13. Kaitlyn
THIRTEEN
Kaitlyn
“WENT’S MYSTERY WOMAN.” NEXT TO ME, TESS lifts her plastic cup of Jameson to her mouth and presses it to her lips. She’s not really drinking. She’s been pretending, taking phantom sips from the same cup all night. I want to ask her why but I don’t. “No one knows who she is.”
Hearing Tess say it out loud, I feel the nausea that’s been plaguing me all night roll through me in a gut clenching wave. Because I can’t seem to stop myself, I aim a quick look away from the framed drawing in front of me, toward the man who drew it.
He’s tattooing Henley’s sister, Maeve. Still shirtless. Still hot enough to make me weak in the knees every time I take a chance and look at him.
It’s close to midnight and Grace and Cari are long gone. The limo took them home around ten, after Grace got her dog tags with Ryan’s name on them. Cari was tired and Grace was eager to show Ryan her new tattoo. I tried to leave with them, citing that I’d had a long day and that Mookie was probably in the middle of eating the entire contents of my dirty clothes hamper and the limo driver shouldn’t have to make two trips to the same place, just to drop me off.
Tess wasn’t having it.
“Cari gets a pass because she’s pregnant and Juno’s got a whole ass baby at home, but you—” she shook her head at me, eyes narrowed on my face like I’m a dirty traitor. “you’re not going anywhere.”
Because I know that arguing with Tess is useless, I relented with a barely audible sigh and a tight-lipped smile. Went has been working on Maeve’s brass knuckles for a few hours now. He’ll be done soon. That means I can go home. Have a good cry and pretend that I won’t have to see him again in a few days.
Like he can feel me looking at him, Went flicks a quick, hard look in my direction, a scowl planted firmly on his face. The look is fleeting and as loud as a shout.
Quit fuckin’ looking at me.
Mortified, I turn toward the woman standing beside me and force myself to smile. “Mystery woman?”
“Yeah…” Tess cocks her head to the side and studies the drawing in front of us. It’s one of me and Two-tone, in the corral behind Northpoint. “He used to tell people they were of me but anyone who knows me knows I’ve never ridden a horse in my life.” She laughs like the idea of her on a horse is the funniest thing ever. “He has more at his place—same woman. She’s naked in some of them. They’re everywhere.”
I know. I’ve seen them.
Instead of saying it out loud, I make a neutral noise in the back of my throat. “She’s probably just a model,” I say, doing my best to distance myself from the drawings of me that surround us both. “A lot of artists pay the subjects they draw.”
When I say it, Tess gives me a weird look. “How’d you know they were drawings?”
Shit.
Shaking my head in hopes of knocking something loose, I open my mouth but before I blurt out some stupid lie, Tess continues to speak. “Most people think they’re photographs— everyone thinks they’re photographs.”
“I mean—” still shaking my head, I keep stumbling. “I just assumed that?—”
“Okay,” Went calls out from behind the counter. “We’re done here.”
Turning away from Tess, mid-stumble, I look up just in time to watch a still shirtless Went snap off his black latex gloves and toss them in the trash. Behind him, Maeve and Henley are admiring his work—a pair of brass knuckles—inked into Maeve’s hip. I can’t even see them and I know they’re beautifully done.
“Great.” I look back at Tess, suddenly desperate to get out of here. “I guess that means we can?—”
“What about Kait?” Tess pipes up beside me, aiming her gaze at Went. “She’s been waiting all night for her turn.”
“No.” I start to shake my head, fast and tight while that endless wave of nausea rolls through me, threating to pull up the plastic cup of Jameson I’ve been nursing all night. “No, it’s okay. It’s late and I’m sure he’s had enough.”
“Bullshit,” Tess shuts down my protest with a single word, still looking at Went. “Unless there’s some reason you don’t want to?—”
“It’s fine.” Went aims another quick look in my direction. “I’ve got about another hour left in me before I go cross-eyed. I can manage something small.” He cocks his head, a smirk playing across his mouth. “Unless Nurse Ratchet’s changed her mind.”
“No…” Gaze stuck to his shoulder, I say it again, still shaking my head. “I just don’t want to put you out. I’m sure you’ve had a long day and?—”
“Do you want a tattoo or not?” he cuts me off, his tone heavy enough to pull Henley and Maeve’s gaze in his direction.
“Yes.” I nod for good measure, completely aware that now Henley and her sister are staring at me. “I want a tattoo.”
“Alright—now that that’s settled…” Went gives me a bland smile. “Just give me a few minutes to re-set my station and we can get started, okay?”
Trapped, I say the only thing I can say.
“Okay.”
“See?” Tess gives me a quick smile. “It’s fine.”
Only it’s not fine.
None of this is fine—not any of it.
“I can always come back,” I say quietly, knowing damn well if I had my way, I’d never step foot in Went’s shop again.
Tess gives me an exasperated sigh. “Do you think he’s hot?”
“What?” Panicking again, I feel my lungs shrivel in an instant. “Who?”
“Who?” She barks it on a scoff. “The fucking Easter bunny.” Now she rolls her eyes at me. “Who do you think?”
Jesus Christ, this cannot be happening.
It just can’t.
“I don’t?—”
“Look—it’s not a trick question.” Tess pushes her still full cup of Jameson into my shaky hand on a laugh. Hands free, she grips me by my shoulders and turns me toward the place where Went is cleaning up his workstation, forcing me to look at him. “Do you think that man is hot? Yes or no?”
Because my body has always had a mind of its own when it comes to the man in front of me, I feel the clench in my gut start to warm and loosen. Sink lower and start to pulse until the hard, relentless throb of it starts to scramble my brain and takes my breath for an entirely different reason. Because all I can think about is the night Went asked me to marry him. All I can see is him, standing over me, watching while I fingerfuck myself on my father’s desk. The way his chest heaved, black gaze locked on the hand I had wedged between my thighs, every pump of his hand along the length of his stiff cock matched perfectly to every stroke of the fingers I had buried inside me.
Do I think Went is hot?
No.
I think Wentworth Fiorella is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.
“He’s alright.”
“ Alright ?” Tess laughs at me like she knows I’m full of shit. “Okay… if you say so.” When I don’t answer her, she sighs. “In case you missed it, I’m trying to play matchmaker here.”
You don’t have to marry him, Sunshine… not if you marry me first.
Shit.
Unable to look away, even though I know if Went catches me staring again, I’m going to get another one of his hard, punishing glares, I shake my head. “I don’t think he’d be interested in someone like me.”
Tess laughs again. “First of all, I have no idea what that’s even supposed to mean,” she tells me, her tone making it clear just how ridiculous she thinks I am. “And second of all—then you must be blind because he is very, very interested in you.” When all I do is stare at her, Tess sighs. “Are you serious? He keeps looking at you like he’s making sure you’re still here. Been doing it all night.”
I want you to stay. Promise me, Sunshine—promise me you’ll be here when I get back.
I promise.
“I don’t think that’s true.” The words sound strange, coming out of my mouth. Garbled and pushed together.
Tess gives me another scoff. “Trust me—as the Gilroy’s resident expert on the inner workings of Wentworth Fiorella, I can confidently tell you—all you have to do is ask and that man will give you anything you want.”