Permanent (Indelibly Marked) (Volume 1)

by Kim Carmichael

“You know.” Lindsay announced. “I really need a calculator.”

  “Calculator?” With wide eyes, Shane looked down at her. “Do you need to calculate something?”

  “Yes.” She wanted to calculate exactly how fast she and Shane could get out of there without collateral damage. Some general she turned out to be, she may as well go AWOL.

  Her announcement had the desired effect of distracting them and she suddenly had four phones thrust at her. She’d completely forgotten that her phone had a calculator. She breathed a sigh of relief when pancakes were set in front of her.

  “Everyone sit.” Carson pulled Emily’s arm. “Let’s eat, the food’s here.”

  “Stop playing peace maker.” Emily plopped down into her chair.

  “Maybe it was a bad idea I came.” Dillon remained standing.

  “You always think you’re right, and this time you actually are.” Emily focused on her plate.

  “I’m sorry you had to witness the true Elliott family dynamic.” Dillon directed his comment at Lindsay and left.

  Silence. Her stomach twisted, and she fiddled with the syrup.

  “Lindsay.” Carson tapped the table.

  She raised her head and waited for him to continue.

  “Is that the only rule?” He picked up the pencil.

  Shane put his arm around her. “Yes, tell us all what to do.”

  The right answer was usually the simplest. “Don’t do anything without me.”

  Everyone at the table seemed to collectively exhale.

  “No problem there.” Shane kissed her lips. “She’s our IRS miracle.”

  As they all dug into their breakfasts Lindsay faced her pancakes with the image of Dillon leaving still fresh in her mind. She watched them let him leave without a second thought. A huge part of his anger was directed at Shane because of her. The person walking away could have easily been her. Would Shane still be kissing her without the IRS miracle he needed?

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jealousy.

  Yes, Lindsay had experienced jealousy before, but never at such magnitude. The jealousy oozed over her, a slime covering everything it touched. No wonder they called it a monster. Like a giant lizard, she wanted to run down the streets of Los Angeles creating havoc until she could dig her giant claws and jaws of steel into Angie and rid the world of that particular evil.

  “Shane, I really think that we should rearrange your station.” Angie shifted items on his table.

  Lindsay bit down on her pencil.

  “Lindsay just cleaned this. It’s fine.”

  Lindsay tilted her head.

  “I think it could use a little sprucing up. This segment is going to appear all over the Internet.”

  “This is a tattoo shop.” He tossed a magazine aside.

  “You have been begging me to get these people over here to do a piece on you and I did, even after you ditched me in the middle of my tattoo.”

  “Do what you want.” Shane backed up. “My doing your tattoo will be blasted all over cyberspace.” He smiled at Lindsay.

  She forced a smile and returned to her books. Just her luck that Angie had the media connections Shane wanted. Now on the same day that they were reviewing his paperwork for the audit, the giant internet blog guru decided to grace the shop with his presence and broadcast a tattoo, interview, and piercing.

  Shane moved toward her with that look in his eye and she inhaled. Kissing and hugging in front of Angie seemed perfect. She lifted her arms in preparation when the vixen ran over and grabbed him.

  “Shouldn’t we talk about my art?” Angie reached for the hem of her skirt and Shane turned to look.

  Lindsay narrowed her eyes. Couldn’t the woman have any tattoo above her waist? She fully suspected Shane was all too familiar with Angie’s … area.

  Shane settled Angie on the chair then hiked her skirt up, and Lindsay crunched down on her drug of choice. The pencil broke in half. She managed to spit most of it out, but inhaled one of the shards. It lodged in her throat. Primal instinct took over and she coughed.

  “Hey.” Ivan rushed over. “Linds?”

  Tears clouded her eyes, and she bent over, every breath jostled the piece, tickling her throat and making the cough harder.

  “Take a drink.” He reached for his oversized soda on the counter.

  She attempted to clear her throat.

  “Lindsay!”

  A welcomed pair of hands took her shoulders, and patted her back.

  “Are you okay?” Shane gave her a drink from Ivan’s soda.

  Somehow the spear worked its way out, and she put her hand over her mouth.

  He knelt in front of her and wiped her hair away from her face. “Baby, say something.”

  “I think my pencil attacked me.” Her voice came out dry and scratchy.

  “You give new meaning to phrase crunching numbers.” He pulled her into his arms with a grin. “Everything all right?”

  Since her choking redirected his attention away from Angie, she was golden, as Shane would say. “Yes. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  He gave her a light kiss on the cheek. “Never.” He stood and leaned over her desk. “What are you working on?”

  She took the opportunity to monopolize him a moment longer. “The audit. I need to talk to you about a few things.” For a month he’d put off the discussion.

  Shane looked down at her as if she’d spoken in a foreign language.

  She needed to address his aversion.

  The front bell rang and several people crowded into the front of the tattoo shop.

  “Everyone’s here.” He kissed her quickly and left her in her makeshift office. “We’ll talk later.”

  She frowned and returned to her desk, reviewing her notes. No matter how good she was, she needed his input. She piled his items up and put them in a corner. Her father would tell her to have a meeting with the client about coming to terms with the situation. However, her father didn’t have Shane as a client.

  At a stalemate, Lindsay watched the filming at his station. They interviewed him, and she listened as he talked about tattooing. His voice held passion and he had a charisma that drew people to him. After all those weeks, she still couldn’t believe he had an interest in her. Compared to him, she was a big bore. Worse yet, she knew she frustrated him. Not that she blamed him, every time he tried to move forward physically, she put on the brakes. Fear and insecurity on too many different levels stood in her way. If she slept with him and he left …

  The sick sinking in her middle shook her and she stood just in time to be treated to Shane tattooing a tulip on Angie’s upper thigh.

  The woman never flinched as the needle punctured her. She laughed, smiled and engaged the other men in conversation. With her tight clothes and multi-colored hair, Angie fit in seamlessly at the shop. Shane’s gaze seemed to wander, taking a sampling of what she wasn’t able to give him yet. Unable to watch any more, Lindsay went to the window and stared out at Shane’s El Camino parked next to Ivan’s Harley.

  Lost in self-depreciation, she jolted and turned when Shane yelled.

  “You told me you had all the people arranged for today!” He pointed furiously at Angie.

  Angie fiddled with her phone. “I can’t help it if Holly didn’t show up.”

  “Did you call and confirm?”

  Without answering, Angie put her hands on the front door. “She really wanted her bellybutton pierced.”

  “You didn’t confirm, and they have a schedule.” Shane motioned toward the film crew.

  “We didn’t want a bellybutton.” The camera man approached.

  “You said a piercing.” Angie kept her back to the rest of the group.

  “We told you we wanted ears.” The man faced Shane. “We want to do the tattoo for the edgier fans, and the piercing for the more mainstream viewers.”

  Shane shoved his hands in his pockets, pacing the length of the room.

  Lindsay reached for a pencil and stopped, bi
ting her nail instead. While she couldn’t beg him to do the paperwork, Shane was a stickler with anything pertaining to the publicity of the shop. Media could make him a star.

  “We wanted a conventional person in a tattoo shop,” the man added.

  Except for Angie, everyone in the shop turned to Lindsay.

  She twisted and glanced behind her and then back to the group.

  “She’s about as conventional as you can get.” The man smiled.

  She wrapped her arms around her stomach.

  Ivan pointed at her. “Her ears aren’t pierced.”

  She put her hands to her ear lobes.

  “Seriously?” The man barreled for her. “Who is she?”

  “Hold up.” Shane held out his hand. “What do you say, Lindsay?”

  Though she wanted to run the other direction, without question she took his hand.

  He pulled her toward him. “I have been planning for just this occasion.”

  “What occasion?”

  He whispered in her ear. “Did you know that people have been piercing their ears since ancient times? Some thought the metal helped ward off evil spirits.”

  “Do I need to be protected from evil spirits?”

  “When I’m not with you, I certainly want to know you are safe.” He grinned.

  She stared at him.

  “Will you let me pierce your ears?” The heart-melting grin remained plastered on his face.

  “Does this piercing require the use of a piercing implement?” Her heart fluttered. She’d tried to watch him do piercings before, but never got past him taking a pouch out of the autoclave.

  “I would do it with my tongue if I could.” He put his hands on her waist. “I promise I will make it worth it.”

  She focused on his red t-shirt and opened up her mental ledger. Shane would never harm her and he needed help. She fit the bill of what the producer wanted, and it had the added benefit of cleaning up Angie’s mess. The negative side of her ledger only listed one entry. Her ears would have to be pierced. He would just take that gun thing and do it quickly. Right?

  Wait, when a window closed, a door opened. “All right. If I let you pierce my ears on film using a sharp, pointy tool, then tonight we work on your audit. No excuses.”

  “Audit.” The grin disappeared along with the color in his face.

  “Yes, Shane.”

  He looked up to the ceiling. “Okay, if we work on the audit, then we get sushi.”

  “Sushi and ears for audit talk.”

  “I’ll throw in that I have a present for you for the ear piercing.” He wrapped his arms around her. “It was something I couldn’t resist buying for you.”

  “Deal.” She held out her hand.

  Shane swatted her hand away and gave her a kiss. “Awesome.” He licked his lips. “We have our model!” He announced and guided her to his chair.

  “She’s perfect.” The production man nodded and smiled at her.

  “Holly said she can be here in twenty minutes.” Angie ran over and set her eyes on Lindsay lying in the chair.

  “I have my model.” Shane squeezed her hand and swiveled on his stool to collect his tools.

  One of the film crew came over. “Shane, who is this?”

  “Lindsay Stevens. We treat her with kid gloves.”

  She smiled and tried to remove any thoughts of needles from her mind.

  “Why?” The man jotted information onto his clipboard.

  “She’s our business manager.” Ivan came forward to assist Shane.

  “Whatever, she’s my girlfriend.” Shane hunched over his desk and blurted the statement as easily as though he was naming a song on the radio.

  Girlfriend. A sensation of being kicked in the stomach hit her, but in a good way. No one else reacted to the life-changing comment, but her mind dashed off in a million directions.

  Maybe in Shane Elliott land the word girlfriend wasn’t life changing. In that second she felt flushed then chilled and she tried to take a breath to defrost. Were they dating only each other? Or, more accurately was Shane dating only her?

  When Shane finally turned around and held up a pouch, she lost the opportunity to dwell on yet another ledger entry.

  “Look Linds.”

  She blinked and focused on the little silver studs in the sterilization wrapper wondering what made them special. “Oh.”

  “These are titanium.”

  “Nice.” They had a million identical pairs of those earrings in the shop, but she remembered the camera and turned to the lens. “Titanium causes very little skin reaction.”

  “We’re not filming.” The man told her.

  “She’s a natural.” Shane laughed. “Linds, you’re probably wondering what’s special about these, right?”

  She pursed her lips.

  “Nothing, your present will be for later.” He winked. “If you’re a good patient.”

  “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “I’m adding it.” He donned a pair of gloves.

  “Are we ready?” the cameraman asked.

  “We are.” Shane smiled at her. “Close your eyes.”

  “Why?” She leaned up to spy the items on his tray.

  He shifted to block her view. “Because I asked you to.”

  Until that moment, Angie, audits, girlfriends, and presents had distracted her, but no longer. “Shane.” A twang of nerves resonated loudly in her stomach.

  “Yes, I am going to pierce your ears.” He widened his eyes.

  This filming was important and she could not melt down. “Okay.” She shut her eyes tight just as the shaking began.

  “Carson.”

  She opened her eyes at Shane’s call.

  He stepped around to the back of her head.

  She looked up backwards at Carson, hoping he would save her. “I need some hand holding.”

  Carson took her hand in his. “Close your eyes. We wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”

  She clutched Carson’s fingers and shut her eyes tight.

  “I’m just going to clean your ears.” Shane’s voice took on the quality she loved, the one where his voice wrapped around her like a blue-black ribbon. Shivers traveled down her back as something cool and wet touched her lobe.

  “I’m going to mark your ears.” Shane moved closer and she got a delightful waft of his soap mixed with ink scent. She heard him open another pouch, and not able to stand the suspense, she peeked.

  “What are you doing?” Shane stared into her eyes. Deep concentration filled his expression, the same intensity he wore when he drew.

  “Trying to see what you’re doing.”

  “You don’t need to see what I’m doing, you’ll see after.”

  “Is this going to hurt?” She searched his face for answers.

  “I’ll make it better.” He moved his hand down. “Close your eyes.”

  A flash of metal caught her eye and she pushed back into the seat the second she identified it. “I thought you used a gun.” Her voice came out more as a whimper.

  “This is good,” one of the producers mumbled. “Very realistic.”

  “I’ve studied piercings for years. Guns wreck your ears and they’re not sanitary.” His tone took on one of a teacher. “This is the best way.”

  “Shane,” she whispered, “that’s a needle.” Maybe he didn’t realize it and she needed to inform him of that fact.

  “Don’t you want your present?”

  Against her better judgment, she nodded. “But I wanted you to pierce my ears with a gun.”

  “Piercers don’t use guns, we use needles. I don’t tell you what to use when you work on my accounting, now do I?”

  She glanced up at Carson. With his lips pressed together he seemed ready to crack up, but then she saw Angie. The woman glared at her and pride replaced the fear. “Go ahead.”

  Carson covered her eyes with his warm palm.

  With her heart trying to escape her chest, Lindsay held her breath. The ma
n who only minutes earlier called her his girlfriend, was about to impale her earlobe on a humongous needle.

  Shane manipulated her ear, but she figured nothing happened because he moved away and went to the other ear. Poised for the pain, she squeezed Carson’s hand.

  “Ouch.” Carson tried to pry her fingernails loose.

  “Shane, do it already!” She tried to stay perfectly still, but wanted to kick her feet. Shane just chuckled.

  “Take your chick.” Carson freed himself from her clutches.

  “Shane!” She opened her eyes just as Shane took her hands. “Why didn’t you pierce my ears?”

  With a flourish, he grabbed a mirror from the counter.

  She looked into it and the little titanium balls were perfectly implanted in her ears. “Oh, you did it.”

  “It only took me so long because I wanted to make sure you were perfectly even.” He moved in and assessed each ear. “Don’t touch them. I’ll make sure they heal right.”

  “I didn’t feel anything.” How was that possible?

  “When I want you to feel something you will.” He raised his eyebrows. “They look great.” He took the mirror and let the film crew get some shots. “Do you feel okay?”

  “A little tired.” The adrenaline in her body ebbed and an odd sleepiness overtook her.

  “Why don’t you let me finish up and since you’ve endured my torture, I’ll endure yours.” He helped her out of the chair.

  Thrilled Shane was going to keep his end of the bargain, she headed back to her office.

  One of the production people stood near her door talking to Angie. “I thought you were dating him.”

  “I’ve been trying.”

  Lindsay entered her office, but stayed close, frowning at Angie’s answer.

  “He’s with his accountant?” the man asked.

  Angie moaned. “Who knows?”

  “Interesting choice.” The man let out a low laugh.

  “You know Shane. He always has to be different. I’m sure it’ll wear off.”

  “Yeah, stuff like that never lasts.”

  How did people always manage to strike the perfect chord? Maybe because deep down, they spoke the truth. When would Shane realize it? She slid down the wall to a kneeling position and put her head down.

  “What never lasts?”