Jax Reagan shouldn’t have been surprised when he’d woken up the previous morning to an empty bed, but damned if he wasn’t disappointed. He’d had the best sex of his life, and Ashlynn had left him while he slept without a backwards glance. Yeah, what they’d done was spontaneous, and they’d made no promises, but he still thought he’d have been the one to leave.

He’d never had a woman leave him sleeping in bed before, and while he wasn’t sure how he felt about that, he knew there was nothing he could do. He didn’t live in Atlanta anymore and wasn’t going back anytime soon. He’d only been there to finish up a final job for a previous client he hadn’t wanted to deal with in the first place. But his old boss still held a few strings Jax hadn’t been able to sever until last night. So, Jax had flown from his new home in Denver to Atlanta to finish a tattoo he’d started the year before and hadn’t wanted to fly back that night. Instead, he’d used his buddy’s points and stayed at a hotel he normally wouldn’t have paid for, but his friend had insisted. Jax had figured he’d spend the night watching a movie and sinking into decent sheets.

Instead, he’d sunk into something way more than decent.

Ashlynn. Ash. Princess.

The executive to his ink.

And he’d never see her again.

And what a damn shame that was—and not just because they’d fucked until the wee hours of the morning and he still hadn’t gotten enough. No, he liked her. He’d only gotten to know her a little bit, but he liked what he’d seen. And he had to be honest that pulling her out of harm’s way the first time he saw her had sent him over the edge just a little bit.

But now he’d have to put her out of his mind because he was back in Denver and working a half shift for the day at his new place of business. Montgomery Ink was a fantastic and popular tattoo shop in the heart of downtown Denver. A brother and sister who seemed to have around forty other family members coming and going from the black and hot pink doors at all hours of the day ran the place.

Austin and Maya treated him right, gave him the hours he needed, and actually cared about the ink they were hired to create.

That meant it was only about a thousand times better than his previous job.

Jax held back a shudder as he opened his sketchbook to work on his next project. Hell, his last place had been a dump where he’d been the best artist there, though that wasn’t saying much. He’d made practically no money since his boss, Sammy, took a large cut for himself for one reason or another. Jax figured Sammy was in so deep with the mob and in so much debt that he needed Jax’s ink money day in and day out.

And now that Jax wasn’t there, Sammy wasn’t making the kind of money he used to, and Jax had to deal with the endless texts and phone calls from his old boss.

Sammy wanted him back, and what Sammy wanted, Sammy got.

Only Jax didn’t want to go back. He liked Montgomery Ink and enjoyed being out from under the mob’s thumb. Luckily, he’d never dealt with them personally, but he’d been close enough to know fear when he scented it on the air.

In fact, he’d had a run-in with Sammy and a few men that Jax didn’t really want to identify before he ran into Ashlynn—literally—on the sidewalk. The guys had found him a few blocks down, and Jax had just escaped with a few short words when he’d seen the car coming at Ash down the street. It had scared him shitless to see her in harm’s way, and he had reacted without thinking by pulling her toward him. It was something he hoped anyone would have done, but he wasn’t so sure these days. Not with the hell he’d been through recently.

He blew out a breath and ran his hands over his beard. But now he was home, and hopefully done with Sammy’s Ink and his crew. The only thing he regretted about any of that was that he’d never see Ashlynn again. He didn’t know where she lived, but he had a feeling it wasn’t in Atlanta since it looked as if she was in the hotel for a conference.

Jax guessed one night of hot sex and unforgettable tastes and touches would have to do him for a while.

It was a damn shame.

“You good over there, or do you need a minute to yourself?” Austin Montgomery teased from over in his booth. The Montgomery Ink setup was similar to the other shops Jax had worked in. There were booths lined up on two sides of the large room, and each artist had his own workspace that he or she could make their own depending on what they needed. A couple of new rooms had been added recently—the privacy room with curtains they used for those who needed it, and a piercing room. There were also three booths in the back for rotating and visiting artists; Jax had one of those spots now. He was still new enough that he worked full-time hours but wasn’t a full member of Montgomery Ink yet. He’d have to work up to that like everyone else who worked for the Montgomerys, and if he was lucky, he’d stay for longer than a month or two like some of the people who came and went.

“Jax?” Derek asked from the booth next to him. “You good? You didn’t even rise to the bait with Austin’s joke.”

Jax shook his head and gave Austin a look. “Oh, I heard it. I was just ‘taking a minute to myself.’”

His boss rolled his eyes and grinned. “Just don’t jerk off in your booth. That’d be hell to clean up. For you. Because there are things friends and co-workers don’t need to see or think about. And especially not do.”

Jax flipped him off before turning to a blank page in his sketchbook. He had a client coming in who wanted a small dragon on his ribs. The client had been adamant about the size and placement, and Jax hadn’t been able to dissuade him. The problem with the level of detail a dragon required was that it looked like crap on a smaller scale—and the rib cage was the worst for things like that. So, Jax would have to figure out a compromise because there was no way he’d give this guy a crappy tattoo.

Finding the balance between a client’s needs and what could actually be done was the main part of his job. At least, it was supposed to be a big component. It hadn’t always been like that when he worked for Sammy, and he’d hated it. He’d been bogged down by the drama of the shop and everything that came with that. It wasn’t until he’d finally gotten his mom and sister out of the city and into Denver that he’d been able to get out from under Sammy’s thumb.

Someone nudged his shoulder, and Jax looked up to see Austin frowning at him. “What?” he asked, his voice hoarse. He hadn’t slept that well the night before since he was thinking of his time with Ashlynn and he was starting to feel it.

“You look like shit, man,” Austin said with a frown. “Go catch a power nap on the couch Maya keeps in the office. It’s still early enough that you won’t have a walk-in, and you’re clear on the books until this afternoon anyway since you planned to take your sister out to lunch.”

Jax shook his head, feeling like an idiot for disappointing his new boss. He liked the Montgomerys and didn’t want to screw things up because he wasn’t sleeping. “I’m good.”

Austin sighed. “No, you aren’t. Just take a nap. We’ve all been there. Either that or chug some coffee. Hailey next door knows your order by now, and since that woman seems to have a sixth sense with these things, she’s probably already making it.”

Sloane, the other tattoo artist in the room, grinned. “My woman knows what she’s doing.” Hailey and Sloane were married, though Jax didn’t know the details of how the sweet woman who owned the café next door had gotten together with the big and brash inked man who worked with Jax, but he figured it was a good story.

“She does make damn fantastic brownies,” Jax said, his stomach rumbling. “Think she’d let me have one for breakfast?” He was already up, feeling a little peppier at the thought.

Sloane snorted. “For you? Sure. For me? Not so much. Apparently, at my ‘old age’ I need to start thinking about my sugar intake.”

Austin flipped them both off. “I’m older than both of you, so screw you. But, really, if you don’t want the nap, go get some caffeine and maybe get us some, too.” He winked. “Hailey will know our orders.”

Jax laughed and made his way to the door that connected the two shops. “You really just wanted me to get up and get your coffees.”

Austin gave him a mock salute that didn’t look out of place with his big beard—the thing rivaled Jax’s for sure. “Now you’re getting it, young one.”

“I’m not that much younger than you,” Jax put in. He was in his thirties, just like Austin, and had lived through hell. Then again, he figured the Montgomerys had probably gone through some stuff of their own.

“True, but you’re still the newbie in the shop,” Austin joked, and Jax flipped the crew off before heading into the café. He couldn’t help but smile as he did so, feeling more at home at Montgomery Ink in the few short weeks he’d worked there than the years he’d worked at Sammy’s.

A change of scenery was good for me, he thought, just like the move had been needed for the rest of his family.

Now, he just had to make sure he didn’t screw it all up.

* * *

Jax looked down at his untucked black button-down shirt over jeans and winced. He probably should have changed into slacks or something to pick up his sister, Jessica, from her job so they could grab lunch. She was on her second week of being a paid intern at a major company, and was just now letting him pick her up for lunch. She didn’t have much time off and was working crazier hours than he was, but he was so damned proud of her.

She was over ten years his junior and his perfect baby sister. She’d worked her butt off during college and had graduated with not only honors but also a position at a prestigious company in downtown Denver. Considering the state of the economy and the debt people her age were in these days, he knew she was not only talented but also lucky.

How his tattoo artist self had ended up with a corporate-ladder-climbing baby sister, he didn’t know, but he figured it hadn’t been all him helping her get where she was. Their mother had worked her tail off at two jobs to keep a roof over their heads when he was a kid, so raising Jessica had been a group effort.

At least, that’s what his mother said. If you asked him, Jessica had done pretty well on her own with his hovering and glares at anyone who dared come near her. She’d been the first in his family to finish college, and one of the few to even attempt it. No one was going to ruin this for her. Not even him.

But maybe he should have worn something other than jeans. At least there weren’t any holes in them, and he was wearing a shirt that covered most of his ink. He’d thought about rolling down his sleeves to cover the tattoos on his forearms, but he figured that would be pushing it.

He looked up at the high-rise building that was one of the many that dotted the Denver skyline and couldn’t help but grin. He’d always thought the tall buildings looked so tiny compared to the dramatic backdrop of the Rockies behind them, but standing next to one and knowing Jessica worked inside just made him realize how far she’d come. He couldn’t wait to see where she went next.

Still grinning, he walked into the building and ignored the curious looks from people in stuffy suits and ties. He couldn’t help but think of Ashlynn at that moment and how out of place he’d looked next to her, but damn if they hadn’t burned up the sheets once they stripped off the clothes that set them apart.

Jessica had promised to meet him in the lobby so he didn’t have to go up to her floor. Most likely so he wouldn’t embarrass her—not because of how he looked, but because, hey, he was her big brother, and it was sort of his job. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and waited until he heard the sound of stilettos on tile.

Only he knew that sound, and it wasn’t from his little sister.

Hair rising on the back of his neck, he turned, his smirk in place. Well, hell, it seemed today might just be his lucky day.

“Ashlynn.”