Did she think I didn’t notice her?

I stood in my office, as I called it, and took a few breaths to clear my head. I didn’t need to throw sticks and stones at Tate for something he didn’t do to me over something he didn’t understand at all. I had two tattoos on the schedule for the day, and I needed to focus on that. I put the two sketches on the counter and stared at them. One was a forearm piece. A woman was getting the ink to cover up some mistakes she made on herself during a time when she felt alone and unwanted. I convinced her to let me tattoo over the scar marks with lines so she could forever see them and know what they meant. The other tattoo was a pocket watch with the time, 1:47. I hadn’t gotten close enough to the guy to ask the significance of that time, but I couldn’t wait to hear the story.

What I could do without was my door opening.

I gave a quick glance and knew it was Hazel.

Hazel with green eyes.

Those four words pelted me like rain blowing sideways in a windstorm, stinging like tiny razors.

I looked again, and she was gone.

But the door wasn’t shut.

She was trying to get another picture of me.

I didn’t know what her game was. Maybe she was going to pick one person at a time and fucking torture them. I wasn’t in the mood for it, though. Standing out back having a smoke break was my me-time. It was my world to just do whatever. Throwing the middle at my boss, that was my thing. I didn’t need visual proof of it to be thrown in my face.

And now this?

I had a few things in mind, but one stuck.

Stick and stones…words…fine.

What about my ass?

Literally.

My bare ass.

I ripped open my belt buckle and dropped my jeans down. I bent over a little and looked in the mirror.

There appeared Hazel, still trying to be sneaky.

Sticking her nose in my business, holding her camera.

She took a picture before realizing what she was taking a picture of.

I looked over my shoulder as it hit her.

Hazel with the greens eyes now had green eyes, red cheeks, and an open mouth.

In shock.

I laughed.

“Get what you wanted, sugar?”

Just like that, Hazel disappeared.

I hiked up my jeans, fix my belt buckle, and looked down at my sketches.

It was time to focus.

I had to be ready to tattoo people.

To do my fucking job.

I lasted all of two minutes.

I looked in the mirror again and growled.

I half-expected to see Hazel there with her damn camera.

Maybe she was looking at the picture of my ass.

I couldn’t focus, so I left my office.

I went to the backdoor to clear my head.

I opened the door and Hazel was standing there, camera in hand…again.

* * *

She was slightly crouched, the camera pointed up at an odd angle. She looked at me, her eyes straining to look up. Those green eyes. Man, those green eyes were something. She was frozen, as though I was in the way.

Hell, I was in the way.

But I wasn’t going to move.

There was silence, and I was fine with that. I could stand there all day and wait her out.

“Do you mind?” she finally asked.

“Do you mind?” I threw back at her.

“I’m trying to get a picture here.”

“Of what? My nose hairs? My ass wasn’t enough?”

Hazel with the green eyes sighed. “I’m trying to get the angle of the back of the building. There’s such a huge contrast.”

“Contrast with what?” I asked. I stepped out of the building and joined her outside. “Thought you were supposed to take pictures of us?”

“Well, since you’re so photogenic,” Hazel said. “I think the building is better to work with.”

I laughed.

It was a quick laugh, but in that two seconds of laughter, Hazel with the green eyes turned the camera to me and snapped another picture. That killed the laugh pretty damn quick.

I watched her finger slide to the button. Before she could press it again, I put my hand to the camera. I touched a couple of her fingers. I told myself not to even start to think about how soft her fingers were. Or that her nail polish was chipped, in need of touching up, but she didn’t seem the type that gave a damn about that kind of stuff. Instead of that, I stared down at her, curling my lip.

“I don’t like this,” I whispered.

“I was paid to do this.”

“You keep this up, and I’ll give you something to take a picture of.”

“Like what?”

She wasn’t quite bold, but she stood her ground. She looked way too nervous, though, which reflected back on me.

I slid my hand under the camera and lifted it up. “You ever take a selfie with this big camera?”

“I could,” she said.

I inched closer to her. “Since you seem to want my picture so bad…I can really give you something to look at tonight.”

I leaned in on her. Shit, I wasn’t sure if I was serious or not, but I had the urge to plant a kiss on those small lips of hers and snap a picture.

Hazel with the green eyes then made her own move, stepping back. She grabbed her camera away from my hands and turned to face the building.

“It’s never been taken care of.”

“What?” I asked.

Is she talking about herself? She’s never been taken care of? What the hell does that mean?

“Look at this,” she said. “The front of the building is perfect. Sidewalks all nice. Windows are clean. The neon signs. The allure of the tattoos and stuff. It reminds me of a music video. You know, like, the old ones? Like, picture a hair metal band music video. And there’s St. Skin in the background.”

“Well, that’s Tate,” I said.

“But the back of the building. Neglected. Cigarette butts everywhere.”

Hazel with the green eyes glanced at me.

“They’re not all mine, sugar,” I said.

“There’s rust. There’s water spots. Something faded on the building of what used to be here. That’s what I’m trying to capture.”

I looked at the building. I’d never looked at it the way Hazel with green eyes did. I crossed my arms and watched as she crouched a little, trying to get the shot I had messed up. When she did, the back of her shirt pulled up just enough to show me a sliver of skin. But that wasn’t it. I saw something on the right side of her hip.

Was that a tattoo?

I gritted my teeth. This woman was on my nerves, yet she had my interest.

She took the picture of the building. When she looked at the picture I saw the way her face lit up. The curve of her smile. The way her eyes opened a little wider.

She definitely took pride in her work.

“Can I see?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said.

She showed me the picture.

It was actually really awesome. A perspective of the back of the building I would have never thought in my life. It was dirty, sloppy, grungy. If the front of St. Skin was from a hair metal band, then the back was from a post-hair one.

“Nice,” I said.

I walked to the door.

“Maddox?” she asked.

I looked back. “I have an appointment.”

I don’t know why I just said that.

“Right,” Hazel with the green eyes said.

“You look like you have something else to say.”

Hazel with the green eyes swallowed hard.

I wasn’t going to play nice with her. Even if her pictures were good. Even if she was getting paid to be in my damn way.

“If you miss me, sugar, just remember…you have a picture of my ass…feel free to kiss it anytime you want.”