Bad Boy Ink (Get Ink'd #5) - Ali Lyda Page 0,59

been something lighter and buoyant inside of me.

I’d stopped just looking forward to working on the case and started looking forward to spending time with Aiden. I'd stopped trying to tease him to get under his skin and started to tease him because I wanted to earn the blush on his cheeks.

And damned if I couldn't go a night without jerking myself off while thinking of him. And wishing that I was with him. Inside of him.

“I just don't know what we're going to do about the job,” I admitted. “It was the first thing I felt excited about in a long time. Like, really excited. It feels like I found a missing piece of myself without having realized it was gone in the first place—but being with Aiden also gives me that feeling. And we can't both have the job.”

My grandmother nodded sagely. “I wish I had more advice on that.” She reached up and patted me softly on the cheek. “Just do what feels right, and the rest will work itself out.”

As if on cue my phone pinged with a text. Pipes burst. Want to hang out? Are you working tonight?

My thumbs were flying over my phone's keyboard. I'm free. Not working. What did you have in mind?

I hummed with a warm energy as it occurred to me that Aiden had been the one to reach out first. He wasn't the type to initiate, at least that had been my experience thus far. So if he was asking me to hang out, he must really want to see me.

One stupid text made me feel like a twelve-year-old girl heading into her first dance.

My apartment. 4?

Works for me. I hit send and leaned back into my chair. I was fairly certain I now had a date.

I grinned like a goofball at my grandmother. “That was the man himself.”

“And he was challenging you to a duel? Pistols at dawn in order to determine who gets the job? Because if so, I'll be your second.” I pictured her in a long duster, gun holsters crisscrossed over hips covered in a muumuu.

I rolled my eyes. She was such a smartass. “So glad to have you at my back, grandma.”

“Oh, you don't want your grandma at your back. I think you want that boy at your back. Or maybe you want to be at his back? I don't know all the rules about gay canoodling.”

The subsequent torrent of embarrassment was as deep as the Mariana Trench. “I can't believe you just went there. Now I'm going to go hide in my room and try to scrub this memory out of my mind.”

She shrugged. “Love is love, dearest Bryce. Your grandmother knew how to get down in her day. You exist because of the tricks I knew.”

I shoved my fingers into my ears. “I can't hear you.”

I walked away quickly before she could melt my brain with anymore of her nasty talk.

Grandmas, dude. What could you do?

Aiden hadn't said that it was a date, per se. But did I still dress up?

Hell, yes, it did.

Wiping my sweaty palms on my black jeans, my throat bobbed as I swallowed and stared at Aiden's door. I had no idea what to expect. Monday’s presentation had been exhilarating, but it had also clearly freaked Aiden out. And someone as paranoid and nervous as Aiden being freaked out could mean anything.

I rang his doorbell before I could talk myself out of it.

The door swung open and my breath left me in a whoosh. Aiden was wearing a fitted white T-shirt, putting his chest and taut tummy essentially on display. I loved the long, ropy strength of his arms. He was built closer to a runner than a lifter. It was a look I found irresistible.

“Hey—”

My hello was stopped short as Aiden reached out and grabbed the front of my shirt, jerking me inside. The door slammed behind me. And then I found myself pushed up against the door, Aiden’s fingers splayed on my chest, his hungry mouth devouring mine.

I was hard in a second, my cock responding instantly to the heat and clean, fresh smell of him. Chilly drops from his still-wet hair flecked my neck and shoulders. My nipples tightened against the contrast of hot and cold.

Aiden’s tongue probed my mouth, and I gasped when he reached between us to grab my package and begin to stroke.

“Wait,” I managed, voice raspy with desire. “What’s happening? I don’t mind it, but...I mean, what are we doing?”

His hand didn’t