Page 32 of Once Bitten
His day had been divided into two parts: Jordyn andnot Jordyn.
He had it bad all right.Fuck. He rubbed his palms against his jeans and sighed, knowing the prickling feeling in them wouldn’t be going away because it was from anticipation. He felt that little wild beat to his heart settle in when he thought about dinner with Jordyn, about what it would be like waking up next to her again.
God. It would be amazing.
He knew it would be because that was whatshewas through and through. Jordyn filled his thoughts, and it made him uncomfortable. He hadn’t been this fixated on a damn thing...ever. How was he supposed to handle it now that it was a person that had him twisted up like this?
Jamie walked by, shooting him another smirk, and he rolled his eyes at his friend. He should have flipped him off with the smug expression on Jamie’s face. The ass had been walking around like he knew better all day, and Steve knew why.
Jordyn.
His best friend could tell the effect she was having on him and wasn’t being shy about how happy he was about it. If he wasn’t having dinner with Jordyn, Steve might find it in him to be actually annoyed at Jamie. But, seeing as it was 6:30 now, Steve could think of about three other things he wanted to do than set Jamie straight; mainly get his shit together, get on his bike, and get his ass to Jordyn’s.
He gathered up his sketchpad and pencils, while shrugging into his leather jacket and was grabbing his helmet off the table when he noticed Heidi standing a few feet away from his station, watching him.
“Heidi.” Steve gave her a nod. He straightened and raised an eyebrow when she didn’t say anything. “Everything all right?” he asked, but he prayed it was nothing. He didn’t have the time or patience for any problems that needed fixing right now. He moved to walk past her, but she reached out to stop him.
“Steve…about earlier.” Heidi bit her lip and looked down, crossing her arms, and stepped closer, effectively blocking his exit.
“What about it?”
“It’s just...well…” her voice trailed off, the hand on him moving to rub the leather of his jacket, and he took note of how close she suddenly was and rocked back on his heels.
Whatever this was, he didn’t think it had anything to do with the shop, which meant he wasn’t dealing with it.
“It’s fine. You didn’t know,” he said, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag. He didn’t want to be here with Heidi, he wanted to be on his way to Jordyn’s, but he forced himself to be patient and gave the woman an apologetic smile. “Sorry if I snapped at you earlier,” he said, straining to keep his tone casual.
“No, it's not that,” Heidi said, and Steve paused in his trying to maneuver around her, giving her his complete attention.
He moved his arm, forcing her to drop her hand from it and asked, “What do you mean?”
Heidi toyed with the edge of her top, pulling lightly on the material, exposing a small strip of pale skin to him. The colorful ink of the tattoo that extended across her stomach caught his eye for a second before he looked back up at her face. Steve wanted to groan in frustration when he saw the familiar look in her eyes. She took a step toward him.
Now he knew what this was about. This was not good.
“That girl can’t handle you, Steve. You need a woman.”
“Heidi, no. We’ve been through this,” Steve said calmly, taking a step back.
When Steve and Jamie had first opened at Ink and Bone, they had found that while there was no shortage of talented and dependable tattoo artists eager to work for them, it was a different story when it came to hiring for the front of house and administrative side of the business. The first three months they had been open had seen five front-of-house hopefuls, but they had all ultimately turned out to be flakes and missed their shifts or were unable to keep up with the pace of the shop. And then Heidi had walked into their lives, and within a week of hiring her, the shop was running smoother than either Jamie or Steve could have dreamed.
Heidi was damn good at her job, and they made no secret of telling her how well she did it. With Heidi, they were able to concentrate their efforts in the best ways to grow their business, but having Heidi's expert hand at managing the day-to-day of Ink and Bone came with a price.
And that price was that Heidi made no secret of her attraction to Steve.
While he had admittedly been tempted during that first drunken night out with the entire crew at Ink and Bone, he had decided it was best not to mix business with pleasure. Like Jamie always said, with a wave of his hand: “Don’t shit where you eat.”
Since then, he had just rebuffed her advances and kept his distance. He was professional and friendly, but he made it clear that he was her boss and off limits. All-in-all, things between Steve and Heidi had gone along just fine—that is except for when Heidi joined the group for a shop night out. It was in those nights out with the other shop employees that Heidi’s frustrations peaked. She was able to keep herself collected while at work, despite everyone knowing how she felt about Steve. Hell, even he could turn a blind eye to it on a normal day, but it was in those alcohol fueled nights that her true colors showed and he had to remind himself just how valuable she was at her job. Something happened when she saw him enjoying himself with another woman, and she acted out. It had even, on one occasion, got so bad that Steve and Jamie had decided together to avoid situations involving alcohol and Heidi.
Any employee outings meant that both Steve and Jamie were decidedly absent, or would only come out after the other employees assured them that Heidi was nowhere to be found. They would have fired her, and the thought had crossed Steve's mind a few times, but then he remembered how miserable they had been for those three months without her and all thoughts of firing Heidi flew out the window. It was just something that he and Jamie had learned to deal with and would continue to do so until they could figure out another plan. Although, right now with Heidi looking at him like she was, Steve was starting to reconsider his position on Heidi's presence in the shop.
With a huff, she came closer to him. “That girl looks like she got lost on the way to choir practice, Steve.”
“Let’s just leave Jordyn out of this.” Steve's grip on the bag strap tightened further, and he took another step away from her.
“I don’t know when you’re going to stop messing around with these girls. It was bad enough when you were just sleeping with them, but what’s with this new one? Her coming into the shop?” Heidi asked, reaching a hand out to touch him, but Steve deflected her hand to the side.
“I’m not interested, Heidi. I wasn’t interested before, and I’m not now. As your employer, I want you to know that your behavior is walking a very fine line right now.” Steve squared his shoulders and walked past Heidi because if he didn't leave, he didn't trust himself to not send her packing with the direction their conversation was going.
