Tattooed Troublemaker - Elise Faber Page 0,3

pipes, I can handle.”

I knew she could.

And that wasn’t an innuendo, or at least, not an intentional one.

Because, yes, my pipe was very aware that she was beautiful and curved in all the places I loved on a woman. Not to mention she had spine and was smart. Tick. Tick. Tick.

If she wasn’t Tig’s friend, I’d be offering to help her out of those wet clothes.

After all, I had an actual washer and dryer in my apartment and, after spending the last months traveling around the U.S., working in different shops, most of the time staying in places without laundry—thus having to cart my shit to the laundromat weekly—I was well-aware of how much that perk was worth.

Still, it was the fact that Charlie was Tig’s friend that had me ignoring my dick.

“I’m sorry I was a jerk,” he said.

She’d bent to start packing up her toolbox, but at my apology, she glanced up at me, eyes wide. “A sorry, just like that?”

Spine.

Yeah.

I liked this one.

My lips quirked. “Yup. No excuses. I was an asshole.” I shrugged. “Not out of the ordinary for me.”

The lid on the toolbox closed with a clank and she picked it up, started toward me. “The asshole or the no excuses?”

“Excuse me?”

Her chuckle, raspy and soft, slid down my skin. “Which isn’t out of the ordinary, Garret? Being an ass or not making excuses?” She stopped a couple of feet away, and I was suddenly glad I was in the doorway and blocking her exit, because this woman was more than curves and spine, talented hands and a pretty face. She was funny and smart and . . . I could see why she and Tig were friends.

I wanted to be her friend.

Okay, no. I wanted to strip her jeans off, lift her onto that displaced cabinet, and eat her pussy like it was my last meal, but I’d already been enough of a jerk. I wasn’t going to make a pass.

Even though I could almost taste the sweet tang of her on my tongue.

She’d smelled like coconut when she’d walked in and—

Charlie took another step closer, indicating with her toolbox that she wanted to get by, but I pretended not to see it. Longing was surging through me and not just through my cock. She was the most interesting person I’d met in ages and—

“Well,” she said, inching nearer. “I’m going to go to bed.”

The tropics hit my nose.

Even wet from the burst pipe, the air heavy and damp around us, the multitude of fans blowing that scent toward us, I could still smell her.

Uh-oh.

“It’s both,” I blurted.

“What?”

“It’s both,” I said. “I don’t make excuses, and I’m often an asshole.”

Red lips tilting up at the edges. “Noted.”

Fuck, I wanted to kiss that mouth.

“Garret?”

“Hmm?”

“I want to go to bed,” she said. “And I’m guessing you do, too.”

Yeah, I did. With her. I clenched my hands into fists to keep from reaching for Charlie. “Yeah.”

“Um, I kind of need you to move so I can do that.”

Yeah, she did.

“Oh, shit, sorry,” I muttered, straightening off the doorframe so she could get by. But as she zigged, I zagged, and the end result was her jabbing me in the thigh hard with her toolbox. “Ow,” I gasped, grabbing the aching limb.

“Shit!” The toolbox hit the floor. “Oh, no. Now I’m the one who’s sorry.” She dropped to her knees, I was guessing to get a closer look at the damage, but the moment her lips came that close to my cock, I wasn’t feeling any pain anymore. Or at least, none that her mouth couldn’t solve.

“Are you bleeding?” she asked. “That corner is sharp. Actually, I just cut my hand on it yesterday.” Her words were fast and furious. “I need to buy a new one, but I haven’t wanted to spend the money, and—”

She froze, hands spanning my thigh, my cock just inches away from her lips.

Fuck, it would be so easy to just unzip and guide her forward—

I reached down, put my hands under her armpits and tugged her to her feet. “I’m fine. Stand up already.” So maybe the words were a little gruff and yanking her up wasn’t the most chivalrous move, but I mean, I was trying not to be an asshole here, and it was already well-established how difficult that was for me.

“I—” She bit her lip. “I’m going.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

She started to bend again, but I stopped her. “I’ve got it.”

“I—” Her words broke off in a short exhale, and