Page 12 of Trouble for Hire
Moments later, the young men strode off, bumping fists and amped up. She waited until they disappeared in the crowd before turning to Erik.
“Are you okay?”
Surprise glinted in his eyes, but his long, dense lashes lowered, hiding his gaze from her.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“That’s my question.” She tilted her head. “But something’s definitely wrong. Do you want to talk about it? And before you say no,” she said, ignoring the hard shake of his head, “do I need to remind you about me spilling all my dirty secrets to you just a couple of days ago? I’d say you owe me. So my question is really a formality. Dish. And you can start with why those two would want a selfie with you.”
He didn’t immediately reply, but his sigh swelled on the night air.
“I was on TV for a while. I guess it makes me a celebrity in their eyes.”
The admission sounded like it’d been forced through churned up gravel. Again, she frowned even as recognition flickered inside her.
“That’s right. I completely forgot Jeremy mentioned you’d won a tattoo competition. What was that show?” She scrunched her nose, sifting through her memory. “Royalty Ink, right?”
He nodded, the movement stiff, abrupt. “Yeah, but that’s not the one I’m talking about, though it started everything else.” Another weighty sigh, and he scrubbed his hand over his head. Muscles flexed in his arm and shoulder, and no, her ovaries did not cry out hallelujah. “Do you want to dance? I need to...move.”
“Oh.” She blinked. Swaying to music and pressed against his body. Again. Good God, that was a bad idea. “Yes, sure.”
A big hand settled on the small of her back, and she bit back a moan at the innocuous but solid touch. Before she had time to assimilate to his hand on her, Erik guided her in front of the stage to the area designated for dancing. His hand applied a small amount of pressure, and she turned into his body. With no coaxing, she looped her arms around his neck. His large palms and long fingers cradled her waist, and that damn near sucked the air from her lungs. She almost glanced down to take in the image of those hands on her, making her feel something she hadn’t in so very, very long.
Delicate.
Pretty.
Wanted.
Yes, she almost glanced down. But it seemed her sense of self-preservation burned brighter than she assumed.
With a small tug, Erik pulled her closer, his hands sliding around so one rested just under her shoulder blades and the other at the base of her spine. Her breasts grazed his chest, and her nipples tightened, arrowing a sweet pain down to her sex. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. Dancing wasnota great idea. Not when every shift and sway had her brushing up against Erik’s big, hard body and sparking need inside hers.
“You know, I get why you want to dance,” she murmured, inhaling the warm, musky scent at his throat. Cedar. Soap. And that undefinable hint ofhim. Lust twisted inside her.
“Yeah? You want to enlighten me?” His low rumble vibrated over the beaded tips of her breasts, and she swallowed back a whimper.
“So,” she breathed, then cleared her throat. Tried again. “So you can say whatever it is you’re going to say without looking at me.”
He didn’t answer, but his fingertips pressed harder into her back. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could swear his lips moved over her hair.
“Not that I’m judging,” she continued. “However you need to do it.”
Just, please... Do it.
She didn’t just want him to confide in her, to trust her with his truth. For some reason she didn’t dare analyze too deeply, she needed it.
“Jeremy ever tell you how we met?” Erik asked.
She barely heard the question above the band’s really decent cover of Warrant’s “Heaven.” But she did catch it. And she shook her head.
“He used to work in my shop in Vegas before I went onRoyalty Ink. He was one of my best artists and we became friends. AfterRoyalty Ink, he decided to move on, open his own place. So he wasn’t there when the offer to do my own reality show came in. I’d like to think if he had been, I would’ve turned it down. But I didn’t. I never thought of the people who worked with me as employees, they were family. Most of us grew up together. They were closer to me than people that shared my blood and last name. Nothing should’ve been able to come between us,” he murmured.
That sin and grit voice softened, as if he were lost in a memory. Happy memories. Yet her stomach tightened because she sensed they wouldn’t stay that way.
“I said yes to the show for them. The opportunities it could bring us, the doors it could open. They convinced me to give it a try even though I hated being onRoyalty Ink. The intrusiveness of the cameras, no privacy. Don’t even get me started on the social media part. People, didn’t matter if they loved or hated you, were relentless. No one prepares you for that. But then I was by myself. This time I would be with my family. I was so fucking naive.”
His hands flexed and loosened on her back. She stroked the nape of his neck, her fingertips brushing the shorter strands of hair there. Did he realize he leaned into her touch? Sought it? Heat and greed tangled below her navel. She liked that he wanted it.
