Page 15 of Seduced in Ink

She looked up at Aaron and did her best not to imagine him as he had been in her dream. After all, that had only been a figment. The idea of everything they had talked about while he was trying to save her behind had simply come back to her in a weird, subconscious way. It didn’t mean she actually wanted to sleep with Aaron Montgomery. It just meant that her brain was having a field day trying to figure out how to get out of the situation she was in.

“This is perfect. Come on in. Lincoln was just leaving,” she said, putting steel in her voice. She looked over at her cousin, who just rolled his eyes.

“I was. But now I kind of want to stay and see what happens.”

“Lincoln. You have work to do. And you don’t need to be here for this.”

“So you say. But I think I’d have more fun here.”

“Out, you brute.”

“Ouch,” Lincoln said, winking. And then he looked over at Aaron and narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t fuck with her.”

“Lincoln!” She gasped.

“What? I already said you were practically my sister. You’re going to do this to keep the folks off? Fine. But, Aaron? You touch her in any way? You hurt her? You will deal with me.”

“I get you. I’m not going to fuck this up.”

Madison wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She also wanted to beat somebody up because the embarrassment was almost too much to bear at this point.

“I can take care of myself. I do not need this show of masculine…whatever the hell is going on between you right now.”

“I’m just looking out for you,” Lincoln said, kissing her on the temple.

“No, you’re being a jerk. I’m not going to mess this up,” Aaron said again, his gaze on Lincoln’s face for a moment before meeting hers.

“I know. I trust you. Plus, it would be kind of horrible if I had to maim you, considering I’m in a relationship with your brother.”

“Yes,” Aaron said dryly. That would be horrible.”

“At least we understand each other. Let us know what happens,” Lincoln said as he walked out. Madison closed her eyes, groaning as she ended up alone with Aaron.

“Well. I was not expecting that,” Madison said after a moment, looking up at Aaron as he made his way fully into the house.

“Honestly, I was,” Aaron said, and she frowned.

“What?”

“Of course, Lincoln would want to make sure that I don’t fuck things up. I’d do the same thing for Bristol. I did do the same thing for Bristol. To the point where it kind of got me in trouble with the rest of the family, but somebody had to make sure that Marcus didn’t screw things up.”

“Bristol and Marcus are best friends. They weren’t going to screw things up.”

“Well, you and I are friends. Therefore, we’re not going to do it either.”

Madison paused. “Okay.” She took a breath. “That was a weird way to start this. Whateverthisis.”

“Yeah. But now that I’m here, we can figure it out.”

“Are we just going to end it? Forget it ever happened?”

“I don’t know.” Aaron stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked around her small home.

She liked her place, it was hers—and the bank’s, but it was mostly hers. Her parents hated it, for the most part because she didn’t dress it up with antiques or anything they considered classy. It was a little unconventional, a bit thrift store, but it was all hers. One day, she would have all new pieces rather than things she found secondhand, but for now, this worked for her. After all, she spent most of her time and money on her store rather than herself. And she was just fine with that.

“You know, I’ve read a few romances that started like this.”