AllTangledUp Read Online Free Page A

forked a cherry tomato from the salad into his
mouth. “My dad was an amateur chef. He used to win the chili cook-off at some
of the local festivals every year.”
    “Chef and mechanic.” Her eyes crinkled at the corners. “Your
mother was a lucky lady.”
    “Yeah.” Too bad she hadn’t thought so. Jesse’s good mood
dampened a bit, but he pushed aside that old bitterness. His father had been
dead for years, and his mother had left long before that. It was all long over.
Done.
    Lola tilted her head, glancing at him while she ate, as if
she wasn’t sure what to make of his sudden terseness. When she didn’t question
him about it, he breathed a sigh of relief. They fell into a companionable
silence while they finished their dinners.
    She set aside her plate, picking up her wine to drink. “So,
tell me about you.”
    “We’re getting personal, are we?” He flashed a sinful grin,
letting his gaze slide over her naked body. Having her curled up beside him
nude had been almost too much to resist during dinner, but he had her all
weekend. He had some time to relish the slow burn of anticipation. “Wouldn’t it
be easier if we just stuck to the sex?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve never done just sex before. And maybe I
like to know what I’m dealing with.” Her shoulder dipped in a shrug. “Start
with something easy. Tell me about your tattoo.”
    He grabbed the back of the couch for leverage, leaned
forward a little, and twisted to let her look at it. “I got it in Japan. I
studied there for a year in high school.”
    “Oh yeah?” She ran her finger along one of the shapes on his
back, he thought the top of the koi. “You got that while you were in high
school?”
    “I was eighteen.” Barely old enough to know his head from
his ass, but he’d never regretted getting the tattoo.
    “Eighteen? Wouldn’t that have been your senior year? You
didn’t miss having your senior year with your friends?”
    “No.” He snorted. “I was happy to go and my parents were
happy to send me.” Tension flooded his muscles when he could all but feel her
curiosity pique. Yep, getting personal was a bad idea. His hand fisted on the
leather sofa, and he forced his fingers to loosen.
    Her nails tapped against his spine. “Why?”
    Sighing, he made himself answer. This was old news. It was
just…being around a woman like Lola was stirring everything up. His usual type
tended more toward one-nighters with barflies—women who wore their hair too big
and their clothes too tight. Nothing like his mother. Or Lola.
    “That was the year my parents split up for good. It had been
building for a long time—Mom left and came back, left and came back.” And Jesse
was pretty sure his dad had spent the rest of his life waiting for her to come
back again. “But things had gotten a lot worse, and I was just as glad not to
stick around and watch the end. I got the tattoo when I found out my mother had
filed for divorce.” He cleared his throat. Old news or not, he wished they were
talking about something else. Anything else but this. “This tat style is
called Irezumi. It’s done by hand, and you have to find a master who’ll do it.
Only they make themselves hard to find because tattooing in Japan used to be a
way to mark criminals, so it’s still a little taboo.”
    She hesitated, as if she wanted to protest the topic change,
but she didn’t. Her fingertip drew a curved line up his back until she reached
the top of the tattoo at his neck. Goose bumps broke out on his flesh at her
touch and his cock twitched in reaction to her nearness. She toyed with the
hair at his nape. “I didn’t even know there were different schools of thought
about tattoos, other than those who like them and those who don’t.”
    “I take it you’re in the ‘those who don’t’ category.” He
settled into his seat, untwisting from the slightly awkward position.
    She rocked her hand back and forth through the air. “I don’t
dislike them, but I