by Maria Luis
On any given day, Lizzie would have stayed far away from the mayhem. She liked her sanity, thank you very much, and much preferred Frenchmen Street over in the Marigny neighborhood. Specifically, she tended to stick to locations where there weren’t questionable substances pooling in miniature green ponds along the sidewalks.
But today wasn’t any given day.
Only an hour ago, she’d met with New Orleans’s most prestigious photographer under her real name for a possible collaboration project. He’d discovered her Naked You Instagram account, surfed the web for her contact information, and—like normal people who weren’t obsessed with the Holly Carter rumor—gave her a call.
In a matter of minutes, she’d gone from Lizabeth Vittoria, owner of Naked You, to Lizzie Danvers, Beauty Influencer and Creator/Founder of Naked You.
And it had felt great. Better than great.
Almost sex-with-Gage-Harvey level of great, which was pretty hard to beat because . . . well, since the night at her studio, he’d successfully managed to rock her world not once but five times.
Considering that only four days had passed since that first night in her studio, Lizzie figured that their agreement for “one night only” had been deemed null and void. There were only so many times a man’s tongue could stroke a woman’s clit before certain expectations unfolded, right?
Right.
Currently, Gage was closing in on double digits, and so Lizzie felt no hesitation at all as she stepped up to Inked on Bourbon, pushed open the glass door, and entered the tattoo parlor. A tinkling bell above her head announced her arrival, and her gaze immediately landed on the bearded version of Gage standing behind the parlor’s front desk.
Owen’s head pulled up, dark, shaggy hair falling in front of his eyes. “Lizzie,” he greeted with a casual dip of his head, “good to see you.”
Feeling a little surprised that he remembered her, she approached the bar. “Do you memorize all your client’s names?”
“Only the ones who sleep with my brother.”
Did that hyena-like laugh echoing in the parlor belong to her? Hands flexing nervously as she set them on the marble countertop, she tried to play it off. Hair toss. Wide grin. Fluttering eye lashes. “Does that happen frequently?” she asked, hating the way his dark eyes turned pitying. Crap. “On second thought, let’s pretend I didn’t ask that question.”
“But you still want to know the answer, don’t you?”
Yes. No. Scrounging around for the perfect response, she averted her gaze and sought inspiration from the artwork on the walls. “How’re you doing today, Owen?”
Real smooth, girl, real smooth.
At Owen’s huffed laugh, Lizzie wished she could slither back out the front door and pretend none of this had happened.
“I’m doing all right,” he drawled. “Thanks for pretending you care enough to ask.”
Right now.
This was the moment the floors parted and Lizzie could forget all about trying to chat up Owen Harvey for insider information on his brother.
“Can we start over?” She tapped her nails on the marble, then thought about doing the same with her forehead. End the misery. Let the gators in the swamps feast on her humiliated remains. She stuck out her hand again. “Hi, I’m Lizzie and I like long walks on the beach, tequila sunrises, and any kind of popcorn.”
Owen didn’t quite smile, but his dark eyes glittered with humor in that familiar Harvey way she now recognized. Accepting her hand shake, he said, “Hello, I’m Owen and I prefer my whiskey straight, my tattoos black, and I’m glad you’re just as kind as my twin said you were.”
Dammit.
She’d been doing so well in not asking about Gage, and there Owen went ruining her progress. So close, she’d been so close to pretending that her eyes weren’t watching the entrance to the back of the parlor, just to see if he might pop out with an uncharacteristic ta-da!! and a set of jazz hands.
Spotting the wry grin on Owen’s face, Lizzie let out a beleaguered sigh. “You’re totally playing with me right now, aren’t you?”
“Like a fiddle.” He shot her a wink, and in that moment, he looked so much like Gage it was terrifying. Terrifying, because there weren’t too many shared characteristics that she saw between the brothers. The sharp ridge of Owen’s nose indicated a break or two in his past, his hair was messily styled as opposed to cropped closer to his skull, and there was a somberness to this twin that Gage didn’t exhibit.
Unless she and Gage were discussing the names tattooed on his chest, of course. She still felt the sting that he’d been unwilling to open up about that, especially if they were only tattoos.
“I figured,” she said a tad dramatically, her bangles clinking against the counter. “I’ve been known to exhibit gullibility on several occasions. Mostly in front of your brother.”
“I’m sure he enjoyed every moment of it.”
Stupid heart, stop flipping over like that.
“But while we’re on the topic of Gage,” Owen continued, eyes on the computer in front of him, “he’s mentioned you a few times. Didn’t mention the sex bit, but I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“And I walked right into your trap, huh.”
He grinned. “Hook, line, and sinker, baby.” More typing on the computer. Then, “He stepped out a few minutes ago to make a deposit at the bank over on Royal. You’re welcome to wait for him, if you want. Shouldn’t be too much longer now.”
Casually, she asked, “Between the two of us, how desperate do you think I’ll look if I stick around?”
With a husky laugh that sounded eerily like Gage’s, Owen met her gaze. “If we lie and say you’ve only been around for five minutes or so? Not desperate at all.”
Lizzie touched her finger to her forehead and then pointed at him. “I like the way you think, Mr. Harvey, I like the way you think.”
Stepping back from the counter, Lizzie roamed the front of the tattoo parlor. She paused in front of the picture frames along a side wall, intrigued by the various designs presented within the frames. The tattoos themselves were a wide array—twisted skulls, calligraphy, portraits of celebrities.
“How did you get into tattooing?” she asked as she peered closely at a particularly interesting set of skyscrapers inked onto a man’s calves. “I’ve always wondered if people just sort of fall into the business.”
There was a momentary pause before the gritty response: “Jail.”
Her heart landed south of her feet. Crap, crap, crap. She whirled around to see Gage’s brother standing tall and stiff behind the desk. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “I didn’t mean to pry . . .”
He gave a quick shake of his head, messy, dark hair slipping in front of his eyes again. He swiped it back with one big hand. “No harm, no foul,” he said, voice low. “I’m fully aware that not everyone has the same sort of background as me. Gage doesn’t.”
Having a cop as a brother, and a police lieutenant for a stepfather, meant that Lizzie fully understood that not everything was always black and white. No story was as simple as right or wrong. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Gage doesn’t really . . . I mean, he doesn’t talk much about his past, honestly. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have asked such an insensitive question.”
Owen surprised her by offering the barest hint of a smile. It was more sardonic than good-humored, and guilt pooled in her belly like spoiled milk. “It’s human nature to want to ask questions, baby. You’re good.”
She felt her own lips turn up at his use of every New Orleanian’s nickname for someone else. Baby. It was an endearment she’d heard frequently growing up, slipping off the tongue of the mailman to the woman bagging her groceries at Winn Dixie to her elementary school teachers. She knew Owen didn’t mean it sexually, but it was nonetheless interesting to see the innate differences between the two brothers.
In Owen’s voice, she didn’t hear a hint of that West Louisiana upbringing. Hell, there wasn’t much of that Southern, All-A
merican boy charm that Gage shelled out in spades, either. Gage was dark and sometimes, when he let his guard down, he looked haunted, as though always on the run to something. Or from something.
But Owen . . . Lizzie studied him quietly. Owen Harvey looked restrained, like a wolf tied up at a post, eager to break free but determined to show domestication by sitting and waiting his turn for a run in the wild.
She cleared her throat, turning back to the images on the wall. The photography itself wasn’t the best; the lighting was all wrong, and the exposure wasn’t handled well. “Well, it seems like you’ve come a long way from all that,” she said. “I don’t mean to overstep my boundaries, but if you ever wanted someone to take some really awesome photos of the tats y’all do here, I’d be happy to help out. It’s sort of a . . . thing that I do.”
A career. It was a career for her—she had to stop acting as though it was some side hobby to be brushed under the rug. A mentality she’d fostered over the years, thanks to trying to keep it all quiet.
She tried again. “What I meant to say is, I don’t know if Gage told you, but I operate a photography company. We’re largely social-media based, but I do most of my work out of N’Orleans.”
“Do you?” The curiosity in his voice had her turning around to face him. He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Yeah,” he said gruffly, dark eyes moving to the wall behind her, “the photos are shit; you can say it.” His laugh was short and low. “We can set up a time or what not. Anything’s got to be better than what I have up now.”
“They’re not awful . . .”
“Yeah, they are.” Another laugh. “Anyway, if you’re based locally, you should join EOCC—sorry, it’s Entrepreneurs of the Crescent City. I got roped into it a few years back, and hell if I know why I still go”—the way his dark eyes darted to the front windows hinted that yeah, maybe he knew exactly why he still went—“but without fail, the first Tuesday of every month, my ass is there and eating some of the shittiest food you’ll ever taste.”
Lizzie tucked a hand against her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Just so you know, you’re really selling it, Owen.”
His mouth tugged upward. “Trust me, you don’t want to hear me when I’m really trying to push my case.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Pathetic.”
“I’m sure you’re fine.” Why did she get the feeling that he was talking about a woman? Wanting to push, but not wanting to press her luck, Lizzie gave him a noncommittal wave of her hand, brushing aside his worries. “I’m always up for crappy food, especially in the mix of other businesses. It’s a bonding experience.”
The more she thought about this EOCC thing, the more excited she grew. It was the perfect step to gather her brand and own it, just as Gage had told her to do. The calendar spread was one thing—and she appreciated Gage trying to help her take the reins—but joining a group like EOCC?
She almost wanted to throw an arm around Owen for a hug.
Followed by a quick two-step around Inked.
For years, she’d spent her life online. Dating. Working. Interacting with other people.
But finally she was shedding that lifestyle, and it felt damn good to know that she could be just as successful in her own city as she could as a nameless identity over the internet.
“I’m looking forward to—”
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the front door flinging open and Gage storming through like a gust of dark storm clouds. “I swear to God,” he ground out, his eyes on his twin, “my ass was pinched at least three times on the way back here.”
“The little old ladies again?” Owen said.
Gage shuddered. “You’d think that they’d be the respectable ones coming into town, but no. There they are pushin’ the damn walker along the sidewalk, and I become a casualty of walking down the damn street.”
Lizzie couldn’t hold in her laugh. It slipped out like a firecracker bursting, loud and heavy and not the least bit delicate.
Gage whipped around at the sound, and she didn’t miss the way his lips lifted in a half-smile. “Find that funny, do you now?”
“Hilarious,” she told him. “What can I say? Those little old ladies have good taste.”
“You’re damn right they do.”
“Lizzie,” Owen groaned, “don’t boost the guy’s ego anymore. It’s big enough.” He pointed a finger at his brother. “Don’t say it.”
Throwing a wink in her direction, Gage put his hands up, all innocent-like. “Say what? I wouldn’t dare dream of disputin’ that—it is big.”
Lizzie could testify to that statement. Gage Harvey certainly wasn’t lacking in the dick department; the man was perfectly proportioned all the way around. Even so, she couldn’t help but enjoy the brothers’ back and forth.
For some reason, she’d gotten the sense that perhaps they weren’t that close, and it was nice to know that wasn’t the case. For however much hell she gave Danny, she couldn’t imagine her life without him. He’d been an ally on her side since they’d been kids, and she figured Owen and Gage, being twins, were even closer.
Probably came with the territory of sharing the same womb for nine months.
“Have you been waitin’ long?” Gage asked her, driving her pulse faster with each step he took in her direction.
If he caught the wide-eyed look she sent Owen, he didn’t say anything. “No, just a few minutes.” She swallowed an ill-timed giggle. “I actually wanted to ask you a question. Okay, it’s two questions.”
His expression tensed, and Lizzie threw up a hand. “Nothing bad, I promise.”
“Just what every guy wants to hear,” Owen called out from the tables behind the bar. “For future reference, baby, don’t lead off with that.”
Her mistake.
But it really wasn’t bad. “Do you want to grab an early dinner maybe?”
“Oh, Jesus,” Gage muttered, slipping his hand over her jaw to angle her face for a kiss to her forehead, “trying to fatten me up before you slit my throat, are you?”
Her nose wrinkled. “That’s disgusting.”
“I have a morbid sense of humor.”
“No,” she drew out, pursing her lips, “I never would have guessed.”
“She’s a spitfire,” Owen said.
“Yeah, she is.” Gage’s dark eyes dropped to her mouth, and she could easily read the lust swirling there. The man was insatiable, it seemed, when it came to her. “All right, let’s do early dinner. We’ll grab some po’boys and head up to sit along the river.”
Against her will, her heart flipped over in her chest, and that same damn litany she’d been hearing started up again: him, him, him.
“So romantic,” she teased, a touch breathlessly.
His mouth stamped down over hers in a kiss that stole her breath. “Keep it between us, princess.”
“And me,” Owen griped. “Get out of here before I throw up. Y’all are sickening.”
Sickening, maybe, but so happy.
And for a girl who had a track record of dating douchebags, it felt good to be with a guy who really seemed to care about her. Even if they weren’t dating. And even if all they’d ever be was friends-with-benefits.
22
By the time they grabbed their po’boys—fried oyster for her and fried shrimp for him—and made their way up to the riverfront, the sun had already begun to set.
It felt . . . Gage stared down at Lizzie’s chocolate-brown hair, feeling a measure of panic settle in his stomach. Well, it was beginning to feel a lot like a date.
Like they were dating.
A relationship.
Couple-hood.
Fuck.
“Gage,” she said now, fussing with her sandwich bag, her purse, and the oversized jean jacket she’d thrown over one arm, “can you hold this a sec?”
She didn’t give him the chance to tell her no. A bright blue bag with a crazy number of straps was shoved against his chest as she set the sandwich bag on the bench and slipped into h
er jacket. “Blue’s a good color on you,” she teased, lips lifting in a soft smile. “Let me know if I should buy you one of your own.”
“I’m good.”
“In so many ways, too.” She threw her head back and laughed at her own innuendo, and no matter how much he knew distance was necessary, Gage couldn’t stop himself from setting a hand to her waist and claiming her lips for a kiss.
Her palms immediately came to rest on his chest, her mouth eagerly parting under his. What he’d intended to be a casual brush of the lips deepened. His tongue sought entry into her mouth, and she gave it without hesitation. Parting her lips, releasing a small moan when he tugged her closer. The damn purse kept him from dragging her flush against him.
As if sensing his frustration, she chuckled against his mouth and pulled back to murmur, “Poor Officer Harvey. That purse is like a modern-day chastity belt.”
She smelled like flowers. Sunshine.
Do you hear yourself, man?
Stepping back, he set her purse on the bench and sat down to the right of it. She took the spot to the left. A modern-day barrier wall was more like it. If she noticed his strained expression, she didn’t bring it up. With a little hum of happiness, she broke into her po’boy and took a massive bite off the end.
Her gaze soaked up the Mississippi River before them. The grassy levee, the ferry shepherding people from the French Quarter to Algiers, directly across from them. From where they sat, he could make out the church steeple of St. Mary’s, as well as Algiers City Hall. New Orleans’s Central Business District arched into the sky to their right, sunlight glancing off the windows.
“Have you ever taken one of those river cruises?” she asked without preamble, indicating with her sandwich to the historical steamboats which sat nearby in the water.