I had a hard time sleeping, which meant I was grumpy as I strolled into St. Skin. The music blared through the shop, and it seemed like it was louder than normal. I tossed my bag into my room and went to the front to check in with Danielle. I was working on a half-sleeve for a little while and that was it. A break was welcome. I really needed to go back to the old hometown for a visit to my great aunt Ada. She was pushing eighty and still kicking serious ass in life. Living in the same house in the same neighborhood just weathering any and all storms that blew through.

Without her, I would have been dead.

So I owed her quite a lot.

Not to mention the talks she gave me. The information and wisdom she passed to me was perhaps the greatest gift anyone had ever given me.

A break from the shop. A break from the noise. A break from Hazel.

I sat outside her apartment for almost an hour before leaving. Then I went home and tossed and turned all night.

Danielle wasn’t at the counter, so I went to Tate’s office.

The door opened, and out came a suit and tie.

A short guy with a pudgy face, cheeks and red, bald head, a leather folder in his hand. Tate stood there, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“I’ll be in touch,” the man said.

“Thanks, Jimmy.” Tate patted the man on the back. “You’re the best.”

I raised an eyebrow as the suit and tie—Jimmy—left the shop.

“Lawyer?” I asked.

“No.”

“Doesn’t look like he was here for ink.”

“You know, funny thing about Jimmy,” Tate said. “He looks a certain way now…but he’s covered in ink. Purposely got all his tattoos so they don’t show when he’s wearing a suit. Amazing, right?”

“Why was he here?”

Tate grinned. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“So in other words, it’s none of my fucking business,” I said.

“Exactly.”

“You know, Tate, if you’re going to sell your soul and this place out, at least give us all a heads up to figure out what to do next.”

“Now you’re just thinking crazy, Maddox,” Tate said. “Is there a reason you were coming to my office?”

“No,” I said. “I’m going to go do my fucking job. Wait for the paparazzi to show up. Then I’ll wait for the camera crew to show up and give me my fucking lines to say so people sitting on their couches think I’m a badass and will want to buy a fucking t-shirt with my picture on it.”

“Wow,” Tate said. “You’ve really thought this through, huh?”

“I won’t do it, for the record. You bring in anything fake, and I’m out of here.”

“And when I brought in something real, you got pissed, too. So what is it, Maddox? Real or fake?”

I curled my lip.

Tate was such an asshole sometimes. But he had the right to be. It was his name on the line. He carried the weight of the shop, and he had to deal with guys like me. Every one of us in St. Skin were a different bag of tricks to handle, and Tate did it day in and day out. Never complaining once. Always taking good care of us.

But this camera thing with Hazel? Now a suit and tie showing up?

It just didn’t feel right.

I left the conversation to die right there and started to walk away.

“Oh, Maddox. Just a heads up.”

I glanced back at Tate. “What?”

“Today should be a great day for you. Hazel’s not coming in.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t know. She left me a voicemail. Said she was taking the day off.”

Tate winked and went back into his office.

He knew what he was doing to me, and I knew what I was going to do.

I was going to visit Hazel.

* * *

I knocked at her door, holding a coffee cup.

She came to the door and yelled, who is it? telling me right away that whatever suspicions I had, they were real and getting realer by the second.

“It’s Maddox, sugar,” I said.

“Maddox?”

I hear one of the locks pop. The door opened a little, the chain still engaged.

I saw one of her beautiful green eyes show.

“Hey,” I said.

“I’m not taking pictures today,” she said.

“Yeah. Tate told me.”

“Thought you would be celebrating,” she said.

I showed the coffee cup. “I am. Well, this one is yours.”

“Maddox…”

“You’re not going to open the door? You hiding something?”

“Is that your business?”

“Well, when your neighbor told me someone—some guy—was over here yelling and punching the door last night…”

I saw Hazel’s face go white. Then she shook her head.

“Fuck you, Maddox,” she said.

She slammed the door.

I looked at the lock.

She hadn’t locked it.

“I don’t do this shit, sugar,” I said. “I don’t show up unannounced with coffee. Okay? I really can’t figure out why I’m here, but I am here. You’re hiding something, and that’s your business. I just want to know if you’re okay and if I can help.”

The response was just silence.

But I wasn’t going to leave that easily.

After a handful of seconds, Hazel said, “You still there?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you?”

“Unless you really want me to. But you need me not to.”

That’s when I heard the chain lock come undone.

The door opened.

Hazel stood there looking so goddamn beautiful.

A loose sweater that hung close to her left shoulder, showing skin.

I stayed on my side of the entrance to the apartment.

She just looked at me, on the verge of tears.

I let that go, though. I wasn’t going to push at her too hard.

“Maddox,” she said.

“Hazel with the green eyes,” I said back.

That at least got me a weak smile.

“Coffee?” I asked and held my hand out.

“Thanks,” she said. She took the cup and gave it a little shake. She ripped the lid off. “It’s empty.”

“I know.”

“You brought me an empty cup?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“So we could go fill it up,” I said. “Let me buy you a coffee. So we can talk.”

“Maddox…whatever my neighbor said…she’s old…”

“I know,” I said. “So, she was just seeing things? Hearing things? Losing her mind? You weren’t even home though, right? Gone out for a night on the town?”

“Thanks for the coffee,” she said.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“What do you mean…”

“Look, you stuck your nose into my personal shit. So it’s only fair I do the same to you. Something happened. I need to know you’re okay.”

“Look at me,” she said. “I’m not hurt.”

“Please. Not all wounds are on the outside.”

Hazel hung her head.

That’s when I lost my edge. Whatever she’d gone through wasn’t new. It was why she hid behind the camera. It was why she got so jumpy around me. It was why I’d scared her when I didn’t mean to.

I walked right into her apartment. Taking a step further in whatever the thing was between us. I grabbed her by the waist and she looked up at me, her eyes glossy.

She was shocked, but she wasn’t scared. My presence gave her comfort.

I thought about the promise I’d made to myself last night, sitting outside her apartment.

I would not let the same thing happen with Hazel.

“Maddox…you don’t know what…”

Excuses were for those without direction. I had direction. And my arrow was pointing straight at Hazel.

So I took my chances again.

I moved my right hand from her hip to her face. My thumb stroked her cheek as I lowered my mouth to hers. There was probably a million different and better ways to have a first kiss with Hazel. But this just seemed to fit us. My lips against hers, the world fading in the background. My touch to her hip got tighter, gently pulling her in, wanting to feel her body tight against mine. The second I felt her breasts press against me, my mind had thoughts of the bedroom. Lift her up. Find the bedroom. Show her what her true beauty was. Get rid of the fear, the danger, the…

“No,” she whispered as she broke the kiss, her lips flirting against mine. “No, Maddox. You have to go.”

I slid my fingers down her cheek. I ran my middle finger across her bottom lip. I could still taste a gentle sweetness on my lips from kissing her.

“That’s what you want?”

“No,” she said. “But it’s what you want.”

“Don’t ever tell me what I want, sugar,” I said. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Except exposure,” she whispered. “You don’t want anyone to see you, either. Your secret.”

I curled my lip. “There you go again. Afraid of the world, yet challenging me.”

Hazel touched my shirt. Her hand slowly went flat against my stomach. She was shaking. She was hesitating. Battling want versus need. I could have stood there all fucking day, waiting for her.

She then threw the empty coffee cup to the floor and put her hand behind my head.

Then she jumped up into my arms…just like I wanted her to do.