Authors: Cherrie Lynn
Ross 02 Rock Me (14 page)
“I’ll be with you guys in a minute,” he told the waiting group as he strode through toward the back. He thought he sensed a collective sigh of relief from his artists. It only took him a few seconds to grab his cap and his gum—damn, but he needed a smoke—and head back out to the chaos. His first client of the evening wanted her navel pierced. She thought. She was petite and really pretty, and looked young enough that he made her flash her ID. Nothing irked him more than sixteen-year-olds coming in here trying to pass themselves off as eighteen—well, nothing except thirteen-or fourteen-yearolds who actually had permission from their parents—but his girl checked out. She’d only ever had her ears pierced, and had about five bazillion questions. As he began to settle into the routine, explaining aftercare, helping her pick out the jewelry she wanted, he started to feel a bit better. But his girl was so hung up on whether or not it was going to be unbearably painful that he was finally forced to give his usual spiel about the pain factor, only it came out all wrong. And ended with, “So, hey, it’s all gonna hurt, there’s no way around it. If you’re deciding on where to get pierced based on where it’s going to hurt the least, then it’s not for you.”
Rock Me
She looked at him in surprise. Great. He was supposed to put them at ease, not chase them away. But just then he realized where his statement had come from…it rang true with relationships too. They weren’t for him. Too much pain involved.
Physical pain he could take. It came, did its damage, and was gone. He didn’t know what to do about the ache that gnawed at his gut after everything crashed down around him. There’d only been a handful of times he’d experienced it, and today was definitely one of them. After one night with the girl? No way.
It couldn’t be just about her. The way she’d treated him was shitty, that was all, and he’d be pissed at any girl who screwed him over. God knew he didn’t mind using someone, and he didn’t mind being used. But that shit was supposed to be understood from the start. There were ethics involved. Two people getting each other off was one thing. But she couldn’t ask him to be her first, she couldn’t look at him as if she wanted to crawl inside him, she couldn’t cry on his shoulder for ten minutes in the shower only to turn around and treat him like dog crap afterward.
But she wouldn’t know a damn thing about how any of this works, dumbass. Remember?
That was the exact reason he was better off without the hassle. His girl finally stopped fretting and went ahead with the piercing. The clamps seemed to freak her out more than the needle. She did better than he expected, but then, he knew he was good. Most of his clients said they felt a pinch and that was it, but he had the occasional one get light-headed. It always made him feel like an ass, and he ended up buying them a drink from the machine and talking them through it until he was sure they were okay to leave.
That was actually how he’d met Michelle at his old workplace, the one and only client he’d ever let himself get involved with. As soon as she jumped off the table after getting her navel pierced, she’d gone dead white and swayed. He’d taken her arm and steered her to a chair before she could hit the floor. It had been such a slow weeknight, he’d ended up sitting with her and talking until closing time. Her friend had finally grown exasperated and taken off.
They’d continued the conversation over beers and tequila shots at a bar up the street, and then at her place, where they’d had marathon sex until well after the sun came up. It wasn’t his normal MO at all, but that night, he’d figured what the hell. She was hot and funny and she’d been all over him as soon as they’d reached his truck at the bar. Fond memories.
Too bad those from last night and this morning were tainted from Candace’s subsequent freak out. He could’ve still been drifting on the euphoria of it all. Even now, he could still smell the scent of her skin, still taste her on the back of his tongue. Still feel her wrapped tight and wet around his fingers. He’d been walking around all day at half-mast from that memory alone, and it was beginning to wear him down. When he went back up front, someone had turned up the tunes, but the sounds of Static-X were doing nothing to soothe his savage beast. He got the next person in line—who wanted a tat, thankfully, because it
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was his favorite thing to do to mellow him out—and got her prepped and under the needle in no time. She wanted a fairy on her shoulder blade, and it would probably take a good hour or so. Plenty of time to clear his head.
Until Starla stuck the phone under his face, totally destroying his already feeble concentration. “Here. It’s your brother.”
He frowned and leaned away from the offending instrument. “He can get me on my cell later.”
Starla rolled her eyes and brought the phone back to her ear. “Evan, he’s tied up, can you call him later?” She listened for a second and then held it back to him, laughing. “He says you need to learn how to multitask.” Even the girl he was working on giggled.
“Dammit.” He grabbed the phone, crammed it between his ear and shoulder, and picked up the line he’d left off on her skin. “We’re swamped, brother. I don’t call for you and tell them to drag your ass out of court, do I?”
Evan cut right to the chase. He and their mom were alike in that regard, at least when it came to Brian.
“Why is Sylvia Andrews calling me out of court asking me to help her keep you away from her daughter?”
“The
hell
. Are you shitting me?”
“What have you done now?”
“Man, I ain’t done nothing. I can’t even begin to tell you how much nothing I did.” Well, okay, he’d done a little, but that was no one’s business but his and Candace’s.
“Ordinarily I wouldn’t believe that for a second, but because it’s Candace we’re talking about, you might be telling the truth.”
Did everyone know this girl was a virgin except for him? Did other guys have some kind of built-in hymen alert mechanism he was lacking? He never would have taken Candace for someone who took frequent trips around the block, but hell, at least once or twice. She was in college and she was hot, for fuck’s sake. How had she managed to keep that smokin’ body under wraps all this time? Were the guys over there blind?
I’d still want to wait for you.
Shit.
“Why do you say that?”
“Her parents guard her like she’s Fort Knox. If they had snipers stationed around her place to take out anyone who dared approach her door, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Then they must have fucking surveillance cameras mounted somewhere across the street. Or spies. “I kinda get that now,” he muttered. “I’d already heard, but Jesus, I thought Michelle was always exaggerating at least a little whenever she talked about it.” Damn, it must have been hard for Candace growing up. Guys probably ran screaming from her at the very thought of facing down her parents. Well,
he
wouldn’t have. He’d have proven it to her this morning, if she’d given him a shot. 80
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“She wasn’t, trust me. I didn’t even know you were hanging out with Candace.”
“I’m really not. And I doubt I ever will be. So ease your mind.”
Evan paused for a second, and lost the sharp prosecutorial edge to his voice when he spoke next.
“You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“Look, does it matter?”
“I was already itching to tell the woman to take a flying leap. I would’ve done it, but I didn’t have the details. She didn’t like what I did tell her.”
“And that was?”
“I said I wasn’t aware of the situation with you and her daughter, but if she had a problem with it, she needed to take it up with you and Candace. Not me.”
Brian blew out the breath he’d been holding. Just when he thought he had his brother pegged, Evan surprised him. Evan could’ve shown the same outrage as Mrs. Andrews and trashed him on the phone to her for half an hour and promised her he wouldn’t let his evil thug of a brother near the poor defenseless maiden again. He could have, but he hadn’t. “Bless you.”
“They have to start letting her live her life sometime. But I have to say, if you’re trying to add a notch to your belt, then she really is better off without you.”
There was the Evan he knew. No matter what, he was always hiding in there somewhere. “Hey, just drop it now. All right? I appreciate what you said to her, but I can handle it from here without your input on who I should or shouldn’t hang out with. What the fuck am I, fourteen again?”
Evan sighed. “Sometimes you act like it.”
He bit down on a crude, juvenile comment that would only have proven his brother’s point, something like
I got your fourteen right here
, but suddenly, he was utterly exhausted. Spent. He didn’t want to deal with it anymore, just wanted to get through tonight and post up at home. For days.
“I gotta go. I do work, believe it or not.”
“I know you do, Brian. And believe it or not, I’m proud of you.”
He nearly choked. It was the first time he could ever remember hearing those words out of anyone’s mouth in his family.
Focus, dude
, he told himself, struggling to stay in the purple line on his client’s skin. Any second now it was going to start to blur, and how uncool would that be? Christ Almighty, he was a sap lately.
“Damn, for once I’ve stunned you into silence.” Evan laughed. “Hey, don’t be a stranger, okay? I dread to see you walk in the door, but Kelsey likes for you to come around, for some reason.”
“How’s the baby?”
His brother seemed taken aback that he would ask. “He’s great. He’s amazing. Come see him anytime you want, all right?”
“I will soon. See you.”
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He clicked off the phone and tossed it back to Starla behind the front desk before things could become any gooier. He had a girl fully lodged under his skin and his brother trying to make him cry. What the everloving hell. Who did Candace’s mother think she was? The Andrews family might be affluent, but the Rosses could buy and sell every one of their asses. Did they think he’d paid for this establishment by standing out on the street slinging rocks? That old shrew had no clue who she was dealing with. And as far as moms getting dragged into this thing…
His outraged line of thinking derailed, and he stopped before he could screw up the tattoo. He put up the pretense of straightening his cap and popping another stick of gum in his mouth while the wheels spun in his head.
Seriously, how had Sylvia Andrews known? Had Candace told her? Surely not. Not after the way she’d reacted. Some PI wearing dark glasses and sitting crouched in a car across the street taking notes seemed more feasible than her fessing up to hanging out with him. Candace probably mentioned it to a friend, who took it upon themselves to report her bad behavior to her parents. Something like that. He had to believe it. Because the thought of her biting the bullet and facing down a mother who obviously terrified her started a melting in his chest that he didn’t want to examine right now.
“Hey, B,” Ghost called out to him as he was leaning down to get back to work. “You did know that Korn is coming to Dallas in a couple of weeks, right? Big rock festival up there.”
“Yeah, I’d heard.”
“Kara called earlier today while you were out and said they have tickets and want us to come up. Said we could crash at their place.”
“Man, I’ve already seen Korn eight times.” But he mulled it over. The “Freak on a Leash” video was playing on the HD flats, one of his favorite songs of all time, and the lyrics sank in at that moment more than they ever had before.
When he’d first heard about the concert, he’d been tempted, but figured there was too much stuff to do around here to take off for a day. The show was on a Saturday, their busiest day.
“Come on. You can never see Korn too often.”
True. Maybe it was exactly what he needed. To get lost in the pit, work out some of this anger, do permanent damage to his hearing, and quite possibly get shitfaced drunk. Old habits were threatening to rear their ugly heads and wreak havoc.
“Is it on, dude?” Ghost asked.
How would Sylvia fucking Andrews feel about
that
?
“It’s on.”
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If he could see her right now, he would think she was a crazed stalker. She’d reached new lows of wretchedness, sitting outside his parlor like this, but in her own defense, she’d come here hoping to grab him as he left and try to explain. Not to spy on him. The longer she sat, though, the more her courage ebbed. It really was shaping up to be a spying session, after all.
“So what’s going on now?” Macy asked over the cell phone Candace had pressed to her ear. She was gripping it so tight, her knuckles ached.
“Nothing yet.”
“Candace, please. Just go home. Forget about him.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“You told me how your mom reacted. She freaked. They’ll never accept him. Think of how hard your life is going to be if you end up with a guy your parents hate. With any other parents, it might not be that big a deal, but with yours…whew.”
“Whose side are you on, mine or theirs?”
“I’m on yours. That’s why I’m telling you this. Find someone all of you can agree on.”
“I don’t want to
agree
with them on someone
.
I want to be madly in love, and if they like him, great, and if they don’t, tough. I wasn’t ready for it all this morning. I panicked. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“I hope it’s because you won’t see him again. It’s not just your parents, you know. There’s Michelle to think about. Maybe she won’t like the idea of you with her ex. Taking him around her at holidays and stuff might be uncomfortable for everyone.”
Then we won’t go
, her mind returned immediately. But the truth was, Michelle was her primary concern. If her cousin hadn’t been with her today, she’d have lost her damn mind hanging out with her mother and Deanne. Michelle had saved her sanity so many times, and if she truly had a problem with Candace seeing Brian, it was going to be devastating. Because of that, she hadn’t been able to confess. She wondered if she’d ever be ready.