I blinked at him. He wasn’t serious, was he? “I work as a vet.”
“Yeah, but those are animals,” he said as he started walking in the direction of Nyx.
I resisted the urge to scream into my fist. We’d talked about my line of work a fair fucking lot on our earlier dates. We’d been dating for six damn months, and the longer we were together, the less he seemed to know about me.
The guy at the front desk gave an up-nod in Kevin’s direction. “Good luck.”
If I needed a sign I was overdue for a breakup, that was the damn sign.
I followed Kevin and Nyx to her stall, where she had a massage table out, the tattoo gun on the counter, and a shit ton of sterilization equipment. In the corner stood an autoclave, not unfamiliar territory to me, given that I worked in delicate situations with animals and surgeries.
“You can take a seat here if you want to watch.” Nyx grabbed a chair and dragged it over closer to hers. I reached for the arm of the chair, and our fingers grazed. Electricity zipped through my veins, and the breath snagged in my throat. I hadn’t experienced a reaction from a single touch like that inyears.
“Thanks,” I said. Her eyes crinkled at the edges with a soft grin, and my heart thumped a little harder.
“Should I take my shirt off?” Kevin grabbed the hem of his tee.
“If you want the tattoo on your back, yeah,” Nyx responded, an edge of sarcasm to her voice. She pulled a sheet out with the words No Regrets in Gothic font across it and showed it to him. “This is what you requested. Are you still committed to that?”
Oh lord, she was trying to steer him out of this ditch. I’d been dating him long enough to recognize that attempt wouldn’t work.
“What’s with the third degree? You’re supposed to do what I tell you to.” Kevin crossed his arms.
My jaw clenched on reflex. Yeah, the entitlement that had been bubbling to the surface as of late was not a good look. I hated confrontation, but I’d even had to speak up recently. Looked like I’d need to say something again.
“Bring that attitude in, and you can get the hell out.” Nyx lifted her chin. She had a hand on her hip and fire in her eyes, and I shifted in the seat because, fuck, my pussy sparked to life.
“Look, I just want the tattoo I came here for,” Kevin said, his voice gruff and irritated.
“Mm.” Nyx held up the paper with the design. “And you’re stuck on the upper back.”
I bit my lip, trying to keep from laughing. Even now, she did her damnedest to dissuade him from the levels of bad.
“Yeah, I want people to be able to read it when I take my shirt off,” he said.
Okay, Bast was correct in her douchedar.
The temptation to call this quits now reared up. I could dump Kevin, skip the whole tattoo appointment, and head home. Maybe make myself a sandwich while Bast congratulated me in meows.
Except I wanted to get a tattoo once I worked up the nerve, and watching Nyx wouldn’t be a hardship.
My gaze drifted her way again. Fuck, those hot-as-hell biceps. I licked my lips. Fine, I could stay—at least for the appointment.
“All right, lie on your stomach.” Nyx gestured to the table. Her tone held a world-weariness that amused me, and interest percolated through my veins.
“What do you specialize in?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. The tattoos along her arms were intricate: a Gothic castle on one and the other featuring ivy winding through different skulls and bones.
“My favorite is trash polka, but I tend to veer toward trad designs with a lot of my work.” Nyx flashed me a sexy grin. Her gaze simmered as it settled on me, even as my boyfriend stripped his shirt off and lay down on the table.
I picked at my nails, a nervous habit I’d never shed.
“Do you have any ink?” Her dark eyes heated as she scanned me from head to toe, and a shiver rolled through me.
“Not at all.” I ran my palm across my forearm as if that’d erase the goose bumps.
“The needles aren’t that scary,” Kevin said, reminding me of course I was here with him, and it wasn’t just me and Nyx in the room.
“I know they’re not,” I said, my voice a little terse. Nyx set to work prepping the tattoo machine, her motions neat and methodical in a way I couldn’t help but be entranced by. What could I say? Competency was hot. She placed the sheet on Kevin’s back at the spot he’d mentioned.
