“And it’s cute, too,” he said.
“You like?”
He actually really did. It was much more tasteful than he expected. A thin bar that you could barely even see. At the top, the bar was capped off by a small star, and at the bottom, by a tiny diamond. As usual, she’d somehow managed to take something completely off the wall, at least in his previous experience, and totally pull it off.
That launched her into a surprisingly fascinating conversation on the purpose of some piercings and whether or not she thought the benefits were real. The two hours it took to do his tattoo flew by a lot faster than he expected.
“All right, you’re done,” the artist said. He brought over a mirror so Rick could see the finished product on his shoulder blade.
Gina stood up. “Now can I see?”
“Sure,” Rick said, though he was suddenly anxious about it. She’d either love it or really, really hate it. And if she hated it…well, then he was kind of screwed. It wasn’t going to wash off. Maybe he should have let her see it first.
“Oh my God,” she said, her hand over her mouth.
Rick watched her, his anxiety growing. Then she moved her hand and relief washed through him as he saw her huge smile.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, laughing. “It’s Alejandro. You got that freaking rat tattooed on your back.”
It was actually a cool tribal rat whose body curved into a more abstract circle of tribal markings, but yes, Alejandro had been the thought behind it.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
She let all the air out of her lungs with a rush and came around to face him, climbing up to straddle him on the chair. She took his face in her hands. “I fucking love it,” she said.
His lips met hers and he wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the pulling pain of the tattoo so he could press her closer.
The guy who’d done his tattoo laughed. “Hey, careful there. You’re going to ruin my work.”
Gina immediately scrambled off Rick’s lap, to his huge disappointment. Though it was probably a good thing. She had a way of making him forget where he was. He’d been completely ready to get down and dirty right there in the chair.
She leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Get bandaged up and let’s get out of here.”
Her breath hitched on the last word, and Rick nearly slammed his credit card down, barely listening to the instructions on how to take care of his new ink. He’d Google it later if he needed to. Right at that exact moment, the only thing on his mind was Gina and how quickly they could get back to her apartment.
He’d deal with everything else later.
Chapter Sixteen
Gina held another dress up and turned around for Nat to see. “What do you think of this one?”
Nat pursed her lips, looking Gina up and down. “I like it. The blue is gorgeous. I think I still like the black better, though.”
“You don’t think it’s too boring?” She hung up the blue and held the black one against her, smoothing the front down.
“Boring?” Nat glanced at the subtle lace triangle-shaped cutouts at the sides of the dress. Nothing too crazy, but enough to show a hint of skin behind the lace covering. The rest of the halter-style dress fit her like a glove, hugging every curve until it flared at the hips and cascaded to the floor.
“No,” Nat said with a huge smile. “That dress is anything but boring. Plus, while the blue matches the blue in your hair, I think all the color might be a little too much. With the black, the color in your hair is the perfect pop without being overwhelming.”
“Good point. Okay, black it is.” She gave the dress a final glance in the mirror and turned to gather her things.
She already had a pair of killer black heels that would go perfectly with the dress, and Nat was letting her borrow gorgeously sleek, dangly diamond earrings. Despite her misgivings about attending a ball with a bunch of cops, she had to admit she was excited to get all dressed up. It wasn’t something she had the opportunity to do all that often. And with the dress she’d bought, she could strut down a red carpet and not look out of place.
She needed the confidence the dress would give her in order for her to walk into that room.
She paid for the dress, and then she and Nat detoured over to the frozen yogurt shop and grabbed something chocolate. Gina hadn’t even gotten her spoon to her mouth before Nat dived right in.
“So, how’s it going with you two?”
Gina shrugged. “Fine.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve been having nonstop sex for two weeks. You are literally glowing, and you break into a grin every time his name is mentioned.”