Surrender of a Tattooist: Obsessive Dark Romance Alpha Bad Boy (Tattooist Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

and…well… you can figure out the rest.”
    Cliff grinned, “It’s not funny. Sort of. Just don’t feel bad. I once put a pork skin in a guy’s soup because he kept sending it back.”
    Pixie’s brows shot up. “You didn’t!”
    He grinned evilly. “I did.”
    “That’s terrible!”
    Cliff started laughing, “He said it was the best soup he’d ever had and asked where we got the ‘crunchy stuff’ on top. My dad was like, what crunchy stuff? So I said it was some crushed fake pork topping and Pops knew we didn’t have any of that around in the place, so he waited until he left, took me outside, and chewed me up one side and down the other. Said I could have killed the dude.”
    “Death by pork skin,” Pixie snickered.
    “Imagine reading that one in the papers.”
    She smiled shyly as she admitted, “I used to love pork skins.”
    “You did?” He shook his head and laughed. “I still do! Especially with hot sauce. The big puffy ones are best. I don’t like the really crunchy ones anymore.”
    Amused and fighting back laughter, Pixie waved her hand. “Get thee behind me, Satan. Pork skins are just death in a bag, literally. Not just for the pigs either. Humans die from ‘em.”
    “Then I’ll die. I can think of worse ways to go.” Cliff piloted the car around a set of tricky turns and added, “I mean, we live in L.A. Smog is a killer. There’s crime everywhere. You could die in traffic. I’ll take my chances with the pork skins.”
    “You have a good point.” She looked down at his hands again. They stayed steady on the wheel, and again she wondered what they would feel like on her skin. She shivered as an unbidden image rose up: the two of them in bed, his beautifully inked and sleek skin, his magnificent body nude and shimmering…
    She blinked that tempting image away just as he asked, “So what’s next?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean what happens with you next? Obviously waitressing isn’t your strong suit, and it doesn’t sound like you’re all that happy doing nails either; if you were you would do it all the time.”
    He was far more astute than she had considered. She squirmed in her seat and said, “I’d like to do something but…maybe I should have rethought the hair and tats before I went to college.”
    A small frown creased his brow. “What do you mean?”
    She sighed and stared out the window. “My major was in education and my minor was in literature. I love to read, and I love to read older works. I’m really hooked on Dickens, Millay, Poe, and a few others. I wanted to teach when I graduated, but one thing led to another and I wound up here instead of back home, which is where I thought I would end up. Then I realized the field was packed with people trying to get a job and I found myself a little left out of the races.” She sighed again. “Then I started doing other stuff and I just sort of let it fall to the wayside.” She hadn’t meant to open up to him that way. She didn’t know him well enough to open up to him like that. She fell silent, her shoulders tensing as she waited for him to speak, to tell her she was being ridiculous and it was high time she grew up and did something productive with her life.
    He didn’t say that. Instead he said, “People should do something they love and are passionate about. Maybe you just haven’t found that yet.”
    “I haven’t.” It was true. She just didn’t know how to go about figuring out what she was passionate about. She knew she cared about animals, and social justice, and making the world a better place. She just didn’t see how any of those things would translate into earning a living. She’d briefly considered becoming a veterinarian, but she didn’t want to go back to college and, what was more, she couldn’t really afford to either. So she changed the subject, “I guess I have to count this as a real date now.”
    He winked at her. “I am.”
    “Are you always so