“Yeah,” she said. “Sounds great.” The kitchen, dining area, and living room were one big room, with her bedroom door toward the far end. She paused there and looked back. Caden moved around her little kitchen, comfortably and familiarly, and he just looked so freaking good there. In her space. Well, their space now.
He still had his townhouse in Fairlington, but he rarely slept there anymore. And it was so bare bones in furnishings that he preferred they not sleep there because he feared she’d be uncomfortable. A part of her wasn’t sure why he even kept it at this point.
“What?” he asked, giving her a skeptical look.
She grinned and leaned against the door jamb. “I rode our elevator today.”
He shook his head. “Anything interesting happen?”
“Oh, I got trapped with a smoking hot stranger and made out with him in the dark. The usual,” she said.
He smirked. “That never happens.”
Makenna threw her head back and laughed. Still smiling, she changed into jeans and a pink camisole with a low back, and then she threw a warm, chunky caramel-colored cardigan over that.
She found Caden sitting at the set table, containers of food overflowing with several types of noodles. It smelled amazing—savory and spicy and like she could eat everything she saw.
For a moment, the look on his face made her think he was upset about something, but then he saw her and his expression transformed into a sexy smirk. “Smoking hot, huh?”
Laughing, she took the seat next to him. “You fishing for compliments, Grayson? I already said you were freaking gorgeous.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the same as smoking hot.” He arched a brow, and damn if his playfully smug, expectant expression wasn’t hot as hell with his brow piercing and the widow’s peak of his dark hair.
She picked up her fork. “Okay, then how about this? You are so freaking gorgeous and so smoking hot that you make my heart race and my mouth water and my panties melt. Every time I see you. How’s that for a compliment?”
Caden’s smile was slow coming but so damn sexy. “I like tattoo night.”
She laughed and shook her head. “So do I.”
CHAPTER NINE
Heroic Ink was located on the edge of Old Town Alexandria, the oldest part of the town that had started as a port back in colonial times. Located on a quaint street full of boutiques and restaurants, the tattoo studio had a well-known reputation for its expertise in military tattoos of all kinds, which explained all the military memorabilia and photographs of service men and woman tacked in a giant collage to the front of the registration desk.
When they walked in the front door, the blue-haired woman at the desk recognized Caden right away. “Well, hey you,” she said. “It’s been way too long.”
“I know, I know,” Caden said, his hand at the small of Makenna’s back. “Rachel, this is Makenna James. She’s here for Heath.”
“Hi Makenna,” Rachel said, holding out a heavily tattooed hand. “So nice to meet you.”
Makenna smiled and shook Rachel’s hand. The woman was stunning and so cool. With short two-toned blue hair, a nose piercing, and ink everywhere, you could look at her for an hour and not take everything in. And she had such an inviting smile. “Hi Rachel. I’m excited to be here.”
“This is your first one?” she asked, placing a form on a clipboard in front of her.
“Yes.” She grinned at Caden, who was totally watching her as she took everything in.
“Well, let’s get this party started,” Rachel said.
Before long, Makenna was seated backward on a chair, her hair twisted up in a knot on the top of her head, and Heath was applying the stencil to the center of her upper back, just below her neck.
Heath was kind of the quiet type, which probably explained why he and Caden got along. But he could also be funny and wickedly sarcastic, and he was cute besides. He had short brown hair and a full beard and moustache, and lots of ink peaked out beneath his band T-shirt and holey jeans.
Heath handed her a mirror. “Want to check out the placement?”
Makenna walked to the full-length mirror near her chair and looked over her shoulder. Butterflies raced through her belly. The design was beautiful and she loved it, but a part of her couldn’t believe she was having this done. She never would’ve been brave enough to do this without Caden.
She didn’t mind when he walked up to look, because Heath was leaving her little surprise off until he was almost ready to do it.
“What do you think?” she asked Caden as she studied the design in the mirror. Beneath the tree, the roots were made up of the initials M, E, P, I, M, C—for the six members of the James family, including her mother, Erin. “I think it looks perfect.”
“So do I,” he said, his gaze fixed on her skin. “You ready?”
“So ready,” she said.
The kiss he gave her was deep and wet. He whispered in her ear, “I’m already getting turned on thinking about you getting inked.”
Well now she was turned on. “Appetizers after, remember?”
He nodded, his crooked smile bringing one of his dimples out to play.
Heath gave her a few instructions and then his tattoo machine came to life on a low buzz. “Let me know if you need a break. This one’s going to take a little while, so it’s completely fine.” From the corner of her eye, she caught him dipping the tip into a little cup of black ink, and then leaned in, his gloved hand falling on her back.
Makenna bit her lip at the first contact of the needles. It kinda hurt, like something almost sharp scratching you, but it was tolerable. “Not too bad,” she said to Caden, who was sitting in a chair right in front of her.
“There will be more sensitive places, but nothing you can’t handle,” he said, his dark eyes full of a sexy look that was part pride, part satisfaction, and part lust. Appetizers were going to be good.
“How you doing, Makenna?” Heath asked.
“Good,” she said, staring at Caden. “No problem.”
“So Caden said you two met in an elevator,” Heath said, amusement plain in his voice.
“We really did. We were trapped in it for over four hours,” Makenna said, smiling. It was a little weird to talk to someone she couldn’t look at, but she couldn’t move while he was working. “In my office building. I rode it just today.”
“That’s quite a way to meet someone,” Heath said with a chuckle. “How come nothing like that ever happens to me?”
“Maybe you don’t ride enough elevators,” Makenna said.
The tattoo machine pulled away from her skin. Heath laughed. “I guess I don’t,” he finally said, leaning back in.
The needles hit a sensitive spot along her spine that had Makenna grimacing. Originally, she’d been thinking of putting the piece on her shoulder, but when she’d decided on the bigger size, she thought it would look better in the center. Heath had warned her that the central placement meant inking over bone, which could hurt more, and it sure did.
Caden braced his elbows on his knees so he could lean closer. “Want to play twenty questions?” he asked.
She smiled, knowing he was trying to distract her and appreciating the heck out of the gesture. “Are there still questions left we haven’t asked each other?”
“Probably,” he said. “For example, I don’t think I’ve ever asked you your favorite sex position.”
“No laughing,” Heath said, as Makenna tried to hold back her humor. Heat filled her cheeks. “Also, TMI. However, I like TMI, so feel free to answer, Makenna.”
Since the needle was away from her skin, she did laugh that time. “Okay, so maybe there are questions we haven’t asked.” She winked at Caden as Heath got back to work. “And, to answer the question, the second part of the night on my floor.”
Caden’s gaze went molten. He flicked at the spider bite piercings with his tongue. And that had parts of her going molten, because she knew how freaking talented that tongue was.
??
?Yours?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“The same night, but the first position,” he said, flicking at his piercing again. So, his favorite was her on top of him. That had been hot too. The position gave her a fantastic view of so much of his ink and all of his piercings, not to mention his darkly handsome face as she took him into her body again and again. She could still hear his voice saying, Ride me, Makenna. Use me. And just the memory made her need to squirm in her seat.
“What’s your favorite holiday and why?” she asked.
“Thanksgiving,” he said immediately. “Because this Thanksgiving was the best of any holiday I’ve had in years. Almost the best I can remember.”
Aw. That answer hit her right in the chest and made those words want to jump off her tongue again. “Mine has always been Thanksgiving, too. Although Christmas is a close second. Those are the holidays that always bring family together again.”
Caden nodded. “What is one thing you’d change about your life if you could?”
She studied him for a moment, wondering if this was just a playful question in the game or if he was still wondering about her feelings for Cameron. But the answer was an easy one. “I wouldn’t change anything about my life.”
Eyebrow arched, he gave her a skeptical look. “There has to be something.”
Makenna thought about it for a long moment, then took a few seconds to breathe through another sensitive patch of skin. “Um, then, I would’ve wanted my mother to have lived longer so I could’ve known her. But then, honestly, if she had lived I wonder if my relationship with my father would’ve been as close. I would hate to lose that. Do I get to ask that one back?” She didn’t want to put him on the spot in front of Heath, but he’d asked the question and had to know she’d want to ask it of him, too. That was how they’d played this game in the elevator that night, the game that had helped bring them so close together.
He gave a tight nod and waved a hand at himself. “I’d get rid of the anxiety and the claustrophobia and all that bullshit.”
“I get that,” she said, hating that he wanted to change anything about himself when she loved him so much just as he was. She didn’t want perfect, she just wanted him. In all his gorgeous, funny, considerate, and sometimes angsty glory. “But you do realize, if you hadn’t been claustrophobic the day we met, you might not have asked me to talk to you in that elevator. You might not have needed my help, and then we might not have gotten to know each other.”
He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing in a way that brought out the harshness in that utterly masculine face. Finally, he gave her another nod. “Fair enough. Your turn.”
Wanting to lighten the mood, she thought of something funny to ask. “What’s your favorite line from The Princess Bride?” She was already smiling as some of her favorites came to mind. Funny movies of all kinds was their thing.
Caden grinned. “When Vizzini says, ‘Inconceivable!’ And Montoya says, ‘You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’ Oh, or maybe when Vizzini says, ‘Stop rhyming and I mean it,’ and Fezzik replies—”
“Anybody want a peanut?” all three of them said in unison. The needle pulled away from her skin and they all laughed.
“There are too many good ones in that movie,” Heath said.
“It’s true,” Makenna said, her cheeks hurting from smiling. “I like the priest who pronounces ‘marriage’ as ‘mawage,’ and of course the classic, ‘My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father—”
“Prepare to die,” they all said again to more laughter.
The questions went on for a long while. They talked about silly stuff like favorite ice cream flavor, what they’d eat for their last meal, and what other countries they’d want to visit, since neither of them had ever been outside the States. They asked about more serious stuff like what job they’d want if they couldn’t do their current one and what the top items on their bucket lists were. As always, the conversation was fun and engaging, animated and moving. They’d always given great talk.
“I’m about two-thirds done,” Heath said. “Let’s take a little break.”
“Okay,” Makenna said, standing up to stretch. She was tempted to look in the mirror, but she really wanted to wait to see the finished tattoo.
Caden stepped to her side as if to look.
She whirled away. “You get to see when I get to see—when it’s done,” she said, not knowing if Heath had added the part Caden didn’t know about.
“So it’s like that, is it?” he asked with a smirk.
“It’s exactly like that.” She gave him some smirk right back.
“You’re doing great, you know,” he said. “It’s a big tattoo for your first time.”
She checked to make sure Heath wasn’t right behind her, and then said. “I like it big. You should know this.”
The smile he gave her said he wanted to devour her. “Is it time for appetizers yet?”
“Ready to wrap this up?” Heath said, sitting down on his rolling stool again.
“Definitely,” Makenna said, taking her seat. “And for the record, Caden, it’s almost time.”
* * *
Caden had really enjoyed sharing this experience with Makenna, and he was still kinda blown away by the fact that she wanted to do it in the first place. He knew that she really liked his tattoos, but she’d told him that she’d always been afraid they would hurt. And here she’d barely reacted the whole time.
He wasn’t surprised, though. Makenna was soft and sweet, but she could also be tough when she needed to be—like when she was calling him on his bullshit, or like how she was so well adjusted about the death of her mother.
“There,” Heath said after a while. “All done.”
The smile Makenna wore absolutely owned Caden. It really did.
“Can I see it now?” she asked. Heath handed her the mirror, and she walked kinda backward toward the full-length. “I get to see it first,” she said, grinning at him and sticking out her tongue. For a long moment, she studied herself, moving the hand-held mirror this way and that, and then her eyes went glassy. “I really love it,” she said. “Heath, you are so talented. It’s amazing.” Her joy was palpable, and it lit Caden up inside.
“Caden, I like this woman a lot. You’re welcome to bring her around absolutely any time,” he said with a wink.
Makenna laughed. “I mean it, it’s great. So much better than I even imagined.”
“Well, you’re welcome,” Heath said.
“Do I get to see it now?” Caden asked, curiosity getting the best of him.
“You do,” she said, her expression suddenly shy. She turned around, and Caden came closer.
The black ink was stunning against her fair skin. And she was right, Heath’s work was meticulous as always, crisp and clean and executed perfectly. The Celtic knots were beautiful, and the way the tree blended with them was interesting and unique. Across the bottom, six initials in an old-looking font formed a curve among the tree’s roots—M, E, P, I, M, C. Caden looked closer. The second M had a smaller letter hanging off of it on a little flourish. C.
“Say something,” she said.
He met her gaze in the mirror. “It’s incredible,” he said. “And it looks fantastic on you, just like I knew it would. What’s the little letter C?” That hadn’t been on the design she’d shown him earlier.
Meeting his gaze in the mirror, her expression went so, so soft, and she gave a shy little shrug. “The C…is for you.”
The words hung there for a moment, and it was like the room sucked in on him. “For me?” he heard himself say as if from a distance. Blood rushed through his ears.
She nodded.
“But…but this…this is your family tree,” he said, the room going a little Tilt-a-Whirl around him.
In an instant, she was right in front of him, hands on his chest and bright blue eyes staring up at him. “To me, it feels like you are part of my family, Caden. And I wanted you there.”
/>
“I…I…don’t know….” He shook his head, entirely overwhelmed and overcome. “I mean, that’s amazing of you to do. I just can’t believe you did it,” he said, not exactly sure what he was saying.
And then something else occurred to him. She’d put his initial on her body. It wasn’t exactly the same as his name, but close enough. And he’d always heard that tattooing a lover’s name jinxed the relationship. It was bad luck. And for him, was there any other kind?
It was a stupid superstition, of course. But it was like him resisting telling her “I love you” because he didn’t want to tempt the fates, or the gods of mayhem, or whoever was responsible for bad things happening to good people. His brain was already imagining the ways that little curve of a C could be easily changed into something else—a heart, a clover, another knot.
And Jesus, here he was thinking about not wanting to tell her that he loved her when she’d permanently claimed him on her very skin.
“No one’s ever done something like that for me, Makenna,” he finally managed, his brain still only vaguely connected to his mouth. “It’s…it’s amazing.”
Her smile was pure joy. “I hope you don’t mind. Once I thought of it, it just felt so right. So I went with it. You’ll always be a part of me.”
“Let’s get you bandaged up,” Heath said, waving her over to the chair again.
Caden watched him work on Makenna and listened to him give her aftercare instructions, but he did it all as if he was watching it from across the room, from somewhere outside his body. His heart raced and his chest went tight.
Clearly, the tattoo of his initial plucked at his anxiety, but what he said was true—no one had ever done something this special for him. Ever. It was just that, offuckingcourse, that made him scared.
Terrified, actually.
After everything he’d lost, how could he have something so, so good for keeps?
CHAPTER TEN
Caden was ravenous for Makenna the minute they walked through her apartment door. He was on her in an instant. Pressing her back against the kitchen counter. Dropping her purse to the floor. Tugging off her coat.