Ten Thousand Lies (30 page)

Xanthe was on a mission to find someone to fuck Deo out of her system. I couldn’t blame her. Deo was the epitome of masculine beauty. Big, brawny,
manly
. I wouldn’t have minded a crack at him myself if he hadn’t been banging my best friend on and off for the last four years.

The shop was actually full, which I think shocked the shit out of the guys. Word had been spreading that the Inkwell was vamped up and offering piercings and free coffee. Several people were going through Ricki’s and Ronen’s portfolios while a couple of teens checked out the flash on the walls.

Minutes from closing time, Ronen came out with his client. Cute, muscular, and
tall
, the guy gave me a shy smile as he came up to the counter. Ronen went around behind me and jumped onto the computer, letting me cash the guy out and give him aftercare instructions for his fresh ink.

“Hey,” the guy said.

I looked up into a pair of warm brown eyes. “Hey.”

“So…what’s your name?”

Ronen shifted on the stool.

“Jaime,” I replied, handing over the aftercare sheet.

He made sure to touch my fingers. “I’m Shaun.”

I gave him a smile. “I know. I booked your appointment.”

“Yeah. I was wondering…are you free tonight?”

Seriously?
“I’m catching a show with a couple of friends.”

“Oh. Me and the guys are only here until Monday,” he said, tilting his head toward a group of dudes in the waiting area.

I shrugged. “You’re welcome to meet up with us. I heard the music is going to be great. Jesper’s Pub in De Wallen.”

Shaun smiled. “What time are you going to be there?”

“Nine-ish.”

“Cool. So…I guess I’ll see you there then.”

“I guess so,” I replied.

Ronen was squirming. I’d wager he was ready to explode with the profanity churning through his head.

“Great,” said Shaun.

He headed over to his friends, and the rest of them stood, ready to leave. As he made his way out the door, Shaun looked back and smiled once more. I returned it, feeling no enthusiasm for the task.

“What the fuck was that?” hissed Ronen.

“It was a dude asking me out. I thought it was pretty obvious.”

“You shouldn’t date clients,” he said tersely.

“He’s no longer a client, it’s not a date, and he’s a tourist. So, fuck off.”

“Jaime—”

Rounding on him, I got up in his face. “My life. My fucking business. You got that, Ronen?”

He scowled but shut his mouth.

“I’m out of here,” I snapped, heading into my room. I’d already done a wipe-down in here, and I could come in on Monday and clean the rest of the shop before we opened on Tuesday.

“Oy! We’re your bosses—” Ronen started to say heatedly as he charged into the piercing room behind me.

“Yeah? Well, bosses don’t fuck their employees in bar closets. Nor do they date them. Just like employees don’t date clients.”

Ronen’s eyes went wide, and I flipped him the bird.

So there.

Storming out of the shop in a foul mood—Ronen would have to learn one day to keep his opinions to his damn self—I whipped out my phone to call Xanthe.

“I’m on my way home,” I said when she picked up.

“Me, too.”

“I might have found us something pretty. They’re going to meet us at the show.”

“Sweet.”

“Yep. And they’re tourists.”

“Even better.”

Ricki

“Come on! Get your shit! We gotta go!” Ronen half-shouted as he charged into my room.

I was cleaning off the tattoo I’d just finished on the slender neck of a rather attractive woman. The black rose I’d created looked fantastic against her pale white skin.

“What for?” I asked, pulling out my roll of cling film.

“Jaime’s going out with some guys in De Wallen. Jesper’s Pub. Live bands, and this guy Shaun wants in her pants. We gotta go. They’re meeting up at nine.”

All the shattered, bruised, broken bits of me floating around in my body sank and pooled in my gut. The sensation was so unpleasant that I wanted to vomit.

“She’s meeting a bunch of guys?” I could barely speak above a whisper.

“Well, Xanthe and that chick they’re friends with are going, too. It sounded like they’d made these plans, and when Shaun asked Jaime out, she said she was already doing this and said he and his mates could tag along.”

“Doesn’t sound like Jaime’s looking for anything to come of it,” said my client.

Ronen and I stared at her.

“What?” she asked. “It sounds like she doesn’t give a shit one way or another.”

I looked to Ronen. “Well, maybe she’s right.”

“You wanna fucking take that chance?”

“You don’t,” said my client.

“Right,” said Ronen, grabbing her arm and hefting her to her feet. “I’ll cash you out. Ricki, fucking clean up at warp speed. We need to make you as pretty as we know how.”

“What?” I asked, alarmed.

“Yeah. This Shaun motherfucker was kind of dreamy—but in a surfer dude sort of way.”

Repulsed, I looked at Ronen. “I’m not going all bloody surfer.”

“No, man. Jaime likes your style—you know, hairy tattooist. But this guy might get her motor running after a few drinks even if it’s for a night.”

Rolling my eyes, I waited until they’d walked down the hall before going into a full-blown panic and cleaning my station like a bloody head case. Ronen must’ve tossed my poor client out on her arse because he was back and helping me clean up within minutes.

Then, he was flicking off switches and shoving me out the front door.

Fuck, please don’t let her want a dreamy surfer douche,
I silently prayed to whatever was listening as Ronen sped the Mini through the streets to our house.

“Go, go, go!” he shouted as we peeled up to the curb. “Fuckin’ shit and shower, but don’t shave.”

“Damn, man—”

Ronen shoved me out of the car. Terrified I was losing any ground I’d gained with Jaime, I hauled arse into the house and tore up the stairs.

Scouring myself clean, I was silently thanking Deo for leaving that beard oil for me. Jaime had loved the smell. Out of the shower, I put a few drops of the oil in my palm and rubbed my hands together, smoothing it through my beard.

I didn’t own cologne. I hoped clean was a good enough scent on me.

Surprisingly, Ronen had showered and gotten his arse looking spiffy, too.

With a shrewd eye, he looked me over. “That’ll do. And, just remember, if Jaime picks that motherfucker over you, you know how to kill him and make it look like an accident,” said Ronen.

Too bloody right, I do.

Jaime

Jesper’s Pub was a seedy little bar with a reputation for putting up some fantastic rock bands. Lilla had advised us to drink only bottled beer for sanitary reasons, and apparently, people had been roofied here a few times.

The first band was great, a mellow sort of bluesy rock that felt good to listen to. Shaun and his friends showed up and joined us at the booth we had snagged. Xanthe was off dancing with one of them, and Lilla was at the bar, ordering the three of us another round of drinks. The dudes hadn’t bothered to offer.

Shaun had his arm slung around my shoulders, and he reeked of alcohol. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I wasn’t too happy I’d invited him along. Somehow, I’d convinced myself it would be a good thing to go out and hook up with guys like I used to. It would get the whole disaster with Ricki behind me, proving to myself that it wasn’t anything more than what it had been—an unfortunate lay.

Shaun leaned in to talk into my ear over the pounding bass and drums, “So what? You live here in Amsterdam?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “What about you? Where do you live?”

“Virginia.”

“Cool,” I replied.

Lilla came back with our beer and handed me one. I gulped at it in an effort to ignore Shaun smothering me. He was here to get laid, I’d known that, and I was regretting this wholeheartedly.

I didn’t want to get laid. At least…not with Shaun.

I missed Ricki.

Ricki didn’t want to get laid. Ricki wanted
me
. He wanted my laughter and smiles, not the wet hole between my legs—well, not as a primary goal.

The band finished their last song, and the lights went up. People began swarming the bar, and I spotted Xanthe making her way toward it from in front of the stage, the dude she’d been dancing with following her like a puppy. She’d gotten the hottest guy of the bunch, in my opinion. And the nicest, by the way he was treating her.

“So, Jaime…”

I turned to face Shaun. “Yeah?”

He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. Soft, gentle pressure. It was…pleasant. I waited for some sort of tingle, anything really, to make me want this guy. Even when he touched the tip of his tongue to my bottom lip, it should’ve been dead sexy.

Nothing.

He wasn’t Ricki.

Pulling back from Shaun, I tried to smile.

He smiled and murmured, “That was nice.”

Nice.

It hadn’t been fucking nice with Ricki. It had been fresh and promising, full of fire and yearning. Nice was fucking blasé and forgettable. I wanted that panty-melting inferno Ricki had incited, not fucking nice.

“Jaime.”

Either I was drunk off one and a half beers, or I had just auditorily fantasized my ass into a hallucination. When I turned toward the sound of that deep British voice, it was as though some higher being had listened to my frantic secret prayers and plopped the motherfucker right there in front of me.

Across the table, Lilla drew in a sharp breath.

“Ricki?” I gasped.

His strange eyes were glowing in the dim light, his jaw clenching, as he looked at Shaun and then back to me. “I need to talk to you.”

Shaun’s arm tightened around my shoulders. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Indignation flared up in me. “How the hell would you know?” I snapped.

“But—”

I made to slide out of the booth.

Shaun grabbed my arm. “Wait—”

Fast as a flash of lightning, Ricki was over the table and had Shaun shoved back into the wall behind the booth. “Fucking touch her like that again—touch
any
woman like that again—and I’ll fucking end you.”

“Wh-what?” Shaun spluttered.

“Women aren’t on this planet to appease men, you fucking douche,” Ricki snarled. “She made the decision to get the fuck up, and you just physically tried to stop her.”

Shaun’s jaw dropped as Ricki straightened up.

“Misogynistic motherfucker. If you can’t get her to stay with your words, then you never had any influence on her anyway.”

Holy shit.
That was
the hottest
thing I’d ever witnessed.

Ricki turned his attention back on me. The fury in his eyes was a complete contrast to the soft tone of his voice. “Will you talk with me, Jaime?”

Feigning indifference, I shrugged and grabbed my bag. “Sure.”

It was then I noticed Ronen standing behind and to the right of Ricki. He gave me a huge shit-eating grin and dropped into the spot next to Lilla.

“Hi,” said Ronen to Lilla. “I’m Ronen.”

Heart pounding, I got to my feet and headed for the exit. Ronen and Lilla would let Xanthe know where I’d gone off to. I didn’t spare Shaun a second glance.

Outside, I dug around in my bag for the pack of smokes I’d bought for a night out drinking with my girls. After I fished one out, Ricki was there with his lighter, sparking it up for me.

Taking a pull off the cigarette, I exhaled. “Is everything okay at the shop?”

Ricki’s eyes narrowed on me. “The shop’s fine.”

My heartbeat increased. “Then, why’d you hunt me down on my night out?”

Instead of answering, he fished his own smoke out and lit it. “Will you walk with me?”

“Not until you tell me what’s up.”

His nostrils flared, and his jaw bunched beneath his beard. “I want to talk to you away from this place. Please?”

Huffing, I grumbled, “Lead the way then.”

Unsure of where we were going, I followed him down the street. We made our way in silence, and it was so uncomfortable that I wanted to scream at him.

Coming to a bridge, we made it about halfway across before he stopped and flicked his cigarette over the side. “Jaime?”