What To Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection Part Two (166 page)

Mina swallowed, trying to ignore the way her throat had tightened. Eric didn’t know how close to the truth he’d come, but she couldn’t tell him that now – there was enough sadness in his story to last a lifetime, let alone a day or a single conversation. Hers could wait. She really was lucky to have Jess, and apparently, she’d underestimated Eric. She was lucky to have him, too. “I’m sorry,” she said, clasping his hand tightly.

He shook his head, as if shaking off the sorrow of his sister’s death. “That was years ago. I’m not trying to depress you; I just wanted to let you know that I could never fault you for caring for your sister.” His smile returned, and his eyes were the color of a summer sky again. “Actually, I don’t know if you’d noticed, but…” He pulled off his shirt in one smooth, unexpected movement.

Mina’s heart went crazy, fluttering like a caged bird as she eyed the broad expanse of his inked shoulders, all fair skin and contrasting dark ink. And then – oh God – there was everything below that: the arms she hadn’t been able to stop eyeing since the day she’d met him and his flat stomach…

“This was my first tattoo.” He indicated the design on his upper arm, and Mina noticed for the first time that he was pointing at something.

She dared to lean closer, her pulse quickening as she examined the design up close. The tip of his index finger rested on a place where the spiraling ink formed an ‘A’ that blended seamlessly with the rest of the design. “Amanda,” she said. “You got this tattoo in memory of your sister.”

He nodded. “I had it done a few months after she died, and that was when I started seriously considering tattooing for a living. So I took up an apprenticeship, and the rest is history.”

Mina touched her own side lightly, trailing her fingers over her ribs. If that poor little girl hadn’t died, Eric never would have done her tattoo. She probably never would have met him. The thought twisted her heart. She reached out to touch Eric on the shoulder, but he seemed to have moved on.

“So if you really thought I wasn’t interested,” he said, “what in the world were you thinking when I kissed you after dinner?”

Heat rushed into her cheeks. “I figured you were interested…for the night.” She tried not to eye his perfectly toned torso as she said it, but that proved impossible.

“That wasn’t the case.” He was silent for half a moment. “Though I guess I can’t blame you for thinking that after the way I acted. I’m sorry.” He was so close his breath rushed across her lips, warm and tempting.

“Don’t be.”

“No, really. You deserve to be treated much better than that.”

She would have pinched herself if she could have gotten away with it without Eric noticing. This was all going so differently than she’d imagined. She’d entered his apartment with a storm cloud over her head, and now she felt like she was walking on air instead of sitting on his couch. His lips brushed hers, and she was more than ready for another kiss. Unfortunately, the door swung open as soon as she parted her lips, ready to admit his tongue.

She and Eric pulled apart, though he still held her hand, and turned to face the front door. A tall man who was perhaps a few years older than Eric had walked in, and the expression on his face was one of surprise. “Sorry. I didn’t even realize you were here Eric, let alone that you’d brought someone with you.” He eyed Eric’s cast-off shirt dubiously, looking increasingly embarrassed as he took in the scene.

Eric’s expression was wry as he turned his gaze back to Mina again. “Mina, this is my roommate Garret. Garret, this is Mina.”

They exchanged cordial hellos, and though there was a certain air of awkwardness in the small living room, it couldn’t douse the inner glow that Eric’s words had sparked in Mina.

“You want me to, uh, leave?” Garret asked.

Eric shook his head. “No, you’re fine. I was just about to take Mina back out anyway.”

Garret shuffled back to a room that was presumably his bedroom, leaving Eric and a mildly disappointed Mina alone. Now that she knew Eric was really interested in a relationship with her – the real her, not the girl on the poster – she wasn’t exactly eager to go home to wallow in the loss of her job.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “but I have an idea, and if it sounds good to you we’ll need to leave here anyway.”

She looked at him, curious. “What is it?”

“About your job – I’m sure you need a new one, and I might be able to help. The pay’s nothing to brag about, and I don’t really know how it compares with what a bank teller makes, but if you need a position fast, this would definitely be that.”

She tried not to sound too desperate at the thought of possibly finding a new job so quickly. With the crappy economy, thoughts of a months-long job search had been tormenting her ever since she’d walked out of the bank. She had no savings and the rent was due in two weeks. She’d be willing to at least consider almost anything. “Oh yeah?”

He nodded. “We normally have two receptionists down at Hot Ink, but one of them quit a few days ago and Jed needs someone to take her place as quickly as possible. He’s been having the other girl work crazy hours and filling in himself when she’s not there. Is that something you might be interested in?”

The mere mention of working not only at a tattoo shop, but the same one as Eric, had immediately kindled her interest and her curiosity. “So I’d be at the front counter answering phones and scheduling appointments?”

He nodded. “That and answering some clients’ basic questions, selling the little bit of merchandise we carry, handling payments and stuff like that.”

She loosened her hold on her coffee cup just as the liquid was about to spill over the top. “That sounds great. Do you think Jed would be interested in hiring me?”

Eric grinned, and it fueled her enthusiasm to see that he seemed just as pleased at the prospect of her working there as she felt. “I’m sure he would be. You have experience with customer service and handling transactions, plus your image is already being used to advertise Hot Ink. I’d say that makes you perfect for the job.”

She beamed back at him. Maybe she wouldn’t have to tell Jess she was unemployed after all. “Do you think you could recommend me to Jed?”

“I can take you to talk to him right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hired you on the spot – he’s working the front desk and he hates it.”

Mina tapped her pen against the counter, thinking of Jess as she stared out Hot Ink’s large storefront windows at the darkened street beyond. It was a quarter after eleven. The shop was supposed to have closed at eleven, but Eric was still working, finishing a tattoo that was taking longer than anticipated, thanks to the fact that the client receiving it couldn’t seem to hold still for more than a minute at a time. He’d be done soon – hopefully, anyway. The other artists had left just a few minutes ago, leaving only Mina, Eric and his client behind. She didn’t really mind. She’d started at Hot Ink three days ago, but this was the first time she’d worked at night. She was supposed to work mostly during the day, but the other receptionist had left her shift early, sick. When Eric had called Mina to relay Jed’s request that she fill in for a few hours, she’d agreed after a quick phone call to Karen, who’d promised to swing by Mina’s apartment and check on Jess. With Jess taken care of, Mina didn’t feel too guilty over leaving her home alone at night. After all, she could use a couple extra hours on her paycheck.

Not that her pay was bad. She’d assumed she’d be taking a loss by accepting the job, but as it turned out, when she counted the tips the artists paid her in return for her booking them appointments, she was actually making a little more than she had at the bank. She’d decided on her first day that she loved working at Hot Ink, and the pay revelation had been icing on the cake. Besides the money, there was the fact that she could basically wear whatever she wanted to work. Today she wore jeans, a casual sweater and her favorite flats. The ensemble was infinitely more comfortable than what she’d had to wear at the bank. More importantly, she didn’t have to deal with anyone like Ashley. In fact, she liked everyone she worked with – especially Eric.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, where he was hard at work tattooing his restless client. He was lost in concentration, but he frequently made time for her when he wasn’t with customers. Working together made it easy for them to spend time with each other, even if it was just chatting from opposite sides of the glass display case that housed the shop’s selection of body jewelry. She smiled when he put down his gun and looked up at her as he mopped excess ink from his client’s arm.

He returned her smile before turning back to the other man. “All right. We’re finally done.” He put down his ink-stained towel and proceeded to clean the fresh tattoo, cutting an appropriate length of bandage and securing it.

Mina reached into the cubby beneath her register and pulled out a sheet printed with aftercare instructions. She handed it to the man before he left, tucking one of Eric’s business cards with it. When he was gone, she turned to face Eric. “Long day, huh?”

He flashed her a wry grin. “Too long.” He strode over to the door and locked it, simultaneously flipping the switch that turned the shop’s electric sign off. “No other clients are getting in here until one tomorrow.” That was when the shop would open the next day.

“Sounds good to me.” She stifled a yawn, glancing at the clock that hung on the wall to her right. Only half an hour until midnight. She was used to going to bed earlier, since she’d had to rise early for work at the bank. Sleeping in – at least, on the weekends, when she didn’t have to get up to take Jess to school – was another thing she liked about working at Hot Ink.

“Tired, huh?” he asked, stepping behind the counter and laying a hand on her arm.

A shiver of delight raced down her spine, her body warming. She
had
been tired, but his touch dispelled her drowsiness, making her feel as if she’d been sleeping all day and had just now come awake. Ever since she’d visited his apartment briefly, the affection he’d shown her had been light and sweet; the occasional brush across the cheek or five-second press against her lips. She knew he was holding back. So was she, but why, exactly, she wasn’t sure. “I feel like I could stay up a little later,” she said. Now that the client was gone and the time had come for them to part, she was reluctant to leave him.

He pressed a kiss against her mouth, and though it started out gently, she tempted him by parting her lips, inviting him to slip his tongue inside. He obliged, sliding his tongue over hers and moaning as he reached deep into her mouth. She sensed that whatever sense of restraint had been holding him back over the past few days had broken, and her heart fluttered. She pressed her hands to his sides, seizing fistfuls of his shirt as he leaned her against the counter, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against his chest. The edge of the counter dug into the small of her back and she shifted against him, uncomfortable but unwilling to end the kiss.

He pulled away. “Am I hurting you?”

Her lower lip jutted out of its own accord. “Don’t stop.” She’d been daydreaming about him kissing her like this for days. Now, every fiber of her being throbbed and tingled, aching for more.

“Only for a second,” he said, pulling her away from the counter.

Moments later, they were on the couch in the waiting area, pressed side by side and entwined in the middle of the cushions. Eric nipped her lower lip between his teeth before she could suck it back in, and her nipples tightened beneath her clothing. She opened her mouth, letting his tongue slide inside again as she clung to him, her nails biting into his shoulders.

He slipped a thumb beneath her sweater, running it over the curve of her hipbone. She sighed, her breath rushing over his lips. If only they were somewhere other than the shop. True, it was closed and locked, but the large glass windows destroyed any notion of true privacy. If they’d had that, she wouldn’t have stopped him from doing anything that involved his hands on her body. The couch was facing opposite the window and partially obscured by an alcove, but that wasn’t enough cover for the things she wanted to do with him.

As he continued to tease her tongue, she moaned. He’d tucked his thumb beneath the waistband of her jeans, and her pussy was quickly dampening in response. It had been so long, she’d almost forgotten that anyone was capable of making her feel this way. She shifted against him and the seam of her jeans pressed against her clit through her panties, sending bolts of fire through her belly and leaving her feeling like she might die of unfulfilled desire – not that she had anyone to blame but herself. He’d meant to kiss her sweetly at the counter, but she’d encouraged him, and now they were here; locked in an increasingly heated embrace that could end in nothing but frustration. She had Jess and he had a roommate. This would be the only time they’d get alone together tonight, before they said goodbye and parted ways at the nearby parking garage. She knew that, but she couldn’t resist arching her hips, letting his fingers slide beneath the waistband of her jeans to join his thumb.