More Than Meets the Ink Read Free

used a fixing gel for it. Restrained, sexually aggressive, and artificial. Tate was anything but artificial. She was damn spontaneous. The sweet, what-you-see-is-what-you-get girl next door. That white-picket-fence, happily ever after sort of woman he normally avoided like the plague.
    Holding her stomach, she drew a deep breath and tried to stop laughing. It took a while before she succeeded. “Sorry…this is hysterical laughing… Can’t help it. I’m just worried sick.”
    He remained silent, curiously observing her. Her snug, white tank top was covered in green stains and pieces of grass. He felt like dusting them away. Sure, like groping her tits on his dad’s patio was going to go over well with her, even if his intentions weren’t all that sleazy; he was neat to a fault, and the blades of grass and those smears on her top were badly messing with his conception of the world. To avoid giving in to temptation and getting his ass kicked, James shrugged off his jacket. As long as his hands were busy, they wouldn’t dart toward Sweet Tits here and start feeling her up. And he was sweating. From having her so close by or from the Florida heat, he wasn’t sure. Probably the former, not that he was ready to admit to anything.
    The second he took his jacket off, she lifted her eyes to the tattoo on his arm, wrinkled her nose, and flinched in distaste. Her smile froze on her face. Man, spectacular shut down. She wasn’t sweet and relaxed anymore. Stiff as a board was more like it.
    “Nice,” she said, pointing at the visible part of his dragon under his short sleeve. If her expression was anything to go by, then in her world, nice double-teamed with repugnant and disgusting. He looked at his arm, half expecting to find God only knew what there that would explain her reaction, but no, it was just his tattoo, nothing more.
    There was a story there, but he was so not getting into that; too early in the morning. He ignored her reaction and plunged forward.
    “Tate, right?”
    She peeled her eyes from his tattoo and nodded.
    “Are you down here visiting your mother? I haven’t seen you around before.”
    “Yeah.” She sighed and looked up into the open sky. “She moved here five months ago. This is my first visit. I’ve been busy at home.”
    “Where’s home?”
    “Boston.”
    “No shit! We’re also from the greater Boston area. From Alden, a thirty-minute drive from the city. What a coincidence.”
    She shrugged a bit uncomfortably. “Actually it isn’t. A coincidence, I mean.”
    His eyes narrowed on her. “Not only intrusive tendencies, but stalking ones too?”
    She sighed again, her eyes still fixed on the sky. “Not exactly. When my mom moved here, there were several condos free in the area assigned for her age group. I asked if there was anybody from Boston or the greater Boston area, and your dad’s name came up. The Nicholsons too, but there was no available condo near them. So you got us.”
    “Lucky us.”
    Tate grimaced. “Yeah, lucky you. I thought she wouldn’t feel so disconnected from home this way. Needless to say, I didn’t foresee her behaving like a…lunatic. She’s been going through a rough patch, and she’s developed some freaky tendencies.”
    He’d seen that. Maybe it would be in everyone’s best interest to help her adapt before her “tendencies” escalated into full-blown, trigger-happy ones and the whole Eternal Sun Resort ended up on the five o’clock news. “Listen, why don’t you come to the common area tonight? Country music and line dancing exhibition.”
    “Line dancing? Country music?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Not my thing.”
    “Come on. It’ll be fun. It’s pretty simple stuff. As you might’ve noticed, the average age here is sixty-five, not an age to go swinging too much or doing risky steps. Bring your mother; it’ll take her mind off other matters.”
    Someone stomped out to the patio, and they turned around.
    “Help me with