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“I can recommend someone good, if you decide to get one.”

His smirk made me want to climb off the desk, crawl into his lap, and kiss him. Instead, I raised my eyebrows. “Emma?”

He laughed and it made my heart flutter. “Maybe. Or maybe I could tattoo you. That said…” He leaned forward, dropping his voice to a low murmur. “I’m not sure I’d be able to tattoo you and keep my hands where they belonged, so maybe I’d better refer you to someone else.”

“Has that been a problem in the past? Keeping your hands to yourself while you’re tattooing someone? Or do you wait until after you’re done to sleep with your clients?”

Ellis laughed again. “I’ve never once even been tempted to sleep with a client.”

“Oh,” I said, teasing. “So you sleep with them first, then tattoo them.”

“I’ve never done that, either.”

Surprised, I raised my eyebrows. “You’ve never tattooed a…” I hesitated, unsure of what to label us as. “Fuck buddy?”

His smile wavered. “First, no. I’ve never mixed business and relationships—of any kind. Second…” He put a hand on my knee and took a slow breath. “Is that what this is? Just fuck buddies?”

A pang shot through my heart and I glanced down at his hand. “No, I don’t think it is.” When I looked back up at him, his soft smile was back and there was something about the way his dark brown eyes shone that made my breath hitch.

“Me either,” Ellis said. We were both quiet for a long moment, pizza having been shoved aside as we’d chatted. Finally, he spoke again. “Tell me something.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn’t, I frowned, brow furrowing. “Tell you what?”

“I don’t know,” he said, half-shrugging. “Something about you. I’ve heard Lena’s stories about your college days, but that’s all. Everything else I know about you comes from all of us living together. What are your parents like?”

I bit my bottom lip and thought for a moment. “My parents are gone. They died the summer before I started college.”

He pinched his lips together, silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

Shaking my head, I half-shrugged. “It’s fine. It was a long time ago.”

“Still, I’m sure it’s not easy. You’re an only child, right?”

“Right. No cousins or anything either. It’s just me.”

“That must suck.”

“It’s not fun,” I agreed. “Especially at holiday time, when everyone else has somewhere to be. But I’m grateful for my friends. Lena. Micah and the rest of the crew. And…” I paused for a second. “You.” Ellis smiled again, but didn’t speak right away. “What about you? Tell me a story.”

“Did Lena ever tell you about the time she got a penny stuck up her nose?”

“No…” I said slowly.

He began to chuckle, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “She claims she was just scratching her nose with the penny, but somehow it got lodged way up there. She told me before she told our parents because she was afraid to get in trouble. I convinced her that they’d have to amputate her nose completely to get the penny out, and that she needed to let it just fall out naturally or she’d have to live without a nose.”

“Oh, God.”

Another laugh. “Yeah. When Mom noticed something was wrong, she got Lee to confess that there was a penny way up there. So obviously we went to the hospital to see if they could get it out, but Lena was so convinced that she was going to lose her nose in the process that it took both of our parents to get her into the car. She screamed and cried the whole time. Once we got to the ER, they managed to pull the penny out with tweezers. No cutting off her nose required. She was not amused when she realized I’d lied to her.”

I rubbed my face with my hand. “Wow. That’s…”

“I was kind of a shitty kid sometimes,” he admitted. “But in fairness, Lena was a wild child, too. One time, she threw a pair of hedge clippers at me. The big, heavy kind. Hit me in the back of the head and left a nasty gash. I had a baseball game a few hours later, so instead of telling anyone, I just put a paper towel on under my baseball cap and went about my business.”

“You didn’t tell your parents?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I didn’t want to miss the game.”

“You’re starting to make me glad I don’t have siblings,” I said with a laugh.