Old Ink (Get Ink'd #3) - Ali Lyda Page 0,12

finished our meal and I paid, telling Channing we’d count it as a job interview. We drove back in my truck, him relaxed in the passenger seat and chatting about Dane and Chris, while I gripped the steering wheel and willed myself not to get a hard-on. It wasn’t going very well.

“I hope Christian liked the idea,” Channing said. “I sort of helped Dane with it—his plan was to tattoo Christian’s face on his ass cheek.”

At least thinking about Christian’s face on Dane’s ass cheek was a visual that managed to douse the tugging need to touch Channing—at least enough for me to wrangle myself under control.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s so smart about everything but men.”

“You’re being a little generous,” he joked.

When we pulled into the lot of Get Ink’d, the lights in the shop were still on, though the closed sign was up. Channing looked at me, the low light from the parking lot throwing his chiseled face into high definition. “I hope you didn’t leave anything in there, because they’re probably naked right now.”

I groaned, half exaggerating and half thinking about the sanitation issues. “I’m going to make Dane clean the shop from top to bottom tomorrow before anyone is allowed to tattoo.”

“With bleach,” Channing agreed solemnly. Then he added, “Thanks for dinner. I’m glad we talked.”

“Can I walk you to your car?” Let it go, Reagan. Walk away before you fuck this up.

One of Channing’s eyebrows raised artfully, and my hand tightened on the wheel.

“Sure,” he said finally.

I was elated. I wished he’d refused. I was a cosmic clusterfuck of emotions.

We got out, and I walked with him, overanalyzing the proper distance I should put between us to signal ‘we weren’t on a date and you shouldn’t think anything of it’ but not so far away that Channing might misinterpret it as me being weird or harboring feelings. Even though I absolutely, completely was.

Once we reached his car, Channing turned to me, and I balled my hands into fists to keep from reaching out to touch him. We stood like that for an uncomfortably long time, Channing with his earnest eyes and me with a strained smile.

“So, uh, I guess I’ll come in tomorrow and talk to Trinity,” he said as he slid into his car.

I sank into myself, relieved and yearning. “That would be great. I’ll make sure we have extra coffee for you.”

“Great.” He paused, staring straight ahead at the shop. “I...Well, thanks.”

“Good night, Channing.” My hands were plunged deep in my pockets, restrained. But I didn’t want to consider why I felt the need to keep them leashed.

“Good night, Reagan.”

I stood and watched him pull out of the parking lot, warring with my emotions. It felt wrong to be so attracted to him. Not only because he was so young, but because I knew better. I’d be his boss again now, and dating an employee was a big no-no.

And yet my traitorous brain couldn’t help realizing that he’d never mentioned dating or boyfriends once during dinner as he was catching me up on his life. Was that because he’d wanted to hide it from me?

Or because he’d stayed single?

Running a hand roughly through my hair, I risked a glance through the window of the shop. Dane and Christian were slow dancing. The sheen of plastic wrap shone on their ring fingers as they swayed and circled and my heart blossomed with warmth. Dane deserved that kind of happiness. Hell, all of my guys did. Watching Javi and Dane and Trinity fall in love and find secure, safe relationships made me stronger, too.

But wanting it for my crew and having it for myself were two different things. Yes, I was attracted to Channing. I had been for a long time, though I didn’t like to admit it. Attraction didn’t give me the right to make a move on him. He’d matured and grown without me, and if that wasn’t evidence enough of how I’d done the right thing in letting him go, I didn’t know what was.

I’d have to learn to be happy without him. I could do that, right?

Yeah, right.

4

Channing

After staying the night with some friends, I held my breath as I opened Christian and Dane’s front door the morning after Dane’s surprise. I was always a little worried that I’d stumble in on them naked or something equally as horrible, something I was not interested in having to bleach from my brain. But what I heard instead was the sound of someone