She grinned back at me. “Hey, Eves.”
Trix had started working there about six months ago. She was sweet and outgoing and had a whole lot of attitude.
We’d met through Cassy during one of our girls’ nights and quickly became friends. She currently lived with Jimmy in a big old RV she’d inherited from her grandfather. It was parked in Quinn’s driveway since no one was there and Quinn had offered her a free place to park.
She was good people, fun, bubbly, with a wicked sense of humor, and drove Cal nuts on a regular basis, but she was a talented artist and he was lucky to have her, and they both knew it.
“So how was it?” I asked. She’d missed coming out with Lila and me to The Mule the other night because she had a hot date.
She pursed her lips. “It was pretty horrific, thanks for asking.”
I winced. “Really? That bad?”
“The guy talked about his ex the whole night…and his mother.”
“Oh, wow.”
She leaned on the counter. “Yeah.”
“Better luck next time?”
“I’m done for a while. These country boys don’t know what to make of me. They see the ink and the hair and the piercings and either think I’m a freak or a plaything. I don’t have the patience to wade through the duds. Whatever, it’s not like I’m looking for anything serious.”
“Me and Cassy are planning another girls’ night next week. Will you come? I’m going to ask Lila, and Quinn was going to try and make it. Should be fun.”
Her eyes brightened and her lips curled up. “You know I’m in.”
“Excellent.”
“So what brings you in? Finally gonna let me pop your tattoo cherry?”
I laughed. She’d been trying to get me in her chair since we met. “That would be a big fat no. I mean, it’s tempting, since I love needles so much, but I’m actually here to see Dane if he’s around?”
Trix knew some of my and Dane’s history. I’d had no choice but to share, since I was at the shop when I found out he was coming home. My reaction to the news had been…strong.
She shook her head. “Lemme ask Cal.” She turned her head. “Yo, Cal!” she yelled over the music. “Cal!”
A few seconds later, a frowning Cal poked his head out from the curtained-off room where he did his tattoos. “Trix, I’m cool if you use your legs, you know, to come and ask me shit instead of blowing out my fucking eardrums.”
Trix smirked.
Cal shook his head and his dark, almost black gaze slid to me. “What’s up, Eves?”
“I’m looking for Dane.”
He scratched his chin. “Angus’s on Bartlet.” Then he ducked back in and was gone.
“Was he speaking another language?” I muttered.
Trix chuckled. “Angus’s is a gym and it’s on Bartlet Street. Two blocks thataway then first on your right.”
“Thanks for translating.” I headed for the door. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow when I know what night we’re getting together.”
She gave me a thumbs-up, and I headed out and back to my truck. I could head home since he was obviously busy, but I wasn’t sure when I’d see him next. I really did have a busy week ahead and I didn’t know what his schedule was like now that he was back. I’d gone a long time without him, and I wasn’t in a hurry to repeat it.
I was sure he wouldn’t mind a small interruption.
I found the place easily, despite its small faded sign, mainly because Dane and Grifter’s bikes were parked out front. I parked beside them and headed inside.
Music pumped through the room. It was a large space with weights and a few machines on one side, punching bags hanging from the ceiling, and a large ring in the middle.
There were quite a few guys in there training, and I scanned the room looking for Dane. I spotted Grifter first. He was holding one of the punching bags steady and barking out orders. Dane was opposite him in a pair of nylon shorts and sneakers, chest bare, boxing gloves on his hands, and he was slamming his fists into it.
My feet suddenly felt like they were in lead shoes.
I stood kind of frozen for several minutes, unable to look away. Sweat dripped down his hard, lean body, skin glistening. His pecs jumped with each punch, nipple rings glinting, and he made this deep grunting sound every time that I felt low in my belly. His abs—a freaking eight-pack—looked cut from granite. I tried not to, but my gaze ate up the sight of him, drifting down to the V-shaped muscles disappearing into his low-hanging shorts.
My mouth went dry.
I’d always known Dane was good-looking. I wasn’t blind. But his body now was…wow. Had he always been that incredibly hot?
Who was I kidding? Yes. Yes, he had. Only now he was just…more. More everything.
A few people had glanced my way, so there was no backing up and escaping.
I ducked my head and forced myself to head toward him.
Nervous energy fired though me, making me tingle all over. The closer I got, the worse it got.
What the heck is wrong with me?
Dane looked up.
I was halfway across the room when his golden-brown eyes found me, sliding over my body, lingering on my legs before drifting higher. I was dressed for working on the ranch: dusty cowboy boots, shorts that were, okay, pretty short, and a tank. My hair was probably a wild mess from driving with the windows down, and I fought the urge to reach up and try and fix it.
I plastered a smile on my face as I got closer, doing my best to look unaffected—not easy in the face of a sweaty, muscled, half-naked Dane Calero.
“Hey,” I called.
Dane dragged his forearm over his sweaty face. “What’s going on? You okay?” he asked, walking over to meet me.
I studiously kept my eyes on his and did not allow them to dip lower. “I was in town and thought I’d come see you. Cal said you were here.”
Dane’s stare left me and moved around the room. He scowled.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get in the way of your training.”
“It’s fine.” He scowled harder at something over my shoulder.
I twisted to look, and there were several guys staring at us. Tanner was one of them. Oh boy.
I turned back to Dane, and his expression was tense.
“Are you annoyed? Should I not be here? Is this, like, guys only or something?”
He shook his head. “They’re checking you out.”
A laugh burst from me, a little too loud, but that was absurd. “Dane, they’re not. I probably have horse crap on the back of my shorts.”
He looked irritated all of a sudden. “What’s up?”
Okay, I was obviously in the way. I didn’t like that, the way it made me feel. Dane had always had time for me, and I knew it was silly, but his reaction kind of hurt. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have come here. I just…I have a busy week ahead and I wasn’t sure what you were doing. I just thought…” I took a step back. “Never mind. I’ll leave you to train or whatever.”
I turned and walked quickly toward the door.
Dane hooked my wrist with his gloved hand, stopping me. “Whoa, hold up.” He strode ahead, leading me from the room into a hall and off to the side. I ended up with my back to the wall and Dane crowding me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said, head tilted to the side.
“I just…I thought…” I was suddenly finding it hard to think clearly. His chest was still rising and falling heavily from his workout, and his skin was flushed and damp, and, God, he was beautiful. I tried to stop myself from staring at his chest. “You seemed preoccupied.”
He pushed my hair back at my shoulder with a boxing-gloved hand. “I was preoccupied ’cause a couple of fuckwits were looking at your ass. One: that’s just plain disrespectful to you. And two: you were talking to me, you were with me, that makes you off-limits, and that’s disrespectful to me.”
Honestly, the things he said. What was I supposed to say to that? It irritated me and, hel
l, gave me a thrill all at the same time. I let my irritation show, because the other feelings I had no outlet for. I shouldn’t even have been having thoughts like that. “They might be nice guys. I know Tanner, obviously. Maybe I wanted to meet the others. I am single, you know.”
His brows lowered and his nostrils flared. “You’re not meeting any of them.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I thought we decided you weren’t going to do this.”
He planted both gloved hands against the wall either side of me, just above my shoulders, caging me in. “Not going to stop protecting you, baby girl.”
“You’re being territorial,” I said, still annoyed and also doing my best to ignore the flutter in my lower belly that was not slowing down, not at all.
He shrugged. Shrugged!
“Look, we live thirty minutes away from each other now. You’re going to see me more often, and sometimes we won’t be together. I might even be doing something you don’t like, and your correct response in that situation is to suck it up, not scowl at people and be a pain in my backside.”
“What kind of things?”
I threw up my hands. “I don’t know. Out dancing with my friends like the other night, or…on a date with someone you might not like.”
“Like Tanner?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, that’s not happening.”
My head was going to explode. “Seriously?”
“If you were dating someone I don’t like, you bet your sweet ass I’ll have a problem with that. If I don’t like someone, there’s a good reason. Not gonna let you go out with assholes, Eves.”
I couldn’t help but push, poke the bear. I don’t know why. “But you are going to let me date someone, right?”
His nostrils flared. “I thought you wanted to know what you were doing before you started dating. Isn’t that what you want me for?”
“Yes, but…you never know what might happen.”
He shrugged again. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Grrrrrr. I poked him in the chest. It was hard and hot. I ignored how good he felt and did my best to show him my displeasure. “You’re making me angry, like punch-you-in-the-junk mad, and I came to say hi since I thought I might not see you for a while. Now I’m regretting my decision.” He smelled so good, all clean sweat and leather, I had to stop myself from breathing more deeply.
“You going somewhere?” he bit out, totally ignoring my rant.
“No, but things are hectic at the ranch. I’m only in Rocktown because we needed feed. I won’t be back for at least a week.”
“I’m not going a week without seeing you. I’ll come to you.”
And then he’d say something sweet like that and I’d momentarily forget how mad I was with him. “That’s probably a good idea. You should be trying to earn my forgiveness, not giving me more reasons to want to strangle you.”
His gaze turned intense, and he sank his teeth into his bottom lip. He did that a lot when he was planning something. He dipped his chin. “You’re right. I’ll see what I can come up with.”
My belly swooped. “Okay, good.” I tried to move, but Dane kept me caged in.
“Not finished with you yet.” His head tilted to the side, eyes glittering. “I promised you we’d start our lessons this week, yes?”
I swallowed. “Um…I wasn’t sure when you—”
“You been kissed much, Eves? Or was it just your hookup, the guy who made you cry?”
I stared up at him and licked my lips. “What does that have to do with—”
“Kissing’s part of dating, right?”
“Yes, I guess…but—”
“Answer the question,” he said, soft and low.
My belly swooped again, and the fluttering grew more intense. “It was just him, really. The other dates I had didn’t get that far.”
“Did you like it?” he said, face dipping closer.
What the heck was he doing? “It was…nice.” Dammit, I sounded all breathless.
“Nice?”
I nodded.
He kept his hands planted against the wall, one beside my head and he dropped the other down by my waist and leaned in more. “Lesson one: how to kiss.”
Was he? He was. He was going to kiss me. “But that’s not what…you were just going to tell me stuff, not—”
“Can’t tell someone how to kiss, Eves. You have to do it.”
“I didn’t mean for us to actually…you know…for you to…”
“It’s just me. Telling you isn’t going to work. If you can’t kiss your best friend, then who can you kiss?” His nostrils flared. “How will you kiss some other guy?”
His logic was flawed. Extremely flawed, but, God, right then I kind of…I wanted to know what it was like to kiss Dane. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said with no real conviction.
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said.
Okay, if I was honest, I’d wanted to know what it was like to kiss him for a long time. I licked my lips and glanced around us. “What? Here? Right now?” I squeaked.
“Yes, here and now.” He was so close his breath brushed my lips. “Show me what you’ve got, Everly Williams.”
I’d asked for this, right? Well, kind of. I’d never mentioned actual kissing, or kissing at all. I’d remember if I’d added kissing into our deal. He was challenging me. Maybe hoping that it would freak me out so he could back out of our arrangement. Or put me off dating, because, yeah, Dane was still as overprotective of me as he ever was.
I straightened my spine. If he thought I’d back down, he was so wrong. “Okay.”
His nostrils flared again. “Okay?” he repeated, looking a little wild.
Ha! I’d shocked him. Called his bluff.
Dane didn’t move, just stood there, head dipped, so close, so very close, and waited. Daring me silently to do it. And, I was sure, still not believing I would.
Fine. I totally would. Heart hammering in my chest, I shuffled forward and, taking a deep breath, I leaned in, closing the space between us.
My head was tilted down and to the side, which meant my cheek lightly brushed his, his whiskered jaw scraping against my skin lightly. Goose bumps broke out all over me and I turned into him more, the corner of my mouth touching his.
My heart was beating like crazy.
But finally, gathering my courage, I dragged my mouth lightly over his.
He huffed out a breath against my lips.
Oh my God.
My lips were actually touching Dane’s lips.
Even though it was me who’d kissed him, I was stunned motionless for a second. Come on, Everly, do something. Show him you’re not the innocent, delicate creature he thinks you are. Show him you’re not the girl he left behind, not anymore.
Tentatively, I brushed my mouth over his, once, twice, and then, oh man, he did it back. I liked it a lot. Did he like it? I did it again, and a breath puffed out of his nose. Yes, I thought he actually might like it.
“Show me what you’ve got.”
You asked for it.
I tilted my head and touched his lower lip with my tongue. Dane made a rough sound and did it back but with a lot more confidence, swiping his across the seam of my lips.
I kind of convulsed as electricity shot through me.
He tilted his head to the side as well and gave me another of those light brushes of lips as he slowly took over the kiss.
I started to tremble. How was he doing this, affecting my whole body with just his lips on mine?
“Open,” he rasped against my mouth. “Give me a better taste of that smart little tongue.”
Holy crap. I convulsed again.
My lips parted instantly at his husky command, and he licked into my mouth, bringing his body in closer at the same time.
Dane, my Dane, was kissing me back.
Yes, I’d been kissed before, but not like this; nothing resembling this electric making love of mouths that had my body on fi
re and my limbs quivering.
His soft-yet-firm lips moved over mine, tongue delving deeper. I could feel the metal barbell piercing he had as he tasted me, as I tasted him in return and moaned.
My hands lifted all on their own, sliding around his waist, pressing against his hot slick skin, and I tried to get closer still. He made this growly, gritty sound that had me squeezing my thighs together before he sucked my lip into his mouth and licked it again.
A weird mewing noise escaped me when he was pressed up against me fully. I wanted him to stay right there. Feeling more confident, I did what he just had, sucking his perfect lower lip before licking it, and inwardly cheered when he growled low.
“Dane,” someone bit out from the door back into the gym.
Dane gave me one last brush of lips then pulled away with a curse and turned to the guy but didn’t move. In fact, he seemed to press closer, leaving his arms where they were bracketing me in.
“You still wanna go a few rounds in the ring or what?”
I turned to see who was there, face flaming at being caught.
Tanner, and he was scowling.
Oh my God.
“There in a sec.” Dane turned back to me with a look on his face that said he was very pleased with himself. “How was that?”
“Goo…” I cleared my throat. “Good.” So good the ground still hadn’t stopped shaking beneath my feet.
“Just good, huh?” He shook his head, knowing I was lying through my teeth. “I have to work tonight, got a client coming in late, but I can come out tomorrow after we close, take you out…and maybe we can practice some more. That work for you?”
He was close, so close I could feel the incredible heat radiating from his big, solid body. I could lean forward and take one of those little rings through his nipples into my mouth, and I realized—shockingly—I wanted to badly. “That should be…fine.”
He smiled down at me.
A weird feeling started up behind my ribs. “You’re not fighting Tanner because you thought I liked him, are you?”
His nostrils flared. “Do you like him?”
“I don’t think it matters anymore. He just saw us kissing. He’ll assume we’re seeing each other.”
Meant For You: Rocktown Ink, Book 3 Page 8