Obsession (Ink & Iron #1) Read Online Free Page B

he’d been drunk in this one, his eyes sleepy and sensual. He’d tried to hide being loaded from her, but she always knew the truth behind those sleepy eyes.
    Could she see through the raging fire of the chemistry between them to see the truth now?
    When her cell phone rang, she jumped.
    “Jesus. I really need to calm down,” she muttered as she moved through her apartment into the living room. She tracked the ringtone to the coffee table, which was a piece of carved teak from India topped in glass. Madame was half-sitting on the phone, calmly licking one of her paws. Janie gave her a small push, but the enormous cat didn’t budge, just gave her an evil look from the corner of one blue eye. “Fine,” she mumbled, snaking her hand under the cat’s furry weight to retrieve the phone—and smiled when she saw it was her best friend calling.
    “Celine, just the person I needed to talk to!”
    She and Celine had met five years ago, when Janie was teaching a yoga class in North Hollywood. An art teacher at L.A. City College, Celine was gorgeous—tall, tattooed, a bit of a rebel, and one of the truest friends she’d ever had.
    “And I appear as if by magic, ready to do your bidding, sugar. What’s up?”
    Janie smiled. “I have a date. Well, sort of a date. Actually, it’s not a date at all.”
    “Okayyyy….”
    “That made absolutely no sense, did it?”
    “Nope,” Celine said cheerfully. “Want to try again?”
    Janie blew out a breath. She moved through the French doors, which she’d left open to take advantage of the fresh air and the sweet scent coming from the pair of lemon trees blossoming outside. The old, uneven bricks of the small patio were cool on her bare feet, and the sky was lit with soft purple twilight.
    “You remember I told you about my ex?”
    “ The ex? The lead singer of Ink & Iron with the tattoos and the motorcycles and the throaty voice who dedicates all his heartbreak ballads to you? That ex?”
    Janie bit her lip. “Yes. That one.”
    “And…?”
    “And I’m going to dinner with him in…” she glanced at the clock, “…in about half an hour.”
    “Seriously? Should I be worried? Because from what you’ve told me he did a real number on you and you’re still pretty pissed off at him. Especially after…well, your old friend who passed so recently.”
    Janie paced the small patio. “I know. I know ! Which makes this totally stupid. But, Celine, he dropped by my yoga studio today—he walked into one of my classes and stood there waiting for an hour. Well, he actually did the class. I think. I was trying not to look at him, but of course I did. And then we talked in my office and things got a little messy—”
    “I need specifics,” Celine interrupted. “‘Messy’ as in screaming and crying ‘messy’, or hot reunion sex on a yoga mat that was great but you already regret it ‘messy’?”
    “Not messy like that. Or not much, anyway. Messy emotional. And I agreed to have dinner with him, which is insane and I know it, but not only am I going, but I can’t wait to see him and God, what do I wear?”
    There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, then, “Girl, you are in bad shape.”
    “Tell me about it. Just…help me figure out what to wear before he gets here, because being naked when he arrives would not be a good thing.”
    “Or it could be a very good thing. I’ve seen him, remember.”
    “Celine! Are you going to help me or not?”
    “Of course. And that’s easy. What do you feel the most powerful in?”
    Twenty minutes later Janie was dressed in her favorite pair of low-slung jeans, a sleeveless silk top in a deep shade of gold that brought out the touches of gold in her green eyes and highlighted her long, blond hair. She’d left it down in loose waves like a protective shield around her shoulders. And she wore her favorite pair of worn knee-high brown leather boots. She always felt like she could take on the world when she wore boots. A