“Don’t care,” he told me. “Surprise me.”
Nodding once, I grabbed the remote, turned up the music so he wouldn’t try to talk to me and so Miranda wouldn’t start shit with him, and got to work inking the reaper onto his right pec.
Chapter 2
Xan
He knew I was on some bullshit. That much was clear by the way he stared at me like he could see through me. And honestly, it was kind of my own fault he figured me out so quickly when I got so angry at the mere thought of him being with that blue-haired woman working behind the counter. I’d let my mask slip, showed him who I truly was beneath the surface. I’d shown my cards way too early.
And a man like Shane Levi Vernon, who’d served in the military under a Special Ops program unknown to the public? He was trained to pick men like me out in a crowd. He had spent years taking out men and women like me who were in high-power positions, so they’d stop wreaking havoc on the world.
Should I have known all of that? No. But I had my own connections, knew someone who could hack into the U.S. government database and never be discovered. The moment I spotted Shane at the Thai restaurant up the street two weeks ago, my obsession began. I’d tracked down his Instagram to find out his name, which then led to his place of employment. From there, I paid the underground hacker a few grand to do a thorough background check on him.
I knew everything there was to know about Shane Vernon, right down to how he liked his coffee and that he preferred to go commando with just gym shorts under his jeans.
The blue-haired girl disappeared into the back, saying something about eating her lunch while it was slow, leaving me alone with Shane—fucking finally. The moment she was out of hearing distance, he cut those brown eyes to my face. “Why are you here?” His voice, once again, was low. Gruff. Almost too quiet. A man not used to talking much. Something I also knew about him from his background check. Shane was usually a man of very few words.
I smirked at him. “To get a tattoo,” I drawled.
He turned the machine off and settled an unamused look on my face. “If you want to play fucking games, X,” he said, my nickname rolling off his tongue with pure sarcasm, “I suggest you get the fuck out and go elsewhere. You’re not just here for a tattoo. Why the fuck are you here?”
“Wanted a closer look at you.” It wasn’t a lie. I did want a closer look at him. Stalking him from afar wasn’t doing it for me any longer, and I was growing increasingly more irritable with every moment I had to spend too far from him. Even my boyfriend, the fancy pants doctor, Preston, was beginning to notice and told me to just make an appointment. He was the only person who understood me. Understood my obsessions and my quirks and that maybe I wasn’t entirely human. And he still loved me for it, even if I wasn’t sure I’d ever be capable of loving him back.
I hadn’t ever knowingly loved someone in my entire life.
Shane blinked at me, then shook his head. “I’m going to finish your tattoo because you paid for it and it’s nearly done. And then, never show your face here again, you got me?”
Before I could answer, the tattoo machine whirred back to life, and he bent back over my right pec and got back to work. I just smirked up at the ceiling. If Shane thought he was getting rid of me that easily, by just issuing an order, he was dead wrong. I wanted him. I was fixated on him. And I wasn’t stopping until I had what I wanted.
Preston, who I’d also become fixated on and obsessed with was proof of that.
Preston pushed off his car and turned to face me as I stepped out of the tattoo shop. I could feel Shane’s eyes burning a hole into my back, but I didn’t turn around to look, though Preston was looking at him through the shop windows. When I neared my boyfriend, he pulled his gaze away, settling his pretty blue eyes on mine. Blue eyes I was fucking hooked on. They were such a pretty shade—like when the sky clears just after a long thunderstorm.
“Feel better?” he asked, tugging an energy drink from his cargo pocket and passing it to me.
I nodded and cracked open the drink. “A bit.” After swallowing a mouthful, I added, “He’s a bit of a dick.”
Preston smirked. “Two peas in a pod then, baby.”
I hummed and tugged him closer to me before leaning in and sealing my lips over his. Preston was my fucking world. I’d die for him. He told me that was love, but I didn’t really believe him. But obsession? Fuck yeah. Had that for him in spades. The moment he’d found me bleeding out from a stab wound after a particularly nasty fight, he brought me to his place, stitched me up, and put me on antibiotics. He nursed me back to health, and when it was time for me to go…
I went absolutely no fucking where. And he just rolled with it. Let me move my stuff in. Added me to his apartment lease. It was as easy as breathing with us. But Shane was going to be another issue entirely. Of that, I was certain. He was in his mid-thirties and clearly set in his ways. Hell, the man hadn’t even dated since his military career ended five years ago. There wasn’t even any hint to him fucking anyone since then.
Getting Shane to give in to me, to be with me and Preston, was going to be a right pain in my ass. But I’d enjoy the chase. I always did. Besides, the chase was half the fun.
“Want to get some food?” Preston asked. “I’m off the rest of the day.”
I nodded. “I’ll follow you.”
He leaned in to kiss me again, his tongue delving into my mouth as his hand curled around the back of my neck. I groaned, letting him control the kiss. All too soon, he pulled away and grinned at me. “The rest will hold ‘til later.” He jerked his chin in the direction of my bike. “Come on. I’m starving.”
I huffed, annoyed. “You’re such a fucking tease.”
His grin was pure trouble. “You wouldn’t have me any other way, baby.”
I rolled my eyes, but he was right. I wouldn’t. Preston was mine. Every single fucking piece of him, even the teasing parts that drove me fucking mad.
Chapter 3