Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44902 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44902 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
“I-I don’t know.” I curl my fingers around the side of the table, gripping it hard. Not because I’m in pain but because I’m not. I feel better right now than I have in a long time. He’s pressed up against me, his lips against my skin, his tattoo gun humming against my shoulder blade. The little burning pain of the gun, coupled with the way his breath rasps against my skin, has me on the verge of sensory overload.
“Do you belong to anyone?”
My heart thuds against my breastbone in a painful thud. Does he know about Garrick and the Sons of Loki? About my uncle? How?
“Do you have a man, Landry? Someone waiting for you at home?” he clarifies, allowing me to take a little breath. He wasn’t asking about Garrick and the MC. Of course he wasn’t. I doubt people get sold to cover debts in his world.
“There’s no one. I’m all alone.” The admission comes out wistful and…lonely.
Good job, Landry. Let him know how pitiful you are.
“Not all alone, sweetness,” he rumbles as the tattoo gun moves to a new spot. “You’re here with me right now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“So you aren’t alone. You’ve got me.”
“I like you.” I squeeze my eyes closed on the admission. Why can’t I stop talking? “I mean, I like being here.”
“Yeah? Well, I like you being here too.” His lips graze my cheek again, sending another wave of heat through me.
I try so hard not to whimper this time…but it’s useless. The sound comes anyway.
“Sweetness,” he groans, the tattoo gun going still against my skin. “You gotta stop making that sound.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, biting my lip. “I don’t mean to.”
“I know.” He groans again. “It’s so fucking sweet. I can’t focus when you make it, Landry.”
My eyes flutter open. This time, when I turn my head, my eyes meet his. Another whimper slips out before I can stop it because he looks so beautiful right now. His eyes are dark and full of hunger, like he’s looking at something he’s dying to sink his teeth into. And that something is me.
“Keegan, I…”
“Turn back around, baby. Let me finish this.”
I quickly whip my head forward again, staring at the curtain ahead of me. The tattoo gun doesn’t move for a moment before he slowly starts again.
For long moments, neither of us says anything. I don’t know what to say. He looked at me like no one ever has before. And I feel like I never have before. But…that can’t happen.
Why did I have to meet him today? Why couldn’t it have been yesterday? Or the day before that? Or any day before Garrick and his goons reappeared in my life? He doesn’t need to be mixed up in my mess.
And yet…when he finishes the tattoo fifteen minutes later and carefully wraps it up, his hands so gentle, my stomach bottoms out and I realize that I want him mixed up in my mess, even if it’s just for a while longer. I’m not ready to leave yet. I’m not ready to never see him again.
“Come here.” He holds out his hand for me.
I take it without question, allowing him to help me off the table. He walks me over to a group of strategically placed mirrors, allowing me to see myself from every angle.
I gasp, staring at the tattoo with wide eyes.
“Keegan,” I whisper, my gaze flickering to his in the mirror.
“You like it?”
I nod silently, feeling a little like I might cry. The tattoo is a delicate king’s crown perched on the petals of a pink lily. The stem is my name in his handwriting. It’s so damn delicate and beautiful. The entire tattoo is maybe four inches from top to bottom, but there’s so much detail in it.
“It suits you.” Keegan brushes a fingertip alongside a petal on the flower. His gaze flickers to mine again. “Strength, beauty, and innocence.”
I don’t know what prompts me to do it, but I spin, lifting up on my toes to press my lips to his. He grunts, one big hand lashing around my waist to yank me up against him.
His breath rasps in his throat, his body trembling against mine as he devours my lips, kissing me as if he’s starving for me. I hear people murmuring in the crowd, and I know they can see us. They’re watching us make out, his hands running all over me. But it feels too good to stop.
“You shouldn’t tempt a beast, Landry baby,” he growls against my lips. “I’m already hanging on by a thread here.”
His confession makes me feel brave and bold in a way I’ve never been. Maybe I can’t keep him forever, not with Garrick still hunting me. But I’m not ready to walk out of his life with nothing but his ink in my skin to remember him by. And judging by the way he’s holding onto me, his lips still moving against mine, he isn’t ready to let me go yet.