“Are you kidding? After being around you bastards, I’m grateful for some peace and quiet. In my own home. Alone. With no one yapping in my ear.”
Beside me, Tarzan held a plate in each hand while Keely selected toppings for their waffles. When she was finished, she beamed up at him and popped a blueberry in his mouth. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled down at her and brushed a quick kiss to her lips.
I tore my gaze away, feeling that prickly-ache of bittersweet happiness for them all over again. Then my gaze landed on Shea amid the crowded room when I wasn’t even looking for her. She had found a set of markers somewhere and she was doodling an entire sleeve tattoo along Kenny’s arm with studious precision. Kenny sat stock still, entranced with her process.
“That better not be permanent marker you’re using, Shea,” Tarzan called. “Don’t get me in trouble with my wife because you tattooed my son when I turned my back for a few minutes.”
Shea hummed and flicked a glance in his direction, but she didn’t stop following the outline of an airplane on Kenny’s shoulder in black ink.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s washable. Besides, everyone knows this little man will grow up to be a big, scary, tattooed biker just like his daddy,” she added, tickling Kenny’s tummy.
That ache in my chest turned into a gaping hole of…something I quickly smothered and buried. I couldn’t afford to have feelings for Shea. She wouldn’t put our friendship at risk like that, and I wouldn’t either.
Sliding into the seat across from Shea, I set my plate on the table and extended my arm.
“When you’re finished with Junior there,” I said. “It’s my turn next.”
Shea didn’t even look up this time, head bent over Kenny’s arm. She added a miniature set of cars around his wrist, as if they were locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
“You have plenty of real ink already,” she said.
I tapped an empty space of skin on the inside of my forearm.
“Look. See? I don’t have anything here. I need it filled in.”
Finally, Shea slid her gaze over to me.
“What kind of tattoo did you have in mind? Wait, let me guess—a curvy beauty in a teeny tiny bikini, with a military salute as a thank you for your service.”
I breathed a laugh and plucked a gummy worm from my waffle mountain, tilted my head back, and dropped it in my mouth.
“I get the sense that you’re mocking me.”
A small smile flickered at the corner of her lips. She jabbed her marker at my pile of food.
“Did you get literallyeverytopping available?”
I surveyed my waffles, then I shook my head.
“Nah, I skipped the sliced bananas. Too healthy. I had to draw the line somewhere.”
Shea chuckled and swiped her finger through my whipped cream, licking it off before I could protest. My gaze strayed to her mouth, to her lips wrapped around her finger, and the playful twinkle in her eyes.
Fuck, why did that make my cock throb?
Sure, Shea was open-minded. Friends with benefits would probably be on the table if I had the guts to propose it.
But I knew the difference between sex that meant nothing aside from scratching a mutual itch and sex that was loaded with feelings I should not be harboring for my friend.
Tarzan called to Kenny, gesturing for him to come eat. That snapped me out of my reverie, wrenching my attention awayfrom Shea and her mouth. I still remembered the way her lips tasted when I kissed her—
Shea wrapped her agile fingers around my wrist, gently stretching my arm out.
My heart leaped into my throat at her touch. This was not helping the state of my hard-on.
“Any suggestions?” she asked, stroking her thumb along that patch of bare skin on my inner forearm.
I exhaled slowly and shifted in my seat, attempting to alleviate the tightness of my jeans.
