Hating You, Loving You (Inked Hearts 4)

I shift my attention to Zack. "What do you think?" I motion to his temporary tattoo. "Is it perfect?"

"Yeah." He stares at his reflection. "It is."

Dean picks up the gun and turns it on. It buzzes against his hand. It hums that low, steady roar.

There's something relaxing about it. To me.

To Zack…

Every last ounce of calm fades from his expression. His face goes white. Really white.

I need to distract him. Now.

But…

How?

I've never been gregarious. Or chatty. I can hold my own in a conversation okay, but creating one from scratch?

Not as much.

I look for clues. He's in a plain blue t-shirt. Normal jeans and sneakers.

His other arm is covered in ink. A skull and crossbones. A dagger. A Nirvana logo.

Ah.

"Can I ask you for some advice, Zack?" I sit next to Dean. Stare into Zack's dark eyes like I find him endlessly fascinating.

"Yeah. Sure," he grunts.

"I want to get into grunge, but all I know are the five songs they play on KROQ." Total bullshit. But what's a white lie to bring someone comfort?

He chuckles. "Yeah, they play a lot of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nirvana is my favorite, but I still get sick of it."

Dean turns the gun on.

"Seriously. It's that or Like a Stone," I say.

"Or Even Flow." He laughs. "You'll never hear the best stuff on the radio. The singles have too many edges smoothed off."

"What would you recommend?"

He launches into a list of bands. Most, I know. A few are new. Zack is really into this stuff.

And he's really distracted.

He grimaces every time Dean changes needles or moves to a new line. But I manage to bring him back to music every time.

I keep him distracted for the entire cover-up.

When we're finished, he hugs me goodbye and leaves his card. Not in a do my next tattoo kind of way.

In a call me so we can make beautiful music together kind of way.

Dean shakes his head. "Not gonna stoop to sex?" He turns, tilts his hip into the air, rolls his jeans over his skin. "Low blow, sunshine."

My gaze refuses to budge from the tan skin on display. God, he has nice hips. I've never thought about a guy's hips before, but Dean's are so…