Vote Then Read: Volume III

by Aleatha Romig

  She was over it.

  All of it.

  She tossed back the rest of her wine.

  “Never trust a bad boy, doll. Don’t trust them when they whisper sweet words in your ear. Don’t trust them when they wine and dine you, and definitely don’t trust them when they promise you forever. They may look good, but I can promise you that the saying is true—once a playboy, always a playboy. They will lure you in only to spit you back out. You’ll change, wondering what you did wrong; they never will, I can guarantee you that. And I’m going to prove it.”

  What are you doing?

  Lizzie’s fingers tightened around the wine glass. She should cut the recording. Pretend none of this had happened. She’d had too much to drink, had spent too many minutes staring at the comments on Scott’s post calling her both a prude and a slut, depending on the commenter. Emojis were included for the benefit of all—not.

  Back away, girl. Back away from the camcorder.

  She couldn’t.

  Not this time.

  It was time to prove once and for all that bad boys were not redeemable, that they would always be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, preying on women who only wanted love and affection.

  “Thirty days, doll,” she heard herself say. “Within thirty days I’m going to prove that bad boys will always be just that—a bad boy, no matter what romance novels and rom-coms tell you otherwise. And I’m not going to do this Kate Hudson-style, y’all. I don’t need to act crazy or be wild in order to lose a guy. I’m going to . . .” She stifled a hiccup, and her throat burned with the kickback of the booze.

  “I’m not trying to get rid of the bad boy—I-I’m going to find New Orleans’s biggest commitment-phobe. The biggest. We’ll date. Thirty days. Weekly check-ins on my channel. And when Day Thirty rolls around, I’m going to show you that he’s no different than he was on Day One. He won’t ever change, and us, women? We’re always going to be the ones that end up brokenhearted.”

  2

  “Another butterfly up front. It’s your round, man.”

  Gage Harvey paused, fork halfway to his mouth, as he glanced up at his twin brother, Owen. “No can do,” he drawled. “I’ve reached my butterfly quota for the day.”

  Hell, he’d reached his butterfly quota eight years ago when Owen had opened Inked on Bourbon, the city’s hottest tattoo parlor. Back then, Gage hadn’t known anything about tattoos, save for the fact that he liked them, and Owen had filled every inch of Gage’s arms with ink. Most of his chest, too, for that matter.

  They’d each had a role to play: Owen tattooed people for a living, and Gage locked people up in jail as a cop for the New Orleans Police Department.

  Then Owen had dropped the bomb about opening up his own place, smack in the middle of the French Quarter. At the damn intersection of Toulouse and Bourbon streets, of all places—it didn’t get busier than that, and it sure as hell didn’t get any more touristy.

  But tourists equaled business, and business equaled money, and Owen, older than Gage by three minutes and fourteen seconds, was all about creating a nest egg for unforeseen events.

  Gage lived for the unexpected. Hell, as a member of the NOPD’s Special Operations Division, better known as S.O.D., he thrived off the unexpected. He was just as hooked to the adrenaline rush as he was to the need to protect the citizens of New Orleans, just as his father had done, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather.

  He was a fourth-generation cop.

  Then Owen had laid out the guilt trip, coercing Gage into a tattoo apprenticeship he never wanted, all so that he could work as Owen’s second-in-command whenever he wasn’t suited up, busting down doors, and saving lives.

  All so that you can tattoo butterflies.

  Gage popped a sliver of steak into his mouth, chewed, and then washed it down with his energy drink. “Pretty sure I had my contract amended last month. No more butterflies.”

  Owen rolled his eyes, eyes as black as Gage’s, and pushed the office door shut. Folding his arms over his burly chest, he stared down at Gage over the crooked bridge of his nose. A nose Gage had broken back when they’d been thirteen and battling it out over a chick they’d both liked. They’d been idiots, back then.

  “One more butterfly,” Owen said. “It’s not my fault that women come to N’Orleans wanting to be inked with something delicate.”

  Gage pointed his fork at his twin. “As owner of this joint, you should convince them to go for something original. Hell, I don’t know, suggest they go crazy and go for a skull or something.”

  Behind Owen’s trim beard, his mouth hitched upward. “Yeah, because that’d go over well. Sorority girl with a skull on her ankle? I can just see the stampede of horrified mothers busting down the door.”

  Yeah, so maybe not a skull then.

  Owen had been smart to buy the space here at Toulouse and Bourbon, but in doing so, he’d set himself up for a lifetime of butterflies for the women and Celtic armbands for the men. Sometimes things got wild and there was the chance to do a pretty awesome bit of artwork, but more often times than not . . . butterflies, all day every day.

  It was enough to make a thirty-four-year-old man—in other words, Gage—cringe indefinitely.

  Especially since Gage worked at Inked as a favor to Owen; it wouldn’t ever be his main gig. Which meant that while Owen frequently tattooed celebrities and famous N’Orleanians, Gage was got the leftovers.

  He pushed his lunch away with a sigh.

  Time to suit up and shut up. Faster he got this over with, the faster he’d be heading Uptown to do real work.

  “Where she want it?” he asked, scrubbing his hands in the sink. Owen’s office was large and dominated by black furniture. Leather couch, leather chair, mahogany desk. He’d outfitted the room with a sink for easy access, along with a mini fridge and a microwave. Photographs of some of his best work decorated the walls, and it hadn’t escaped Gage’s notice that his twin had added a few photos of Gage’s work, too.

  When Owen didn’t answer immediately, Gage slid his eyes over to his brother. “Ankle?” he prompted.

  Owen glanced up at the ceiling.

  Oh, Jesus.

  Gage pinched the bridge of his nose. “Another ass-tattoo?”

  “She’s cute,” was all Owen said, which Gage took as confirmation that, yep, he’d have his hands all over some sorority girl’s butt for the next twenty minutes—forty, if she wanted shading done.

  It wasn’t the placement of the tattoo that bothered him.

  Nope. It was the fact that once he had his hands on her skin, the chick usually took that as invitation to hit on him. Blatantly. Without hesitation.

  Gage had enough on his plate already; he didn’t need to add a girlfriend to the mix.

  “You owe me,” he muttered, shoving past his brother and opening the door. Since their receptionist was on maternity leave, it fell to Owen and Gage to handle front of the house. Last time they’d let the other tattoo artist, Jordan, man the phones, he’d ended up screwing a client in the closet. The sounds of masculine grunting had horrified the mother and daughter duo sitting on the couch, plastic Mardi Gras beads encircling their necks.

  Jordan had effectively been suspended and warned to keep his dick in his pants.

  The mother and daughter had gripped their beads, cheeks blooming red, and ran from Inked as fast as their flip-flops could take them.

  Another sign of a tourist—no self-respecting N’Orleanian would ever wear sandals on Bourbon. Not if they didn’t want to catch an STD or end up dead from a fatal disease.

  Gage headed straight for the vintage marble-topped bar, which functioned as their receptionist’s desk, only to see a woman facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked Bourbon.

  He catalogued the back of her in a heartbeat.

  Perfectly tousled brown hair.

  Off-the-shoulder white blouse.

  Form-fitting black skirt.

  Slim calves, trim ankles, and a pair of fuck-me b
lack heels that could do double-duty as a weapon if she was so inclined.

  “You here for the butterfly?”

  At the sound of his gruff question, she turned around, and Gage felt his gut clench with unexpected lust. Owen hadn’t had the right of it; this woman wasn’t cute, she was gorgeous. The sort of breathtaking that had you questioning your sanity. The sort of breathtaking that made you wonder what the hell you could say to get her into your bed, her slim legs wrapped around your waist, and her breath hot and fast against your neck.

  Damn.

  Blue eyes lit with nervous anticipation as she rubbed her hands together. The motion jostled her bracelets. And, if her shirt weren’t so loose, he’d have had the opportunity to see if all that rubbing and jiggling affected her breasts too.

  “I am,” she said with a bright smile—straight white teeth, lips painted the color of a ripe plum. He wanted to see the color mussed, kissed into nonexistence, and discover the true shade of her lips.

  Get a grip, man.

  Right. Right.

  He ran a hand through his dark hair. This is what he got for spending the last few months with only his right hand. Between work with S.O.D., and then spending every free moment helping Owen here at the parlor, Gage hadn’t had a night to himself in what felt like forever.

  Or a day, either.

  He lived two lives, and neither of them left room for casual sex, which was the only sort of sex he engaged in.

  Swallowing his lust, Gage motioned for her to step up to the vintage bar. “Let’s get your paperwork settled.” He pulled one of the already prepared clipboards from the pile, and then slid it over to the woman, a pen on the side. “This your first tattoo?”

  She slipped her purse from her shoulder, dropping her head to sift through the contents. “It is,” she said, placing a gold wallet on the bar. “I’m turning over a new leaf. Doing something new with my life, and I figured that a butterfly is—”

  “Metaphorical?”

  Her stunning blue eyes leapt to his face. “Yes!” she exclaimed, either ignoring his dry tone or oblivious to it. “That’s it exactly. I mean, I know I could have gone with something a little more original, but—” She crooked her finger at him, and he fell for it, leaning in close as she mock-whispered, “I’m deathly afraid of needles. Silly, isn’t it?”

  The cop side of his brain wanted to say that her aversion to needles was a good thing. In the fourteen years that he’d been on the force, he’d witnessed way too many drug overdoses to count.

  But this woman . . . Gage inched his gaze down to those plum-colored lips of hers. Yeah, women like her weren’t in that world; they didn’t exist in the underbelly of his beloved hometown. And so he only smirked and said, “You’ve still got time to rethink this. Once we start, trust me when I say you’ll only look ridiculous if we stop midway through.”

  She cocked her head to the side, surveying him with a single look. “Good thing I’m getting it done on my butt, then, right? No one will know if I cry mercy. No one but me and . . . you.”

  Gage laughed, loudly. “Want me to offer you a strip of leather to bite down on?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Does that cost extra?”

  “I’ll make it free just for you.” He tapped his hip, drawing her gaze down to his worn Levi’s. “Leather belt meet to your satisfaction, princess?”

  Her reaction surprised him.

  Instead of blushing like any of the other women who waltzed into Inked, this one planted her hands on the marble, bit her bottom lip, and saucily whispered, “Where do I sign up?”

  Heat raced up his spine, and a strangled laugh stuck in his throat.

  Damn, but he liked her. Liked her spunk and the teasing glint that appeared in the form of twin dimples in her cheeks. Gorgeous and witty—if Gage had a type, and usually he didn’t, this woman would be it.

  He wondered how long she was in town for. She had West Coast written all over her, though her accent didn’t have a hint of California sunshine. “Let me grab your license,” he said, for once thankful that records were a necessity.

  Her long lashes fluttered down as she fished around in her wallet, pulling out both her I.D. and a black Amex credit card. Gage checked back a low whistle. Either this woman was a high-roller or she was related to someone with a lot of money.

  Subtly he checked out her ring finger. Empty.

  Good news.

  “Here you go.” She gave him another bright smile and slid the I.D. across the marble with the tip of her manicured finger. “Do you by any chance have a restroom I can use?” She lifted her purse and gave it a little shake. “I brought a pair of shorts to change into, considering the placement of the tattoo.”

  She winked playfully.

  Gage’s cock hardened.

  Jesus, five minutes in her company and he was panting after her like a teenager.

  “Yeah.” He jerked his chin toward the hallway off to the right. “First door on your left. Can’t miss it—there’s a mural of a Roman bath on it.”

  “Great!”

  Her heels tip-tapped against the floor, and just before she would have left his sight, she twisted around, hand on the wall, one foot rubbing the back of the other enticingly. “You can leave the belt on the bar for me,” she said, a slow smile tugging at her lush lips, and then she disappeared.

  Gage squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his head.

  Either he was that desperate for the touch of a woman or his next client was about to make him come in his pants.

  Not once in eight years since Owen had opened Inked on Bourbon had Gage ever wanted to take a patron home. He lived by certain codes of morality, and fucking someone who had just paid him, however indirectly, was on his list of things not to do.

  Not today.

  Today, he was going to find a way to get that woman’s number and take her out for dinner. After that, he planned to feast on her body. Every single inch of her.

  The sound of shouting caught his attention, and he opened his eyes. A second line paraded down the street, plastic go-cups in hand, Mardi Gras beads strung around their necks, and a marching band trailing behind the partiers. A motorcycle cop pulled up the rear, helmet on and leather jacket zipped up to the neck despite the warm September weather.

  Gage caught the man’s finger-salute and returned it with a brief wave—most of the NOPD knew he worked at Inked when he wasn’t on a tour of duty, and they often came in to get tatted themselves.

  He glanced down, eager to discover the woman’s identity.

  Surprise hit him when he saw “Louisiana” stamped across the top. Her photo was demure—no plum lipstick, that’s for sure. He saved her name for last. Height: five-five. Weight: one-thirty-five. Eyes: blue. Hair: brown.

  He skimmed up, and stopped dead.

  Elizabeth Danvers.

  Lizzie Danvers.

  Oh, fuck no.

  3

  Lizzie slipped a pair of basketball shorts over her hips in the bathroom of Inked on Bourbon.

  “You can do this,” she told her reflection in the large mirror above the sink. “All you have to do is ask.”

  And run the risk of rejection.

  No biggie.

  She hadn’t expected to find her perfect bad boy when she’d walked into the tattoo parlor today. She also meant what she’d told Mr. Hottie up at the front—she was turning a new leaf. Getting a new start on life.

  It’d been two weeks since Scott had dumped her, and therefore one week and six days since she’d uploaded the video to her YouTube channel, and set the beauty industry on fire with her challenge.

  She’d received no less than four hundred emails since. Some praised her for taking a stand, some told her to sit back down and get her head out of her own butt (albeit with more colorful language), and some pushed and prodded to uncover if she’d corralled the city’s best charmer into dating her yet.

  Planting her hands on her hips, she gave herself a dark glare in the mirror. “This wasn’t your brightest
idea,” she muttered. “Now you have to dig yourself out.”

  Thirty days dating the city’s biggest heartbreaker.

  This was why drinking to excess was a bad, bad thing.

  Because the next thing you knew, you’d announced to six million people around the world that you were going to prove to young girls everywhere to never trust a bad boy.

  A week ago, her challenge had started trending with the hashtag, #badboyirredemption, which wasn’t even grammatically correct. A person could only be redeemed, not the other way around, but that was the twenty-first century for you. No one cared about the particulars, and now thousands of people were coming forward to announce taking up Lizzie’s challenge right along with her.

  Lizzie had drunk more wine in the last two weeks than she had in her entire life.

  But now . . . now things were looking up.

  In deciding to get her first tattoo, she’d also met the hottest guy she’d ever seen. No wedding band, thankfully, and his smile was all long, hard sex.

  He was . . . perfect.

  Lizzie slipped her skirt over her purse, and then hooked the arm strap over her wrist.

  Time to do this.

  Oh God, I think I’m going to throw up.

  Pressing a hand to her belly to ease the nerves, Lizzie threw back her shoulders. Flirty Lizzie Danvers. Bubbly Lizzie Danvers.

  Right now, she could be nothing less if she wanted to keep Mr. Hottie from running in the opposite direction.

  Although she did feel a little ridiculous wearing high heels and a pair of her older brother’s shorts with “NOPD” emblazoned down the length of her left leg. No matter. Lizzie swayed her hips and smiled wide, with a lot of teeth, back to the front of the parlor.

  At the sight of him, she sucked in her breath all over again.

  Gorgeous.

  Ruggedly gorgeous, but gorgeous all the same.

  Dark, messy hair that begged for a woman’s fingers; black eyes as deep as the night sky over the Mississippi River. His skin was tan, a beautiful olive that looked perpetually sun-kissed. And his mouth . . . it was the stuff of fantasies, full and perfectly formed. If he’d been a woman, or a man so inclined to wear a little lip product, that mouth of his would be plastered on every billboard in the country showcasing the season’s hottest glosses.