Permanent (Indelibly Marked) (Volume 1) (26 page)

“What never lasts?”

Shane’s voice vibrated through her.

“Nothing.” Angie answered fast.

“Maybe nothing for you.” He strummed his fingers on the door.

Without enough time to return to her desk, and not wanting Shane to find her crumpled and distraught, she threw a handful of pencils on the floor.

He stepped inside, gathered them up and tossing them in the trash. “I don’t want you eating those. I have a new box up front.”

“I eat pencils,” she whispered.

“Yeah, it’s different.” He held his arm out. “That’s what I like about you.”

She took his arm, watching her fingers encircle his bicep with its renderings of vines and birds. Her fingernails were short and manicured with clear polish. His tattoo was magnificent and exciting. They were different.

“Now for sushi and presents.” His eyes sparkled.

“And work.” She gathered her papers.

Once more his color waned.

*~*~*

“Here comes the airplane.” Shane lifted a piece of sushi between his chopsticks, holding it out to her. “Take it all in one bite.”

Lindsay wrinkled her nose. “All of it?”

“All the flavors have to meld together.”

“What’s in it?” She recoiled.

“Sushi.” He waved it in front of her face. “Isn’t it pretty?”

“You first.”

“I already had three pieces. I demonstrated. I explained every ingredient and condiment. I even showed you how manly I was and ate some wasabi, and I am currently impressing you with my excellent use of chopsticks.” He moved closer. “This is couple food. I can’t kiss you if I’m the only one who eats it.” His girl needed plenty of time to process things.

“All right.” At last she closed her eyes and opened her mouth.

He placed the rolled treat on her tongue and waited.

After an extended pause she gave in and chewed. A second later her eyes opened wide.

“Well?”

She swallowed and put her hand to her chest. “Oh my God!”

He held his breath and waited to see if he were going to heaven or hell.

“Can I have another one?”

Score! “Yes.” He fed her another piece.

“This is delicious.” She tried out the chopsticks.

He adjusted her fingers and poured the sake. “I told you.”

They lifted their glasses and Shane tapped his against hers. “To us.” He lifted his eyebrows and fought a smile at her blush.

“To us.” She repeated and drank.

When they polished off the last of the rolls it was time to sample something else. “Come here.” He curled his arm around her neck, pulled her closer and kissed her.

The second he opened his mouth, she pushed him away, and he groaned. Every time. He poured more sake.

“I never thought I would have one of my favorite meals on a storage room floor.”

Without hesitation, Lindsay drank the liquid down, peered inside her cup and put it down with a sigh. “But we should get to work.” She sort of pointed at him, but ended up pointing at a wall.

“I think we should have some more of this.” He tried to kiss her again, but she grinned and straightened, swaying a little when she reached for her papers.

“I think we will have plenty of time for everything once we get this done. This is why we’re here.” She patted the pile. “There’s a lot of work.”

“Can we have a few more minutes without that poison?” Maybe if he kept the sake flowing she’d forget why they came to the storage room in the first place. Unfortunately he didn’t have the luxury of letting the reason slip his mind. They were there to find a few documents she needed, which only reminded him of the three more letters he’d received from the IRS. Every time he wanted to tell her, something stopped him. He didn’t want her to be concerned about them, but even worse, she kept repeating the fact that they only had to go back one year.

“Do you like the sake?” He opened the second bottle and gave her more.

“It doesn’t taste like anything.” She sipped.

“That’s the best part.” Of course, the biggest issue preventing him from fessing up, was that she wouldn’t allow him to move the relationship forward. Every time he got close to making a move beyond kissing or heavy petting, she stopped him.

Something was wrong and he needed to figure it out. He searched for an explanation, and beyond the purely ridiculous, like she planned on entering a convent but wanted to kiss a tattoo artist first, the only reason he could conjure was that she didn’t really want him. The convent was definitely a better explanation.

No way would there be any letter reveal. Actually, registered, certified letters. “Also, I have dessert.”

“You have dessert?” She drank down her sake.

He wished he actually had brought dessert, but he’d try again to move things in a different direction. “Actually the dessert is for me.” He poured some more sake, waited for her to swallow then moved in for the kiss.

This time she kissed him back and allowed him a little tongue action. He tried to lay her back on the blanket he brought when the dreaded hands pushed his chest once more, like rocks against his tide of need.

“If we get this done now we can have more time later.” She licked her lips and tickled his cheek with her fingertips.

He knew that wouldn’t happen. She’d insist on organizing the mess in the storage room, or she’d find the missing piece to her puzzle and spend the rest of the night solving it. “Lindsay.” Yes, he whined, but he was being a model boyfriend in every way. He never dared glance at another woman unless it was for work, he was attentive, sweet, and remembered everything. “Wait.” He forgot something.

“What?”

With her in his arms, he could ramp up the romance. By the time he finished she’d forget all about the paper hunt.

“How are your ears feeling?” He held her tight. “I suppose I won’t be able to suck on your earlobe for a while.”

“If I would have known that I wouldn’t have let you do it.” She touched his cheek tenderly.

“No, no.” He turned her head from side to side to assess his work. “I must say I am masterful with a needle.”

“You are the only person I would trust to do it.” She bit her lip. “But …”

When her eyes darted back to the papers he saw how red rimmed they had become. “But nothing.” He let go of her and leaned back. “You earned your present.” The twinkle in her eye confirmed his success. Presents were better than dessert. “You have to find it.” He slid down the wall until he was flat on his back.

“Oh.” Her gaze traveled over him, landing right on his pants. “I have to find it?”

“Feel free to search anywhere you like.” With his hope building, he put his hands behind his head, but his girlfriend was all brains, tipsy or not.

She narrowed her eyes and stalked her prey. At last she went in for the kill. Without even as much as a pause she raised up on her knees beside him, her hand snuck inside his right front pocket and extracted a small gold box. “I found it.”

It took him a moment to realize the search was over. He never felt a thing. “That was quick.”

“May I open it?” She traced the foil design on the box with her fingers.

He wished she were outlining one of his tattoos, preferably one covered by clothes at the moment. “Sure.” He leaned up on his elbows.

She took the lid off and moved the cotton aside. “Oh Shane!”

“Do you like them?” Her reaction made it worth the no touchy feely search. It was as if she never received a gift like that before. She simply stared at the contents of the box with glazed eyes and pressed her lips together. “Linds.” He went from puffing up his chest feathers to hoping it was okay. Except for Emily, he’d never bought a girl a gift before, and he wasn’t sure if maroon hair dye given to his little sister in the drug store bag counted.

At last Lindsay held up the white gold hoop earrings with the yellow gold accents. “I love them.”

“I thought of you when we were shopping for supplies.”

She closed her eyes and pressed the earrings to her heart. “You thought of me?”

“I saved the receipt for the stuff we bought, too.” It had gotten to a point where he had nightmares about losing receipts.

“You saved the receipt?” With that she returned the earrings to the box, put them aside, and planted a kiss on him.

“I keep them even if I buy a soda.” He tangled his hands in her hair, and let her take the lead.

“I love that you do that.” She opened her mouth, found his tongue with hers and pressed her chest into him.

Once more he lay back, managing to pull her over him.

“Thank you for my present.” She trailed her lips down his jaw.

“I think once your ears heal up, they’ll look really great on you.” He fought the same bodily reaction anytime they got even remotely close to each other. “They look pretty, like you.”

“You think I’m pretty?”

He almost laughed, then realized her question was serious.  Rather than a joke he pulled her closer. “Baby, I think you’re beautiful.”

“You do?” She shook her head.

“Oh God, yes.”

“I work really hard at it. You don’t even know.”

“It works.” He kissed her and then whispered in her ear. “You don’t know how much just looking at you turns me on.” In case she wasn’t sure, he pushed her down, arching his back.

She took his face between her hands and ground her lips into his in a hard kiss. He adored how the alcohol loosened her up.

She rolled to her back and raised one knee.

He ended up exactly the way they always landed, with him on top trying to get relief, except this time she wrapped her leg around him. “Oh yeah.” He kissed her and snaked his hand under her sweater.

She moaned when he slid his fingers underneath her bra. “You turn me on, too.”

“I sometimes wonder.” Feeling her nipple tighten under his touch confirmed that he affected her…or maybe it was the sake. Damn it.

“You do?” For the first time since they started going out, she rubbed her hand down his side, then around to his front and over the now rock hard bulge in his pants.

“We both do.” She chuckled and moved down his length.

Her soft laugh and how she stroked him almost made him lose it right there. Her feather light caresses drove him crazy and he wanted to unbutton his pants, but something nagged at him. Something was strange. The way she studied and touched him was almost like she had never done it before.

“I sometimes don’t think you want me.” A moment of self-loathing coursed through him for bringing it up when he knew he could move forward.

With bloodshot eyes, she looked right at him. “I want you, Shane.”

Though he should be devouring her, tearing their clothes off and making love to her right on the storage room floor, he paused. “I want you, too. I’ve been waiting and waiting.”

“You don’t have to wait.” She pulled him down for a kiss.

She’d handed him his opportunity. She was relaxed from the drinks and he achieved not only his goal of having her forget about the paperwork, but she was more than willing to move ahead, even admitted that she wanted him.

“Uh … Lindsay.” He couldn’t do this. Not there, not with her in that state.

“I want you to be my first.” With fumbling fingers she managed to unfasten the top button on his jeans.

First? The word barreled at him like a boulder rolling down a hill straight to his groin.

A virgin? For real? Did those even exist anymore, and how did someone like Lindsay end up as one at her age? Everything suddenly made sense. He shook his head. No, everything became suddenly foggy. Something was definitely off. He didn’t know what, but what he did know was that there would be no making love to his tipsy, virgin girlfriend in a filthy storage room on top of a blanket he pulled out of the back of his car.

When she reached her hand down his pants and her fingers touched him a jolt rocketed through him, yet he summoned every bit of strength and grabbed her wrist. “Baby, I don’t have a condom.” Actually, he had three in his wallet.

“Oh, neither do I.” She made a noise. “Now what?”

He wrapped his arms around her. “I want this to be right.”

“Me too.” She smiled and touched his lips.

He looked into her face. How could she think she wasn’t pretty? She seemed designed to be beautiful. “Why don’t we relax and then we’ll find the papers.” As he watched her eyelids struggle to remain open, he knew he’d accomplished at least one of his goals. There would be no paper finding that night. He stared at the top of her head, taking some strands of her blonde hair between his fingers when he noticed something else and narrowed his eyes. His girl was going to need a root touch up soon. In California it was nothing unusual, but he never pegged Lindsay as the type to dye her hair.

“All right.” She cuddled up to him, raking her fingernails down his back.

Her scratches slowed down until her hand fell to one side. The one thing he knew above all else was that he wanted her, but being her first came with a huge responsibility. He would either be the guy that broke her heart, or her only lover. No matter what, he was the guy who lied to her, hid letters and got her drunk. If he wanted to really be with her, he would have to change, but could he?

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Are you full?” Lindsay reached for Shane’s plate.

He nodded and caught her wrist. “Where did you learn how to cook?”

“I don’t think I cook as much as I assemble and heat up.” She loved how he cleaned his plate, twice, but she did make him roast beef, a sure man-pleaser.

“Whatever, I like it.” He guided her over to his lap. “You are a woman of many talents.”

She bit her lip. “Do you think so?”

“Yes.” He moved her hair from her shoulder and smiled. “Tell me something about you, Lindsay Ann Stevens.”

Lately he asked a lot of questions about her. He wanted to know about her parents, her sister, even Ohio. “There’s nothing more to tell.”

He shook his head. “What were you like in school?’

She swallowed and even wrapped in his arms she became chilled. “If I told you I flunked all my subjects and spent my time sneaking out of my bedroom window to meet a band of thugs would you believe me?”