Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,4

down the hall, and I suppress a shiver. I forgot what it’s like to be the focus of his attention under his blue gaze.

“Sorry ‘bout that. So what were you looking for, Reagan?”

“I uh… well…” I stumble over my words at first—it’s been a long time since I’ve heard my name from his lips. “I want to get a rainbow. Preferably something that looks like a watercolor where the colors all blend into each other.”

He nods. “Where you want it?”

Moose always was a man of few words.

“Right here.” I point to my rib cage just below my right breast.

He audibly swallows and a muscle tics in his neck. Brooklyn looks between us a couple of times.

“Let me get somethin’ drawn up and we’ll see what you think.” Without waiting for my answer, he turns around and heads over to his station, sitting down and pulling out his pad of paper and a pencil.

Brooklyn and I chat about nothing in particular while we wait. I’m acutely aware that Moose hears every word out of my mouth. Close to a half hour later, Moose heads back over to us and shows me a few options to choose from. He’s so talented it’s hard not to love them all but I make my pick, to which he nods.

“Go lie down on my table. Take the bra off. I’ll give you somethin’ to cover up with when we get started.”

I stiffen in my seat. This is going to be awkward as hell, isn’t it? This man loathes me and I’m going to have to lie there half naked in front of him. I blow out a breath and stand before walking over to his table.

Thank God I carry a big purse because I shove my bra in there after I’ve removed it from under my T-shirt. Brooklyn is holding my coat. It might be the end of June, but it can be cool at night.

I lay down on the table while Moose messes around beside me, getting his station ready.

Brooklyn’s standing to my side. “Oh shoot, you know what? I just saw Colton go into Lucky’s across the street. I need to ask him something about Gizmo. You’re all good here, right Reagan?”

“Um…” She’s seriously stranding me for her dog?

She starts walking toward the door. “I’ll just leave your jacket here and be right back, okay?” She’s out the door before I can argue and suddenly it’s too quiet in here, even with the hard rock playing over the speakers.

Moose says nothing and maybe it’s just me, but the tension is getting so thick in here that I could choke on it.

“Moose, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” I say in a small voice.

“Here’s a towel. Lift up your shirt and you can cover yourself with this.” He tosses a white hand towel onto my stomach without looking at me or even responding to what I said.

With a frown, I take the towel and do what he says, strategically using it to cover myself. But I know this isn’t going to work. The end of it is going to get in his way and I’ll have to remove it and cover my breast with my hand. How do I know this? Because I asked him about it once and I was insanely jealous at the time that bare-chested women could be lying on his table on any given night.

But given our history, I think he’s trying to make me comfortable.

Moose might be huge and imposing and scary at times, but deep down a gruff, yet gentle giant. It’s one of the things I loved most about him.

“Ready to get started?” He spins on his stool to face me and our eyes meet.

All I’m able to do is nod. Being this close to him brings me back to a time when life felt simpler. Once my mom was diagnosed, everything changed and so looking at Moose has always made me feel a level of regret, but I push that aside.

My life has changed once again. My mom has been gone a year and I’m just starting to find my footing and am ready to think about living my own life.

He looks away and grabs the alcohol rub, cleaning the area where the tattoo will go and then after it dries, he presses the stencil to my skin. I pretend the feeling of his hands so close to my breast doesn’t affect me but I’m pretty sure he’s probably picked up