Page 65 of Make Me Dream of You

“Oh! And that!” Bex takes a long pull from her smoothie again, Wood biting the inside of his cheek, adding impossibly more honey butter to his already slathered bread.

“Nope,” Bex finally says. “He didn’t propose. Macy was disappointed.” She slurps her smoothie some more.

I’d have thought he’d be happy she didn’t get engaged last night. But he’s not.

Wood’s mouth is set in a hard line, his jaw clenched as he tosses his bread to his plate. “He’s an idiot.” His chair screeches across the floor as he gets up and leaves.

Bex nudges Livvy, her straw between her teeth. “Looks like we need to get on that apartment hunting sooner than later.”

Livvy nods.

My chest tightens. A pang—unexpected, unwelcome—hits me at the thought of her not being around. I was just getting used to having her here. Eating together, her silly reality show on in the background, watching over her…

She’s a natural.

It’s been less than a week of training her as an apprentice and she’s already taking the tattoo gun apart and cleaning it exactly like I showed her. Her soft, delicate fingers handling the machinery like a pro.

I don’t need to sit here and watch her—she’s doing a great job. Her attention to detail is impressive. But I don’t feel like doing anything else. Being anywhere else.

She sat with me all day today, while I did a six-hour piece. Right next to me. The scent of her hair—strawberries and something else—affected my thoughts all day.

I realize I’m sitting too close, leaning in more than necessary. Trying to get a hint of that scent again. What is the something else? I can’t place it.

“The piece you did today was beautiful,” she says, handing me the cleaned parts to put away.

“Thanks.”

She sweeps her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear, exposing the side of her neck. Her skin is so smooth. Flawless. That little spot, where neck meets shoulder—the perfect place to nuzzle and kiss…

“Noah?”

I tear my eyes off that spot and up to her eyes. “Huh? Sorry, I was spacing out. What were you saying?”

“I can tell.” She laughs, lightly touching my arm. “It’s okay, that was a long session. I’m sure you’re tired. I was asking how long until you think I’ll be starting to tattoo on real skin.”

“That won’t be for quite a while. Unless you want to start practicing on yourself.”

She tilts her head to the left, the corners of her mouth turning up into a devilish little smirk. “Can I practice on you?”

“Me?”

She nods. “Yeah. Why not?”

I smile. “I’m about out of real estate. Where are you suggesting, exactly?”

“From what I could see the other night, your butt looked pretty bare. No one would see it.”

I thought we were doing the whole, “pretend it never happened” approach to our little accidental encounter the other night. But here she is, bringing it up.

My cock twitches.

“You want to tattoo my ass?”

“Were you saving it for something special?”

I laugh. Harder than I have in a while.

“No, I guess not.”

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