Page 45 of Asking for Trouble
“Paws and claws,” he agreed soberly, but his eyes shone with mirth so bright I had to blink away the sun spots.
A giggle escaped before I could slap my hand over my mouth. When I was under control, I said, “Well, as much as I wouldloveto do that for you, I have a client. Claire Lafayette.”
Aaron’s grin was wide and triumphant. “Claire for Aaron Clare and Lafayette’s the surname of Zeus’s and Priest’s women, Loulou and Bea.”
“So you’re my noon appointment,” I clarified, a little dazed.
Aaron slapped his big, scarred, and tattooed hands on my pale blue mat and wiggled his fingers. “Hop to it, Blue. These suckers’ve never been seen to, so it’ll probably take you a while to get them up to snuff.”
Emotion surged up my throat so strongly, I almost gagged. It was joy so sharp it made my teeth ache. Unbidden tears stung the backs of my eyes and pooled in the ducts.
“Hey, hey,” Aaron crooned, leaning forward to tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear and cup my cheek. “What happened to the happy?”
“I am happy,” I whispered through the crush of tears in my throat. “I think it’s just a shock to my system.”
His full mouth flatlined, and I watched his gaze dip to the exposed line of my throat that my hair had been covering. I’d covered the vivid bruises from Rooster’s choking grip with about a pound of concealer, but Aaron’s eyes were too keen. I swallowed thickly as his hand trailed from my cheek along the soft edge of my jaw to my throat, palming my neck the way Rooster had done, touching the bruises like Mei had on my wrists. His touch was feather light, thumb dragging softly over my tripping pulse. I watched as emotion stormed through his expression and then as he visibly swallowed it down and shifted back, dropping his hand.
When he smiled, it was almost normal—bright and arrogant in that way that made women combust. But I could see the tightness beside his eyes and knew he was making an effort to be cool so he wouldn’t ruin my happiness.
Fuck, how was I ever going to resist a man like him?
An outlaw biker who’d come to get his damn nails done just to see me.
I sucked in a tremulous breath and smiled back at him as I took his hands and laid them over the bolster. “You do know I’m going to have to paint them something real pretty…I’m thinking blue.”
Aaron laughed, that gorgeous sound deep from the belly, and I wanted to throw myself into his arms and beg him to laugh with me every day for the rest of my life.
“Blue suits just fine,” he agreed.
I took a moment to stroke over his big hands, tracing The Fallen MC skull and flaming wings symbol on the dorsal side and the four thick silver rings on each hand. I lingered over the signet ring etched with spidery calligraphy, trying to read the letters upside down.
“Ximena Sofia Escalante,” he answered my unspoken question. “It was my mother’s ring and, before that, her mother’s. The eldest daughter was named Ximena in my family until my sister was born.”
“Why the break in tradition?” I asked as I started to prep my station to give him a manicure.
He hesitated for a moment, that energetic vibrancy dimming in a way that made me stop what I was doing to search his morose expression.
“My parents died a few weeks after she was born in a car crash. When we went into foster care, they decided Ximena was too hard for people to say, so they used her middle name, Elsa.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, taking his hands to give them a squeeze. “Were you always Aaron?”
“Aarón,” he said in a rolling Spanish accent, amplifying his name to even more beautiful heights. “But it was easier to go by Aaron. There isn’t a huge Latino community in the province. Honestly, I got lucky with the club. I didn’t learn Spanish until I patched in and got the chance to speak it with Nova and his Old Lady, Lila, and Ares, Zeus and Loulou’s son. Lou’s tryin’ to learn, but she can’t roll her r’s for shit.”
I laughed, rolling mine on my tongue.
Aaron shot me a heated, lazy grin. “Why did I know you’d be perfect at that? Makes me think what else you could get up to with that tongue.”
I bit my lip to hide my smile. “Behave, we are at my place of work.”
“Woulda taken you out properly, you gave me the chance,” he reminded me.
“I’m married,” I countered. Even the words felt like a knife I’d stuck through my own chest.
I pulled out the nail drill and flicked it on, only to watch Aaron’s eyes blow wide.
“What the fuck is that?” he asked suspiciously. “Didn’t come here to get tortured, Blue. Coulda asked Priest for a session if I wanted to get fucked up.”
The laughter that burst from me was so loud, some of the other patrons turned to see what amused me. I caught Lin’s eye, but she only shook her head with an indulgent smile.