locking eyes with him in the mirror. “A couple of those items I’d be happy to help you out with.”
C HASE CHUCKLED AS she flipped on the clippers, her cheeks bright pink. She worked on him in silence and he decided to bide his time until she finished. Teasing Katie was starting to become one of his favorite activities. She’d been angry with him; even when she’d tried to hide it, he could tell, but there was something else there too. A little spark of interest maybe? Something that made him certain good girl Katie wanted to try her hand at being very, very bad.
His eyes followed the swell of her breasts as her chest came close to his face. They were a great size and shape, just big enough to fill his hands, and those lips were soft, pouty, and had a promise of bliss. He wondered if she’d slap him if he just happened to kiss her right now, in front of everyone in the salon.
Chase didn’t have a shy bone in his body and he especially didn’t mind going after what he wanted. The only other woman in town to tempt him for more than a quick release was Ryan Ashton, but he’d lost that battle. Ryan had been a good girl too, a bit on the shy side, but he had been interested in her because they’d had similar interests. By the time he had met her, though, she was already spoken for.
Despite his efforts to stay away, good girls had always been a huge draw for him, ever since he hit puberty. But those types of girls hadn’t wanted anything to do with trailer-trash Chase. If they had looked at him at all, it was because they had a score to settle with Daddy and he fit the bill of “big mistake.” Those girls may have been good, but they didn’t have a nice bone in their bodies, whereas Katie had this way about her. She genuinely seemed to care about the people in her life, even the ones he thought really didn’t deserve anyone’s consideration. It was like she was constantly trying to dig deep inside everyone else and find the good in them, something he would never dream of doing. He barely knew her, but he found her to be an enigma, a puzzle he wanted to solve.
She turned off the clippers and cleaned him up, styling his hair into short spikes. He watched her in the mirror, her champagne-blond hair in a sassy knot on top of her head.
When she finished, she smiled too brightly and said, “All done. You can just pay Kitty up front.”
Chase pulled out his wallet and slipped her a ten, with his card underneath. “The offer still stands. Come by tonight and I’ll help you out,” he said, his voice lowered, “with anything you might want.”
Those full lips tightened and he saw her hand was shaking as she took his money and card. Tossing them into the top drawer of her station and snapping it closed, she said softly, “Thank you. I’ll see you back in a few weeks.”
“Or sooner,” he said confidently.
Her blue-eyed gaze was no longer friendly as he turned away, grinning his way up to perky Kitty. He was going to get to the real Katie Connors sooner or later. He had a feeling she was going to be a lot of fun.
Once she pulled that giant stick out of her ass.
K ATIE FINISHED HER last appointment and headed to the grocery store to do some shopping. She drove past The Local Bean and Chloe’s Book Nook, and looked to the left at Chase’s place, Jagged Rock Tattoo Parlor. She was still fuming about him coming into her salon and playing with her, even if he had apologized. Telling her he could help her out with anything on her list. Of all the conceited, high-handed, jerky things to say. He obviously hadn’t been too sorry, since he made that outrageous proposition. And after she had just started to think he wasn’t that bad of a guy.
Who did he think he was, Iron Man? That he could just ooze charm and she would fawn all over him because he was handsome, successful, and single?
Like she would ever really do anything on that list, and for him to suggest it made her feel cheap. Like he had no respect for
Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, Tananarive Due, Edna Buchanan, Paul Levine, James W. Hall, Brian Antoni, Vicki Hendricks