Chapter 14
Good Judgment
Katelyn
Good judgment wasn’t always her strong suit.
She knew that for a fact when she started following Kian’s shop on social media. She’d done a quick search and it gave her only a few hits for Miami. Kian Boychuck. She’d had to creep him just to learn his last name. She also found out that he owned a tattoo shop. It figured, given the amount of ink the guy had all over him.
And here she thought he was a biker. If he was in a gang, he did it in his spare time and it wasn’t the kind of thing that surfaced in a quick internet search.
She’d left it at that. For a day.
And then, because she couldn’t help herself, because she was hopelessly drawn to him, because she’d always been absolute shit at picking who she was and wasn’t attracted to, she creeped him.
She checked his shop’s page once a day, just briefly, when she got off work. She’d never wanted a tattoo in her life until she’d browsed through Kian’s portfolio and then, suddenly, she had a craving for the first ink in her life.
A loud meow echoed through her creeping. Katelyn slammed down her phone guiltily on the kitchen counter and stared at Missy, who was anxiously awaiting her dinner. “Sorry, honey. I’m getting there.”
She moved faster after that, serving up a plate of soft food. Missy purred happily, rubbed her legs once and dove in. Katelyn breathed a sigh of relief. She’d tried a new kind of food, one she hoped Missy wouldn’t turn her nose up at. It would probably work. At least for the first few times Missy ate it. After the third or fourth try, she might not get so lucky.
Because she couldn’t help herself, pathetic as it was, Katelyn flipped her phone back on and resumed her browsing. She scrolled through the shop’s feed for a day. There was a picture of a cat tattoo she really liked. It was on some girl’s thigh. It wasn’t done by Kian. It looked mighty painful. She didn’t think she could hack it, getting a tattoo. It seemed like a badass thing to do and that just wasn’t her.
She kept scrolling and her heart stopped. Posted that afternoon was a white background with simple, bold black writing. It stated that Kian had an opening. For the next day. She glanced quickly at the comments, noting there weren’t any. Two shares. That was it.
The instructions said to email the shop to claim the appointment.
Katelyn shut off her phone quickly and slammed it back on the counter. She was lucky she had a protective covering on it or she might have done some real damage. Missy didn’t even glance up from her food dish. Katelyn stood there in the middle of her kitchen, frozen in place. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest.
Stop it. This is insane.
Her body thrummed with life, with some wild, crazy energy she’d never felt before. Or at least, she hadn’t felt it before Kian touched her.
She’d tried so very hard not to recall that sensation. That feeling like she was finally free, like she was where she was meant to be. Like she’d finally found a place that was safe after so many years of searching. She’d just felt like it was so incredibly right. She’d been just about to tell him how she felt, though it didn’t make any sense and she was sure it would scare him as much as it scared her, and then, bam! He’d up and asked her to leave.
So. Fucking. Romantic.
Katelyn debated with herself. She imagined Kian’s hands, running over her skin, leaving a permanent mark on her. The thought made her shiver. He’d already marked her. He’d taught her that it was possible to find bliss again. No, not again. To find real bliss, true feeling, for the first time in her life.
Another violent shiver raced up her spine.
Before she knew what she was doing, before she’d fully thought it through or, more like, had time to convince herself that it was a terrible idea, she snatched her phone off the counter. Her screen lit up and brought her right back to where she’d left off. She scrolled to the top of the shop’s page and hit the message button. Her fingers flew, typing a message she knew she’d regret in the morning. Or for the rest of her life. Tattoos were more permanent that most of the mistakes she’d made.
Hand shaking, she fired off the message. She waited, her breath raspy and strained in the small kitchen.
She stayed like that for long moments. Just as she was about to set down her phone, a little blop sound alerted her to the fact that she’d received a message.
Her eyes fast tracked to the screen. She let out a little gasp of surprise. The message was from the shop receptionist, informing her that she’d book her in for the appointment. She was asking if she had a drawing in mind or an idea. The sitting was only four hours long so it would have to be an appropriately sized piece or existing work.
Katelyn closed her eyes. I need to tell her I’m sorry but I’m going to change my mind. That I can’t go. That I’m insane. Anything, tell her anything that will cancel that sitting.
Her fingers moved as though some bizarre life force animated them. Something other than her brain, which was permanently frozen, set to panic mode, just like the rest of her internal organs.
She typed a response. Said she wanted a cat tattoo. She’d bring some ideas. She hoped that was alright.
The response was so fast it surprised her. The receptionist confirmed she was good to go for one the next afternoon.
It took her another few long, loaded minutes just to set down her phone. Her hand felt like a claw. Her skin felt cold and clammy and she was pretty sure the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up straight.
She’d never done anything like this in her life. Never forced another person to see her or touch her when they’d made it pretty clear they didn’t want to. Except… it was something about the way Kian said it when he’d made her leave. Like he didn’t truly want to.
Even I should know better than this.
Her appointment already set, she had bigger things to worry about than figuring out where the lapse in judgment had come from. Why was she pursing a man she should very well leave alone? Kian reminded her of a bear, a bear that shouldn’t be poked. He was all wild masculinity and a ball of pain wrapped up in a very fine outer layer that would make someone’s granny faint.
Yes, she knew damn well she should leave him alone and that what she’d done was utter insanity. It didn’t stop her from grabbing up her phone, intent on finding a picture of Missy that would work and on figuring out how to reschedule her afternoon appointments.