“Guys,” Landon growled, barely glancing at Austin and Dallas. “Gonna have to postpone this game.”
Austin chuckled, setting his pool cue down. “I think that’s a good idea. Another time.”
“Have fun,” Stella grinned, winking at me as I blushed.
My heart pounded as I held both Landon and Caleb’s hands as we left the bar, stepping back out into the night.
“So…”
“C’mon,” Landon growled quietly, tugging at my hand. “We want to show you something.”
I raised a brow. “Some thing, or two somethings.”
My face went crimson the second I said.
“Dirty girl,” Caleb purred, making a tsking sound. “Wrong, but trust me, you’re going to like this.”
I fake-pouted. “Wrong?”
“Angel,” Landon growled into my ear, making me shiver. “Don’t think for a second that we aren’t going to tear those panties of yours off all over again later and make you fucking scream for us.”
I gasped as Caleb scooped me up into his arms, the three of us stepping into the night.
12
Kennedy
The shop went pitch black for a second when the door closed, and I felt my pulse skip. But then Landon clicked on some overhead lights turned low, and the tattoo parlor became illuminated.
I’d walked past it before, though I’d never been inside. But looking around then, I wish I had. I’d imagined tattoo shops being cold and sterile places with tacky flash-art or pictures of nude girls up on the wall. But Outlaw Ink was something else entirely. Exposed brick walls, gorgeous, lush middle-eastern rugs across the hardwood floor, and lots of house plants potted and hanging all over the place. The big old factory windows were sealed shut with the roll-down shutters for the night, and with just a few low lamps on, the place was just cozy.
My eyes danced over the walls, seeing framed sketches and paintings and intricate designs instead of the usual flash tattoos of Tweety Bird or topless chicks. Over to one side, they had a small kitchen, with this incredibly comfy looking sitting area full of low, cushioned chairs, a leather chesterfield sofa, stuffed ottomans, and even pillows on the carpeted floor.
“This place is gorgeous,” I breathed, shaking my head as I took in their shop.
“Thanks,” Caleb grinned, his hand trailing across the small of my back as he moved past me towards one of the two workstations.
“The plants are all this guy,” he nodded his chin at Landon, who just shrugged.
“But the plants aren’t what I wanted to show you.”
He gestured me over to his work station, pulling out sketchpad from a drawer.
“Here.”
I leaned against the work table and took the book from his hands, my eyes flitting over the open page.
“Wow,” I blinked, staring at the gorgeous, intricate lines across the page. It looked like delicate little vines, with tiny blossoms full of insane detail that teased across the canvas.
“Caleb, this is amazing.”
He grinned, nodding past me as Landon walked over with another sketchbook. “That one too.”
Landon’s drawing took my breath away just as fast. The page was filled with this insanely hyper-realistic cat curled around itself batting at a floating rose petal.
“You guys are seriously good!” My jaw dropped as I looked back and forth between the two sketch pads.
“So, not just two pretty faces, huh?”
I giggled, biting my lip as the two of them pulled close. Both leaned in, nuzzling my neck as I murmured and gasped quietly, my eyes fluttering shut.
“They’re ideas for your cover up,” Landon murmured. My eyes flew open.
“Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, just ideas. I mean someday, if you ever wanted to—”
“How about now?”
The room went quiet, and the two of them blinked in surprise.
No, I wasn’t drunk. Just alive. Okay, I was slightly drunk, but not in a bad decisions way. More like a “just enough for me to have the courage for this” kind of way.
Caleb and Landon glanced at each other.
“Kennedy—”
“I’m serious,” I said quietly. “Something that mixes both of these would be perfect, and I can’t think of two better artists.”
Landon cleared his throat. “Angel, what if we come up with a joint sketch, and then later this week or something you can come down and—”
“Later this week, I’ll chicken out, and then I’ll regret not getting this when I was here and feeling brave.”
“You mean drunk,” Caleb arched a brow at me.
“Not drunk,” I shook my head, stepping closer to him. “Just ready. Just… I don’t know, feeling alive. And I really do want this.”
He nodded slowly, glancing at Landon, who took a deep breath and then nodded back.
I grinned slowly as the both of them cleared their throats.
“Give us a few minutes to come up with something, alright?”
I beamed, flinging my arms around each of them and kissing them both. Landon and Caleb went off to a back table and started sketching and talking to each other animatedly while I sank into one of the huge easy chairs in the hang-out area drinking a bottle of water. I could hear the two of them going back and forth, making changes, tracing parts of the original sketches, and swearing under their breaths, until finally, about forty minutes later. I looked up from the magazine I’d been reading to see them walking back over.