Hard (8 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Funny. I never pictured you with tats, but you’ve come to the right place to get one.” Treble said with a grin as he rose from his perch.

“I’ve come with Bridget. I recognized the name when we drove up, but I couldn’t remember where I had heard it until I saw you,” Lindy replied. She had gotten over that clingy feeling she had earlier, but the sight of him was enough to make her flush with passion remembered.

“Oh, come on,” he teased. “I think you would look great with a heart tatted right here,” he said, touching the exposed flesh of one breast.

“Be with you in a moment, Bridget. Almost done here,” Stiles said, not looking up.

“Take your time. You were at my party last night, right?” Bridget asked Treble.

“That’s right. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Doing one last crazy thing before the big day?”

“You might say that,” Bridget said, her eyes flicking between Lindy and Treble. “That’s good work,” she said as she nodded at his arms.

“All done by my man Stiles here. We go way back.”

“Yeah, so he told me, uh, last night.”

“Oh?” Treble asked, picking up on her tone.

Bridget turned and raised her foot so he could see. “My first. He started it last night but it was too late to finish.”

Treble snickered. “Damn, what did you offer him? He told me he was closing early last night and then you talk him into opening back up. Remind me to never negotiate with you. I’ll go home wearing nothing but my underwear.”

“Done,” Stiles said sitting up. “You know the routine, right? Leave the bandage on for at least two hours and then wash gently with warm water.”

“Got it,” the man said as he rose.

“See you next month,” Stiles said as he rose and began to clean his work area. “Let me clean up and we can finish you, okay?”

“Take your time. I appreciate you working me in.”

“No problem,” Stiles said as he put his tools away, removed the paper covering the couch, and wiped with disinfectant. “You must be Lindy. Nice to meet you,” he said, removing his gloves and extending his hand.

“She told you about me?” Lindy asked as she shook the man’s hand.

“Oh sure. Not much to do but talk while I work.”

“I see. I hope she didn’t say anything embarrassing about me.”

“Nope. Not a thing.” Stiles pulled the roll or paper across the top of the couch and patted the top. “Hop up here, Bridget. This shouldn’t take very long.”

“Why didn’t you just finish it last night?” Treble asked.

“I was tired and ready for bed,” Bridget said.

“How did you get here? For that matter, how did you get home?” Lindy asked.

“Cab,” Bridget replied.

“You’re welcome to watch,” Stiles said, smiling at Lindy as he donned gloves and got ready to work. “I can give you a matching one if you like.”

Lindy snickered. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Suit yourself,” he said as the machine began to buzz. “There’s a waiting area in the other room. Treble J can show you where if you like.”

“How many nicknames do you have?” Lindy asked as Treble escorted her into the other room.

“Just one. Well, one that gets said a lot of different ways. Anything with Treble in it, that’s me. Want something to drink?”

“What are my choices?”

“Well, for the public, pops. But I hang out here and I know where Stiles keeps his beer.”

Lindy grinned. “Your home away from home?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“Just a Sprite, if there is one.”

Treble opened the small refrigerator then closed it. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.” He left the room then returned a moment later with a Sprite and a beer. “Like I said, I know where he keeps his beer,” he said as he handed her the clear liquid.

“Thank you,” Lindy said then sat on the couch.

“You look nice,” Treble said, sitting down beside her. “Much better than what you were wearing last night.”

“A lot has changed since last night.”

Treble smiled. “Yes it has. You’re still feeling okay?”

“Fine. Sorry about this morning. I didn’t like coming across so needy.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was a big night for you. Besides…I liked the fact that you wanted me to call you.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. When someone as gorgeous as you wants to see me again, that does my ego good.”

“Funny, I didn’t think you had a problem with your ego,” Lindy said, but then smiled to take the sting out of her words.

“Ahhh!” he cried out as he grasped at an invisible knife in his chest. “Skewered…right through the heart.”

“Oh stop it. Your ego isn’t that fragile, and we both know it.”

“Are you kidding? The male ego is the most fragile thing in the universe.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s true, I’m telling you! I haven’t been the same since you left.”

“Really?” she asked, the sarcasm dripping from the word.

“Absolutely! I haven’t eaten or slept since.”

Lindy giggled. “Could that be that I have only been gone for a little over four hours?”

“Oh? That might have something to do with it, I guess. It felt like years.” He stared at her solemnly then grinned.

Lindy grinned and looked away. Last night she could pass off her attraction to this man as tequila, but he was just as charming now, when she was stone cold sober. “When was the last time someone told you you were full of shit?”

Treble made a big deal of looking at his watch. “About twenty hours ago, last night, at Cutters. Who was it that said that? Oh, wait, that was you!”

“Did I say that, really?” she asked, trying to remember. After her second tequila, things got a little fuzzy until they got back to his RV. That she remembered and she felt a warmth flow through her.

“Oh, yes ma’am. You said that right after I told you that you were the most beautiful woman in the place.”

“Did you really say that? Really?”

“I did, and I meant it, too. You sister is a fucking knockout, too, but there is something about you. I think it is the fact that you don’t try so hard. I’m not sure, but whatever it is, I meant every word of it.”

Lindy felt her face go hot. She was used to men complimenting her when hitting on her, but never for the reason Treble just gave, and she didn’t know what to say. “Thank you, Treble. That’s very kind of you say,” she finally said to break the growing silence.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not much of a bullshit artist. I say what I mean and I mean what I say.” He paused as he grinned at her. “I hope I haven’t offended you.”

“No! Quite the opposite. I’m just having a hard time getting my mind around you. You can be so charming, while at the same time being so…forward, I guess is as good a word as any.”

“Like I said, I just speak my mind. If someone doesn’t like it, then it’s their problem, not mine.”

“And what’s on your mind right now?”

“How much I enjoy talking with you…and how much I want to take you bed.”

She flushed again. “Why talking?”

“Because you’re not some airhead bubble brain that can’t compose a coherent thought. Because I enjoy watching you blush when I pay you a compliment. Because you have that incredibly rare combination of intelligence, modesty and beauty.”

She sat, stunned into silence by his words. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

He shrugged. “Then don’t say anything. I didn’t say it to try to seduce you or to have you pay me a compliment in return. You asked what I was thinking and I told you.”

“Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked, completely out of sorts from the effects of this man.

He grinned. “Am I?”

“I don’t know. I can’t decide if you are actually trying to or not, and whether all this charm is just an act.”

He smiled and took her gently behind the head to pull her ear close to his lips. “Charm is just the ability to tell people what you actually think without insulting them. I think I want to make love to you again and again and again,” he whispered before letting her go.

She gaped at him and then took a sip of her drink as she tried to collect her thoughts. “I don’t know what to say to that either,” she finally murmured. He shrugged but said nothing, refusing to rescue her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Stiles worked in silence for a moment as Lindy and Treble moved into the waiting room. “How old is your sister?” he asked as he colored in the wings of the tiny butterfly.

“Why? You thinking about replacing me with her?” Bridget asked, pursing her lips against the pain. She didn’t remember this hurting as much last night.

Stiles chuckled. “Hardly. I was just wondering. You two look so much alike you could
almost
pass for twins. I was just wondering how much older you are than her.”

“Three years.”

“That makes her, what, twenty-one? Twenty-two?”

“Twenty-two. She will be Twenty-three in October, and I’ll be twenty-six in January. Why?”

He shrugged as he slid around to get a different angle. “Just wondering. Like I said, you two could almost pass for twins. Before you say anything, I’m saying you look younger, not that she looks older.”

She grinned as Stiles backpedaled on her age. She worked out and tried to stay in shape, but she no longer had the flawless complexion that Lindy did. “So you like younger women?”

Stiles smiled as he shaded, not rising to the bait. Bridget was anything but insecure in her looks and he knew she was simply trying to get a rise out of him. “How’re you doing?” he asked as she squirmed.

“It hurts more this afternoon than it did last night.”

“That’s because you were, what’s your term, a zombie last night,” he said as he gave her a break.

“Zombied. Yeah, I guess.”

“This is a sensitive spot, too. If I were doing this on your back, or on your arm, it wouldn’t hurt as much. You want me to put some numbing cream on the spot?”

“You have that? Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked in playful exasperation.

Stiles rolled across the room to a cabinet where he retrieved a tube. “Some people like the feeling of getting a tat,” he said as he began to carefully clean where he still had to shade. “Treble never uses numbing cream, even when I was doing the underside of his arms.” He began to pat the area he just cleaned dry then squirted a liberal amount onto his finger and rubbed it on the skin. “I would say less than half the people that come in here use numbing cream.” He handed the tube to her so she could read it.

“Doctor Numb?”

“Good stuff,” he said as he rubbed the cream in. He reached up, took the tube and squirted a bit more onto his finger before handing it back. “It will take a couple of minutes before you will feel it start to work,” he said as he smeared the latest dollop, then pulled off a sheet of plastic and wrapped her foot.

“What’s that for?” she asked when he finished.

“Keeps the heat in and makes it work better and faster. I’m sorry, I should have offered to numb the area first, but you did great last night.”

She smiled down at him. “It’s okay. I’m glad you numbed it, but it wasn’t like I was shrieking in pain.” She paused, her smile turning into a mischievous grin. “You did pretty good last night yourself. And this morning,” she said just loud enough for him to hear.

“Shhh…” he teased. “The kids will overhear.”    

Bridget chuckled. “Isn’t Treble older than you?”

“Yeah, by a couple of months.”

“Ooohh…I can feel it working now. Wow, that’s a weird feeling.”

He prodded the flesh with his finger. “Feel that?”

“Kind of. More like a pressure than anything.”

“Let’s give it another minute or two and then I will get started again.”

Bridget licked her lips, dreading the conversation they were about to have. “Stiles?”

“What?” he asked, picking up on her tone.

“I want to ask you something. Don’t be mad, okay?”

He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was for the best, but that didn’t mean having her leave him wasn’t going to be a kick in the nuts. He would get over her, he was only twenty-six after all, but it was going to take a while. “I promise,” he said softly, still holding her foot in his hand.

“I’ve been thinking…”

“I know. So have I,” he said when she faltered.

She pursed her lips, trying to summon the strength to continue. “I can’t leave Terry—”

“I know.”

“—but I don’t want to lose you.” That gave him pause, so he sat quietly, waiting for her to continue. “Things are about to get crazy, so I won’t be able to see you again until after the honeymoon. But…I want to see you after I get back.”

“You…want to have an affair? Just like that?”

She could feel tears threatening. “No, not just like that!” she hissed. “But how is that different than what we are doing now?”

“I don’t know…maybe that you will be
married?”
He couldn’t believe she would ask that of him. He wasn’t comfortable sleeping with her now, but after she was
married?
That was beyond the pale.

“Stiles, please! Hear me out! I’ll talk to Terry, try to make him understand. Maybe he would be okay with a semi-open marriage.”

He pulled the plastic wrap off her ankle and wiped up the numbing cream. “And if he isn’t?” he asked as he picked up the machine, flipping the switch to make it buzz to life. If she were his wife there was no way in hell he would share her, and he would kill the first motherfucker that tried.

“Then…I don’t know.”

“Bridget, you need to sort this shit out
before
you get married. It isn’t right what you are doing to him, and you should know it.”

“I know! But I’m trapped!”

“You’re not trapped. You just need to make up your fucking mind. You want to have it both ways, but all that is going to do is end up getting someone hurt. Probably several someones.”

“I know. You’re right,” she said dejectedly. “Let me talk to him, okay? And if he says no, then we will figure out what to do from there. Can you at least do that for me? Please, Stiles. Give me a chance to fix this.”

He focused on her tattoo, trying to calm his anger. She didn’t love him; she was just using him. He was nothing but her man whore, something she used when she needed a little something extra in the side. He inked in silence for several minutes, allowing the past ten month to play in his head. He loved her, but he couldn’t go on like this, especially not after she was married.  

“Stiles?”

“Yeah, okay. But before the wedding, Bridget. This fucked up shit has got to stop.”

“I know,” she said, heartened that there was still hope. She watched him ink for a moment as she thought. This was another moment where he acted like he felt something for her, and yet, he made no move to try to keep her, asked nothing from her, and uttered no word to try to sway her from marrying Terry. Sometimes she thought he wanted her to stay, but other times it was like she meant nothing to him other than someone to suck his cock. As she watched him ink, she thought about telling him how she felt, just to see his reaction.

“Done!” he called, taping a breathable bandage over the tattoo before rolling back and turning his back to her. He was still fuming over what she asked him to do, so he began to disassemble his machine for cleaning to keep some distance between them.

“What do you think?” Bridget asked as Lindy and Treble joined them.

“Looks good,” Lindy said, though she didn’t sound all that enthusiastic in her praise.

“Take the bandage off in a couple of hours and then wash it with warm water and mild soap. Don’t run the water directly over the tattoo. If it swells put ice on it. You should be good by morning,” Stiles said as he continued to clean and sterilize the machine.

“Thank you, Stiles,” Bridget said stiffly, hurt and annoyed that Stiles was giving her the cold shoulder. There was being discreet and then there was being a jerk. She understood why, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. She carefully slid her sandal on, being careful to not disturb the bandage, and held her keys out for Lindy. “Would you mind driving? My ankle is a little sore.”

Lindy took the keys. “Sure. Come on. Nice to meet you, Stiles. Treble.”

“Call you tomorrow,” Treble said casually, causing Lindy to blush furiously.
What the hell?
Bridget thought as she stared at Lindy a moment.
She gave him her number?

“Yeah, okay,” Lindy mumbled as she hurried to the door. She glanced between the solemn looking Stiles as he sat aside the tattoo machine, and the grinning Treble, and then turned to follow her sister out the door.

***

Stiles watched the door close behind them, thinking that is what he should do, close the door on this entire sordid affair.

“What’s the matter, man? You look like your dog just died.” Treble asked.

“It’s nothing,” Stiles said, turning to face Treble and trying to shake off his troubles. He needed some time to sit and think and get his head right. “I was just thinking. You took Lindy home last night, didn’t you?”

“You know I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Bullshit. The hotter the bitch, the more you brag about it,” Stiles said with a small smile. This is what he needed right now, the easy conversation of an old friend.

Treble laughed. “Well, not this time.”

Stiles turned and began to clean up and disinfect his work area. “Those two are quite the pair, huh?” he continued, just to keep the conversation moving.

Treble nodded. “Amen to that, brother. Amen to that.”