I KEPT THINKING I SAW her. Eden. Fucking mind was playing tricks on me.
But it wasn’t the blond cupcake coming into the shop when the door chimed today. No, she should still be tucked away at the Royal Sonesta—or long gone.
I told myself it didn’t matter which, but I was full of shit.
Last night when we’d walked into the hotel room to find Kitty fucking her friend, I’d expected a full-on meltdown from the girl who had surely never seen anything like that before. But she’d barely missed a beat. She didn’t make any shitty comments about the fact that two girls were about to get it on in the bed I’d told her she could have that night. She just brushed it off and did what she had to do. Even when she ran across the lines of coke on the desk, she hadn’t freaked completely. She’d been shocked and confused, but didn’t blink twice after I swept it away.
I hadn’t expected resilience from her, but that’s what I saw. Now I couldn’t help but wonder how long she was staying, or where the hell she was headed next.
Footsteps neared my room, and I finally looked up at the new arrival. Another familiar face.
“Hey, Bishop.” The smile in JP’s voice was impossible to miss, as was the hero worship in her stare.
The girl was relentless. I’d done work on her sleeves and shoulders, and she’d been trying to get me to take her out since the first sitting. Besides the fact that my dick wasn’t interested, she was too young, and I would have been breaking my rule about not touching any female who walked into Voodoo wanting a tattoo. But JP couldn’t or wouldn’t take the hint.
“What do you need, girl?” I couldn’t find it in me to be mean to her because she was just a kid with a crush, no matter how irritating it was becoming.
Her entire face lit up when I stood from my chair and set my book on the counter behind me. “What do I always need when I come to see you?”
She was an ink junkie, a feeling I understood well. “What do you have in mind this time?”
“Maybe a picnic on the riverbank followed by dessert at my place?”
I suppressed a frustrated groan. One of these days, she was going to have to learn to take a hint. “I meant for your ink. You know the other ain’t happening.”
Her cute smile fell into a frown. “I’m not too young. I swear it.”
“You don’t get to decide that for me. I call the shots. So, what do you want for your ink? Or you just here to shoot the shit?”
“Fine.”
Her huff was cute, but that’s all she was. Cute. Before I’d thought she was too innocent for me, but even JP came off as more worldly than Eden, and my dick didn’t seem to mind that.
Stop fucking thinking about her, you little bitch, I reprimanded myself mentally, and forced her from my mind.
“Will you draw me a piece for my back? I’m ready to start it. I was thinking something with skulls and flowers. Like girly voodoo stuff.”
At the mention of designing a tattoo, my mind went to Eden again. The first time I saw someone, especially someone without ink, my brain instantly snapped into create mode. With Eden, I pictured the ink I’d put on her shoulder blade as soon as she’d followed me into the shop and it was clear she’d never been inside one before.
Even the thought of tattooing her virgin skin had my dick taking notice. I shifted on my stool to readjust, not wanting JP to notice.
Pushing Eden out of my head and willing my dick to go down, I turned my attention back to JP. “What are you thinking?”
“The magic Bishop touch. Whatever you think. I just want it big, and covering the top half of my back so it ties in just under my epaulets.”
Now that, that I could do. I loved it when clients let me have free rein to design. The best work always came when someone wasn’t dictating every little detail and let me flex my artistic muscles.
“Let me think about it. I’ll start drawing it up today. I might be able to fit you in for a sitting next week. I think I have someone who’s going to cancel.”
“Awesome!” JP clapped her hands, her enthusiasm impossible to ignore. “You sure you won’t change your mind about the date? Just give me a chance. I’m not a kid.”
“It’s my rule. No touching the clients. You’ll find a guy. It just won’t be me.”
Her expression fell and hurt flashed across her features. Even if I felt guilty, it was better that way. I didn’t get involved. That wasn’t my thing.
Then why did you help Eden? Fuck if I knew the answer to that one.
Tearing my gaze from the hope lingering in JP’s eyes, I looked out toward the front window—and caught a glimpse of the back of a blonde with curves in all the right places.
I shook my head. No way it was Eden.
And why the hell did I keep looking for her? She wasn’t coming back here.
End of story. Time to put her out of my head.