“Can we please quit talking about her?” I groan. “This shit is getting hard enough to deal with without you constantly bringing her up.”
“I just think it’s shitty for you to put a ban on her from me and anyone else interested if you’re going to put your dick on a leash and keep it away from her.”
He’s goading me and I know it.
“Fuck off, Blake. I mean it. I’m sick of talking about—”
My words die on my tongue when the bane of my existence walks into my shop. Wearing a pair of cutoff shorts, cowboy boots, and a t-shirt, Mika smiles at Beth while running a hand through her silky dark hair. Blake looks at me with wide, amused eyes as I hold my breath.
It’d be nice if there was somewhere to hide right about now.
“Can I help you?” Beth asks her.
“They said next door that Blake was over here?”
Beth smirks and motions our way, and I give up hoping to resemble a statue when Mika’s eyes shift down the corridor to the back room, landing on us.
“Hello, gorgeous. Thought you were avoiding me,” Blake says while going to lean against the doorframe.
Mika’s smile falters, and her eyes lock onto mine in surprise. She apparently didn’t know this was my place. Shit.
After several silent minutes pass between us, I start feeling the old, familiar buzz beneath my skin, and every dirty thought imaginable crosses my mind. The look in her eyes shifts, and she tugs her lip between her teeth, as though she’s imagining the same thing. It makes it really hard to keep standing here instead of bending her over one of the chairs.
“You were looking for me?” Blake chimes in, smirking.
Mika blinks rapidly several times before turning to face Blake.
“Um. Yeah. I was wondering if you could… um… Oh! I mean, Hunter asked me to drop something off for you. He had to take an early flight out this morning because of a big business opportunity. Apparently you two are friends or something?”
“Yeah, I got fond of Skinny Jeans, even though he still looks ridiculous.”
Mika smiles nervously, and she hesitates. “I’ll just leave it here. It’s some kind of liquor you like or something.”
She sets a box down on the counter in front of Beth and practically sprints out.
Beth eyes me, and Blake turns to stare at me as well, grinning like the damn cat who ate the canary.
“What the fuck was that? I’m practically dripping wet just from feeling all the sexual tension between you two, and you two didn’t even have to speak,” Beth drawls.
Swallowing hard, I shrug, but I can’t find a way to answer.
“Her brother is gone too,” Blake says, still grinning at me. “Left yesterday. I checked his car myself before he left for the airport. Says he’ll be gone for a while, but he’ll be back. Seems intent on keeping a close eye on his baby sister. Even asked me to call him if anything seems off with her, but to keep my hands to my-fucking-self. His words. I don’t even know the guy.”
“They’re twins,” I say as though that explains his protectiveness, even though I don’t know why I say it. He wasn’t protective of her when they were growing up.
I shouldn’t be thinking about anything from the past, but I guess it’s better than thinking about Mika being alone in that house.
“Gonna storm tonight,” Beth adds, still watching me like I’m a science experiment that might bubble over at any moment.
“Heard it was going to be a rough one. Probably some power outages and such. Hope Mika isn’t scared of the dark,” Blake goes on.
I flip them both off just as my next appointment walks in. Fucking great. Now I really can’t stop thinking about her. Mika used to love the storms when I was there with her because it meant I’d be holding her against me all night.
The thunder scared her. Her parents… They just let us sleep together in the sunroom, curled up in each other’s arms on a blanket like we weren’t two kids feeling things too intense for our age.
I told her I loved her the first time during a storm. I also went down on her during a few storms to keep her mind off them.
Glancing down, I curse. Great. Now I’m going to have to ink a skull on a man’s arm while I’m sporting an obvious boner. This should be all over town by tomorrow morning.
Chapter 18
MIKA
“Thanks for making it stop,” Chase tells me, still trying to catch his breath after the nightmare.
“I’ll always be here. Always,” I promise him as he holds me against him. The lightning crashes, causing me to jump, and he chuckles as I burrow into his side.
“I’ll always be here too,” he says against my head, kissing it.
I grin like an idiot, but I sigh happily in his arms despite the raging storm that has cut all the power off.
“I love you,” I tell him, even though he never says it back.
“You know you’re the only person who has ever said that to me?” he asks, but it’s not a sad question. He states it so matter-of-factly. Even though it breaks my heart, I nod. It’s not like I haven’t figured that one out without having to be told.