Sierra Elder threw her handbag on the counter and stomped her heels on the tile. The nerve of that man. The freaking nerve.

Seriously? That bearded mountain of a man thought he had the right to judge her? What right did he have to sneer at her and look down on her with those gorgeous blue eyes, and make her feel like she didn’t belong in his shop?

Wait.

Gorgeous blue eyes?

What the hell was wrong with her? He’d judged her and found her wanting, and yet she thought he had pretty eyes?

She was twenty-nine for freak’s sake. Not a teenager. Pretty eyes shouldn’t matter. But they were gorgeous.

Apparently, she needed to eat since she was clearly lightheaded and not thinking straight. That man had thrown her off her game, and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. It had taken all her courage to walk across the street and into the black and hot pink shop.

Dear Lord, the courage.

She’d lived with the consequences of her actions, of Jason’s actions, for ten years, and in some respects, it hadn’t been long enough. Not enough time to wash away the taint, the nightmares.

She couldn’t think about that. Not now. Maybe not ever.

That Montgomery, Austin, according to her friend Hailey, had pushed her back, and now she knew she needed to buck up and figure out her next step. If she was honest with herself, she would say that she’d just been looking for an excuse to run away from her plans of ink and recovery, but she didn’t want to be honest with herself. She wanted to blame Austin of the gorgeous blue eyes for her problems and fear. If only for a moment. It was the coward’s way out, but she’d take it for the afternoon.

Then she’d find a way to walk back in and talk to the sweet apprentice, Callie, about finally getting her tattoo. Until then, she’d think of interesting ways to beat the crap out of Austin since she was too small to actually do it herself. Plus, violence wasn’t always the answer. Not always.

Great. Now she didn’t know what to think, but she was still hungry. She looked around at the almost finished shop she loved and shook her head. She was too angry, confused, and hungry to deal with the little details that remained until her opening in a few days. What she needed was a sandwich, fresh iced tea, and the smile of her new friend, Hailey.

Luckily, Taboo, Hailey’s café, sat right across the street from her own boutique, Eden. That also meant that Taboo was right next to Montgomery Ink, but that couldn’t be avoided. Sierra thought the café even had a side door right into the shop, which must be nice for the artists. Lucky bastards.

Lucky Austin Montgomery.

Nope. She wasn’t going to think about him anymore. Not even her rabid curiosity about just how much ink he wore and where it led would move her from her position. She did not want Austin Montgomery, and she did not want anything having to do with his tattoos, thank you very much.

And enough about bearded mountain man’s tattoos.

It wasn’t just the tattoo, however. Just his presence made her yearn for things she’d long since buried.

She picked up the purse she’d thrown on the counter and left her shop, locking it behind her. After a good meal and a pick-me-up conversation, she’d get back to it. There were numerous details left for her to handle, but she’d mapped out a whole afternoon off so she could talk with a tattoo artist.

Now it seemed that would all be for naught, but she wasn’t going to think about that. Not until she talked with Hailey and had a turkey and provolone club in her belly. She’d been so stressed for the last few months working on getting Eden ready, putting all her hopes and dreams into a store that could crash and burn on the streets of Denver, that she hadn’t been eating as much as she should. Luckily, Hailey took care of Sierra and made sure that she had food in her system, at least when she was downtown.

Sierra didn’t have the curves she’d always craved when she was younger. She might have filled out some from her all-limbs and flat-chested youth, but not much. She still had harsh angles and barely a handful of breasts, though Jason had never complained.

No, she wasn’t going to think about Jason.

Not twice in one day. There was only so much she could take without trying to find a drink before five at night. She had standards and rules after all.

She purposely kept her gaze from the front of Montgomery Ink. Their large windows made it easy to see in and watch the artists at work. She couldn’t trust herself not to find the one man she shouldn’t find in the first place, so she kept on walking. The man angered her, made her feel like she wasn’t wanted, and yet her damned libido still wanted him.

It was just her dry spell, and he happened to be an oasis in the desert.

A mirage.

That was it.

“There you are,” Hailey called out from her place behind the counter. “I was about to call you and make you come over here for food. God knows you haven’t eaten yet.” Hailey smiled, her red-painted lips bold against her pale skin and white-blonde bob with blunt bangs. The other woman always reminded Sierra of a starlet of a forgotten era mixed with the undeniable energy and spunk of the current one.

Hailey also made kick-ass soup and sandwiches. The woman was a dream with coffee, despite the fact that during peak hours, when she didn’t have time to wait in line for better coffee, Sierra went to the other coffee shop that sat right beside Eden. She’d seen Austin meander in with those long legs of his to the place next door to Eden as well.

Not that Sierra watched him move.

She disliked him, she remembered. Disliked him and his attitude.

“I’m here, and I’m starving. Your famous club, please.” Sierra leaned over the counter to brush a kiss on the other woman’s cheek, the soft scent of Hailey’s perfume calming her. Hailey might have secrets that Sierra could never pry out of her, but she listened and helped Sierra move on from the pain she’d so long hidden from the world.

When she thought about it, she knew their friendship would seem one-sided. However, Hailey knew that Sierra would be there for her when the other woman shared her past. Sierra herself had only just recently done so. In fact, Hailey was the only person in her new life that knew even a fragment of the journey that had sent Sierra from Boulder down to Edgewater and Denver, Colorado. The miles down the highway might not seem long to some, but the mileage and wear on her body and soul were far from short.

Hailey set the sandwich and iced tea in front of Sierra then walked around the bar to sit down next to her. “Tell Momma Hailey what’s wrong, darling.”

Sierra snorted her tea then wiped her chin. “Warn a girl before you start calling yourself Momma Hailey.”

Hailey wrinkled her nose and stole a sweet potato fry. “Yeah, that so doesn’t work. I was trying out a new thing. Maybe if I dye my hair a different color and nod sagely it would work.”

Sierra tried to think of the other woman with a hair color darker or even brighter—if that was possible—than what she currently had and came up empty. “You’re a bleach-blonde girl, Hailey. I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”

Hailey tugged on a strand of Sierra’s hair and frowned. “I would try something like yours, that darker chestnut with honey highlights, but I don’t think that’s me.”

“The highlights aren’t natural; I’ve paid good money for them, but I like them.” She squinted and tried to picture Hailey with the color of her own hair. “I can see you in them if you tried, Hailey. You’d be beautiful no matter what color your hair is. The blonde, honey, that’s your personality as I know you.”

“Did you just call me an airhead?” Hailey winked, and Sierra rolled her eyes.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant, dork.”

The bell above the door tinkled, and Hailey stood, wiping her hands on her apron. “I’ve bothered you enough. Now eat while I take care of these customers. Then you can tell me what’s going on in that head of yours and why you look so lost.”

Sierra nodded, unnerved that Hailey could read her so well, though Sierra had tried to hide her nerves. Sure, it could be because of Eden’s grand opening in a few days, but she had a feeling she looked as if it was something more. After all, it was something more.

When she took a bite of her sandwich, Sierra’s eyes almost rolled back in her head. The burst of spicy mayo on freshly carved turkey and cheese made Sierra want to kneel at Hailey’s feet. She might have knelt at another’s feet in her past due to more personal reasons, but she’d never done it for food before. Hailey would be so worth it.

Wow, she had no idea where that memory came from, but she needed to bury it like she had all the others. Jason was gone, and she was moving on. She’d even looked into finding a way to cover up the evidence of her past that afternoon.

“You’re scowling,” Hailey remarked, thankfully pulling Sierra out of her thoughts.

Sierra took another deep gulp of her tea then cleaned off her mouth, surprised to find she’d eaten every last scrap of her sandwich and sweet potato fries while she’d been lost in the tangled web of her thoughts.

“I’m not scowling,” she lied. She may have been scowling for all she knew. She’d been thinking of men with blue eyes and a lost love she didn’t want to remember.

“You were, but I’ll let you think otherwise if it helps. So, I might have gone off track when you first walked in with that Momma Hailey stuff, but I’m here now, and people are taken care of. What’s wrong, dear?”

Sierra licked her lips, surprised to find herself nervous about telling Hailey what had happened that day. The other woman didn’t know everything that had gone on in Sierra’s past but knew enough that whatever Sierra said next would hold meaning rather than pleasant nothings and murmurs. That, above all else, told her to let it all out. Maybe not then, not in Taboo, but soon. She needed friends, needed confidants. She needed to step away from the cage that was Boulder and her own memories, and find a new way to live.

That, after all, was why she was opening Eden in only a few short days.

“I went into Montgomery Ink for a tattoo and met that oaf of a man, Austin.” She hurried through her sentence and looked over Hailey’s shoulder to ensure the door between Taboo and the tattoo shop was indeed closed. The last thing she wanted was for that bearded crazy man to walk through and listen to her speaking of him.

Thankfully, the door hadn’t opened, and she was in the clear.

“A tattoo! Really?” Hailey squeezed her arm, once again bringing Sierra’s thoughts out of delicious scruff and into the present. Maybe she needed more caffeine. “What are you going to get?”

Sierra blinked. “So we’re just glossing over the oaf-of-a-man part of my statement?”

Hailey narrowed her eyes as she pursed her lips. “If you want to only talk about Austin, we can do that. I don’t quite think of him as an oaf, so you’ll have to elaborate.”

“He’s a rude, inconsiderate oaf.” And she wanted to crawl up his body. Damn it. She would not allow herself to think like that. Not again.

Hailey frowned. “What did he do? Do I need to go kick his ass? I might work right next to him and have known him longer, but that doesn’t give him the right to be rude. What did he do?” she repeated.

Sierra closed her eyes, annoyed at herself for even bringing it up. Hailey was a good judge of character, and if she hadn’t had a problem with Austin before, it was probably just Sierra. Oh goody, she just brought out the best in people, didn’t she?

“I went in for a tattoo, something I’ll talk about with you later—when I’m ready.” Hailey gripped her hand, and Sierra opened her eyes to see the other woman’s knowing gaze. “I promise. It took enough for me to even walk over there and try. I’ll explain it all eventually. That’s if I go through with it. As soon as I walked in, Austin was there, glowering at a woman talking about their sex life. I mean, really.”

Though she didn’t want to press it, that odd kernel of something akin to jealousy had rankled her. That was why she’d been as rude as she had at first. She hadn’t meant to talk poorly about the shop. No, she’d heard great things about it, so that wasn’t her intent. The woman with the sultry walk and plump lips had annoyed her. Before Sierra had opened her mouth, she’d seen the same emotion running through Austin’s eyes. Not that she’d given either of them time to understand it.

Crap. Maybe it was all her fault that Austin had acted like that—dismissing her without just cause. To him, her careless words could have been construed the same way. Damn it. She wasn’t going to apologize. Not when Austin was worse. She might apologize to that nice girl, Callie, but that was it. She didn’t need to speak to Austin. Ever.

“That would be Shannon,” Hailey said then raised her brow. “The woman talking about their sex life. They broke up months ago, and from what I hear, it was mutual.”

“Then why is this Shannon walking into his place of business discussing the lack of flair in their sex life?”

Hailey snorted, her grin wide. “Oh really? She said that? That’s a whole different tune than what she was singing when they were going out. It was all ‘Austin’s hung like this’ and ‘Austin can get her off in two seconds flat.’ ”

Sierra’s eyes widened. “She said that? To you?”

Hailey stood and cleared off the counter, a spring in her step. “Hell, yeah. She said it to any woman who’d listen. After all she was with the Austin Montgomery.”

“He’s a the?” She could see that. No. No she couldn’t. Damn it, that man needed to get out of her fantasies.

Hailey looked over her shoulder and smirked. “Oh, honey, he’s the the.”

An uncomfortable wash of envy…or something much worse filled her. “Did you and he ever…”

Hailey threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, God no. I wouldn’t say he’s like a brother to me, not like he is with Callie or his three sisters, but he’s like a first cousin or something. So not on my radar like that.” An odd look crossed her face, and Sierra perked up.

“Is someone else on your radar that I should know about?” Hailey was notoriously single and quiet about it. Sierra just wanted her friend happy. After all, one of them should be.

Hailey shook her head, stopped, and then shrugged. “Maybe. It doesn’t matter anyway.” Her gaze went to the closed door between the shop and Taboo, and Sierra’s interest sparked.

So, it was someone at Montgomery Ink that had captured Hailey’s heart. It if wasn’t Austin, it could be any one of the other artists or apprentices there. Sierra wouldn’t push and pry. At least not then. Maybe when they were liquored up, she’d pry it out of her.

“Also, we were talking about sexy Austin,” Hailey said, her eyes too bright, her smile too wide. Yes, there was something there, something that Sierra would do her best to help with when she could.

“Sexy Austin?” That bad-boy biker look had been in her past, and she’d thought she’d gotten over it. Apparently she hadn’t. Not by far.

“Don’t tell me you don’t see it. I saw your eyes light up even when you called him an oaf. But I digress. Back to Shannon. The two of them broke up, and I thought everything was fine. Shannon, from what I can tell, doesn’t like to let anything go. She probably went along with the breakup because she thought she could find someone with deeper pockets or a bigger cock. It looks like she didn’t find it.”

Sierra’s mouth hung open at the description then laughed with Hailey. “Well then. That’s good to know.”

“Is it?” Hailey teased.

Blushing, Sierra stood up and left money on the counter. “Shut up. And take the money, Hailey. You can’t keep forcing me to keep my money and not pay for my meal.”

Hailey curled her lip in a snarl. “If I want my friends to eat for free in my own shop, then I should be able to. You need the money for Eden anyway.”

True, but that wasn’t the point. “You need the money for Taboo as well. Just come over and buy a sexy bra and panty set when we open.”

Hailey raised a brow. “It seems to me that’s quite a bit more than a sandwich.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to buy a few more sandwiches. Now I’m off to the store to work on a few last-minute displays before I go into inventory again. Thanks for talking to me and for the food.”

“We really didn’t talk about anything, Sierra.” Hailey met her gaze, and Sierra saw the concern there.

“I know, but it’s exactly what I needed. I’m going to work my tail off for the next few days to make Eden ready for the best opening ever. Then I will go back into Montgomery Ink—Austin Montgomery or no—and get my tattoo.”

“That’s the spirit. And when you do get yours, let me know, and I’ll hold your hand. You’re not alone, Sierra.”

Sierra nodded then left on her way to Eden. Hailey might be in her corner, but Sierra knew the other woman was wrong.

She was alone.

And that was the way it was meant to be.