Pretty In Ink - Exclusive Read - Chapter One
A flash of
scarlet paint caught his eye, and Garrett frowned at the little sports car zipping
too quickly into the front lot. He straightened up, leaving the table
half-cleared to move closer to the front window of his bar. The little
convertible pulled into one of the front slots, and he couldn’t hide his smile
of recognition. His Saturday night just got a whole lot better. Folding his
arms across his chest, Garrett studied the driver as she teetered out of the
car. She certainly matched the car, in her short black dress and flashy
jewelry. Nothing there of any interest to him. The blonde flipped her perfectly
straight hair, waiting impatiently for her passenger to alight.
Raising a
hand to acknowledge the customer at a nearby table calling for another round,
Garrett kept his eyes trained on the car. Nothing short of an emergency would
prevent him from enjoying the sight of his favorite customer. She kept her head
down, a tumble of ebony curls shielding her face. Thankfully, her beautiful
hair did nothing to obscure his view of the magnificent pair of creamy breasts
threatening to spill out the front of her jade green dress as she pushed
herself up. The pin-up style dress hugged the kind of ample body a man could
get lost in for a week. She turned, bending to retrieve her clutch, displaying
an ass so bounteous he surreptitiously checked his mouth for drool.
Garrett
Chase loved big girls. Loved. Them. At six foot two and a couple hundred pounds
of solid muscle, he preferred a soft landing, and an ass he could get a good
grip on as he rode them both into sweaty oblivion. His pulse quickened as his
goddess-made-flesh swayed across the lot and back into his life. Aubrey Jensen
was the stuff of his dreams. A dark green rose clipped her hair up on one side,
matching the fifties style of her dress to perfection. The lifted wing of her
hair revealed her face, ruby-red lips quirked into a smile over something her
companion said as they approached the door. It was his favorite expression of
hers – a little sly, like she got the joke when no one else did.
Not wanting
to get caught spying on her, he grabbed up the dirty glasses and strode quickly
to his appointed spot behind the bar. Smiling in welcome as they approached, he
fixed his eyes on Aubrey as he held out the bar menu. “Anything you want,
darling. It’s all yours.”
Her
chocolate-brown eyes flicked up to meet his and he winked, relishing the tiny
sparkle of mischief the gesture induced. “Anything?” The way she drawled the
word made him want to crawl across the bar and fist her hair as he claimed
those plump lips.
“Anything,”
he emphasized.
She
rewarded him with a deliciously dirty laugh. “Garrett Chase, one of these days
I’m going to take you up on that.”
Man, he
adored women who knew how to laugh properly. None of those polite, smothered
giggles. Give him a filthy, rolling belly-deep chuckle every day of the week.
Suddenly, there was nothing more important than finding a way to make this
woman laugh like that again.
“Oh,
Aubrey, I can’t take you anywhere!” The blonde tried to sound like she was
joking, but the jagged edge in her tone showed her irritation. A simmering
tension he’d noticed before existed between the two sisters. Garrett glanced
toward her. She smiled, all teeth and no warmth. Tapping a red-tipped nail on
the cocktail section of the menu, she flashed the obscenely large diamond on
her ring finger. He remembered well the copious bottles of champagne their
group consumed on New Year’s Eve to celebrate her engagement to one of the
faceless rich-boys who frequented his joint. I bet her heart is as cold as that rock.
“We’ll both
have a Cosmopolitan.” The blonde angled her body toward him, trying to capture
his interest. For a woman in love, she
tries a little too hard for attention.
“Take a
seat and I’ll be with you in a moment.” Garrett finished pouring a beer for
another customer. Annoyed with the lovely brunette’s toothy companion, he took
his time.
The blonde
pursed her lips in a little pout of disappointment at his matter of fact tone,
and remained standing. “We have a booking in the name of Windsor. You can serve
our drinks at the table. It’s a booking for four.”
The
familiar stab of disappointment twisted in his gut. He didn’t need her to tell
him they expected company. The two sisters started coming to the bar around
November last year, always with the same dates. “You’re at table fifteen.” He
nodded toward a high-backed booth in the center of the back wall. The blonde
sniffed before turning on her heel and stalking off.
Aubrey
paused at the bar, an apologetic smile on her face. Garrett rested his forearms
on the bar as he leaned toward her, catching a hint of her rich, amber perfume.
“Tell me what you need, darling.” Please
let it be my face buried in your pussy.
Her
gorgeous eyes widened slightly. Intrigued, he glanced down, following the
direction of her gaze. The sleeves of his white shirt had ridden up, displaying
the tattooed flames licking the backs of his wrists. Eyes fixed on his ink, the
tip of her tongue darted out to slick her lips, and a warm feeling stirred deep
in his gut. See me. Knowing he was
playing with fire, and not caring a damn, he popped the buttons on his cuffs
and made a show of rolling the sleeves back to his elbows. Thick lines of
black, red and orange writhed across his skin. The soft noise coming from her
throat sounded suspiciously like a sigh of appreciation.
“Aubrey!”
The shrill call from her sister shattered the spell between them.
With a
small shake of her head, Aubrey turned her attention to the drinks menu. “I’m tired
of cocktails.” Something about her tone implied it wasn’t all she was tired of.
He wanted to press her for information, but it wasn’t his place to do so. No
matter how much he might wish it were. “I’d like to try one of your beers.” The
admission pleased him beyond measure. Speciality beers were a passion of his,
and he’d worked hard to put together a strong selection.
“Don’t
worry, darling. I’ll find you something tasty to wrap those luscious lips
around.” His innuendo-laden comment cleared the frown from her brow and drew
another of those fantastic laughs from her, and Garrett fell head over heels.
“You are a
very bad man.” Mischief dancing in her eyes, she wagged a finger at him and
moved away to join her sister.
“Give me a
chance, Aubrey, and I’ll be happy to show you how bad.” His use of her name
added a little extra swing to her hips, and he gratefully admired the view.
A sharp
pinch on his arm startled Garrett. He unglued his eyes from the retreating
piece of heaven to frown at his sister. “What the fuck?” He rubbed the abused
spot as his sister, Gina flicked her towel at him.
“Put your
tongue back in, bro, and stop slacking.” Shaking her head, she marched back to
her end of the bar, but her words held no malice. His family knew where his
preferences lay, and Aubrey ticked every box on his list.
The door to
the bar opened, letting in a gust of warm spring air. March had been
unseasonably cool in their little corner of California, but April was turning
out more promising. He had plans to add an external seating area to the bar. One day. Like so many of his plans,
ambition outweighed his finances. The bar was a relatively new venture for the
Chase family, and Garrett and his siblings were acutely conscious of the
mortgage secured against their grandfather’s home.
The open
door heralded the arrival of “The Suits”, his nickname for the two bland men
who dated the Jensen sisters. Garrett didn’t pay much attention to them as he
fixed their drinks, until the sneering, sandy-haired one spoke. “Dammit, Brock,
she’s a fucking heifer. I still can’t believe she and Marissa are sisters.”
His blond
companion just laughed. Clapping him on the shoulder, he followed his friend’s glance
across the room to the central booth. “Relax, Kenny. Aubrey just needs taking
in hand, the same way I did with Marissa. The Jensen girls run to fat if you
let them, but once I got Marissa to take a little pride in herself, it was
easy. You’ll find their mother supportive of your efforts too.”
The blond paused
to take a swig of his drink, then grinned at his glowering friend. “Don’t
forget, her inheritance is as big as her ass.”
“It damn
well better be. I’ve never seen her ass. You’d think she was special the way
she holds me at arm’s length. Nearly six months, and I still can’t get through
her front door.”
A low buzz
started in Garrett’s ears. Tuning out the rest of their conversation, he
battled the need to beat them both to a bloody pulp. Aubrey was fucking
beautiful just the way she was. Mortgage,
think of the fucking mortgage. He couldn’t risk bringing trouble to their
door. His records were sealed; there was nothing to tie the respectable man to
the stupid kid he’d once been. His tattoos raised an eyebrow or two, but he
usually kept them covered when he was working. Still, a low-level fear of his
past catching up with him always lurked in the back of his mind. Another good
reason he shouldn’t entertain thoughts of a class act like Aubrey.
He paused
in the process of rolling down his sleeves, seeking her out. Rationalities
about their differences melted away as her big, brown eyes studied him with
blatant interest. Wanting her to know how much he desired her, Garrett held her
gaze. He imagined unzipping her jade green dress, sliding it down her body
until her gorgeous tits fell into his waiting hands. His cock stirred in his
jeans, and he stepped closer to the bar to shield his lower body. Mesmerized, he
watched Aubrey raise the beer bottle to her lips and, holy fucking hell, curl her tongue around the rim. A bolt of lust
slammed into his spine, tightening his balls until he feared he might blow his
load like an untried boy.
The suits finally
moved away from the bar, their movement breaking his line of sight as they
approached the booth. The little smile of regret she flashed him brought a
moment of clarity. Fuck the differences
between us. He would do whatever it took to get her away from the fucker
she was wasting her time with and into his bed.
As soon as
fucking possible.
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