by Piper Rayne
“Damn it!” I put my hand on my arm. “Stop it.”
“I’ll stop it after you start finding the positivity in this situation. You got this, and I’m going to stay here as long as it takes.”
I smile at the best thing that came from my mom deciding her life’s mission was to marry rich. “Love you,” I say with tears in my eyes—everything from the past week catching up with me.
She lays her head on my shoulder. “Love you back.”
We’re quiet for the rest of the ride to the resort.
I love Bridget and her rah-rah cheerleader attitude, but Bridget can stay on Daddy’s dime as long as she wants. We might’ve grown up together, but we live different lives and sometimes she forgets that I don’t have a safety net. Especially since my dad just died.
Five
Denver
Since my siblings didn’t offer much advice about the boulder that landed in my lap, I head down the street to talk to Liam. Surely my best friend, who is an entrepreneur himself, will have sound advice. Bonus, he knows me as well as anyone.
The problem is that Savannah, my sister and now girlfriend of Liam, is walking beside me, carrying his dinner. “I really think Liam is going to love this dish. The other night—”
I hold my hand up to stop her. “I don’t wanna hear about how you paint one another and roll around as foreplay.”
She scoffs, but believe me, they’ve done it. Liam’s found a freaky side of Savannah I never thought existed. Since I’m speaking as their previous roommate, you don’t need a second opinion.
She wrinkles her face. “I’d never share that with you.”
I wiggle my body as though I’m trying to get a bug off me and jump up and down. “Jesus, Sav, I don’t wanna picture that.”
“You and Liam used to swap stories all the time.”
I stare at her for a long, drawn-out second. “He wasn’t screwing my sister at the time.”
“If you don’t want me to share, then don’t share with the rest of us.”
“I don’t share.”
“Um. Do you know how many girls I had to listen to scream my brother’s name or—and this is the pièce de résistance—the girl who was so explicit in telling you exactly what she wanted that I went out for a run at one in the morning and almost got eaten by a bear?”
“Let’s get one thing straight, she was telling me to keep doing what I was already doing. I don’t need that much direction—I’ve got it covered.” We stop at Smokin’ Guns and I hold the door open for her. “And… slight exaggeration.”
“Maybe the bear part, but do you know how many times I slept with my earbuds in?”
Our conversation dies with the sound of tattoo guns and chatter. Liam peeks up from where he’s bent over a sketchpad and then smiles the smile he only seems to use on Savannah.
“Hey, babe,” he says.
“I brought you dinner.” She holds up the Terra and Mare box.
“I’m starved. Thanks.” He stands.
She waves to Rhys and Moose, who each give her a nod. My sister and Liam disappear into the back. I don’t even wanna know what they’re about to do.
Then I notice a dark-haired girl lying with her chest on the table, only in her bra and pants. Something seems familiar about her, but I can’t place it.
“What’s up, Moose?” I grab a spare chair and roll it over.
“Nothing.” He sneaks me a sly grin then peeks down at the girl.
Does he like her? Moose is an overly tall bald guy who has barely an inch of skin without ink. He got his nickname because he has the same demeanor as a moose—he’s grumpy and can’t stand people. If you provoke him, you’d better run as fast as you can. His size alone fits the name.
I look at the girl again. Cute ass, but I’m a breast man, so I shrug at him like ‘sure, whatever gets you off.’
When I think about breasts, Cleo comes to mind. Another downfall of hers is her great rack. I know it’s crude, but damn, she’s blessed with more than a handful. If I didn’t loathe her as much as I do, I’d totally take a chance and ask if I could cop a feel.
Fuck. What am I doing? I need to straighten out my head.
The brunette turns her head with Moose’s direction, and that same experience with Savannah where I felt as if I had spiders crawling all over is repeated.
“Shit. Ew. Moose just had me check out your ass.” I stand, the chair hitting something behind me.
My sister Phoenix looks at me with her evil dark eyes and smirks. “How did you not recognize me? You see me every day.”
“I don’t look at your ass!” I say.
She and Moose share a “got him” expression, and she laughs. It’s then that I finally look at her back and see a familiar blackbird tattoo.
“You got the same tattoo as Brooklyn and Juno?”
“Yeah, I’m kind of pissed that no one told me we have a family tattoo.”
“We don’t.”
“Rome, Brooklyn, and Juno all have the same one.”
“And there’s nine of us, so that’s only a third.”
Rhys slow-claps behind me. “Look at the mathematician.”
I flip him off behind my back.
“I love that it represents Mom and Dad, so I got one. Why haven’t you gotten one?”
I grab the stool and wheel it back over. “Because I’m not a follower.”
She rolls her eyes. “That’s weak.”
Moose continues with her tattoo. I can’t deny that I love the blackbird design. When Rome got it done, I almost got the same one, but we’re twins, so that would’ve been freaky.
“I told Sedona, so next time she comes back to town, she’s going to have Moose do hers.”
“No offense, Moose, but why didn’t you get Liam to do it?” I ask.
Liam is our family tattoo artist. Well, he’s mine and Rome’s. Brooklyn and Juno were both a one-and-done.
“He said he didn’t want to chance Savannah being mad at him because he really likes getting laid every night.”
I shiver. Again. “Can they not keep their sex talk in the bedroom?”
“You’d brag too.” Liam comes in from the back and sits down with his sketchpad. “You’re all just jealous.”
“We’re not jealous,” Phoenix and I say in unison.
“I am.” Moose raises his hand.
“I get laid every night.” Rhys laughs.
Moose coughs out, “Bullshit.”
“So I heard you want to talk to me?” Liam says to my back.
I push back on my heels, wheeling myself over to him. “Savannah’s got a big mouth.”
He cocks his head. “Remember, I love you like a brother, but she’s number one now.” I pretend to throw up, and he balls up the sketch he was working on and throws it at my head. “Stop acting like you’re thirteen.”
Unraveling the paper—because anything Liam draws is a damn masterpiece—I look at a picture of a flower with a stem that looks like an infinity symbol. “Has dating my sister made you soft?”
“It’s an orchid.” He looks back toward the office. “I’m trying to convince her. It means love, beauty, and strength. The infinity symbol is obvious.”
I put it on his bench. “Sav get a tattoo? Yeah right.”
Liam shrugs. “I gotta try.”
“Well, you’ve definitely found a Savannah I never knew, so I shouldn’t say never.”
Just at that moment, Savannah joins us, and Liam taps his lap. She sits down and finds the orchid sketch on the table in front of them. She studies it for a moment then looks at Liam.
“Just a thought,” he says.
Her gaze moves to it then to me. I raise my eyebrows and she looks at Liam. “We’ll talk about it.”
Liam kisses her cheek as if she said yes. I have to be missing something. How can her ‘maybe’ give him such joy?
“You’d get a tattoo?” I blurt out.
She smiles at Liam. “Who says I don’t already have one?”
They�
“Okay, you know what? It’s Denver time.”
I stand and take her hand, but Liam pretends to hold her to him. When I tug harder, he growls like a dog and Savannah cracks up. I look around the room as if I’m in a parallel universe, and everyone must share my thinking.
“My advice wasn’t good enough,” she says, standing.
I catch Liam tapping her ass. If I make it through today without throwing up, I’ll be shocked. Savannah disappears into the back room, and Liam taps his work bench.
“What?” I ask.
“It’s been a while, and you know the table and ink helps you solve your problems. You trust me, right?”
With my life. And he’s not lying about a new piece of ink helping me figure out my shit. When I graduated high school not knowing what I wanted to do, I was Liam’s guinea pig, which resulted in a kickass anchor with a compass face that said I’d always find my way home. He’s tried to get me to cover it up but the hell if I will. It’s a Liam Kelly original. I think he knew what I wanted before I did.
He gave me a horseshoe on my right shoulder blade after my plane went down a few years ago and I almost died. Then an olive branch along my right ribcage when Rome met Harley, and I struggled with becoming second in my twin’s life. The only part he hasn’t touched is my chest.
Isn’t this the reason I came here?
I toss my shirt and lie on my back. “How did you know?”
Just like the moment when we were six, and we agreed to have a toilet paper party in the library bathroom. We’re always on the same wavelength. Well, except for Savannah. We’re definitely not on the same wavelength there.
Moose finishes up with Phoenix, and she says she’s going to go bother Savannah about something in the back. Liam and I share a look that says we know the screaming between the two should commence in five minutes.
The idea of being a business owner is my sole focus as Liam washes his hands, puts on his gloves, does the stencil, and returns. Can I do what Chip asked of me? He did so much for me over the years. Is there even a part of me that could say no?
“Give me a con,” Liam says, starting the outline of the tattoo stencil he chose for me.
“It’ll be restrictive, cut into my lifestyle.”
“How so? You’d still get to spend time outside. You could book as little or as many clients as you want.” Liam never looks at me, keeping his eyes on the ink he’s gouging into my skin, wiping every so often with a precision he’s perfected.
“I’d have to keep things afloat. That’s a lot of pressure.”
I can’t tell because he’s quiet, but I assume he’s got his classic smirk. We both know people would never rely on me.
“True, but you enjoy the excursions, don’t you?”
I wince when he hits my rib. “I do, but there’re so many what-ifs. Plus, it’s not even just me. I have to run it with his daughter.”
He nods. “Cleo Dawson. Sav says it’s half and half?”
“Yeah.”
“She has no experience.”
“Exactly. She mentioned buying me out.”
His eye catches mine as he dips the gun into the ink. “And you’re cool with that?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, I hate the thought of Chip’s company failing. There’s no possible way she can keep it going on her own. I saw the books when I was managing things for him while he was sick. He’s barely making payroll at this point. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s super outdated. Survivalists want thrills these days.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Sounds to me like you’ve given this a lot of thought?”
“I have. The reason I love bush piloting is because of the places it takes me. I can fly to places few people have ever been, and it’s something I don’t want to give up. Leading excursions is okay, but not as thrilling as bush piloting.”
“Maybe you can do both or combine them somehow? Maybe you’re the man to give Lifetime Adventures a new start.”
“But?”
He dips the gun into the ink. “Listen, let’s cut the crap. We both know you wanna do it, but you’re scared. I get it. When I opened this place, I was scared shitless, but I couldn’t be happier being my own boss. You keep going around asking everyone for their opinion as though you want someone to tell you not to do it.”
I turn my head away from him. The truth he’s spilling is hard to hear.
He busies himself with my tattoo while I think of the last time I asked anyone for advice. I do what I want, damn the consequences most of the time. Chip was always one of my go-to guys, and I already know what he thought.
Why am I so quick to push people to tell me not to do it? Liam’s right—I’m scared to fail. I like my life simple and easy.
As everything runs through my mind, Liam finishes the tattoo and sits me up to look in the mirror. I examine the blackbird tattoo right under my left pec. Along my ribcage are two blackbirds sitting on a branch. Damn, Liam. He’s way too talented for his own good. He figured out a way to give me the blackbirds without copying what my sisters have.
He smiles at me over my shoulder. He doesn’t say anything about the symbolism of having the two blackbirds right next to my heart.
“Thanks, man.”
As I’m about to sit back down for him to bandage me up, the door of Smokin’ Guns opens, and in walks none other than Cleo Dawson.
Six
Cleo
“Isn’t that…?” Bridget elbows me in the rib, and I step to the right, holding my side. She had way too much red wine at the restaurant.
How did I not know Denver has ink? And why do I find that so damn attractive? Other than our friend Ford, who went rogue from the country club crowd, no one in our circle has any tattoos. Tatted skin has had a soft place in my heart for years, and now I’m staring at the man I hate and all the blood in my veins is zeroing in between my legs.
“Cleo Dawson.” Denver’s gaze follows the curves of my body in my fitted coat as if he knows what I look like naked, and my body responds with shivers.
“Denver Bailey.” I purposely add a cold tone to my voice, but the way Bridget is staring at me, she knows it’s forced.
Her eyes widen as though she’s silently asking me why I never told her that I wouldn’t mind screwing him too.
“Can I help you ladies?” A clean-cut guy with dark hair and no piercings or ink steps up to the desk.
“I’d like a tattoo,” Bridget says with the bravado of a veteran customer.
I shake my head at him behind her. I brought her in here to humor her before we go to the hotel, where I’ll give her a few more glasses of wine before she passes out. When she wakes in the morning, I’ll tell her that I saved her from permanently marking her skin.
“What are you looking for?”
I shake my head more firmly, but the guy isn’t paying any attention to me. If Bridget was worried at all about whether she’s considered attractive in this town, this guy is ready to prove to her that she’s a ten. He’s gawking at her like most men do, which means he’ll please her and go against my wishes.
“Something cute and feminine,” Bridget says.
He nods. “A flower? A heart? Where do you want it?”
The door opens and five people come into the shop, each of them with a plethora of tattoos. Yeah, we’re definitely like nuns at the Playboy mansion in here.
Bridget leans over the counter. “Somewhere private.”
I reach for her. “Really, Bridge, let’s go. You do not need a tattoo.”
She slides her arm out of my hold. “Yes, I do.”
“Isn’t there some sort of law about tattooing people under the influence?” I plead.
“It’s not a law,” the guy says with a shrug.
“Rhys.” The guy who was with Denver comes over. I realize we met before when he came into Lifetime Adventures asking for a donation to a charity auction when my dad was sick. I’m not sure of his name, though.
My eyes betray me as I watch Denver put his shirt back on, a bandage over where he got his tattoo. With his shirt on, he’s back to being a clean-cut guy.
“She’s had a lot?” Rhys, as I now know him to be, asks.
“Just some red wine.” Bridget can’t hold back her slur.
The guy who came over looks at me. “Cleo Dawson?”
I blow out a breath. “Yep.”
“Liam Kelly.” He puts out his hand. “We’ve met before.” Jeez, I forgot how good-looking he is. What’s in the water of this town to make everyone so beautiful?
I shake his hand. “Good to see you again.”
“I’m this one’s best friend.” He nods toward Denver.
Figures.
“So you heard we’re hot news in Lake Starlight, right?” Denver joins the two men on the other side of the desk.
I narrow my eyes. “It’s ridiculous. I never even knew that thing existed.”
“I just saw another one of you. You’re a chef?” Bridget points at Denver.
“Twin, remember?” I tell her.
She looks quizzically at me then nods like ‘yeah you’re right.’
I know I’m right.
“Why don’t you go help those people over there, Rhys? I think they’re your next clients.” Liam points at the people scouring the board of tattoos on display.
“You can take them, I’d rather do this one.” Rhys’s gaze hasn’t strayed from Bridget.
“You haven’t had your fill of flowers this month?” Liam says to Rhys.
“It just makes me her best option. I’m an expert.” Rhys leans on the counter, and I send a pleading look to Liam.
“Rhys, go.” Liam nudges the guy away, then he turns to my Bridget. “Listen, I’d love to give you a tattoo, but you’re going to bleed so bad, it’ll look shitty when it heals. So if you want to come back tomorrow, I’d be happy to tattoo you.”
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