Love in the Light - Laura Kaye Page 0,28

said, imagining what it was going to look like in the center of her upper back. The circle surrounding the Celtic knot tree was about five inches round. At first, she’d thought she wanted it to be smaller, but Heath had talked her into a somewhat bigger piece so that the holes in the center of all the knot work would remain distinct as the tattoo aged.

“It’s gonna be fucking beautiful. But then, it’ll be on you, so of course it will.” He leaned down and gave her a nuzzling kiss on the cheek. “Do you want to get changed and I’ll set everything out?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sounds great.” The kitchen, dining area, and living room were one big room, with her bedroom door toward the far end. She paused there and looked back. Caden moved around her little kitchen, comfortably and familiarly, and he just looked so freaking good there. In her space. Well, their space now.

He still had his townhouse in Fairlington, but he rarely slept there anymore. And it was so bare bones in furnishings that he preferred they not sleep there because he feared she’d be uncomfortable. A part of her wasn’t sure why he even kept it at this point.

“What?” he asked, giving her a skeptical look.

She grinned and leaned against the door jamb. “I rode our elevator today.”

He shook his head. “Anything interesting happen?”

“Oh, I got trapped with a smoking hot stranger and made out with him in the dark. The usual,” she said.

He smirked. “That never happens.”

Makenna threw her head back and laughed. Still smiling, she changed into jeans and a pink camisole with a low back, and then she threw a warm, chunky caramel-colored cardigan over that.

She found Caden sitting at the set table, containers of food overflowing with several types of noodles. It smelled amazing—savory and spicy and like she could eat everything she saw.

For a moment, the look on his face made her think he was upset about something, but then he saw her and his expression transformed into a sexy smirk. “Smoking hot, huh?”

Laughing, she took the seat next to him. “You fishing for compliments, Grayson? I already said you were freaking gorgeous.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the same as smoking hot.” He arched a brow, and damn if his playfully smug, expectant expression wasn’t hot as hell with his brow piercing and the widow’s peak of his dark hair.

She picked up her fork. “Okay, then how about this? You are so freaking gorgeous and so smoking hot that you make my heart race and my mouth water and my panties melt. Every time I see you. How’s that for a compliment?”

Caden’s smile was slow coming but so damn sexy. “I like tattoo night.”

She laughed and shook her head. “So do I.”

CHAPTER NINE

Heroic Ink was located on the edge of Old Town Alexandria, the oldest part of the town that had started as a port back in colonial times. Located on a quaint street full of boutiques and restaurants, the tattoo studio had a well-known reputation for its expertise in military tattoos of all kinds, which explained all the military memorabilia and photographs of service men and woman tacked in a giant collage to the front of the registration desk.

When they walked in the front door, the blue-haired woman at the desk recognized Caden right away. “Well, hey you,” she said. “It’s been way too long.”

“I know, I know,” Caden said, his hand at the small of Makenna’s back. “Rachel, this is Makenna James. She’s here for Heath.”

“Hi Makenna,” Rachel said, holding out a heavily tattooed hand. “So nice to meet you.”

Makenna smiled and shook Rachel’s hand. The woman was stunning and so cool. With short two-toned blue hair, a nose piercing, and ink everywhere, you could look at her for an hour and not take everything in. And she had such an inviting smile. “Hi Rachel. I’m excited to be here.”

“This is your first one?” she asked, placing a form on a clipboard in front of her.

“Yes.” She grinned at Caden, who was totally watching her as she took everything in.

“Well, let’s get this party started,” Rachel said.

Before long, Makenna was seated backward on a chair, her hair twisted up in a knot on the top of her head, and Heath was applying the stencil to the center of her upper back, just below her neck.

Heath was kind of the quiet type, which probably explained why he and Caden got along. But he could also be funny and wickedly