I do want to see you again.” I begin to turn away but then add, “I’ll have the Uber driver wait outside to make sure you close up and leave safely before I go.”
She doesn’t answer, and the knife in my gut twists again.
As I walk out the door, I’m shaken. I’m mad at myself for getting into that situation, disappointed that it didn’t end the way I thought it would, and hurt that Madison could just dismiss me without explanation.
That’s what really gets me the most, I think. If she’d just explained, maybe I could’ve talked her through whatever spooked her? But this is one of those times where I may never know what bothered her so much.
“And I hate not knowing,” I mutter as I reach for my phone to call an Uber.
Chapter 6
Madison
“A scorpion tattoo?” Tiff asks from her perch on my bed, her voice on edge. She’s been following me around our postage-stamp sized apartment ever since I popped out to search for coffee. She took one look at my fucked-up hair and disheveled clothes and squealed, thinking the best. And she was sorely disappointed when I told her that my appearance wasn’t from a happy ending to my night.
With my schedule today, I had to rush it, grabbing four hours of sleep before dragging my spent ass out of bed for this morning. I know I must look like hell because she’d barely skimmed our horoscopes before beginning the inquisition of question after question.
“You for real?”
I nod, kicking my clothes across my tiny bedroom. It’s not much, four walls and a ceiling, but the rent’s still fucking ridiculous.
Unfortunately, the growth of Bane has meant lots of ‘real estate investors’ gouging people like Tiff and me on rent. Which is why we share this place and damn-near waltz to get around each other when we use the kitchen.
“Yes, an elaborate one with a stinger, claws, the whole nine yards,” I say as I slip on my pink T-shirt for the day that says Volunteer: May’s Animal Rescue. Reaching up, I poke myself in my boob. “Right here on his chest.”
My skin pricks as I remember his hard chest and washboard abs in front of me. I wanted him to take me so badly in that moment. I didn’t care that I’d just met him. The way I felt in his arms felt so right. He was rough and gentle at the same time, not rushing and not forcing me but driving me wild with his lips and the feeling of his body pressed against mine.
But when I saw the tattoo, that voodoo woman’s words pierced my arousal like a speeding bullet.
Your heart shall be his . . . then will come the sting . . . you will suffer . . . oh, girl, will you suffer . . . and then you shall burn.
A shiver courses down my spine at the memory. I know her mumbo-jumbo is a bunch of bullshit, but I couldn’t help being chilled by the coincidence of meeting a man with a scorpion tattoo who also happened to be a Scorpio mere days after her dire prediction. And the way he made me feel, he damn-near could’ve had my heart if he’d asked. Hell, he could’ve had my soul.
But none of that matters now, and I shake my head once, almost violently. “I kicked him out as soon as I saw it.”
Tiff makes a face, like she doesn’t believe what she’s hearing. “So let me get this straight . . . you haven’t had any dick since you left that worthless sack of shit, and just as Mr. Sex-on-a-stick was about to make your year, you kicked him out of the bar because of a mad woman’s prediction? Damn me and my stupid voodoo ideas!”
I hold in a groan as I turn away from the mirror and fix a scowl on Tiff. “Yes, I did exactly that. And who cares why? Why is that so hard to believe when I just met the guy?”
Tiffany gives me a look and drops her voice into a deadpan of Whoopie Goldberg from Ghost. “Molly, you in danger, girl!” she intones dramatically, shaking her head before continuing in her natural drawl, “of suffocating because your head is so far up your ass. Girl, get over yourself.”
“Oh, shut up,” I growl, yanking my hairbrush through my hair and wincing as I snag a tangle. “You’d have been scared shitless and would’ve done the same thing if