Dare To Love Series: Daring Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

if—
    “Are you asleep?” It wouldn’t be the first time a client had snoozed while getting a tattoo, but it still wasn’t the every day. Sometimes people got to a certain pain level and surrendered to it, lessening its hold on them until they could block it out.
    Sawyer stirred. “Is it safe to sit up?” he asked, his deep voice muffled slightly by the thick cushioning around the opening at the head of the table that allowed a client to rest comfortably on their stomach and breathe.
    “Yep, it’s break time.” She disposed of the needle from the tattoo gun into the biohazard box hanging on the wall and then stripped off her latex gloves and dropped them into the trashcan under the bench.
    Sawyer sat up slowly, as if he was testing how bad the ache would be. He rolled his neck from side to side before stretching his arms and twisting at the waist. The moves he used to work out whatever kinks he had in his muscles turned Penny’s tongue to dust. For the past few hours she’d lost herself into the vibrating buzz of the tattoo gun as she turned his back into her canvas, but now—seeing him like this—she remembered her canvas was a man and attraction slammed against her.
    Naked from the waist up, with his face wrinkled with sleep and his dark blonde hair mussed, he looked like he’d just rolled out of bed after a long and thorough fuck session. The kind that left you drained, sweaty and begging for more.
    He ran his long fingers through his hair, looked up, and his gaze dropped to her mouth. He didn’t move, didn’t even blink, but the hot intensity of his focus was as potent as any touch. Penny’s fingers flew to her sensitive lips and she held her breath in anticipation. She wanted this—wanted him .
    Sawyer stood, bringing him practically right up against her in the tight spot. Heat radiated from his body, caressing her and tempting her to see how hot they could burn together. Face-of-the-sun hot was her guess and judging by the size of the bulge pressing against his jeans, it would be worth getting burnt to a crisp.
    “Not break time.” Still facing her, he reached up and grabbed a corner of the curtain separating them from the rest of the studio. “Work time.”
    He pulled the curtain open and at the same time dropped his mouth to hers, his strong lips promising exactly what she shouldn’t be wanting but still needed. Then almost as soon as it began, it was over. Sawyer pulled back, a self-satisfied grin on his face.
    “You bet we can take a break, honey,” he said, loud enough for the entire studio to hear. “You go take care of what you need. I’ll just hang out in the break room until you’re ready to finish up.”
    He smacked her on the ass and strutted out of the curtained-off room toward the employee only door.
    The dick.
    He’d managed to mark her as his, insult her ability to do her job by saying she needed a break, and go all macho man with the slap on her butt. It took everything she had not to wing something solid at the back of his head as he sauntered off. The women in her family must be cursed. It was the only explanation for how they were always drawn to the biggest prick in the room. Mr. Anaconda Cock, indeed.
    *****
    Sawyer didn’t look back as he made his way to the employee’s only door, but it wasn’t because he didn’t want to.
    Making the strategic decision to kiss Penny had been easy, but Sawyer hadn’t expected that ending it would be so difficult. The whole thing had started as a way to win a bet by going on a date with his sexy neighbor, but he was starting to feel more like an asshole with each minute he spent with Penny. Making that bet had been the best and worst decision.
    Behind the employee’s only door there was a small break room with a circular table, a fridge, a sink, a soda machine and a microwave. Stacks of tattoo magazines littered the top of the table. A door on the opposite side of the room stood closed, but he glanced through the window next to it