The plan was unhinged. There’s no way she could say yes. “I’m not inking you up permanently on a spur-of-the-moment, kinda-good idea you had. Tattoos are forever.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to get another one, so really it’s a win-win here. Anyway, I trust you.”
Her heart thudded against her ribs as she flinched away from him. Trust. After finding out her mother had lied to her for her entire life about her father’s identity, that wasn’t something she believed in anymore, which is why she kept everyone but her best friend, Staci, at a distance. “You don’t even know me.”
“Cop instinct,” he said.
Sawyer seemed so confident in his belief that it made her squirm. Weren’t police officers supposed to be the ultimate cynics? “I could put Hello Kitty in rainbow Spandex all over your back.”
He pushed her sketchpad across the coffee table until it was in front of her. “You won’t because we’re going to condense your two visit pre-tattoo ritual to a single visit that takes place right now.”
The idea made her palms clammy. “That’s not how it’s done.” The process was in place for a reason. Second thoughts and impulsive tattoos went together like Nutella and pretzel sticks.
“Break the rules for once.” He rolled a pencil her way. “Don’t you think it’s for a worthy cause?”
It was crazy and it just might work. Plus, she didn’t have a better plan since using water torture on your employees was frowned upon. With any luck, they’d ferret out the thief and her life would get back to normal, filled with long sleepless nights listening to her hot cop neighbor bang club chicks. If possible, that idea had even less appeal than it had before he’d come pounding on her door in the wee hours of the morning. She folded that thought up and stuffed it in a dark place. That wasn’t something she had time to dwell on right now.
She picked up the pencil and flipped open her sketchpad. “Okay, so what do you want?”
Chapter Four
Daring Ink sat on the edge of the Wynwood Art District, the perfect location for the high-end artsy clientele who could afford, and wanted, custom tattoos. Sawyer rolled his Victory motorcycle to a stop in front of the studio and scoped the place out. One story with a black awning over the door and Daring Ink written in red on the front door, he would have known Penny had a hand in the decorating even if she hadn’t been the owner. The woman found what she liked and she stuck to it.
It was just past ten in the morning on a Saturday, but there were already a few people going in. He took off his helmet and stored it in the saddlebag and strode to the front door. Time to join the influx as just another guy looking for a tattoo.
The set up inside was simple. Illustrations of tattoos hung at eye level on the walls in the front part of the studio along with the framed examples of Penny’s custom work. The buzzing sound of tattooing in progress and the occasional groan, filtered out from behind the four curtained-off areas in the back that reminded him of the treatment areas in an emergency room. A skinny guy in a Moody Mondays T-shirt lounged against a waist-high glass case filled with Daring Ink T-shirts and shot glasses, trying to chat up the woman in a shredded Daring Ink T-shirt on the other side.
Platinum blonde with a detailed skull and roses tattoo on her upper arm, she ignored Mr. Try Hard and gave Sawyer a slow up and down, then sauntered around the case to come stand by him.
“Looking for anything in particular?” The platinum blonde asked as she slid her hands into her back pockets and arching her back just enough to push her Miami-level big tits outward.
He noticed—he wasn’t dead—but the usual instinct to follow up on her non-verbal invitation never appeared. Instead, he looked past her to the closed door marked Employees Only.
“I’m looking for Penny,” he said.
“She expecting you?”
“Against her better judgment I’m sure.”
“I’ll go get her.” She leaned in closer. “But you let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”
He winked. “Will do.”
The blonde disappeared through the employee only door. A minute later she came out with Penny. He’d seen his sexy neighbor in nothing but a T-shirt and in a barely-there green bikini—both hot enough to melt the polar icecap—but seeing her in tight jeans that sat down low on her hips and hugged her ass turned his mouth dry and made him wonder if it would be better to peel them off her slow and take his time inching them down as he licked, nibbled and sucked every millimeter of skin as it was exposed.
If he lived through the next few hours, he’d do whatever it took to make that fantasy a reality. “Hey, honey.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, her jaw dropping open before she snapped it shut on the next breath and glared at him.
“Honey?” the blonde asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Penny. Her temper turned her cheeks pink and made her tits rise and fall in time with her quick breathing. She wasn’t going to like what came next, but it couldn’t be helped.
“We’re dating,” Sawyer said.
A groan escaped from Penny’s smooth red lips. “We. Are. Not.”
He shrugged at the blonde, playing to his audience. “Whatever you say, honey.”
“Is room three ready, Staci?” Penny asked the blonde through clenched teeth.
The blonde nodded, her gaze bouncing from Penny to Sawyer. He gave it about thirty seconds after he and Penny disappeared before everyone in the place heard all about his assertion and Penny’s denial, which meant as soon as he called for a break the employees would be jumping over each other to get the real scoop.
“If you’ll follow me, Mr. Dixon,” Penny said as she turned on her heel, not bothering to wait to see if he’d comply.
Sawyer shook his head and followed along behind. He’d just pissed off the woman about to jab him a billion times with the needle. It was for a good reason, but that didn’t mean she’d see that right away. Good thing he’d always been able to sell sand to a guy living at the beach, now he had to put that skill to good use or he really would end up with Hello Kitty inked on his back.
*****
There was just enough room in the tattooing room for the cushioned table, bench with all of her tools and a stool for her to sit or kneel on while she worked, which meant pacing off her annoyance wasn’t an option. Instead, she was forced to wait inside the curtained-off room as he walked into the tiny space, made even smaller by his overwhelming presence.
The metal rings holding up the front curtain clanged as she whipped it closed.
“What in the hell was that about?” she asked, keeping her voice as low as her anger would let her.
The curtains on all sides gave the illusion of privacy, especially with the near constant buzzing of the tattoo guns on each side, but anyone who spent more than an afternoon at Daring Ink had learned to tune out the buzzing and focus their hearing on the words being said.
“I know I shouldn’t have said anything, honey.” He stepped closer, cupped the back of her head and dipped his head lower.
His gaze dropped to her mouth and her breath caught. The world went on whipping around at light speed, but inside their curtained-off room, everything slowed down to half-speed. She wet the center of her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue, trying to hold on to the urge to kick him in the shins when what she’d rather do was push him back onto the massage table and fuck him like he was her boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
That single word was all it took to pull her back from the edge, let their little cocooned off area catch up with the rest of the world. She’d been an idiot to ask for his help. She knew better than to trust someone like Sawyer—someone who, as a vice cop, probably lied as easy as he breathed.
Turning her head, she moved to pull away, but he pulled her closer, his lips going to her ear.
“If I approached your employees to feel them out, it would put them on the defensive,” he whispered, his breath warm against her skin. “This gives them a reason to seek me out instead. If they think they’re pumping me for information, they’ll never realize that I’m doing the same thing.”
Why did his explanation have to make sense? And why did his fingers tangled in her hair make her think about how good it would feel to have him yank it hard while he pounded hard into her? Hell. She needed to get laid…and not by her sleeps-with-everything-in-a-tight-skirt neighbor.
“I don’t like being kept in the dark—ever.” Copper teased her about being a control freak. Her twin wasn’t wrong, but she had her reasons. She twisted out of Sawyer’s grasp and pointed to the table. “Shirt off and on the bed.”
He tugged off his T-shirt, exposing the mouthwatering broad swath of his muscled chest. “Now this sounds fun.”
“Finally, we agree.” She snapped on her latex gloves and picked up her tattoo gun.
Two hours later, Penny turned off her tattoo gun, her hand still vibrating a little even after she put the gun on the bench. Stretching out her fingers and rotating her wrist to relieve some of the stiffness from holding the gun for so long, she stared at the tattoo coming together on Sawyer’s back. Lady Justice along the line of his spine, stopping mid back, as she held the scales over each of his shoulder blades. The basics were done, but she needed to add in the details, shading and color highlights.