Fallen Ink

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Not yet.

  “Okay, then.”

  “Okay. Bye, Mace.”

  He swallowed hard. “Bye, Addi.”

  Then he left his best friend sitting on her bathroom counter, naked in more ways than one, as he went to pull on his shirt and shoes before walking out of her house and hoping to hell and back that he hadn’t just fucked up their relationship for good.

  * * *

  The next morning wasn’t awkward.

  It was fucking awkward.

  After he’d left Adrienne in her house without talking about what was important because God forbid they actually talk about what had just happened, he’d headed to his parent’s house to pick up Daisy. His folks hadn’t said a thing about his being late—neither had Daisy for that matter—and he supposed they all assumed it had to do with the weather. Indirectly it had, sure, but he was seriously going to Hell for the decisions he’d made that day.

  He’d tossed and turned all night, unable to get the taste and feel of his best friend from his mind. He’d almost texted her countless times but had no idea what to say to her. He didn’t regret what he’d felt when he was with her, but he damn sure regretted how he’d made her feel when he left. They should have talked, should have made a thoughtful decision instead of doing something that could possibly ruin their friendship beyond repair. But they hadn’t. They’d given in to temptation, and now he’d have to find a way to make sure that she knew she was still his everything, and that things would be okay. He didn’t want her to feel used.

  He was a bastard. A sick bastard.

  And then things had gone from awkward to awkward as hell when he picked her up at her house that morning. She’d been waiting for him on her porch, and they hadn’t texted each other like they normally did. He’d gone all morning with just a cup of coffee while he got Daisy ready for school and hadn’t heard a word from his best friend. If he didn’t find a way to fix this soon, he honestly didn’t know how he would keep going. Adrienne was tangled in every facet of his life, and he’d always treasured that. If he lost it…hell, he wasn’t sure how he’d figure out what to do.

  They’d made pleasant conversation about the weather—purposely not talking about storms or hard rain—and about what projects they had that day. They’d also talked about the fact that Carter had already been by the parking lot to take Adrienne’s car into his shop that morning before Mace had even woken up since the man worked strange hours. The two of them hadn’t said a word about what had happened between them, and he knew if he wanted to fix this, he needed to say something. But what to say without putting his foot into his mouth or getting kicked in the balls like he rightly deserved? He had no clue, but he had to say something to fix this.

  Now, after a few hours of working with Shep up front doing a full back piece, and Ryan on the phone dealing with someone who needed a first-timer appointment, Addi sat in her chair, working on a sketch for her next client. Mace figured that once the other two left for the day, he could figure out what he needed to say before he and Adrienne closed. He was an adult, damn it, he could do this. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had sex before. But it had been the first time with his best friend—hence why he was acting like a lunatic.

  Ignoring the pressing need to do something about what had happened, he went to his bench and started working on his next project. It was a full back piece for a retired Master Sergeant who had gone without ink for his entire time in the service. Mace knew this was beyond important for the man and wanted to make it perfect, so he was taking his time and putting his best efforts into the work.

  A hand rubbed something on his arm, and he started, looking over his shoulder before freezing.

  Adrienne stood behind him, her eyes wide, and her hands in the air. “You had jam on your shirt.”

  He blinked and then shifted on his stool so he faced her, even though he had to look up to see her face. “Oh, uh, it was a tough morning getting everything ready for Daisy and her lunch and all that.”

  Laughter danced in her eyes before it burned away, replaced by that now-familiar awkwardness. “Well, it’s gone now.”

  He cleared his throat, trying to get the memory of her touch out of his mind. She’d barely grazed his shoulder to wipe jam off it, yet his body had heated from just the thought of her so near. They had to fix this, and soon.

  “Uh, can you grab a cup of coffee with me?” The unsaid “we need to talk” lingered between them.

  She tilted her head, studying his face before nodding slowly. “Okay. Let me get my bag.”

  She left him, and he went to get coffee orders from the others, pointedly trying not to look Shep in the eyes as he did. Might as well make this excuse to talk to Adrienne a real thing.

  “We each have clients in thirty minutes, so we should get a move on. Colorado Icing, or the deli?” Colorado Icing was Thea’s bakery and had way better coffee. When he said as much, Addi smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. He had to fix this.

  They didn’t have to go far before they went back inside, so he gripped her arm, stopping them both before they did. “We need to talk.”

  She stuck her hands into the pockets of her jacket and rocked on her feet. “I figured.”

  He had no idea what he should say to make it better, so he rambled, hoping to hell that somewhere in his random words were the right things.

  “It was a one-time thing, right? Because we’re best friends, Addi. If we fuck this up, I don’t know what I’ll do. It was a mistake to do what we did without talking about it first. It was stupid. I don’t want to risk you, Addi. We’re not only starting off a new company together, but you’re also my boss, and now I’m a full-time dad, and hell, I’m not saying anything right, but we can’t risk what we have. What we have is special, and I don’t want to risk it. Because if we fuck everything up, it’s going to suck beyond anything. You’re my best friend, Adrienne. The one person, outside of my family, in my life that’s a constant. I don’t want what happened with us to end up being such a mistake that we lose what we have.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw clenched before she finally spoke. “First, you call what we did a mistake again, and I’m going to have to dick-punch you. We cannot do this again, and we will never talk about it, but never, ever call me—or any woman for that matter—a mistake to her face. Are we clear, Knight?”

  He ran a hand over his face. “Jesus Christ, I’m not saying anything right.” He took a deep breath before cupping her face and looking into her eyes. “I fucking loved every single moment I was with you, Addi. Every single damn second. But we should have talked beforehand and, apparently, right now, I’m not making much sense to talk afterward. I don’t know what’s coming next, nor do I know if we should even take this to…well, anything, but what I do know is that I want you in my life no matter what. I’ll do anything to keep from losing you. Anything.”

  She leaned into his hold, her body relaxing as she let out a breath of her own. “I know it was just the heat of the moment and the crazy weather or whatever, but I loved it, too. And I don’t know what we should do about it other than maybe not try to do it again while acknowledging it was pretty damn amazing sex?”

  An older woman glared at them as she went to her car, but he didn’t care. They were outside in the middle of a shopping area having this discussion, but it couldn’t wait.

  “So, we don’t forget or ignore that it happened, but we also try to not let it happen again without actually talking to each other about it?”

  She nodded. “Does that mean it could happen again?”

  He licked his lips, aware that if he said the wrong thing this time he could lose her. “Maybe? I don’t know, Addi. Everything I said about you being my boss and me trying to figure out how to be a full-time dad was true.”

  “And I’m super busy with trying to keep my head above water as we get through the first six months of the shop. But…”

  He nodded. “But it was damn good.”

  “Of course, it was da
mn good. It’s the two of us.”

  He lowered his head, resting his forehead on hers. “I’m not going to say the m-word again, but let’s not fuck things up.”

  “We have no idea what we’re doing,” she whispered. “No clue.”

  “Nope. But let’s keep doing it.”

  He didn’t know what on earth that even meant, but they were in this together, and he just prayed that he didn’t screw things up even more.

  Chapter 5

  Adrienne arched her hips, her hand between her legs as she imagined Mace’s rough beard scraping her thighs as he ate her out. Despite how hot her imagination had gotten before, knowing exactly what his tongue on her pussy felt like now just made touching herself even hotter. She slid her fingers between her folds, pumped one, then two fingers in and out of herself before pulling out so she could slide her wetness over her clit. One hand cupping her breast, she pleasured herself until she came, her body shaking as the orgasm slammed into her, making her tingle all the way from her toes to her ears and the tips of her breasts.

  “I’m going to Hell,” she whispered, her hand still lazily stroking her clit. “So going to Hell.”

  It had been two days since she’d had the best sex of her life with her best friend, and though they’d had a conversation about it, she was still just as confused as ever.

  What they had talked about:

  The sex was amazing.

  They probably shouldn’t do it again.

  The sex was amazing.

  They were probably going to do it again.

  The sex was amazing.

  They could ruin everything because the sex was amazing.

  She laid back, her hand falling to the side as she fought to catch her breath. Her morning routine of getting herself off was now far more complicated than it should be thanks to Mr. Big Dick and Fuck-tastic Hips.

  And if she ever actually called him that to his face, she’d die of mortification.

  She shouldn’t be thinking about Mace and sex at all. She should be getting over her lapse in judgment and start focusing on work and family as usual. Instead, she was lying in bed before her alarm went off, making herself come by thinking about Mace’s talented tongue replacing her fingers.

  Again, going to Hell.

  Sighing, she rolled out of bed, grabbed her phone so she could turn off her alarm, and promptly almost fell because her panties were still wrapped around her ankles.

  Grace, thy name is Adrienne Montgomery.

  She kicked off her panties and slogged her way to her bathroom so she could get ready for the day. Of course, she couldn’t look at her counter without blushing and pressing her legs together. She’d just come, yet just looking at where Mace had fucked her had her ready to go again.

  “I guess that’s why I have that showerhead,” she mumbled and went to sin once more thinking of Mace between her legs, this time using the hot water instead of her hands. “So going to Hell.”

  * * *

  Her body ached, and she was pretty sure her nether regions would forever be swollen and needy thanks to thoughts of Mace, but she was finally in the parking lot to open the shop and in desperate need of caffeine. Maybe today would be different, and she wouldn’t want to simultaneously fuck her best friend and hide from the situation at the same time.

  Nothing good ever came from having sex with friends.

  Nothing.

  Except for those fantastic orgasms, but she was not thinking about those. Again. She had work to do, damn it.

  Adrienne did her best to forget what she’d done that morning—or any morning—while thinking about Mace and climbed out of her car. Her brother-in-law, Carter, had replaced something inside, and for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what. She could fix so many damn things in her house and at the shop if needed but tell her a car part, and she forgot the information instantly. Regardless, Carter had told her that the car was on its last leg, but he’d do his best so she could keep driving it. She liked that brother-in-law of hers, even when he gave her terrible news about what she already knew was a lost cause.

  She was just about in front her shop when she froze, aware that there were a few other business owners staring at the tattoo shop, as well.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered, her phone clutched in her hand as she tried to reconcile what exactly she was seeing.

  “Adrienne!” Thea called, running toward her, her own phone in hand. “I was just about to call you. I’ll call Shep now. I’m so sorry, honey. I don’t know what those lunatics were thinking.”

  Adrienne nodded, letting her younger sister mother her like she enjoyed doing. All she could do was stare at her store and what the monsters had done to it.

  Bright red and green paint along with black and blue covered the front of the shop in splotches. Someone had used a red can of spraypaint to mark the windows up with slurs and other curse words that would forever be imprinted in her brain. Sure, she used the words bitch and fuck in her own vocabulary, but seeing it emblazoned starkly on her shop in contrast to the beautiful backdrop of the foothills and the pristine paint of the other buildings made it all the more terrifying.

  Someone had tagged her shop and had done a hell of a job with it.

  She couldn’t quite think of what to do as Thea called the police and explained what had happened. Adrienne should be the one doing that, not her sister. It was her shop, after all. Hers and Shep’s.

  And someone had defaced it.

  Strong hands slid around her waist, and she turned, fist ready to punch, but stopped when she realized it was Mace.

  “What the fuck, Addi?” he asked, but since he was looking at the shop and not her, she knew his words weren’t about her almost hitting him but what had happened to their place of business.

  “I don’t know.” She swallowed hard then got over herself because she had shit to do and a business to save. “But we’re going to find out.” She turned to Thea. “Cops on their way?”

  Her sister nodded. “Yes, they said don’t go in or touch anything. Just in case.”

  Adrienne nodded, not bothering to pull away from Mace’s hold as he gave her strength that she desperately needed at that point. She wouldn’t turn away someone to lean on when she needed it most. At least, that’s what she hoped was the reason.

  “Okay, I’ll call Shep. Mace, can you call Ryan? Get him here if you can. Once the cops are done taking statements or photos or whatever, we need to start cleaning up. We have clients to work on today, and there’s no damn way we are leaving it like this if we can help it.”

  “Adrienne…” Thea started, but she shook her head.

  “Thank you for everything,” she said and then looked at the crowd of well-meaning people, including their newest resident, the tea shop owner from next door. “Go back to work, everyone. I’m sorry this might hurt your business for the day but, hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  She was so pissed. There was already a stigma surrounding her type of shop in this area, and now it was the one place tagged by whoever thought they would have some fun for the night. She wished she could start cleaning it off immediately and forget about it so she could get on with her day, but there were procedures to follow, and that meant she had to wait.

  But waiting wasn’t something she wanted to do.

  Abby, the owner of Teas’d, the organic tea shop that had opened up right before Montgomery Ink Too, walked over with two mugs of what Adrienne guessed was tea.

  “White chocolate peppermint,” Abby explained. “A favorite right now. Drink and wait for the police to come. I know this sucks, but whenever you’re allowed to start cleaning, we’re all here for you.” She looked around, and the other business owners, including Thea, nodded. “We’re a team around here. And we don’t take kindly to someone hurting one of us.”

  Adrienne gratefully took the tea and took a careful sip, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. “This is amazing.”

  Abby winked. “I’m slowly turning everyone
from the dark side of coffee.”

  “You’re well on your way with this,” Mace said from her side. He’d let go of her hip when Thea was talking, and Adrienne had been grateful since her sister was far too perceptive for her own good.

  Despite Adrienne telling everyone to leave, they all stayed until the cops came to take photos and statements. Shep and Ryan had shown up soon after, the anger on their faces almost palpable. When the police left, saying they’d be in touch and that everyone could start cleaning up, Adrienne didn’t feel any steadier. In fact, she still felt just as angry, hurt, and lost as before, but now, she had a list in place of what she had to do. Someone had dared to hurt the Montgomerys, and she’d be damned if she let that take her down. They’d find who did it, and then…well, she’d let the cops handle it from there. But she’d make sure her shop shone like a beacon of hope and art because there was no way she was going to let some asshole with paint ruin all her hard work. Not this time.

  Soon, she found herself on the phone with a client who had been scheduled that morning but who she knew she’d have to move until later. It would take the whole crew to clean up the mess the vandals had made, and she honestly didn’t want to have her clients seeing the place as it looked now. Thankfully, they hadn’t broken any windows or done anything that looked too permanent. Power washing in a Colorado October wouldn’t be fun, but at least it wasn’t snowing. They’d scrub, power wash if needed, and paint. Luckily, they already had the paint in the back storage area because they’d just finished the place and had leftovers.

  Her shop hadn’t even been open a full month before someone tried to ruin it. She did her best not to take that to heart.

  An arm wrapped around her shoulders as soon as she hung up with her client, and she leaned into her big brother’s hold. She’d know his hugs anywhere. Shep was a few years older than Adrienne, and the only boy in their immediate family. He’d moved to New Orleans so long ago that it was odd seeing him back in Colorado Springs. He used to hang out with Austin in Denver on the weekends when they were growing up because he’d been so much older and hadn’t wanted to only play with his sisters. Adrienne hadn’t minded because that meant she could spy on what the boys were doing with Thea and Roxie whenever Austin visited them. It was what little sisters did, after all.