Page 5 of Devilish Ink

It was a pair of silver handcuffs.

Shite. That was Mason’s usual station. It must have been from when he and Rachel…

“Tell me this is part of the service,” he said, his voice suggestive and teasing, his eyebrow raised.

I flushed as an image of him handcuffed to the table with me on top of him flashed through my mind. I shook that image away, trying to ignore the flush of heat within my body.

“They’re not mine,” I blurted out before chastising myself. Why the hell did I feel the need to justify myself to my would-be kidnapper?

He smirked. “Sure thing.”

He dropped the cuffs and they clanked as they swung from the headrest.

He lowered himself to the creaky tattoo table and rested his head on his arms, facing me. “I’mallyours.”

I should be running for the door, this was my best chance.

But I was mad. Mad that such an attractive man could be a villain. Furious that I was curious about him, confused by him, turned the fuck on by him. Outraged that I’d spent this long letting the darkness terrorise me.

I stormed up to him, jammed the tattoo gun needle into his neck.

“You’re going to tell me the fucking truth…”

LIAM

Iknew eventually I’d get caught in my lies. But I didn’t think she’d figure it out so soon.

My brother picked a smart girl. Stunning. Sexy…

What did they say about men who covet their brother’s girl?

I blame her.

Her eyes had been my undoing.

Perhaps if she hadn’t had locked gazes with me as I stood outside Rian’s apartment, we wouldn’t be here, with her tattoo gun in my neck.

I’d stood there outside my brother’s apartment, working up the courage to knock on his door, to beg his forgiveness, ignoring the ice-cold raindrops biting at my skin.

The streetlamps had flickered on around me, devouring the faint awakening of stars. The rain dampened the world, but all I heard was Alan, his voice screaming as I drove away from our family farm.

“Don’t you ever come back! You hear me? Don’t you ever fucking step foot on this family’s land ever again!”

I had no home. If I wanted one, I needed to speak with Rian, the brother who hated me. I needed to make things right.

He was home. He had to be.

I had nothing else. No one else.

Then his front door opened. And my hopes lifted.

Instead of the brother that should have been my salvation, it washer.

Her long dark hair falling over her shoulders. Her pale skin was etched with tattoo ink like a lace collar all up her neck, peeking out from her open black jacket over a white button-up shirt. A plaid miniskirt, torn tights and black combat boots completed herDanger! Stay away!look.

For some reason, it just made me want to get closer. To know what was underneath.

Like I said, her gaze locked with mine. Her dark eyes, shadowed and lined with black, were full of a loneliness I recognised deep in my soul.

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