Page 9 of Three Reasons

She doesn’t pause or look up from her work. “Don’t worry about it.”

“He threatened you.” I can’t help the snap in my tone.

Her hand waves me off. “He won’t do anything. Tad is all talk.”

I keep my doubt to myself. Assholes like that don’t just go away into the night when they’ve been humiliated. Nine times out of ten, they follow through and get their retribution. Gray has a lot to learn about us if she thinks we’ll just let the threat go. Tad will be back, and we’ll be here as the wall she obviously needs between her and the jerks of the world.

The remainder of the appointment passes in silence while Gray works, and Cal and I shoot looks at one another. It’s nice to know we’re on the same page about this spitfire. I was confident when it came down to it that we’d be every bit as smitten with the incomparable woman we would finally claim.

A dozen filthy scenarios race through my mind as I watch her work. The ways I want to ingrain her into our lives, our home, and our hearts. But I have noidea what she’ll do or say when we tell her we both want her, tell her about the things we want with her.

There’s been the occasional woman here or there where we thought about settling down, but nothing ever panned out because most girls think of what we want as a good time for a night or two, but that’s it. And we accepted that we might spendour lives with only each other when we decided on this lifestyle. Gray has changed that. I see it in the way even Callan watches her. She’s interested and probably doesn’t understand exactly what she’s interestedin, but we’ll show her it can be a good life.

It is not for the weak, to be sure. There will be a lot of criticism and judgements from people we all know and see every day. Ruby is on the cusp of being considered a small city, with just over thirty thousand residents. Most of the people in our life won’t care. A good chunk of our clients already know the kind of life we have planned and are excited for the day we find our forever girl.

I wonder how many of them already know Gray. We are a larger town, but it seems like we should have run across her before. Nonetheless, I can’t recall a time outside of tonight.

Scanning my eyes over her form as she works, I try to detect anything familiar, aside from my lust for her, and nothing sticks out.

“How have we never seen you before?” I finally blurt out.

Her gaze cuts over her shoulder to meet mine, and I register her confusion as she shrugs, saying, “Different worlds?”

I don’t think they’re that different. “What part of town do you live in?” It feels weird that we wouldn’t have crossed paths before.

“I don’t really go out a lot. I spend most of my time here, have my groceries delivered, and run in the park near my house. It’s not like there aren’t nearly thirty thousand other people in town.” I guess that could make sense. We’ve only been here for nearly a year; it’s possible what she says is true, but it feels wrong.

“We live in Summerwood,” I say, trying to coax something out of her.

“Newer development, right?” Good, curiosity.

“Yeah, a couple years old, I think,” Callan interjects.

Gray hums in agreement as she dips her gun again before shading in another section of the tattoo.

“Big houses,” she murmurs, biting her lip as she concentrates.

“Some are, yeah. Good for families.” I say the last part slower, implying that’s what we’re looking for.

“Family,” she murmurs, glancing between the two of us, a blush creeping up her cheeks before she shakes herself and asks, “You have girlfriends, then?” She scowls at the idea.

“Nope.” I can’t withhold the grin from my tone.

She hums again but doesn’t speak until she finishes with Callan. I hope she’s catching my subtle hints, but I get the feeling even if she is, she’s talking herself out of them.

Callan

For hours, I’ve had her hands on me. Not quite in the way I desire, but it’s something, and I want more. Her touching me, breathing on me, it’s pure torture. I want her to sink her nails into my back as my fingers imprint on her hips. I want to nibble on her delectable, pouty lips as she moans from the pleasure we give her. This damn woman, though, she’s sitting here cool as a damn cucumber, ignoring us unless we speak directly to her. No more subtle touches as she moves. No more watching us from the corner of her eye. Nothing. I’m just another client to Gray, and I don’t fucking like it.

If not for the way she licked her lips when I’d taken my shirt off earlier, the side glances before that asshole showed up, and the heated looks we were receiving, I’d think she was indifferent to us.

Glancing down at my chest, I see she’s nearly finished with my ink, and neither one of us has made an effort to secure a date with her. By now, I know she believes I’m an ass. She isn’t wrong; I am. But I also know she’s been amused and charmed by Eli, so if anything, he’ll be the one to get us a night out with her.

His easygoing personality overshadows my gruff demeanour and makes these situations easier on everyone involved. As Gray begins cleaning up my tattoo, I catch Eli’s eye, and I can see he’s not going to be the one to make the first move.The fucking asshole.He’s forcing me to, and I understand exactly why. He’s been saying for years that I need to step out of my comfort zone and be the one to ask first for once.

“All right, Callan, we’re finished.” She smiles as she grabs the handheld mirror again and shows me her work. My eyes slowly look down at her as she watches me. “What do you think?”

Without breaking eye contact, I reply, “It’s fucking perfect.” I don’t need to look at it to know it’s immaculate.

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