Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 15575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 78(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 52(@300wpm)
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know about any kind of bet. Are you making this up? Trying to play a joke on me?”
“Me! Play a joke on you? You’re completely insane, Ward. I’m not the one who plays jokes. That is you. All you.”
“Oh, yeah, well, maybe if you had a sense of humor, I wouldn’t have to play jokes on you, to get you to actually laugh.” He took a step toward her.
Kirsty refused to back down, and she snorted. “Oh, please, I don’t need you to laugh. I laugh all the time, and it has absolutely nothing to do with you. You’re not even funny. You’re not anything that resembles a joke.”
She had no idea what she was saying, or what she was doing.
“Yeah, I think you’re lying about this bullshit bet. You and I … it was never going to happen. In your wildest dreams.”
“Trust me, Ward, you do not feature in any of my dreams. You’re not even a single thought in my head when I have … dreams.” She didn’t know what she was saying, as nothing was making sense to her right now.
She didn’t know how it had happened, but she suddenly stood toe to toe with her nemesis.
“Don’t worry, I know you couldn’t imagine having any kind of fun. You don’t want anything in a man. He must be boring as an old stick.”
“Yeah, and he certainly won’t be anything like you. I mean, what disease have you picked up lately!”
“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”
Kirsty wasn’t quite sure how she got from insulting him to kissing him. One moment, they were glaring at each other, not a smile between them, and the next second, his lips were on hers.
She ran her hands up his chest, with every intention of pushing him away, but then she found herself moving up and then circling his neck, pulling him in close. She loved the feel of his hard body against hers. Sudden arousal hit her hard and fast, and then Ward moved his hands, and they started to travel down her body, going toward her ass. The moment he touched her, she let out a moan, and all he’d done was use her ass to draw her in close.
She felt the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her stomach, and she didn’t know what happened as they both broke apart. His lips were red and slightly swollen, and she had a feeling hers were also. She touched her lips, but then stopped herself.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes, just stood a few feet away from each other. The only sound in the room came from their panting.
Kirsty was trying to gain her composure. That was it, that was what she was doing.
“Good night,” Ward said.
She repeated the words, and then opened the door.
Neither of them spoke as Ward left, and she closed the door, leaning up against it, pressing her fingers to her lips.
That was some kiss.
Chapter Three
“In all the time we’ve worked together, I’ve never known you to cancel a client,” Christopher said.
“Then I guess you don’t know everything about me,” Ward said. He stared down at his artist pad, then scrunched up his nose. It wasn’t any good. “Do you think my client would want this on their body?” He held up the pad for Christopher to look. The serpent, slithering around a knife, was not coming together.
He saw his friend frown as he screwed up the paper and tossed it into the trash, to join all of the rest of the drawings he’d been failing on.
Ward had a lot of different inks he could decorate the body with. He’d lost count of the number of doves, love hearts, and dolphins he was requested to tattoo.
What he also allowed to a certain extent was commissioned work, which is what he was doing now. He took pride in his work, which is why he was always practicing, until he got onto the main work of art—the human body.
For the past five days, he’d been practicing this work, and so far he’d fucked it up every single time. He had no choice but to postpone the session with the guy who wanted the serpent. The only way that would change was if he got several drawings accurate.
“What’s going on?” Christopher asked.
“Nothing.”
“Okay, I know you, and I know how you work. Your art is part of you, and this says something is messing with your head.” Christopher folded his arms across his chest.
Ward tried to ignore him, but he fucked up the line he was drawing, and growled, tossing the artist pad down, and then turning to his friend. “Nothing is going on.”
“This has nothing to do with you and a certain bartender having a conversation?” Christopher asked.