag at him.
He sighed and took the bag. It smelled pretty good. He’d give her that.
“Thanks,” he said.
“I’ll text you the one Georgia’s co-worker uses. She says it’s pretty good,” Stone said. “That is, if you can get away from the sex trap I sense your pickup is setting for you.”
Ryder chuckled. The phone chimed and looked at his screen, reading Stone’s text with a name and address for a tattoo place. He tapped it and added it to his contacts. He’d call and make an appointment once he was outside. It was only mid-afternoon, so hopefully he wouldn’t have to pay too much extra to get them to fit him in.
“I don’t need to worry about that,” he murmured. “Nothing and no-one stops me from leaving when I want.”
Tally folded her arms, compressing her mouth sadly.
Ryder ended the call, then took the sandwich out of the bag, ripping off a big bite.
“Don’t look so sad, Sugar. I come with a lot of baggage you wouldn’t want takin’ up space in your life,” he assured her.
He landed a kiss on the top of her head as he brushed past her.
As he headed down the outside stairs, he reaching into his pocket for his keychain. Out of habit, he found the odd-shaped lump Blaze had made as his first-ever forging project, pulling it and the keys out. The two blobs with a triangle shape in the middle were supposed to be his motorcycle. On the back, he’d scratched an eyeball, a heart, and the letter U.
He smiled as he thought ahead to the tattoo parlor, Cavendish’s upcoming event, and how quickly he could set up security for the event so he could go back to Chicago. Chicago and Blaze.
4
Nita waited at the light for the walk sign, a block away from Emerald City Ink.
Of all the names and notes in her Fuck Book, she’d only kept a few phone numbers. None of them had panned out, though. She’d hit a few of her favorite dive bars, but the pickings had been slim.
Not that a few uptight accountants or businessmen hadn’t been picking up her vibe. Getting their attention had been like shooting fish in a barrel. It was just that none of them had sparked her sexy fuse, and it had her wondering if she was sexually played out.
Was it possible to oversex your sex drive?she wondered, looking at the puddle near the curb. The water was unmoving, and she held out her hand to confirm the rain had stopped.
Pulling the string on her rain hood, she untied it. When the walk signal changed from an orange hand to a white stick person, she stepped off the curb and continued the half block to the tattoo parlor.
Could a person wear out their libido? It happened to old people, but she was only 26.
“Huh,” she huffed, jamming the hood into the pocket of her clear raincoat.
Maybe she should retake Cavendish’s bio-haptics test. The high-tech sex test, used for clients and staff, was a huge perk of working at Cavendish. If anything could tell her if her sex drive was in the toilet, or her turnoffs and turn-ons had changed, it would be that.
“Nita,” greeted Rose, the tatted receptionist. “I should kick you out for texting Max directly.”
