Page 29 of Illicit Illustration

“Anyway,” Reid said loudly, cutting her off. “I’m borrowing Haz to come help me work on the logo concept and design for Jay’s new restaurant plans this morning, so maybe you should go drag your boyfriend out of his office before he spends all day in there. I think he’s wrapping up the supply order right now.”

“Donuts, huh?” Charley asked, calling me out, but Reid was quicker.

“Yeah, I know the way to this girl’s heart. Gotta feed her donuts, so she’ll agree to help me.”

“You sure you want him to put you to work on your day off? I thought Jay was already working with the architect on all the designs for the expansion. He was talking to Annie about it earlier this week,” Charley commented, clearly fishing to see if Reid’s cover story was true.

“That’s just the architectural work. He’s still figuring out things on the marketing end himself, right, Reid?”

“Right,” he confirmed, shooting me a wink when Charley turned to grab the sweatshirt she’d thrown on the coffee table when she’d barged in earlier.

“Well, I guess I’ll let you two work on thosemarketing plansthis morning.” She squinted as she looked at Reid, tilting her head to the side. “Do you have a black eye?”

“Um.” He cleared his throat, his eyes briefly darting toward me. “No. It’s just a bruise on my nose. I was working in the breakroom yesterday and something fell on my face.”

“What fell on your face?”

I definitely shouldn't say, “I did.”

“Oh, uh. A case of sterile gauze pads. Box turned, and the corner caught me right on the nose as it came down. It’d been rockingabove me precariously, and I thought I could balance it before it fell. Guess I was wrong.”

“Ouch. Looks like it caught you pretty good. Did it hurt?”

My cheeks heated as I tried to keep myself from recalling the brief moments before my knee had slipped when I was perched above Reid yesterday. As the blush spread, I looked away, knowing that Charley would be suspicious if talking about how Reid bruised his face was making me turn into a tomato.

“Nah, it’s fine. Made it hard to breathe for a second, but I’ll get over it. I like a little pain sometimes.”

“Freak,” Charley responded with a giggle, shaking her head.

“Yup, that’s me. I kinda like the rush I get when things land on my face. You should see how excited I get when someone tries to smother me.”

His shoulder nudged mine, and I fought the urge to break out into a nervous giggle. Or focus on Reid commenting that he liked a little pain. That’d only make the blush worse.

“On that note, I think I’m gonna go.” Charley pushed Reid out of the way when she got to the doorway, pulling me into a hug. “You know I love you, right?”

I nodded, and she squeezed a little tighter. “Go with your heart, whoever you choose. But make him work for it. He doesn’t deserve you either way, but he needs to earn your attention.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Reid commented once Charley let me go and headed down the stairs. “He’s never going to deserve you, but make sure he shows you how much he wants you. Don’t take it easy on him.”

Smiling as I looked over at him, I realized maybe Reid wasn’t as emotionally stunted as I’d once thought he was. “Definitely don’t intend to make anything easy for him.”

“The hard way. I like it.” He grinned, and I tried to push away how seeing him smile like that made me feel. I needed to keep reminding myself Reid wasn’t an option. But Seven was.

Hazel

I’d almost forgotten howI was going to get to Jay’s warehouse until Reid was leading me across the parking lot to his sleek black bike and motioning for me to wait as he ducked back into his shop. He came out after a few moments, his helmet on with the face visor open and another one tucked underneath his arm.

“You gonna tell me about the scene we’re recreating when we get there?” he asked, smoothing my ponytail over my shoulder and tucking it into the back of my coat before he lowered the helmet onto my head. He flipped the face screen open on mine, his grin widening when he saw I was blushing again. “Now you’ve definitely got me intrigued if you’re blushing that hard. These blushes kill me, Haz.”

“I can’t control it. It just happens. It’s so annoying.”

“Nah.” He reached down to zip my coat, pulling it up until his knuckles brushed my exposed neck. “I kinda love the way you look when you’re blushing.”

“And now you’ve made it worse.”

“You ready to go?” he asked, mercifully changing the subject.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

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