Stone, though…he seemed to know a lot more than he could have guessed. She could see it in his eyes. He knew something. What he knew, though, and—the more important question—how, she had no idea. She wasn’t just going to start blabbing. Instead, she had to call his bluff. “What secret? What makes you think I have a secret?”
He laughed. “Everyone has secrets, Kory. The question is how dark they are.”
Oh…hers were dark, and there was no way in hell she was going to tell any of them to him. Fuck. She thought she’d hidden them so well. “What are your secrets? I figure you should be the one spilling since you’re so goddamn eager to talk about them.”
A deep, hearty laugh. “Damn, you’re a little spitfire. I was just messing with you.” She let out a breath and, after a few seconds, forced a smile. She felt so foolish then, but the look in his eyes alleviated the silly way she felt. “My secrets? Hmm.” He took another drink of his beer, taking the liquid level nearly to the bottom. “Maybe I’ll tell you someday.”
“Really? So eager?”
He shook his head. “Nah, but someday. Someday I’ll tell you mine when you tell me yours.”
That was deep. Weighty…even though he’d said it with levity. “You’d trust me with that?”
He set his mug down on the table. “I get the feeling your secrets are heavier than mine.”
How did he know? What if he was wrong, though? And if his secrets for some reason wound up being deeper and darker than hers, there would be no way she could handle them. He was probably right, though. His probably weren’t nearly as horrible as hers.
She swallowed and took a sip of her drink, then forced her eyes to look in his again. “What makes you think that?”
His lips turned up in half a grin, but he looked serious. “I’ve been piercing and tattooing folks for a few years now. Lots of folks get tattooed and pierced as a statement. Many like their bodies to be a work of art. But some…some people feel broken—or are broken—and what they do on the outside is only a manifestation of what they feel inside.” He picked up his mug and downed the rest of the beer. “Sound familiar?”
“What—are you a shrink now?”
He shrugged. “Just messin’ with you.”
Yeah…and that was starting to piss her off. She realized, though, that she maybe wouldn’t have been feeling so angry had he not touched on a nerve. She knew the entire night would go downhill if she let him get to her, and she wanted to enjoy his company. Maybe trying to be funny and telling dicky jokes was part of his charming personality that she was going to get to know.
Shit. What if she’d been so looking forward to getting to know him better and, once she did, discovered she didn’t like him at all? Now she was wishing she’d ordered the salad just so she’d have something to do. Well, at least it would teach her a lesson—to never ask someone she barely knew (no matter how lustful she felt about him) out on a date. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Maybe he sensed her growing irritation, because he reached over and touched her hand before saying, “I didn’t mean to upset you. Look…why don’t you tell me a little about yourself? You’ve been coming into my shop for the past couple of years, but I know nothing about you. So tell me what you think I should know.”
What he should know was exactly the information she wouldn’t divulge here and now…if ever. Still…there were plenty of superficial things that he might want to know about her that she didn’t mind sharing on a first date. “Well…the first time I went to your shop to be pierced was right after I graduated high school. It was a gift to myself but also a challenge.” He raised his eyebrows. She let out a small breath and smiled. “I have always had an almost irrational fear of needles…and I wanted to do something cool to help myself get over it.”
“Only you never have…gotten over it.”
“Right. But I’m more freaked out by your tattoo gun than I am the big needle you use for piercing. I have no idea why.” He cocked his head but said nothing. The waitress stopped by and asked if he wanted another beer, and he took her up on her offer. Kory continued. “It taught me one thing, though—that pain is temporary, but fear…fear can haunt you.”
He looked almost impressed by her then, as though she were wise beyond her years. She knew he couldn’t be that much older than she was, but his reaction somehow seemed more adult…as though he were old and sage and impressed by the precociousness she as a youngster had displayed. She tried not to let it throw her off. “Anyway, I also got it because I could. My…parents were against body modification, but I was eighteen then. They couldn’t say a thing.” Wow. That slight exaggeration had gone off more smoothly than expected. The people who had raised her the last few years of her life might have been pretend parents, but they weren’t the real deal, and—while part of her cared about them—she didn’t love them like she imagined her friends cared about their parents. That information, however, was TMI for a first date.