She lifted the helmet from her head and shook out her hair. “No way. Come on. Let’s go inside before I lose my nerve.”
He caught her hand and tugged her up against him. “Seriously. Be sure about this.” And he wasn’t just talking about the tattoo.
She pressed her lips against his. “I’m sure. This is something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the courage. You’ll hold my hand if I need you to, right?”
“Right.” And if he sounded a little gruff, it had nothing to do with the raw emotion stamped all over Emma’s face right now. God, she was amazing.
He locked their helmets on the bike and followed her inside. The place hadn’t changed since he’d last seen it, and the familiar surroundings hit him with a wave of nostalgia. He’d had a couple of good years here. He itched to pop into his old office, see how the new guy was doing.
“Ryan!” Stephen came out from the back and pulled him in for a hug and a clap on the back. “It’s good to see you, man. How’s it going?”
“Good. The new business is doing really well.”
“And you must be Emma,” Stephen said, extending a hand. “Stephen Betts.”
“Nice to meet you.” Emma was looking around the place, wide-eyed.
Ryan would bet she’d never stepped foot inside a tattoo parlor before. He sure as hell hoped she didn’t regret this—regrethim—after the whole thing was said and done.
“The pleasure is all mine.” Stephen, for all his hulking size, shaved head, and heavily inked skin, was nothing short of a gentleman, one of many reasons Ryan had brought her to him. “Let me show you around the place before we get started.”
“That sounds great,” Emma said, curiosity gleaming in her eyes as she glanced around the lobby, eyeing the artwork on the walls. “Are all of these your designs?”
“Mine and my brother Sean’s. He’s not here today, and he was real disappointed to miss seeing you guys.” Stephen led her down the hallway, where several tattoos were in progress in rooms on either side of the hall.
Emma gave Ryan a wide-eyed look. He squeezed her shoulder.
“I’ve got your design all ready to be transferred,” Stephen said, indicating an unoccupied room on the left. “Restroom’s all the way down on the right if you want to freshen up, and feel free to help yourself to a soda from the mini-fridge across the hall. I know y’all had a long ride.”
“Thanks so much,” Emma said with a grateful smile, heading down the hall.
“Looks like the mountains have been good for you,” Stephen said, stepping into the room to get things ready.
“Sure have. Things going good here?”
“No complaints. Miss having you around.” Stephen cracked a smile. “Been thinking about riding up sometime to try out that zip-line course of yours.”
“Yeah? That’d be great, man. Any time.”
“New business. New girl. You’re puttin’ down roots, huh?”
Ryan straightened. “I’m going to stick in Haven, yeah. But Emma and I—”
Stephen put a hand up. “Not my business. Just good to see you looking happy, that’s all.”
Emma walked into the room then, Diet Coke in hand. She cracked it open and looked from Ryan to Stephen. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Ryan went down the hall to grab himself a drink and ended up meeting the new manager after all. By the time he made it back to Emma’s room, she was in the chair, fully reclined. Her skin-tight jeans were unzipped and pushed down far enough to reveal a flash of pink lace and enough creamy skin to knock the knees right out from under him. Stephen sat on his stool at her side, carefully transferring their design onto her hip.
Ryan leaned against the wall, one foot crossed over the other, hoping he looked nonchalant and not like the idiot who’d brought his girl here to have her skin inked before he’d gotten her naked, letting Stephen see parts of her Ryan himself hadn’t seen yet. The next hour was going to be pure torture. He gulped from his Coke, trying not to stare at that scrap of pink lace and imagine what the rest of it looked like.
At least he’d brought her here, where he could be sure Stephen wasn’t looking or touching inappropriately. The man was happily married and completely professional at all times. Nope, the only person in the room ogling Emma’s exposed hip and having X-rated fantasies was Ryan.
After Stephen had transferred the design onto her skin and showed it to her, he got down to the real business at hand. At Ryan’s suggestion, Emma had her ear buds in and was listening to music, eyes closed. She flinched when Stephen first touched the needle to her skin, and the room filled with the buzz of the tattoo machine.
Ryan watched for a few minutes to make sure she was okay. Her face scrunched up a few times, but she seemed to be handling the discomfort just fine. Emma’s tattoo was fairly simple. Stephen inked the black parts first, weaving an anchor subtly into the stem of the flower just as she’d envisioned. Then the poppy began to take shape in brilliant hues of red.
Ryan thumbed through e-mails on his phone and snuck peeks as Stephen worked, still wondering how the hell he hadn’t foreseen the problem with her bared skin and his filthy, sex-starved brain. But as soon as they got out of here? All bets were off. He ought to wine and dine her before he took her to bed, butfuck, he needed her in the worst way.
She’d said she wanted to be a little bit wild, but did she really mean it? He sure as hell hoped so because he didn’t know how to be tame.
