labret piercing beneath her lip twinkling briefly before she returned her attention to her game.
“Who usually wins?” I asked, dropping my eyes back to the paper, then up again as I pushed the hood off my head, secretly hoping she’d do the same.
She didn’t.
Those gray eyes raised to meet mine once more, and this time one of her eyebrows lifted, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the corner of her lip curled slightly. Interesting. Her lips… I tried not to stare, but it wasn’t easy. Not only did she have a piercing beneath her lip, she had a ring that circled her plump bottom lip twice (or appeared to) on the right side, as well as a diamond stud in her nose and a barbell in her left eyebrow. Even with those distracting me, I couldn’t help but notice her glossy mouth matched the color of her hair.
As did her eyebrows. Did women actually do that now? Color their eyebrows?
“I normally do,” she said, and I assumed she was referring to winning the games, not coloring her eyebrows. Unless of course she was a mind reader, then … well, if that were the case, then I probably needed to censor my thoughts, because yes, more than once since my ass had hit the chair, I’d pictured her naked.
Small, curvy … fucking naked.
Another smile flirted with the corner of her coral-pink lips. (Yep, I went there—coral. My new favorite color.)
“Well, congrats,” I offered, forcing my eyes to meet hers. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
Opening the notebook, I stared down at the blank page while I tore off a piece of my blueberry scone. I looked from the pen to the paper, back again. Then I got distracted, looking at my phone, the clock on the wall, the woman next to me, the old guy in the corner. Back to the pen and paper. I must’ve done it a hundred times, because the next thing I knew, the blueberry scone had disappeared, as had half of my large coffee.
“Shit,” I muttered, wiping my hands on a napkin.
“Try playing tic-tac-toe with yourself. It’s good for your ego,” the coral-haired woman beside me said, her husky voice drawing my attention her way once more.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. At least it works for me. Usually.”
I really liked the sound of her voice. And the sweetness of her face. And the color of her eyes, accentuated by the dark liner circling them. The perfect curves of her mouth. The slight dimple in her chin. And … I let my eyes drift lower.
Again, I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t help but notice her hands. She had slender, elegant fingers but no fancy fingernails glued to the end like most of the women I knew. Then again, her fingernails weren’t what caught my attention. No, the credit for that went to the intricately detailed tattoos that covered each of her hands.
On the right one, she had a light pink and white rose with delicate petals wrapped in what appeared to be barbed wire that snaked down her index finger. The design was done so well that the flower looked almost real, the shading causing the petals to practically stand up. On her other hand was a vibrant turquoise candy skull with dark blue eyes in the shape of hearts, a matching upside-down heart for a nose, and pink teeth that tied in with the random designs throughout.
I forced my eyes away, concerned she’d caught me staring—which honestly wasn’t something I tended to worry about—but when I looked up, she seemed more interested in the x and o she was jotting down on the most recent tic-tac-toe board she’d drawn. My attention was snagged by a napkin tucked beneath the sketch pad, part of which I could see had a colorful design on it, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
When she turned her head, peeking out from beneath the white hood, I quickly turned back to my notebook, pretending to be…
Shit, I couldn’t even pretend. I had no idea what the fuck I was supposed to write.
So I started with … Chapter One.
Kind of pathetic, but it was a start.
Chapter Eight
Presley
Was it me, or did this guy look really familiar?
I was pretty sure I recognized the attractive man who had settled at the table beside me, but I had no idea from where. Being that I lived and worked in the area, it was possible I’d seen him at the grocery store, or perhaps he’d been a customer at