He quickly disappeared, but his presence had already sent her pulse galloping. She wasn’t sure why he’d come, but she definitely wasn’t complaining. If anything, she was even more eager to get rid of Lou now.
She carefully attached the bandage to the man’s backside and waited for him to stand up so she could shoot him a stern glare. “Keep it covered for three hours, make sure you use the ointment I gave you last time, and try not to sit down for the first couple days.”
“I work in a toll booth, Tinkerbell. How the hell do you expect me not to sit down?”
Tinkerbell. It seemed like every client had their own nickname for her, most of which had to do with her size. She liked AJ’s nickname the best, though. Angel. Lord, just thinking about the way he drawled out the word made her tremble.
“Just keep off it when you can,” she said with a sigh. “Give it time to heal.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Lou slipped into his pants, then reached for his wallet. He’d already paid her upfront for his tattoo, but now he pressed another wad of bills into her hand. “For you,” he said gruffly.
“Aw, thanks, Lou.”
He ruffled her hair and pulled her in for a bear hug, but there was nothing sexual about the embrace. Lou was well into his forties and treated her like a daughter. And she loved him to pieces. Clients as easygoing as him were hard to come by.
“Pop in next week so we can touch up your arm,” she told him as they stepped into the main room.
“Will do.” With a big grin and a nod in AJ’s direction, Lou left the shop.
The second the door closed behind him, Brett flicked the padlock and shut off the neon open sign. She smiled as she turned back to AJ, but the joy and humor faded when she noticed the expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded.
Without a word, he stalked over and yanked her toward him for a rough kiss. The tension seemed to seep from his shoulders the moment their lips touched, but when his tongue stole into her mouth with greedy precision, she could taste his need and desperation. Feel the urgency of his body as he pressed it against hers and rotated his hips.
When they broke apart, she was breathless. “Seriously, what’s gotten into you?”
“I had a crappy evening,” he admitted.
“Aw, that sucks. What happened?”
“Nothing worth talking about.” AJ cocked his head. “In fact, I don’t feel like talking about anything at all right now. I want you naked.”
Brett tried to hide her frustration as he deflected the question by using sex. She was starting to suspect that AJ Walsh harbored a lot of secrets.
And of course, since she couldn’t ever spend time with a man without becoming consumed by him, his mysterious nature only made her more desperate to figure him out.
But no. She couldn’t fall into that trap again. Her arrangement with AJ worked because it was temporary. As long as she kept viewing him as nothing but a fun sexual partner, she wasn’t in danger of losing focus of what mattered.
So rather than force him to tell her what was wrong, she opted to concentrate on what was right.
“If you want me naked, then take me home,” she said boldly.
“What if I want to take you right here?”
Brett’s uneasy gaze drifted to the front window. It was slightly tinted, but not enough to shield them from view of the street if they did the nasty in the main room. Besides, having sex in her family’s tattoo parlor was wrong on so many other levels.
When AJ caught sight of where her gaze had traveled, he pursed his lips and said, “Not here then.” He took her hand and coaxed her to the back corridor, guiding her behind the thick red curtain that blocked off her workspace.
AJ’s mouth curved when he spotted the padded chair in the center of the room.
“Oh yeah, this will work.” His voice was low, rippling with desire.
Brett ignored the tight clenching of her thighs. “I’m not going to have sex with you in my place of business,” she said primly.
“No? So you’re backing out of your end of our agreement?” His expression flickered with challenge.
“How was sex in my shop ever part of the agreement?” she protested.
“I play the part of doting, respectable boyfriend, and in return, you show me a wild time, remember?” He pointed to the tattoo chair. “And that, is a wild time.”
The image of AJ fucking her right there on the chair flashed to the foreground of her mind, and her entire body shuddered in response.
He chuckled. “Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”
God, it did. But…
She hesitated again.
“You locked up for the night, right?”
She nodded.
“And do your brothers or dad usually drop in after hours?”
She slowly shook her head. They never did. Once the shop was closed, they were done for the night.
“Then I don’t see a problem.”
AJ’s hands lowered to his waistband, and her traitorous gaze was drawn to his every movement like a magnet. He slid the belt from its buckle. Undid the button of his trousers. Inched the zipper down.
“C’mon, angel, give me a taste of the wild girl you used to be. I promise you can lock her up again after tonight…” He parted the top of his pants. “At least until the next time I want her to come out.”
He was evil. Pure temptation. Sin incarnate.
Brett hadn’t been able to say no to him that first night at the club, and evidently that’s how it would always be.
“I want to see your cock,” she ordered.
A grin lifted his lips. “Good. Because he’s dying to see you.”
The moment he released his erection, Brett’s mouth went dry with anticipation. God, maybe he was right. Maybe it was healthy to let her inner bad girl out every now and then. What was the harm in throwing caution to the wind and being bad again? The shop was closed. Nobody was around.
So why the hell not?
“What do you say we up the stakes?” she said devilishly.
“I thought the only stakes were the ones that involve my cock inside you.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” When he wiggled his eyebrows, she quickly corrected herself. “Fine, that part is fun, too. But wild? I don’t know. And dangerous? Definitely not.”
“Huh. So now you’re interested in injecting some danger into our sex life?” He sounded amused…and ridiculously intrigued. “How?”
“I propose a wager.” She stepped forward and gave his erection an impish squeeze.
He groaned. “What kind of wager?”
“Well…first, you’re going to sit your sexy ass down in my chair…”
“Sounds good so far.” He thrust into her waiting palm. “Then what?”
“I’m going to climb on top of you.”
“Even better…and then?”
“I’m going to screw your brains out.”
AJ’s cock thickened in her hand, a drop of moisture leaking onto her thumb. “I…” He shivered when she stroked him again. “…really don’t see where the wager comes in.”
“Oh, didn’t I mention?” She smiled broadly. “The first one to come loses.”