Page 5 of Illicit Illustration

“Then they’re going to have to go through me first. There’s no way in fucking hell I’m letting someone else be her first.”

My face was fully red, and my breaths came in shallow pants as I tried not to melt into a puddle and slide right off Hudson’s desk chair and onto the floor. I knew he was talking about tattooing me, but I would have literally given my right tit to have Reid be my first.

“Hmm,” Charley hummed, trying not to laugh as she glanced over at my reddened cheeks. That bitch knew exactly what she was doing. “Then let’s hope none of the bachelors tonight know their way around marking up virginal skin.”

I was going to fucking kill her. She was dead.

“Hazel’s a smart girl,” he murmured, turning toward me with a smile. “She knows who to come to when she’s ready for her first.”

Fuckme.

“Alright, fuck boy, get out of here. Hudson is waiting for you in the breakroom. Just try not to clear him out this time…and no more poker with real money. I’m tired of listening to him whine after you guys convince him to go all in and he loses it.”

“Not my fault your boy is quick on the trigger,” Reid laughedas he stood from the chair and tucked my pencil above his ear.

“You going to give it to me, Reid?” I asked, reaching for my sketchbook. Charley’s snicker from the door confirmed she’d taken that innocent comment somewhere dirty, and I tried to tamp down the urge to blush again as Reid turned to face me.

“I’ll give you whatever you want, Haz,” he responded, his voice low and his gaze lingering on the low neckline of my dress. I reached for the pad again and fought off a shiver when my fingers grazed his. My eyes followed his hand as it fell to his side, his thumb hooking into his pocket. The pocket right next to his…

“You can keep the penis,” I whispered, my eyes widening when I realized what I’d said to him. “THE PENCIL! Keep the pencil. Okay, bye.”

Charley laughed hysterically as I sprinted toward the door, passing her and yanking open the door to the ladies’ bathroom. I needed to just drown myself in a shallow bar bathroom sink before I said anything else embarrassing.

It was going to be a long night.

Reid

“Did she really justtell me to keep the penis?” I asked, trying not to be utterly charmed by the woman who’d just sprinted across the hallway to the bathroom.

The Hazel I knew—or thought I knew—was likely in there muttering to herself in mortification.

“Shut up, Reid. You know you make her nervous.”

“Is she ever going to get over that?”

“Probably not,” Charley laughed, checking the hallway to make sure no one was listening before she stepped toward me. “She’s anxious about tonight. And you know she overthinks everything and freaks herself out. She was supposed to be in here relaxing so she could flirt with some eligible bachelors, but you’ve clearly undone what I was trying to achieve.”

My neck prickled with irritation as I thought about what would happen shortly. Charley’s little dating experiment seemed kind of cool from the outside, but I still didn’t understand why she’d roped Hazel into it.

“Speaking of…” Charley led, lowering her voice again. “You’re not really going to play poker with the guys. It’s canceled because Hudson had to go deal with something at home. So, it’s going to be our little secret that you will now be bachelor number seven.”

“What? No.” Charley had already tried to rope me into this thing and Hudson had been very vocal about menottaking part. I wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t want me flirting with his sister or if he thought I was too much of a slut—his words—to takeit seriously. But I’d quickly been eliminated from his selection process.

“Yes.”

“No, not with…” I gestured across the hallway toward where Haz was still hiding in the bathroom. “She’ll freak out. You know she will. Even if I manage not to flirt with her, she won’t be happy when you tell her.”

“That’s why we’re not telling her. I can tell you her number, so you act aloof and distant if you really don’t like her like I think you do, and then I won’t have to figure out which woman to cut because the numbers are uneven.”

I wasn’t even touching the bait of her trying to figure out if I liked Hazel. Watching from afar was about as close to her best friend as I was going to get. Hazel didn’t go for guys like me. She went for nice fuckers like that pretty boy baseball player who’d followed her around way too closely at the Halloween party.

“Does it even matter that the numbers are even?” I whispered, trying not to draw attention to our conversation for fear Hazel might overhear it. “The women don’t have a limit on who they give their numbers to. And there isn’t any guarantee that people will follow through on texting. The outcome won’t be any different if I do it or not.”

“But then the numbers won’t match up for the rotations.”

“You’ll figure it out. You’re a smart girl.”

“Reid,” she growled, hands on her hips. “If you don’t do this, I’m going to take Hazel to Butterfly Ridge and have my cousin’s friend consult on the tattoo she’s been talking about.”

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