Page 4 of Forbidden Harmony

“Yep,” Kira said. “He was over the othernight with Gideon and I saw it on his wrist. Anyway, I’m sorry I can’t go withyou tomorrow night, but I fully expect you to text me in the morning with allthe details of who you banged.”

Chapter Two

“Yo, Preacher, that guy is here.”

Preacher finished spraying the metal sidetable in the room he used for piercing. He wiped up the disinfectant spray witha clean cloth. “Can you be a little more specific, Nolan?”

“The interview guy. Shit, he told me hisname, uh…”

“Nix,” Preacher said. He liked his apprenticeand Nolan wasn’t stupid, but sometimes he acted like a complete idiot. “Tellhim I’ll be a few minutes.”

“Right.” Nolan lingered in the doorway. “Hey,uh, you’re happy with the shit I do around here, right?

“I’m hiring another tattoo artist because theshop is busy,” Preacher said. “It has nothing to do with you or your work.”

“Okay, good, ‘cause I know I kind of messedup that tattoo the other day, but I learned from it and it won’t happen again.”

Preacher shrugged. “It was your buddy youwere tattooing. I don’t give a fuck if you messed it up.”

He could almost see Nolan’s body deflate infront of him. “Right.”

He turned to leave, and Preacher said, “You’redoing fine. Stop fucking worrying so much. You’ve got talent. It was a hard tattooand you did better with it than ninety percent of the artists I’ve worked withwould have done.”

Nolan’s face brightened. “Yeah? Thanks,man, I appreciate that. I really like it here and I just want to say thanksagain for letting me apprentice. It means a lot to me and -”

“Jesus Christ, knock it off with that sappyshit, or I’ll end your apprenticeship and you’ll start paying me a chair rentalfee,” Preacher said.

Nolan laughed and left the room. Preacherfinished cleaning the table before tossing the rag in the hamper to be washed.He’d do the interview in this room. He didn’t have any clients booked for therest of the day, but the shop would still be busy. People were always droppingin to book appointments, browse the art on the walls, and look over his tattoobooks.

Even more so now that it was tourist season.He’d learned after his first summer here to leave a few spots open every day forwalk in’s. It was the only time of the year that he did walk-in’s, but ithelped make his shop more popular with tourists if they thought they had achance to get a tattoo while on vacation.

He hoped this Nix guy was good. He’d interviewedtwo other people this week and neither of them had strong enough tattooingskills. He wanted only the very best for his shop.

His shop.

A brief smile crossed his face. He’d neverthought he’d be saying those words. Even now, some days he still couldn’t believeit. After living his entire life in New Cassel, Gideon had to work hard toconvince him to move to Harmony Falls. And, if Preacher was being honest, despitehow much he missed Gideon, he’d moved here because it was his only chance to gethis own tattoo shop.

Maybe, but you love this stupid little townnow, and you know it.

Yeah, maybe he did. He’d convinced himselfhe was a city boy, but fuck, if there wasn’t something appealing about livingin a small town.

Something or someone?

He stared down at the friendship braceleton his wrist. The blue and green threads were woven into a simple diamond design.He touched the bracelet, a flash of heat hitting his groin. He rolled his eyes,annoyed with himself for lusting after the little schoolteacher who’d made thebracelet.

She wants to fuck you.

He snorted before walking toward the doorof the piercing room. Maybe she was just as hot for him as he was for her, butit didn’t mean he had a chance with her. Even if Addison didn’t have an idiot fiancé,she’d never actually let him touch her. Not outside of her fantasies anyway.

He’d met plenty of women like her and as soonas he made it clear he’d be happy to fuck them, their flirting stopped, and theirinterest dropped off as sharply as tourist shop sales in September. He never spokeabout his past to anyone, but he was certain that more than one of those properladies who flirted with him suspected he was an ex-con.

Addison’s different.

He yanked open the door and stepped intothe main part of the shop. She wasn’t different and he was a fucking fool ifhe tried to convince himself otherwise.

Besides, it didn’t matter. She was engagedand in a couple of months, she’d be forever tied to that wanker of a lawyer.

A dark-haired man, his body nearly as largeand imposing as Preacher’s own 6’5”, was standing at the front desk. He heldout his hand as Preacher approached and Preacher shook it firmly.

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