Page 7 of Ink

“You’re just being nice,” she insisted. “I have a mirror, and I know what I look like. Are you sure that you won’t be embarrassed taking me to meet your friends like this?” she asked.

He pulled her into his arms, loving that she was allowing him to do that more and more lately. “I think you look perfect,” he said. “And I’d love to take you to my club to introduce you to all my friends.

“Okay,” she said, gifting him with her shy smile. “Let me just run to the bathroom. The baby feels as though she’s sitting on my bladder all the time now,” she said.

“She probably doesn’t have very much room in there,” he teased. Ink ran his hand over her belly, and she giggled.

“I guess she doesn’t,” Charlie agreed. “I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes,” she promised. He started for the door when she called his name. Ink turned around and found her smiling back at him. “Thanks for the pep talk. I know that this must be weird for you. I mean, you have a woman staying with you at your place and a baby will be here any day now. You know, if you ever decide that we’re too much, just let me know.” He was never going to be ready to leave her or kick her and the baby out, but he kept that bit of information to himself.

They got to the bar a little bit early and most of the guys and their women weren’t there yet. Charlie looked about ready to crawl out of her skin when he asked her to sit with him in the back of the bar. He usually had a few beers when he went into the Road Reapers, but tonight, since Charlie couldn’t drink, he didn’t want to. It was only right since she seemed to already feel out of place.

“You good?” he leaned over to ask. She nodded and he knew that she was lying. Ink took her hands into his own and she scooted closer to him.

“Thank you for that,” she whispered. “For some reason, when you do things like that, it helps to make me feel better.”

“Do things like what?” Ink asked. He had a pretty good idea what she was referring to, but he liked to hear her say it.

“When you touch me,” she breathed, “I like it. You help to calm me.” Ink felt the same way about her, and night after nighthe was left wondering if that was all that they’d ever have—occasional hugs and handholding. Tonight, he wanted to test his theory.

“Do you ever wonder if we could be good together?” he asked. He looked around the bar to make sure that they didn’t have an audience and was happy to find that no one was watching them.

“Good how?” she asked. “I thought that you didn’t want to get into anything. You said that you wanted to slow down.” That part was true on day one of them getting to know each other, but after six weeks, he was ready for things to speed up a bit.

“You’ve lived with me for six weeks now,” he said.

“I’m aware,” she whispered.

“Well, do you ever wonder what would happen if I did this?” he asked, leaning forward to gently run his lips over hers.

“Um,” she squeaked, “I think that we should try that again. I need more intel,” she teased.

She pulled him down for another kiss and when she let him up for air, her smile told him everything that he needed to know—she liked kissing him as much as he liked kissing her.

“Well, you two look cozy,” Mace said. He was standing over their table, holding his wife’s hand.

“Shut up,” Ink said.

“He’s just giving you crap because I haven’t kissed him like that in a while,” Brooke teased. Her husband pulled her up against his body and kissed her like a starving man. Ink wasn’t sure if he should look away or pretend that they weren’t playing tonsil hockey in front of him and Charlie.

“Okay, they get the idea,” Brooke said, pushing Mace away.

“I say that we continue this back in my office, honey,” Mace said.

“No, you have to talk to the guys first. Then, I’ll go back to your office with you,” she promised.

“I think that I need to run to the ladies’ room again.” Charlie stood up and rubbed her belly. “This kid is playing soccer in there.”

“Been there, done that,” Brooke said. “I don’t miss running to the bathroom every five minutes. I’m Brooke, by the way.”

“My name is Charlotte, but everyone calls me Charlie,” she said. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, maybe you can tell me about it while we’re in the ladies’ room because I need to go too,” Brooke said. “Plus, the other girls won’t get here for another hour, so you and I will have some time to get to know each other better.”

Ink worried that Charlie would play shy, but when she nodded and smiled at Brooke, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that Charlie got out of the house for a night and possibly made a friend to boot. He was going to count tonight as a win—especially after that kiss. He wanted to push her for more, and eventually, he would, but for now, he was going to savor that kiss she had just given to him—until he could get another one from her.

Charlotte

Charlie walked into the back of the tattoo shop, just as she had promised Ink that she would. Having the freedom to run to the store by herself made her feel almost normal again. Getting Ink to agree to let her go out by herself was no easy feat. He came up with every excuse in the book to tag along with her, but when she explained that she needed to do this for herself, he backed down. He made her promise to only go to the grocery store and come right back through the back alley to the shop. He didn’t want to take any chances that her ex was still hanging around town looking for her.

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