Tabby laughed.Because we all know real estate is the erotic backbone of all relationships.He’s so boring, Nix. His face is a Caucasian blur. Even lip injections wouldn’t jazz him up.
Nicole snorted and was instantly ashamed. When she’d moved to Adelaide, she’d broken her habit of talking to her sisters in her head, but since her return to Melbourne, Sam and Tabby had taken up their chairs in her mind and resumed commenting on everything she did with intrusive jocularity.
She’d told herself it would stop when she returned to South Australia, but she no longer knew when that would be. She’d returned home two months ago to help Sam with the family business which had edged close to bankruptcy after their dad left on a spontaneous hiatus. She’d expected to stay a couple of weeks, but Silver Daughters financial troubles were so extensive, she’d filed a remote working request so she could stay until they were solved. Her sisters were thrilled, Aaron was not.
“Your dad left the studio to Samantha and she can’t manage it,” he snarled down the phone. “She needs to grow up and sell it to someone who can, not keep it on life support with the help of her more successful sister.”
“Please don’t be mad at me,” she’d pleaded. “Silver Daughters is our home. Sam and Tabby learned to tattoo here! I ran the accounts when I was fourteen! I have more happy memories here than anywhere else!”
Without warning Aaron had hung up on her. Later he texted to say if she loved the studio so much, she could stay there forever.
They weren’t doing so good, relationship-wise. The problem was, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him what he wanted to hear—that Adelaide was her home and he was more important than her sisters. She knew thatshouldbe true, but her heart still belonged to Brunswick, to the graffiti murals and pretentious cafes and weirdos in Salvation Army jumpers. And though her sisters drove her bonkers, her heart belonged to them, too. To their blue eyes and bad language. To their easy, unpretentious love.
She wanted to miss Aaron, but every day in Melbourne was like a holiday from reality. Everything except…
She tried to keep the thoughts from rushing in, but it was too late.Hearrived in vivid detail—big and mean, wearing black jeans and carrying a fat fantasy novel. It was Noah Newcomb as she’d first seen him, the day she’d returned to Melbourne.
“He’s great,” Sam said as she drove her and Tabby from the airport. “Quiet but great.”
“Great at tattooing, or great in general?”
“Both. Tabby, stop kicking my seat, you dickhead.”
Nicole had assumed Noah Newcomb was like her dad—a longhaired hippie, spaced out but essentially harmless.
She’d never been so wrong in her life.
A hulking beast stood reading a novel at reception, big as a house with blackwork tattoos drilled into every inch of his skin. As she looked at him, a cold snake uncoiled in her belly. She’d grown up above the studio; she wasn’t intimidated by ink, but she knew this man wasn’t some tatt-happy hipster. He had tattoos for the same reason redbacks were splashed with scarlet—a visual warning. He had a thug’s face—broad brow, heavy jaw, a nose that had obviously been broken. That, too, felt like a warning.
She’d turned to Sam, half-convinced the guy had broken in, but her twin smiled, and Tabby launched herself at the guy.
“Who is that?” she’d whispered as Tabby and the stranger hugged.
“Uh, Noah Newcomb? Tattoo artist? The big guy Dad loves?”
Nicole felt winded. She took a step back, intending to go outside when he looked at her. His eyes were green. Not muddy hazel or dull moss, butgreenlike emeralds or spring grass and fringed with the longest black lashes she’d ever seen. Noah’s gaze sparked with crackling intelligence.
Oh gosh,she thought.No.No. No.
But it was too late, excitement burst inside her like an atom bomb, making her skin prickle and her heart pound. He was so big, so beautifully scary and new.
And while mania hijacked her brain, Noah Newcomb just stood there, cool as anything, cataloguing every inch of her body. She saw him clock her engagement ring and frown slightly, but his gaze still lifted to reexamine her breasts. She’d scowled, trying to shame him but Noah’s upper lip had curled. His smile said,Tell me you don’t like it.
And she’d tried, but her mouth was too dry. All she could think about was Noah’s body on top of hers, knees shoving her thighs apart.“Tell me you don’t like it.”
Heat zigzagged down her chest and into her underwear, and as she stared into Noah Newcomb’s eyes, she knew he was a problem. But that was okay. All her life she’d solved problems, she would stamp out her inconvenient attraction and salt the earth where it had grown. And she’d succeeded admirably…if you ignored that little slip in the hallway. And it was easy to ignore that little slip in the hallway.
Nicole’s pelvic floor contracted, and she groaned aloud at her silliness. She’d done such a good job of not thinking abouthimsince this afternoon. It was so disappointing that she’d caved to these stupid fantasies.
She exhaled and checked her watch. Ten minutes until Aaron was due to arrive. She returned to the lounge and rearranged herself on the white leather couch. If Aaron knew how she felt about Noah, he would…she had no idea. Though ‘lose his mind’ was probably the most accurate prediction. He talked about women he found attractive, had acted on that attraction more than once, but she hadn’t dared to say Noah’s name to him, afraid he’d hear something in her voice. If he knew about her little slip….
Her face burned hot at the memory. She’d been standing in the hallway at Sam’s Ink the Night party, staring at the brooch her dad had sent in the mail, and he’d come up behind her, asking if she was okay... They were both drunk, or she was, anyway, and it had only lasted a second.
It didn’t feel real enough to count as a kiss, let alone cheating, for god’s sake.
Hey, why not bring up the issue with Aaron?Imaginary Tabby asked.He’ll have great insights into what is and isn’t cheating, being that he’s a big cheating twat-basket. Actual cheating, not just mouth-touching in a hallway.
“That was different. Aaron was under a lot of pressure at work and I’ve wholeheartedly forgiven him for the affair—”