Chapter Six

Jacob

 

I finished the sketch and handed it to Gillian. “How’s this?”

She regarded it carefully. “Very pretty. I think she’ll like it.”

I nodded. “And she doesn’t want me to do it? She wants a girl?” It wasn’t unusual for a girl to want a girl to do her ink, although it had been a while since someone had distinctly asked for me not to do it.

“Yeah, she seemed kid of shy.”

I swallowed and immediately thought of Lia. The pretty blonde with the shy smile and fiery eyes. The girl who looked shocked as all hell when I commanded her to spread her legs for me but did so anyway with desire evident on her swollen pussy.

I hadn’t seen her that morning. Instead, I used the car pool to drop off Ava and Montana, but I wouldn’t be able to do that all the time. Ava liked me to come in and collect her, and having them walk even the short distance to the kiss and drive made me wary. Who knew where Tara was?

“Well, I’m happy to do it if she wants.”

Gillian tilted her head and considered me. “I think it was you she was hoping to avoid.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. She turned beet-red as soon as I mentioned your name. You haven’t been seducing upper-class princesses, have you, Jacob?”

At this, my heart turned over and I knew in an instant it had been Lia who’d walked into the studio and it was Lia who’d I just designed for. What was she doing in here? Did she really want a tattoo? Was she spying on me? Was she hoping for something more from me, because I’d already told her I wasn’t up for anything other than a one-night stand. As sexy as she was and as much as I enjoyed my time with her, I had nothing more to offer her.

Girls like her didn’t go for guys like me. I thought of her neat bedroom in the house she shared with Anna by the lake. The Louis Vuitton suitcase that was still unpacked on the floor in her room, the sparkly diamonds she had in her ears that I knew were real and cost a small packet. I thought of the world she must come from. I could see it, it was written all over her. In her shiny hair, relaxed smile. Even in her posture.

I thought of my own house, the three-bedroom house that sat on the outskirts of town and was so badly in need of repairs I didn’t even know where to start. The gutters were faded, there were cracks in the walls, and the heating didn’t work properly. The décor was old, worn, and the furniture was all second hand. Except for my girls’ bunk beds. Those I’d bought brand-new a few years ago, not wanting my girls to sleep on someone else’s mattress. I thought of my mother, wrinkled and wizened from a lifetime spent drinking, smoking, and indulging in recreational drugs. She spent her days sitting in the recliner rocker in front of the television, her oxygen tank a permanent fixture beside her. She wasn’t supposed to smoke and I’d told her repeatedly not to smoke in the house, but sometimes when I got home, the house stunk of cigarettes and I knew that once again she didn’t give a shit about my wishes and just did what she wanted.

I thought about all of that and then I thought about Lia.

“Jacob?”

I glanced up at Gillian, who was watching me carefully. I saw the understanding on her face as she realized this girl was someone I knew. Someone I knew well.

“Oh.”

I shrugged. “Lia?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“She’s Ava’s teacher,” I said, trying to sound nonplussed. “No big deal.”

Her eyes went wide. “You screwed Ava’s teacher?”

“I didn’t know she was her teacher. I met her Friday night before she started and only realized when I dropped Ava off Monday.”

Gillian started to laugh. “Oh, my God, that must have been awkward! I wish I’d been there to see that.”

I managed a smile. “It was a bit.”

She thrust the drawing back at me. “I think you should show her this when she comes in this afternoon.”

I thrust it back. “No way. She asked for you.”

“She’s really sweet, Jacob.”

“She asked for you.”

“And pretty.”

“Gillian…”

“And you should have seen the expression on her face when I mentioned you.”

“No.”

She sighed and stared at me long and hard for a moment. Then she grinned. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what idea was hatching in her head when she called out.

“Miranda! Let’s get a coffee. My treat.” She winked at me. “Jacob will look after the shop and I have something really important I have to talk to you about.”

****

I wasn’t interested in the games girls played—Lord knew I’d had enough of them with Tara—and I was pissed that Gillian had tricked me into meeting with Lia. Gillian, who I had never thought was capable of such subterfuge. But then Gillian had changed since Alex had come along. She’d grown confident, surer of herself.

When the door to the shop chimed, I went out to meet Lia, determined to keep the meeting as professional as possible. She was after a tattoo. I had drawn her one, and the fact that we’d shared an incredible night together wouldn’t even factor into the equation.

As soon as I laid eyes on her, standing awkwardly in the foyer, I realized how wrong I was.

Immediately, I was assailed with images of her from the other night. Smiling at me. Kissing me. Touching me. Staring up at me, her eyes wide with shock as yet another one of her delightful orgasms swept over her. It’d become a game almost, how quickly, after that first orgasm, she came again. And again. In the end, she begged me to stop as she couldn’t handle it anymore.

Today, she wore a pale-blue dress and white sandals. Her hair was pulled back into a braid and her face was bare of makeup. She looked stunning, adorable, and sexy as all fuck at the same time.

Yeah. I was in trouble.

“Jacob.” Her eyes went wide. “I thought Gillian…”

I offered her a tight smile. “Gillian had to go out. And so did Miranda. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

Her mouth twitched and she looked around the foyer as if searching for an escape hatch. “Oh. Well. I can come back.”

“If you like. Or I have your design. I can show you now.”

She hesitated and then nodded, following me to the back of the studio. I didn’t need to take her out back. Most of the time I would consult with clients in the comfortable chairs at the front, but for some reason I wanted to take her somewhere private.

She sat on a stool and I pulled out the design, handing it to her. As she examined it, I searched her face for some sign of what she thought. Did she like it? Was it what she wanted? Was it completely the wrong thing and she was too polite to say it? Was it too big? That was probably it. Someone like her, someone petite and dainty should have something petite and dainty, not something so big that—

“I love it,” she said at long length, interrupting my thoughts.

I smiled. “You do?”

“It’s gorgeous. It’s perfect.”

I nodded. “I’m glad you like it. I can book in a time for you with Gillian if you like.”

She swallowed and then raised her eyes to meet mine. “Okay. I mean, you drew this so maybe…”

“Maybe?” I arched an eyebrow.

“Maybe you could do it?”

We stared at each other for the longest moment. I searched her face, looking for some kind of warning, something to make me back off. It was always there, in all the girls I slept with. Something that would send alarms signaling in my mind and make me push them away. With Lia, it should have been easy enough to find. She was sweet, she was kind, she was from a different world, she was new to town, and she was Ava’s teacher…

Still the alarms didn’t sound.

“When do you want to start?” I asked, and hated that my voice caught a little. Shit, what is wrong with me? I didn’t get nervous and stutter around women. This girl was messing with my head.

“I’m not busy now,” she whispered and then sucked in her bottom lip, working it between her teeth nervously. I thought I was going to fucking explode out of my pants. I should tell her that Gillian might be better to do it for her. I should book her in to see Miranda. Miranda was good. I could even book her with Alex. Alex had Gillian and wouldn’t look at her the way I was looking at her. He wouldn’t think about getting her naked and sliding between her thighs and burying himself to the hilt.

Like I was thinking.

“Now is good.”