Inked in the Steel City Series (7 page)

“Eric, put your hand under her chin. And Mina, look up at him. Try for a soft expression.”

Eric gazed down at Mina with a questioning look in his eyes. Clearly, he understood much better than Karen did that the instructions were embarrassing her. Mina nodded her consent and melted inside, going way beyond soft as Eric pressed his fingers lightly beneath her chin. “I have no idea what a ‘soft expression’ is,” Mina said, glancing at Karen for a split second before returning her attention to Eric.

“You’re doing it perfectly.” Karen snapped away, as if afraid that the moment would pass and she’d be left without photographic evidence.

Mina was more grateful than ever for the heavy makeup. Continuing to meet Eric’s gaze for the sake of the pose was a blessing and a curse at the same time. On one hand it felt surprisingly natural, and on the other hand, that fact was worrying in and of itself. It shouldn’t have felt natural to stand there pressed against Eric with only a thin layer of silk between them. She could feel his heart beating and he could probably feel hers too. It should have been intensely awkward, and while it was somewhat uncomfortable, Mina suspected that it wouldn’t have felt nearly as much so if Karen hadn’t been there. If they weren’t being photographed, if it were just the two of them…

“Crazy idea…” Karen said, and Mina realized that she’d stopped taking pictures. “But do you two think you could look like you’re about to kiss?” As if she sensed Mina’s sudden spike of alarm, she hurried to elaborate. “I mean, your lips don’t have to touch or anything. If you could just part them a little and lean a bit closer…  It would be the best photo of the session. I just know it.” Her tone was half-pleading by the time she finished.

Eric didn’t give Mina a chance to respond. Instead, he leaned closer, his breath heating her lips as he exhaled slowly. She could smell the pleasant sharpness of mint on his breath, as if he’d foreseen Karen’s shameless demands and prepared. Her lips tingled, her mouth moistening in automatic response to his closeness. Karen made a victorious sound, and then Mina forgot all about her as Eric kissed her.

All the bones in her body seemed to melt as the embrace Karen had instructed Eric to wrap Mina in became firm and real, nothing like the imitation of passion that had preceded it. He tasted as fresh and sweet as he smelled, and Mina lost her breath in a rush as he pulled her tighter against him, slipping just a hint of his tongue past her lips. She yielded to him, her heart hammering against his chest. He lifted his hand from her shoulder, tracing the curve of her neck with his fingertips and burying it in her hair.

“Oh. My. God.”
Click. Click. Click.

Mina became aware of the world again and regretted it as Eric pulled slowly away, gently breaking the seal of their kiss.

“You guys!”
Click
. “That was
incredible
!”

One last rush of Eric’s breath against her lips and the magic was over, the bond of intimacy between them dispelled by Karen’s presence. “Take a look at this, Mina!”

Karen extended her camera, flashing the screen in Mina’s direction – which was also Eric’s, seeing as how they were still entwined. It was a good thing too, because Mina had all but forgotten her silk and it had slipped, the ends hanging loosely at her sides. It was sandwiched between her and Eric’s bodies, their closeness the only thing holding it up. She silently implored some higher power to not let him move as she scrambled for a hold on the material, and as she shifted almost imperceptibly, she realized that there was a reason why he was holding so still – he was hard.

Karen was oblivious, and Mina could only hope that she’d stay that way. Even after she managed to get ahold of the rebellious silk, she didn’t try to escape his grasp. The fact that she’d just had her first kiss in ages in front of her best friend and on camera was embarrassing enough. She could at least spare Eric – and herself – the awkwardness of Karen realizing that the kiss hadn’t been play-acted solely for the benefit of her photographic vision.

“This is
the
photo, Mina.” Karen danced back and forth on the balls of her feet, jostling the screen so that Mina was barely able to catch a glimpse of the image. “Thank you so much, you guys.” She danced away, and Mina turned to Eric, feeling the pull of his gaze like a magnet.

Her breath caught in her lungs when she met his eyes, and for a split second the air of intimacy flared up between them again and she thought he might reinitiate the kiss. He only extended his hand though, offering her the end of the length of silk, which had somehow become entangled in his grasp. A powerful flush heated her face as she looked at him standing there, the delicate material caught in his fist. It would only have taken half a moment and a minimum of effort on his part to pull her cover away, baring her from the waist up. The look in his eyes told her that his gaze would have fallen on much more than just the ink he’d put in her body if it hadn’t been for the silk.

She took it silently, and with one last lingering gaze, he pulled away from her, putting space between their bodies for what seemed like the first time in hours. Suppressing a sigh, Mina drifted to where she’d draped her top across the back of the computer chair and pulled it on. When she cast a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that Eric was still facing the background, presumably waiting for his hard-on to subside. The set of his shoulders was tense, his muscles tight and defined beneath the ink. She felt just the opposite – as if she might melt into a puddle on the floor at any moment.

“I can’t believe how well these images turned out. I’ve never been so happy with the results of a shoot. We have to celebrate.”

Mina allowed her thoughts to return to the land of the ordinary as Karen turned to her, beaming. No, more than just beaming – glowing. She had that luminous look people always talked about pregnant women getting. “Let’s all grab something to eat. My treat.”

“I don’t know, Karen. Jess is waiting for me at home. I told her I’d be back in a couple hours.”

Karen waved away Mina’s objection. “Why don’t you swing by your apartment and grab Jess? It’s on the way to Ruby’s anyway.”

Ruby’s Bar & Grill was where Karen waited tables four nights a week, and she received a generous employee discount that she sometimes shared with Mina and Jess.

“You know Jess loves the fries,” Karen said. She’d been friends with Mina for years and knew that the easiest way to get her to agree to something was to take advantage of her feelings for her little sister.

It was true. Jess loved the fries at Ruby’s. Mina also didn’t get to take her out as often as she wished she could afford to. Being wheelchair bound was tough enough for a fourteen year old – it was important to Mina to do whatever was within her power to make sure Jess had as normal a childhood as she could give her. “All right. I’ll call Jess and tell her I’m coming for her.”

“Eric, you’ll come too, won’t you?”

Mina’s heart skipped a beat as Karen asked the question she hadn’t dared to. As she dialed, she breathed a little quicker as she waited for his answer.

“Sure.”

“Mina?”

“Hey Jess.” She was aware of how breathy her voice sounded, but she couldn’t help it. “Would you like to grab something to eat at Ruby’s?”

Jess responded enthusiastically, and a twinge of guilt assaulted Mina. Jess had probably been bored to death stuck alone in the apartment on a Sunday afternoon. “All right. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Chapter 4

The fall air was crisp and fresh. Autumn was Mina’s second-favorite time of year, surpassed only by spring. Normally stepping out of the apartment and into the pleasant weather with Jess at her side would have put Mina in a good mood, but as she locked the door, her stomach churned in a fit of nervousness. In just a few minutes, she and Jess would arrive at Ruby’s, where Karen and Eric would be waiting for them.

Eric. Mina’s stomach flip-flopped as she tried to imagine what he’d think of her when he saw her arrive with Jess, who, in many ways, was more like a daughter to her than a sibling. Would he still see her as the girl he’d kissed in the studio, or the much older woman she felt like? Maybe he’d regret the kiss. Trying not to dwell on the possibility, she unlocked her car, helped Jess into a seat – she could stand, but only for short periods of time – and folded her wheelchair, stowing it away in the trunk. By the time she finished the routine she’d broken into a light sweat. Fortunately, she was stronger than she looked.

Ten minutes later she’d parked in the Ruby’s lot. Her mind whirled with thoughts of Eric as she went mechanically about unloading and unfolding Jess’s wheelchair. When it was ready she helped Jess into it. “Ready for some fries?” She hoped her smile disguised her nervousness.

“Always.” Jess beamed at her. “Is Karen already here?”

Mina nodded. “She should be waiting inside with Eric. He’s the artist who did my tattoo.”

“Karen knows him? I thought she hated tattoos.”

“She doesn’t hate them. She’s just afraid of needles. Eric is here because the tattoo shop owner asked him to be a part of the photo shoot and Karen invited him to eat with us afterward.”

Jess nodded, clueless that Mina had posed half-naked with Eric and then kissed him right in front of Karen and her camera. That was for the best. Mina didn’t want Jess to get the wrong idea. It wasn’t like she’d made a habit of getting so intimate with guys she barely knew. If anything, the opposite was true. She wasn’t like their mother. In fact, their mother’s behavior was a sort of inversed standard she held herself to. Whenever she examined her own habits and determined that they were exactly the opposite of her mother’s, she felt satisfied. She was on the right track as long as she wasn’t on the train wreck of a path her mother had hurdled down.

The lively din of chatter greeted Mina as she opened Ruby’s front door and held it that way for Jess, who rolled through in her electric wheelchair. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of Mina’s stomach as she stepped through the door and it closed, isolating her from the cool, wide-open world outside. Now she was in the relatively small restaurant, in inescapably close proximity to Eric. Any second now she’d see him and he’d see her. They’d lock eyes and then he’d see Jess at her side and he’d know: Mina was already committed to someone in a way she could never be committed to any man. She didn’t have any romantic ties to anyone, but her life was a tangle of responsibilities that didn’t leave room for an outsider, no matter how hot or gloriously tattooed he was. Or at least, that was what she told herself. It was easier than getting her hopes up and being rejected when he saw her as a whole person; a guardian and provider instead of just another carefree twenty-something girl.

“Mina! Jess! Over here.”

Mina turned in the direction of Karen’s voice and saw her sitting at a large table across from Eric. He turned toward them in what seemed like slow motion, and in the span of one impossibly brief moment, Mina noticed everything about him. He was wearing the same simple black jacket he’d worn on the day on their failed coffee date. Today he’d unzipped it, letting the restaurant’s heat flow underneath, where he wore the same grey cotton thermal shirt he’d worn – or rather, not worn – at Karen’s studio. He seemed to have just finished a sip from the glass that rested on the table in front of him, half-full of water, not soda or beer. His choice of beverage supported what Mina had suspected when she’d seen him shirtless – he had to be into fitness. A drop of water gleamed on his lower lip and she waited for his mouth to curve down into a frown. She almost wished it would so that she could write him off and chalk the kiss up to impulsivity.

But he didn’t frown. Instead he smiled as his blue eyes traveled over Jess and then met Mina’s gaze. “Hey guys,” Mina said quietly, feeling somehow defeated as she and Jess approached the table and Eric’s smile didn’t waver.