Pretty in Ink (Voretti Family Book 3) Read Online Free

Pretty in Ink (Voretti Family Book 3)
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his muscle, and his arctic gaze to make it clear who was in charge.
    CJ looked up. He must’ve finally realized that Caleb had four inches and twenty pounds of muscle on him, because he swallowed whatever smart remark had been about to come out of his mouth. “If you’re talking about Liv, she’s inside. Decided she wanted a tattoo.” He widened his eyes, like he had no idea where that crazy idea had come from. “I told her to slow her roll, but you know how that girl gets. When she wants something, she’s gotta have it now.”  
    Caleb breathed in through his nose. Slow. Steady. Forcing his body to relax whether it wanted to or not. “If she’s inside getting a tattoo, why are you out here?”
    “You know. Places to go. People to see.” CJ feigned to the left, trying to get past Caleb, but he was slow and stupid.  
    “See them another time.”
    “What’s your problem?”
    Walk away , said the ten years Caleb had spent conditioning himself not to think too hard about Liv. But he couldn’t. Not with his blood surging through his veins, commanding him to do his job. To protect. “My problem is, your girlfriend is afraid of needles. She needs some support.”  
    CJ’s gaze shifted away from Caleb. “She’s not my girlfriend anymore.”
    Time slowed, like CJ had pulled a .22 out of the waistband of his skinny jeans. The timing of the break-up made Caleb all kinds of uneasy. “She was your girlfriend this morning.”
    “Yeah.” CJ glanced toward Permanent Ink , twitchy as a tweaker in withdrawal. “Well, it was more responsibility than I could take. I’m only twenty-two. I’m not ready for   a wife, kids, and a house in the suburbs. I gotta be free, you know?”
    Asshole . “Yeah. Like the Skynyrd song.”
    “See. I knew you’d get me.” CJ gave him a smarmy bros-before-hoes smirk, and hot rage surged through Caleb’s veins.
    He forced it down. Except he must not have gotten it all, because CJ backed up a step, his face going whiter than the dead body Caleb had found his first day on patrol.  
    “Look, man—no disrespect to Liv. I gotta live my life, that’s all.”
    Caleb took another slow breath, planning exactly what he was going to say so he didn’t accidentally go off on CJ. Sure. I get it. Short and sweet. Then he’d go home, like he should’ve done in the first place.
    “It wasn’t gonna work out for me and Liv anyway,” CJ said. “She plays at being alternative, but inside she’s exactly like all the other chicks out there, desperate to find a man to take care of her.”
    Caleb couldn’t remember moving, but somehow he was right up in CJ’s face. “You want to live your life? Good. But here’s how it’s gonna be. You stay away from Liv. You don’t touch her, you don’t come near her, you don’t even call her. After today, as far as you’re concerned, she doesn’t exist. Understand?”
    “Chill, man.” CJ held up both hands in the universal gesture for surrender, backstepping as fast as he could. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I don’t want your girl.”
    “She’s not my girl.”
    “Sticking to that just-friends story, huh?” Now that he was out of range, CJ’s smirk returned. “Well don’t worry. I’ll stay away from your friend .”
    *
    “Uh, lady? You can open your eyes now.”
    The unfamiliar male voice brought Liv out of her trance. The buzz of the tattoo machine had faded to silence. Her eyes were clamped shut, her hands were clenched around the arms of the chair, and her bicep burned like she’d been branded, but she’d done it. She’d faced her fears and gotten a tattoo.
    Slowly, she unclenched her muscles. She eased her eyes open, but kept them pointed in front of her, at the tattoo artist she was only now seeing for the first time.  
    He was in his mid-thirties, with two full sleeves of swirling red and blue designs that looked like the ocean on fire.
      She had a vision of a dress. Azure silk with carmine accents. The skirt would
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