Inked Magic Read Online Free

long-haired rockers who were wild and free, fun to be with but who didn’t make any claims on her after a night of rowdy sex.
    It had to be that way. Too much time, too much intensity, too much touch, and her gift changed them, harmed them irrevocably. Stole pieces away from them that couldn’t always be replaced.
    Her instincts told her to say no to Cathal’s invitation. Her body vetoed it with a hard clenching of her channel and the escape of arousal.
    His nostrils flared, like a male animal scenting a female in heat, as if on some level he sensed her need for sex. “Do you have a particular piece of art in mind?”
    He laughed, a sound guaranteed to turn heads, male and female alike. “No, I’m not interested in getting a tattoo. I came in to meet you and ask you out to dinner.”
    Behind her Jamaal whistled and said, “A fast mover. I like this man’s style, Etaín.”
    She liked more than that. Even hidden beneath clothing, she could see the perfection of Cathal’s unmarked skin in her mind’s eye, a canvas wide open for exploration.
    Designs formed without her consciously searching for them, the same way those on her own skin had come to her. The same way those she tattooed outside of work did. They had power. That she believed completely.
    “Have dinner with me,” he said again. “We can go somewhere close, in walking distance. How about Aesirs?”
    Jamaal chose that moment to deliver payback. “Go! You need to get laid.”
    Emboldened, Salina said, “Yeah, go. I’ll leave the money for today’s session with Bryce.”
    Cathal smiled, fallen angel looks delivering sinful temptation. “The vote seems to be in my favor.”
    Bryce added his then, coming around the privacy screen to say, “Go. I’ll take care of your machine and finish cleaning up your station. And while you’re at Aesirs, scope out the waiters for Derrick. That place is supposed to be loaded with guys hot enough to persuade a straight man to switch teams.”
    Etaín pulled her hand from Cathal’s. The swirling images overlaid along the inside length of his forearms by her imagination disappeared but the loss of contact didn’t diminish the heat inside her. If anything, it intensified the craving for the touch of skin to skin.
    “I can go now,” she said, curious about Aesirs. It was an exclusive restaurant with bouncers to make sure only those expected entered.
    Had Cathal suggested it to impress her? Or because going there seemed natural to him and getting seated wasn’t a problem, whether he had reservations or not?
    She snagged her Harley jacket and came around the counter. His gaze traveled the length of her body, a glance that said he liked what he saw and wanted to see more, a look that stroked her feminine pride without making her feel like a piece of meat.
    Derrick, dressed in jeans and tank top, opened the door as they reached it. His eyes went wide and his hand fluttered to his chest.
    “Oh delicious, Etaín,”
he said, still in touch with his inner woman despite the change of clothes and arms fully sleeved in tattoos. “You go, girl.”
    She cut a glance at Cathal. He seemed totally unfazed, amused if anything. It won him points with her. Huge points. Derrick was one of her closest friends.
    They passed through the doorway and out into muted sunshine. She breathed deeply, wanting to draw it inside her the same way she did moonlight at night.
    When she was working, as long as there were windows, she could tune out the craving to stand beneath open skies. But the minute she stepped outside it came back with a vengeance, filling her with the need to bury her toes in ocean-wet sand as the surf licked her ankles, to scoop up rich loam in her hands and run barefoot through a dark primordial forest, stopping only to dance around a fire deep in the woods.
    She shook her head slightly, clearing her mind of sensations that were familiar yet completely at odds with her reality, like forgotten childhood memories, or, more likely,