Page 25 of Pomegranate Kiss

Lex nodded, even though a wash of nerves cascaded over her. She’d never tattooed Bell before, and she’d have to pull out her A-game if he was asking. “Sure thing, bossman.”

He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “We can have a talk tomorrow too. Six months is almost here.”

She didn’t need any reminding. The ticking down clock blazed in her mind most hours now, every day bringing her closer to the end of this thing with Cam. For the first time in her life, the ideaof commitment wasn’t causing her throat to squeeze tight, and the tethers didn’t constrain. In fact, she wanted them more than ever before.

“About that, Bell,” she said, sucking in a deep breath. Mitch’s gaze bore into her, but she ignored the weight. “I’m in. When six months are up, I want to be here, working in the shop.”

Bell’s brows rose, but a grin brightened his face. “Glad to hear it, girlie. The shop wouldn’t be the same without your foul mouth.” He already headed for the door. “Lacey, we’re changing the schedule again,” he bellowed, his voice echoing to the rafters of this place.

“Fuck you too,” she called back, sweet as sugar.

Lex couldn’t help the grin as she shook her head. She grabbed Mitch’s arm and continued adding cobweb thin lines that stretched out farther, filling in the details she’d missed in her first couple of passes.

“Stop staring at me like that, fucker. Your arm is in my hands,” Lex grumbled. Mitch’s gaze pressed into her like a hammer drill, and she’d be lying if it didn’t make the previous insecurity surge into focus.

“Still with the sweet-talking,” Mitch responded. She glanced up to see the warm crinkle of his dark eyes. “I thought you’d be bolting once this apprenticeship was up. The whole sticking-around-to-see-it-through thing looks good on you.”

“You’re not my type, babe,” Lex drawled, trying to hide how her cheeks heated in embarrassment at the honest praise from her friend. “Though I think we tend to go for the same.”

“What can I say?” Mitch joked, even as he held still. “We’ve got amazing taste in women.”

Lex lowered the tattoo gun, the needle gliding across his skin in smooth, feathered strokes. She and Mitch had tag teamed for years, slicing their way through the club scene of Charleston, butfor the first time the idea of hitting Notes to hunt for a woman to sneak in a couple of moans didn’t hold an appeal.

Lex knew what she wanted, and it was time she took the steps to claim it.

Chapter Twelve

Cam had readjusted the crimson dress at least a hundred times and they hadn’t even left Danny and Adrian’s house yet. The fabric clung to her curves, and her breasts tested the tensile strength of the fabric. If she tried to dance in this, she would definitely get dragged away for indecent exposure.

However, Lex would be at the club with them tonight, and Cam wanted to turn heads. She wantedthatlook from Lex, the all-encompassing, planetary collision sort of intensity Alexis Dukas stared at her with.

In all their back-and-forth texts and the few times they’d snuck over each other’s houses to get off this past month, she’d wanted to tell Lex about the imminent relocation to Savannah. Every time, the words stuck in her throat. She could admit she wanted something with Lex, more than she’d wanted anything in a long, long time.

Yet, too many variables threatened to sink her already scuppered ship. Lex might not feel the same depth she did orwant the long-term Cam didn’t just yearn for—she needed. Her mother and father might cut her from their lives if she started dating a woman. And while she could come home on weekends, she needed to finish her degree and make the career change before she imploded.

Danny let out a low whistle. “Damn, woman. Isn’t there some rule about not upstaging the bride?”

The bride-to-be had tugged on an emerald halter dress that reached her thighs, the color matching her eyes and creating a beautiful contrast with her copper hair. The woman looked gorgeous enough to stop people mid-stride, but Danny’s choice of the club for her bachelorette was more about losing herself in the music than getting down and dirty with some random guys one last time.

Cam snorted. “If you want, I can change into a paper bag. Though let’s be real, you don’t need to worry about anyone upstaging you. Danny, you’re a stunner.”

Danny stared at herself in the floor-length mirror in her and Adrian’s room and wrinkled her nose. “It’s just surreal, you know?” She tugged at the hem of her dress. “Getting to care about trivial shit like details for the wedding. Hell, even getting to have a wedding. If someone told me three years ago this would be happening, I’d say they had the wrong girl.”

Cam’s heart tugged in her chest. She couldn’t imagine what Danny had gone through living in WitSec for years under constant threat of her serial killer father. Yet she understood the longing for what Danny had found in Adrian. Cam had been yearning for it all—the familiarity, the bone-aching comfort, and the scorch of a love that might last a lifetime.

The closest she’d ever come to that was waking up in Lex’s bed.

“You’re definitely the right girl for this,” Cam responded, squeezing Danny’s shoulder. “And based on the levels of calm,cool, and collected you’ve been during all this trivial shit, you’re acing the whole wedding thing.”

Danny finished touching up her makeup, and Cam snapped on a beaded necklace, making the last-minute tweaks before they set out for the bachelorette party.

“Well, let’s tear up the dance floor one last time before you go and abandon me,” Danny said, throwing a dramatic hand to her forehead.

Cam nudged her in the side. “You know I’ll be visiting on weekends. Savannah might be where I’m attending grad school, but Charleston’s become my home.”

Danny looped her arm through Cam’s and together they headed out of the bedroom. Adrian relaxed on the couch in the living room, but the moment they entered, he perked right up.

“I can always cancel tonight if you want to kick my sister out of the hotel room you’re sharing,” Adrian said, his gaze glued on Danny. “If I’m honest, I’m terrified about what Cal, Matty, and Mitch have planned.”

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