Page 6 of Curvy Perfection

She repeated the words, and then opened the door.

Neither of them spoke as Ward left, and she closed the door, leaning up against it, pressing her fingers to her lips.

That was some kiss.

Chapter Three

“In all the time we’ve worked together, I’ve never known you to cancel a client,” Christopher said.

“Then I guess you don’t know everything about me,” Ward said. He stared down at his artist pad, then scrunched up his nose. It wasn’t any good. “Do you think my client would want this on their body?” He held up the pad for Christopher to look. The serpent, slithering around a knife, was not coming together.

He saw his friend frown as he screwed up the paper and tossed it into the trash, to join all of the rest of the drawings he’d been failing on.

Ward had a lot of different inks he could decorate the body with. He’d lost count of the number of doves, love hearts, and dolphins he was requested to tattoo.

What he also allowed to a certain extent was commissioned work, which is what he was doing now. He took pride in his work, which is why he was always practicing, until he got onto the main work of art—the human body.

For the past five days, he’d been practicing this work, and so far he’d fucked it up every single time. He had no choice but to postpone the session with the guy who wanted the serpent. The only way that would change was if he got several drawings accurate.

“What’s going on?” Christopher asked.

“Nothing.”

“Okay, I know you, and I know how you work. Your art is part of you, and this says something is messing with your head.” Christopher folded his arms across his chest.

Ward tried to ignore him, but he fucked up the line he was drawing, and growled, tossing the artist pad down, and then turning to his friend. “Nothing is going on.”

“This has nothing to do with you and a certain bartender having a conversation?” Christopher asked.

“First of all, how do you know about that? Second, before you even answer the first, tell me honestly, is there some kind of bet about me and Kirsty that I don’t know about?” Ward asked.

He’d been wanting to ask Christopher and a couple of the other guys about it. There was no way he was going to ask Randall. That guy was a direct link to Kirsty through Bethany. There were not a lot of people he could ask without word getting out that he was doing the asking. Which sucked, and it pissed him off.

He rubbed the back of his head and waited.

“Uh, why do you ask?”

“So there is a bet going on?” Ward asked.

Christopher wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t say that.”

“But you also tried to evade the question. I’ve known you for years. I know when you’re trying to think of a lie to cover up shit. What bet? When? How? Who started it?” The questions just kept coming.

Christopher blew out a breath. “I don’t remember who started it. It was a long time ago. Back in high school.”

“Back in high school?”

His friend nodded.

“We’ve been out of high school for twelve years!”

“Yeah, and you and Kirsty are still in town. Most of us are still in town, and you and she are always arguing, and if I can see the attraction between the two of you, they can.”

Ward began to pace his office.

They didn’t have any customers for a few hours, but he remained open for casual drop-ins, which he did get from time to time. This was not one of those days. He’d been hoping for a distraction and it wasn’t coming.

“What is going on?” Christopher asked.