Jason: Exotic Ink Series (Book Three)

by LS Anders

  “Well…yes, but it’s not only that. We work together, and I’m your boss. It’s never a good idea to mix work with romantic relationships.”

  Incredulous laughter bubbled up from his throat as he spoke. “You were married to your boss and the owner of Exotic Ink for fuck’s sake. How long did the two of you mix work with pleasure before he asked you to marry him? Must not have been too long since you were still his apprentice when you tied the knot.”

  “Do not bring Kyle into this. That was a different situation than you and I.”

  “Doesn’t sound like there is much of a ‘you and I’ going on, sweetie.” Leaning over the bar, he jammed his empty glass under the first tap he came to, giving the handle a tilt. Thank fuck, it was the stout. He needed something high in alcohol content. Tossing back half the glass in one gulp, he glared at the woman he had loved for two decades.

  “Jason, listen. I don’t want to fight with you,” Evana began. “I warned you I was going to be honest, so you can at least not get so defensive, and try and see my side of this.”

  Gesturing with his hand for her to continue, he polished off the last half of his beer. He didn’t want to hear anything negative, but he had agreed to hear her truth.

  “How well do we really know each other? I mean, we barely spoke in high school, and then we had our one date. The girl you thought you knew back then is not who I am today. There’s over twenty years missing between us, Jason.”

  He hated to admit it to himself, but what she was saying was true. He had locked her in that moment in time when he’d last seen her. Looking at her now, she was different. She looked different, acted different, had memories of a past he hadn’t been privy to.

  The same went for him. She was looking at him through the eyes of a stranger, as if they had reconnected at a high school reunion. Time had erased who they once were and had reinvented them into new people.

  “You’re absolutely right. What you think you know about me is way off the mark. I’ve never called any of the numbers I’ve been given. The only reason I accept them is because I don’t want to be rude,” he began. “I do like women and women like me. It’s always been like that for me. I can’t help it if girls come on to me, but I haven’t followed through on any of the propositions since I moved here.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I’m saving myself for you.”

  Evana threw her head back and laughed. So not the reaction he was going for.

  “You’re still the jokester, Jason. I swear, can you ever be serious?”

  Now would probably not be the time to bring up the fact that he’d spent years searching for her. His ego could only handle having the woman he wanted above all others laugh in his face once this evening.

  “So, now that you’ve told me why, will you stop avoiding me like the plague?”

  “Only if you promise to stop hitting on me.”

  “I promise to stop coming on to you…at work,” Jason grinned.

  “You’re incorrigible,” Evana laughed, swatting at his knee. “Your sense of humor just makes you even more irresistible, so I will have to be on my guard.”

  “Friends.” He held out his palm to her. “For now.”

  “Friends,” Evana agreed, placing her palm on top of his.

  Jason captured her hand, and she didn’t pull away.

  “We have twenty years to catch up on. I guess we better get started on getting to know one another again,” he said, a renewed hope blooming in his heart.

  Maybe all was not lost.

  Jason was proving to be the player she thought him to be. Over the past weeks, Evana had watched him continue to flirt and collect cell numbers from girls.

  Not that they were dating. Far from it, but they had been spending a lot of time together after work, going clubbing and out to dinner, most of the time with a group, and always as just friends. She made sure of that, not wanting to give him the wrong idea.

  She genuinely liked him and despite her spike in hormone levels anytime he was near, she was determined to keep their relationship platonic. Jumping head long into a relationship just to appease her lustful yearnings, or her fear of being alone for the remainder of her life would not be a wise idea. But, it was becoming painful to watch her friends moving on with their lives while she stood still, forever in a state of limbo in her personal life.

  She hadn’t been entirely honest with Jason the evening of Dylan’s party. Her feelings for him had begun to extend past that of mere attraction. She was treading on a thin edge of extreme like. That was a juvenile way of looking at it, but Kyle had taken her love to the grave with him, and she didn’t think she had it in her to do it again.

  She was going to have to find some way to leave her past behind. Every time she felt a tiny bit of interest in a man, she felt like a child being caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, but she couldn’t stave off her guilty conscience and that left her where she was now.

  Alone.

  It was as if she felt like she was cheating on Kyle, which was stupid. He’d been gone nearly five years. It was way past time to move on. She knew that, but he was always present, haunting her as she tried to live her life.

  The one date she’d been on with Cale’s brother, Jake, had been uncomfortable at best. That had been months ago after they’d danced at Cale and Avie’s wedding. The more she got to know him, the more she realized he wasn’t for her. They had almost nothing in common. He was a nice enough guy, but aside from the physical attraction, there had been nothing more there than what could be regarded as friendship.

  Jason would make a wonderful boyfriend if he wasn’t such a player, she mused as she tied the silver bow on his birthday present. Always with a joke on his lips and a wink for the ladies, he couldn’t be taken seriously. It was bad enough she had to be a glorified babysitter to her employees, she didn’t need a relationship with someone that didn’t know how to be an adult.

  He was fun to hang out with, and they’d been spending a lot of time chatting about their high school days. He was the only person besides her aunt that she could talk to about her past. Reminiscing about her teenage years almost made her feel whole again as she focused on only the good times, setting aside the horror of what her mother had done.

  She couldn’t fall into Jason’s trap as alluring as he might be, he was a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy. A temporary fix was not what she was looking for, but the connection she felt for him was drawing her closer, and she was determined to keep her distance. Getting involved with him was a definite no-no. He was her employee which meant he was hands off.

  So, why did it bother her so much when he accepted a phone number or a flirtation from other girls?

  What she needed to do was schedule another play date with her vibrator and work out some of this pent up frustration she was rocking.

  Tucking Jason’s gift into her desk drawer, she left the office. Lost in her own head, she drew up short as she got a peek at what Avie was up to through the crack left opened in the restroom door. Her hand flew to her mouth capturing her gasp.

  Avie stood in front of the mirror smoothing her hands from her hairline down to the ends of her hair, the color changing from the teal blue of yesterday to a vibrant yellow with a simple touch of her hands. Shaking out her new head of hair, she turned to leave.

  Retracing her steps, she quickly tip-toed back to the office before Avie noticed her. Closing the door, she planted her back flat against the wood.

  She couldn’t wrap her head around what she had just seen. There was no way in hell anyone could change their hair color by merely running their hands over it. Avie always had a bizarre way about her, but damn, changing her hair color with the palms of her hands was not believable.

  Barely able to catch her breath from her heart banging inside her rib cage, she sagged against the door willing herself to calm down. The door being pushed open had her jumping away, throwing her hands over her mouth to hold back her
scream.

  “Sorry, I guess I should have knoc…” Jason’s eyes grew wide as he took her in. “Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Nodding her head, she kept her hands where they were, afraid to even voice what she had just seen.

  “You’re beginning to freak me out, Evana. You look scared to death. What’s happened?”

  “I thought…I don’t know. I thought I saw Avie change her hair color.”

  “What?” Jason narrowed his eyes, giving his head a shake. “Care to elaborate on that? You saw her coloring her hair?”

  “No,” she cried in frustration. Pushing past him, she shut the door. “She smoothed her hands over her hair, and it changed from blue to yellow.”

  Jason took her by the shoulders, bending down to study her eyes. “Well, you don’t look stoned—”

  “Fuck off.” She slapped his hands away. “I know what I saw. That girl changed her hair color with the palms of her hands, Jason. I saw her do it!”

  Scrubbing his hand over his short hair, it stuck up in every direction. She fought back the insane urge to smooth it back into place.

  “I believe you think you saw her do it, Evana, but that is impossible.”

  “I know it is,” she hissed.

  “Maybe you’re just tired or the lights might have just looked like that’s what she was doing.”

  Exasperated, she gave up trying to convince him of what she’d seen. Maybe he was right, she hadn’t slept well last night, and she’d only seen through just the crack of the door from a distance. What she was saying was impossible. As peculiar as Avie was, there was no way in hell she could do something like that.

  Walking around Jason, she took a seat at her desk. It was official, her loneliness had finally turned her into a crazy person.

  “Why don’t I go get us coffee?”

  She nodded giving him a sad smile.

  Jason returned, setting the steaming cup down in front of her.

  “You don’t have any clients today. Why not take a day off and rest? Just go on upstairs and hang out in your apartment.”

  “I never take off when the shop’s open.”

  “That needs to change.” He pointed his mug at her before taking a sip. “You’re losing your mind working all the time.”

  “What would I do all day?”

  “Not work for one thing. Not worry about this place for another. You could do what I do when I’m stressed.”

  “I’m afraid to even ask.”

  “I pack a cooler full of my favorite beverage, grab a bag full of my favorite snacks, and sit in the middle of the couch and binge watch my favorite Netflix series.”

  “That does sound like f—”

  “Naked,” he smiled at her.

  Rolling her eyes, she sighed heavily. “You just had to cross that line, didn’t you?”

  Laughing, he added, “I was just trying to lighten up the mood and make you smile. What’s going on with you lately? You seem so sad all of a sudden.”

  Shaking her head, she really didn’t want to go into her personal problems with him.

  “Evana, you know you can trust me. You’re already trusting me to keep your most guarded secret about your mom.”

  Looking up into his familiar green eyes, hers began to water and before she could stop the quiver of her bottom lip, she was crying into her hands.

  Jason’s masculine scent surrounded her as she was wrapped in the warmth of his embrace. Returning the hug, she let go the flood of tears she had been holding in, pouring them the crook of his neck.

  Finally able to gain some control of her emotional overload, she pulled away feeling like a complete fool to have broken down on him like she had.

  “Sorry,” she said, wiping away her tears and smoothing out his shirt she had been fisting, clinging to him like an anchor, tethering her to her sanity.

  His concerned smile nearly caused her to burst back into tears. “Take the day off. There’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. Go take care of you today. I’ll even bring you lunch from that sandwich place you like so much.”

  Searching his face as she considered his words, she sighed relenting to the idea of a day off all to herself. She hadn’t done that since before Kyle had died. Work had always been an escape from the memories she couldn’t seem to let go of.

  Nodding, she shut down her computer and pushed in her chair. Jason watched as she climbed the spiral stairs to her apartment above the studio. Just before she completely disappeared out of his view, she looked down, giving him a small wave. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  It would be nothing for Jason to dip his head a little lower and swipe his tongue across the exposed lips of his client’s sex, but he wasn’t going to.

  Nope. Not this time.

  He’d had plenty of opportunities to fuck many willing women since his arrival in New York, but he’d refrained from indulging in what had been freely offered. What was being offered up right now.

  It wasn’t that the girl wasn’t attractive or that she wasn’t completely fuckable. This was all his issue. Ever since he’d laid eyes on Evana again, all he could think about was her and how he was going to win her over.

  He’d been hopeful in the beginning, that the more time they spent together, the more she would grow attached to him. He even tried to kiss her once after they’d shared an evening together talking and laughing over drinks.

  That had been a huge mistake. She’d been so shocked that he’d tried to make a move on her that she’d hailed a cab and left him standing on the sidewalk with an apology still clinging to his gaping mouth.

  The pocket door to his shared workroom was closed as he was tattooing a frilly butterfly on the pubic bone of his pretty blonde client.

  He had assumed she would just lower her pants to expose the area where she wanted her tattoo, but after he’d turned around, she had ditched the pants, panties and all. And hadn’t been the tiniest bit shy about hopping up on the client chair and spreading her legs to allow him room to work.

  He’d chosen to sit on her left side claiming he needed to roll his table a bit closer to reach his ink cups.

  He was rock-hard inside his slacks and could feel the pulse in his dick against his lower belly. It would be so easy to unzip, and slip himself inside her willing flesh, and ease his discomfort.

  Normally, he would have already taken what was offered, but he didn’t feel right about doing the deed in a room he shared with Evana. Hell, he couldn’t do it in a room he didn’t share with her.

  She’d made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him above friendship. So what was his problem with taking girls up on their offers? He’d never had trouble before with meaningless sex but, the only woman he wanted to be inside of was Evana.

  He hadn’t had sex with anyone, except his right hand, since he’d moved to New York City. That was a record for him. He’d had many nights of marathon porn watching to ease the burn of his desire for her before another work day where’d he have to watch every sensual move she made.

  Right now, he was a starving man with a meal in front of him begging to be devoured. His dick was putting up quite the protest, pounding away behind his zipper.

  Wiping away the excess ink from his client’s skin, he tried not to fixate on how her intimate flesh would shift as he cleaned her off and applied the antiseptic ointment.

  Clearing his throat had become necessary before he spoke. “Since this isn’t your first tattoo, I shouldn’t have to tell you how to care for this brand new one, but I can go over any questions you have if you’ve forgotten.”

  “No. I remember, but I do have questions.” The half-naked blonde sat up, spreading her legs again in invitation. “Are you sure you don’t want to? Pain is kind of a turn on for me and that needle of yours has me dripping wet.”

  His eyes dropped to watch as her hand caressed between her open thighs, fondling the lips of her sex before dipping a finger inside. “I�
�um…can’t.”

  “Really? That bulge in your pants says you want to.”

  “Yes, well, he has a mind of his own. I appreciate the offer, but I’m working on a girlfriend right now.”

  “Working on one?” The blonde scrunched up her nose. “You’re such a hottie. Why do you have to work on her?”

  Taking one last glance at the girl’s glistening slit, he stood, clenching his teeth against the massive temptation to plunge inside her.

  “It’s a long story…so, here’s the rest of the ointment for your tattoo,” he said, barely resisting the urge to relieve himself.

  Covering the butterfly with a square dressing had his hand shaking and his dick jumping. He could just imagine how wonderful it would feel to sink inside those delicate folds between her wide open thighs.

  Sticking out her bottom lip, she took the tube of ointment he offered and slipped back into her jeans, pointedly stashing her panties in her purse. Leaving, she looked back over her shoulder and sashayed up to the front for Avie to check her out.

  Plopping down on his artist chair, he dropped his head in his hands, rubbing briskly over his short hair before finger combing it back into place.

  He’d just let a scrumptious piece of ass walk away without so much as a taste.

  Fuck his life!

  He’d spent years pining for a woman that he had no clue if she were dead or alive. Living each day only to wake up, search in vain, eat, and sleep only to begin the cycle all over again. And, plowing his way through one female after another trying to fill the hollow void in his chest had only made him feel that much emptier.

  Moving from one place to the next, following one useless clue after another to come up empty handed every single time. Evana was a beautiful ghost he couldn’t leave alone no matter how hard he’d tried.

  He had given up on her after she’d married Kyle. When she’d become a widow, he’d managed to mind fuck himself for nearly five years that he could live without her and not show up out of the blue on her door step like a complete stalker lunatic.

  Now he had given up everything he’d worked for just for a second chance to be with her. He was a hopeless romantic.