Cuffs - Cara Lockwood Page 0,13

dated?” Gael knew he should just let it go, but he couldn’t. For some reason, he needed to know. He’d never been more curious about a stranger he’d just met.

“If by dated, you mean fucked, then yeah. That.” Mags focused her attention again on her work.

He liked how she said that word. As if she did it all the time.

“So casual.”

“Yep. That’s all I do.” He could feel the light tickle of her breath on his skin in between the sharp stinging sensation of the needles. She’d stopped staring at his chest and was now concentrating hard on her work. Good. When he inhaled he smelled roses again.

“Why?” Gael knew he was pushing his luck, but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t opposed to commitment, but he wasn’t exactly looking for it, either. He’d been taking care of his sisters—well, technically, they’d been taking care of each other—since their parents died in that car crash when Gael was a senior in college. He and Kathleen had played mom and dad to Maeve and Ava. They’d been the ones to deal with Ava’s diagnosis the first time around. Needless to say, over the last ten years, he’d had enough of playing family. Wasn’t looking to make another one any time soon. Eventually, sure. After Ava was well.

“Because casual is easier,” Mags said. “I don’t want to be tied down. Unless it’s in bed.”

The idea of Mags, naked, literally cuffed in his bed, made all kinds of sensations go off in Gael’s brain. He felt a tightening in his groin. “Really?”

Mags laughed. “Sometimes. For fun.”

So the hard-as-nails tattoo artist liked a little bondage? He wondered what it would be like, having Mags gagged and tied.

“I bet you look good in handcuffs.”

Mags paused and looked at him. He wondered for a minute if he was going to get a slap in the face.

“Because you look good in anything,” he amended.

She laughed.

“You trying to kiss up to me because I’m holding this?” She lifted the tattoo needle from his skin.

“That depends. Is it working?”

She looked up to meet his gaze, and for just an instant, her shoulders relaxed a tad and something moved between them. A feeling of recognition, maybe? The spark of what could be something more? For a split second, just a second, he thought he saw the flicker of attraction in her brown eyes. She looked striking then: the pucker of her full mouth, the point of her delicate chin. But it was the look in her eyes, the desire rising in her, as she gazed at him. He’d never felt sized up before, except right in this moment. Something animalistic buzzed between them, something primal, and he was suddenly completely aware of how close she was to him, how he could feel the warmth of her hands through the medical gloves. He itched to feel her skin against his and wondered what it would be like to taste her mouth. And then he realized she had him pinned with at least five buzzing needles against his skin. Making a move right now would be idiotic.

Or would it? Because she lifted her tattoo needles, pausing in her work. She looked at him, a flicker of want lighting her eyes. He’d seen that look from enough women to knew exactly what it meant.

But then his phone rang, the sound blaring in the soft quiet between them. He glanced at the face and saw it was Will Moriarty, one of his partners at the investment firm. The man couldn’t have worse timing.

“Hello?” he answered his phone, even as the buzz continued.

“Just wanted to let you know you should crack open the champagne tonight—or the good scotch. We got the deal. It’s going through.”

This was the Lewis deal, the one that would bring jobs to Chicago. He ought to be celebrating. It’s what he’d been working on for months. All the twisting of arms he’d done should’ve earned him a medal. And, yet, somehow he didn’t quite feel like celebrating. He glanced down at the half tattoo on his arm and thought about his sister. In that moment, he’d trade all the Lewis deals if he could know Ava was cancer-free.

“Aren’t you excited, man?”

“Yeah, I’m excited. Good for the firm.”

“No, man, good for us. This deal is going to take us to the next level, man. You’ll see.”

* * *

Mags lifted her needle from Gael’s arm and frowned at him. He was oblivious, blabbing into his phone about some business deal. He was congratulating