He winked and Lexie stepped past him inside the store.
“Looking for anything in particular?” A thin Asian man was working behind the cashier. He was the only one inside the shop and wasn’t particularly welcoming at half-past eleven in the evening.
“Good evening. I’m looking for a magnet, please.” Nic noted how polite and old-fashioned she sounded in contrast to the seductive minx she had been earlier at the bar. He mulled over the disparity and decided he rather liked it. Proper in public but sexy as hell in closed quarters.
The man gestured to a display on the side, looking less stern. He was visibly charmed by her quaint manners.
As with all females, Lexie had instantly become absorbed in comparing the merits of a roulette wheel magnet to a poker chip magnet. She wanted the poker chip magnet, but it didn’t say Las Vegas in the font she wanted. Nic told her he would buy both for her to put an end to her dilemma, at which she prissily told him it wasn’t the point. Nic rolled his eyes and she wrinkled her nose at him. God, even with the atrocious wig, she was beautiful. Nic left her to debate the merits of each item and wandered to another display cabinet. He called over the salesperson discreetly and pointed to an object that caught his interest.
Back outside, Lexie had shown him what she had decided to purchase. He chuckled. It was a magnet of a scantily clad Las Vegas showgirl complete with a huge feather headdress. “Very classy,” he quipped dryly.
“At least it had the font that I liked,” she answered cheekily. “What did you get?”
“Here.” He took her hand and gave her a small box. She appeared surprised and opened the package silently. Her wide, lush mouth broke into a smile. Inside were earrings nestled on a velvet cushion. Instead of jeweled studs, each earring had a silver dice with black numeral dots on each facet of the cube.
“Thank you,” she said simply, clearly pleased and touched by his gift. She immediately placed them on her dainty earlobes. “How do I look?” She tucked a lock of fake hair behind a dainty ear. There was uncertainty in those cat eyes.
Nic had known women far more beautiful than Lexie, but her appeal to him went beyond that. There was something almost unaffected about her. “You take my breath away.”
She blushed a becoming pink at his rather trite but true sentiment, and Nic fell deeper under her spell.
And because he couldn’t help it, he murmured, “Don’t I get a thank you kiss in exchange?”
She wrinkled her pert little nose at him in mock disapproval. “Don’t you do anything merely out of the goodness of your heart?”
He grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest. “Kissing you is a very good cardio workout. Just the thought of it is already making my heart race. Feel it.”
“Oh, in that case, your health should come first.” She leaned towards him and Nic swooped down, capturing her lips and giving his heart an intensive workout for several minutes. Nic didn’t know how long they stayed out in the street. Only some catcalls from a passing car snapped him out of the moment.
“Red, I think we better take this someplace else where we can finish,” he whispered roughly.
Lexie blinked as if coming out from a deep slumber. “No. Not yet. I have another item on my list,” she mumbled.
“What list?”
As usual, she ignored him. She appeared to be a woman on a mission. As if fuelled by a higher power, she dragged Nic a few stores back where they came from. Nic stared incredulously at the neon signage. “Vinny’s Skin Art,” he read incredulously. “You want to get inked?” Somehow he didn’t peg her to be the type.
She nodded with what appeared to be a mix of trepidation and determination aimed at the façade of the tattoo parlor. “I’m scared of needles.”
Nic shook his head, completely flummoxed. “Then why do it?”
She sent him a piercing look. “Because I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
He looked at her for several seconds then simply held out his hand for her to take. She grasped it and they entered the shop.
* * *
Sensing that she was nervous, Vinny, a muscled Italian with a Brooklyn accent who, luckily, was in the store that night, made her drink a vodka on the house to calm her nerves. He was delighted that Lexie had seen his sample artwork courtesy of Freya.