Page 6 of Need (Men of Inked Sinners #3)

OLIVER

Liam whistles as I stalk into the garage after a cleanup at the local barber. “Lookin’ hot, brother.”

I give him the middle finger as I round my desk across from his. I don’t need his shit today.

“What are you doing tonight? Want to go watch Sharla dance with me?”

I don’t even bother looking up from the stack of papers in front of me. “No.” I swear he’s off his rocker. If he’s serious about Sharla at all, why would he want me—her possible future brother-in-law—to watch her dance naked?

“Come on. We can get drunk and look at some tits. I leave for Vegas tomorrow and need to blow off some steam.”

“No, and Vegas is how you blow off steam. You don’t pre-game a vacation.”

He grunts his disapproval. “Does this have anything to do with that hot piece of ass you’ve been texting nonstop for the last week?”

Now, I look up, narrowing my eyes. “Do not call her a hot piece of ass.”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You’re sweet on her. She must have some amazing snatch.”

If my glare was hot before, it’s now molten. “Watch it, little brother.”

He waves his hand at me and laughs. “Totally sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this flustered over someone.”

“I’m not flustered.”

“Well, you’re something.” He grabs his phone and starts typing away on the screen. “How about a movie? They have the newest action one with that guy we like with the accent.”

My brother can’t remember names and titles to save his life. How in the hell am I supposed to know who he’s talking about without any real details besides the accent. “I gotta pass.”

“Lulu?” He raises an eyebrow, and I’m shocked he remembers her name.

“Yeah.”

“Going out or staying in?”

“Don’t know,” I tell him, even though I do.

She’s coming here at seven, after she finishes with her last client, to look at the garage and figure out how big of a job it’ll be.

It’s bigger than I think she realizes, but I don’t expect or want her to do much. I agreed to letting her at the shelves and drawers because she begged me, and I think this is the shit she enjoys. I’d do anything to spend a little more time surrounded by her goodness.

“I took Shar to the new joint down the street. Maybe you can go there.” His voice sounds genuine, which is a change for him. “They had some killer street tacos.”

“I’ll remember that.”

He places his knuckles on the desk and pushes himself upward. “Well, I’m going to hit it. I promised Shar I’d be there by seven to watch her entire set tonight.”

“Cool. Will I see you before you leave tomorrow?”

He shakes his head. “I’m going to roll out of bed and head to Midway, but text me if you need something, and I’ll be back in a few days.”

“Have fun, and don’t get arrested.”

He laughs. “I’m way past that part of my life. I’m a law-abiding citizen now.”

It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Sure, Li. Whatever you say.”

“Enjoy your date tonight. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Is there anything you don’t do?” I ask, because he’s an animal and the phrase doesn’t fit him.

He laughs and shakes his head. “I’m game for everything and anything. ”

“You’re also a dumbass,” I tell him, and it’s his turn to give me the middle finger before he stalks out.

I glance at the clock, and it’s a quarter to seven. I have only a few minutes to straighten up the mess Liam made and the few half-filled coffee cups that have sat out so long they have mold growing on top of the liquid.

I make quick work of the small things, opting to throw out the used mugs. We should really use paper, especially since we get called away a lot to help stranded drivers. Ceramic mugs don’t fit in the truck’s cupholder, and I’m not one to reheat my coffee when I get back to the garage after.

“Hello!” Lulu’s voice echoes through the garage, and my heart leaps inside my chest.

I take a quick glance around the bays and our office area, and things are the best they’re going to get. I can’t sugarcoat it. It’s a working garage filled with grease, dirt, and tools everywhere.

“Back here,” I say, heading toward her voice. She must’ve come through the front that’s only used by customers.

As I round the corner, she walks through the garage entrance, and we nearly collide.

“Hey,” I say, suddenly nervous, which isn’t like me.

We haven’t seen each other since the day we met, but we’ve been texting here and there, though nothing too much.

“This is super cute.” Her gaze roams around the garage, not stopping for much longer than a second on certain areas. “This is a dream job for me.”

I can’t stop my entire forehead from pinching down. “Are you feeling okay?” There’s no way a dirty place like this could be called a dream job by anyone, especially her.

“I’m fine, but this—” she waves her hand around “—is an organizer’s paradise. The challenge of it all.”

“You’re an odd bird, Lulu.”

“Normal is so boring, Oliver,” she says with a playful smirk. “Can I look around?”

“Yeah.” I motion toward the area behind me. “Look wherever you want. I’ll just sit at my desk and observe.”

She sets her bag down on an empty chair near the office area. “How long have you been here?”

“We bought the business ten years ago from my stepdad’s buddy.”

“Impressive. What were you? Eighteen?”

I let out a bark of laughter. “I wish. I was twenty-five and just out of the military. I had saved up some cash while I was in there and figured, why not own my own business.”

“Wait.” She spins around, staring straight at me as her eyes roam over my face. “That would make you…”

“Thirty-five.”

“Damn,” she whispers, and that one word is like a dagger to my heart .

“I know I’m old.”

She reaches out, placing her hand on my arm. “No, not old. You’re aging like a fine wine, Oliver. I wouldn’t have pegged you for a day over twenty-eight.”

“And you are?”

“Twenty-four,” she replies.

“You’re so young,” I whisper. “Too young.”

“Too young for what?” she asks, taking a step closer and staring up at me with those big brown doe eyes.

“Well…I…” I’ve never been one to fumble around, but this woman has me off-kilter. She’s too sweet. Too innocent-looking to be around a meathead like me.

But with the way she’s looking at me and the crackle in the air, I can’t help myself. Young though she may be, my entire body is craving to touch her, to taste her. I reach out, snake my arm around her waist, and pull her flush against me.

“For this,” I whisper, bending my neck to bring our mouths closer together.

Her breath hitches, and her eyes somehow get bigger.

“Unless you don’t…” I start to say because maybe I’ve been reading the chemistry all wrong. But before I can finish the statement, Lulu pops up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine.

The soft contact is all I need to unleash the desire I’ve felt since the moment we met.

That day when I tackled her, lying on top of her, staring down into her frightened eyes, something shifted in me.

Something I’d never felt before in my life.

I chalked it up to the adrenaline of the moment, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake it.

“Oliver,” she moans against my lips, making me kiss her deeper and harder.

The moment is like something out of a cheesy romance movie where the world falls away except the two of us. Nothing else exists. Nothing else matters.

“Well, now.” Liam’s voice cuts through the air.

I groan in frustration as Lulu starts to pull away. I open my eyes, finding her big brown ones staring back at me.

“Who do we have here?” he asks as he walks in our direction. He’s still a cockblock as an adult, which is more annoying than when he was one as a kid.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I ask, my voice filled with frustration.

“Forgot my wallet,” he says as I track his movement with my gaze. “And you are?” His eyes linger a little too long on Lulu not to rub me the wrong way.

“Lulu.”

“She’s a friend,” I interrupt her response because my brother will pitch a fit about having anything moved out of its current place .

Her eyebrows rise as he says, “Looks like a little more than friends.”

“Isn’t Sharla waiting for you?”

He snags his wallet off his desk and shoves it in his back pocket, his gaze wandering down the length of her body. “Sharla’s not going anywhere, Oli, relax. It’s nice to finally put a face with the name.”

I growl, wanting to tell him to fuck off and leave, but I know that’ll only make him stay longer. He’s annoying like that. “Can you go now?”

“Sure,” he says with a smile, “we’ll talk more about this later.”

“After Vegas,” I reply.

He nods and finally walks toward the exit. “See you soon, brother. And, Lulu, it was a pleasure.”

“Bye,” I bite out, done with him.

When he’s gone, I do my best to smooth over the awkwardness caused by his interruption. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” she asks.

“He’s a jerk.”

“He didn’t seem that bad.”

“He was on his best behavior. Trust me when I tell you to steer clear of him. He’s nothing but trouble.”

“Brothers…am I right?”

“Do you have one?”

She shakes her head. “A sister and she isn’t any better.”

“Do you wanna grab something to eat after this?” I ask, shooting my shot because I have been dying to ask her out but didn’t feel the vibes were there on her part until the kiss.

Her smile is immediate, and I know I have her. “I’d love that. I just want to take a few minutes to look everything over to make a list of supplies I’ll need, and then we can go.”

“Perfect.”

She doesn’t waste any time moving away from me, heading straight toward the bank of cabinets.

They are filled with so many parts, both big and small, that I’m not sure she’ll want to continue any further once she gets a good look.

The size of the job has to be daunting. It’s why I gave up on organizing everything years ago.

This isn’t just our mess, but that of the guy who owned this before us too.

“Wow,” she says as her fingers skate over a shelf of tiny boxes filled with bolts of every size. “There’s a lot here.”

“Too much.” I drop down into the chair at my desk and keep my eyes on her as she continues down the row of cabinets. “Sorry.”

“This is great,” she says, confusing me. Nothing about the contents of the cabinets is great. They’re a freaking mess, and every time I open a door, I’m quick to close it. “This is going to be fun, actually.”

I’m so shocked by her words, I could practically fall out of my chair. “Fun? What’s fun about that?”

“Do you think a really hard-to-fix car is fun?”

“It’s a challenge. ”

“That’s this for me. Organizing a laundry room is easy. But this—” she waves her hands around the dingy garage “—is the best kind of challenge.”

I’m not going to argue with her. If this is a challenge, then that means it will take a lot of time. If she needs a lot of time to finish the job, that means she’ll be here a lot. That is a win-win for me, and I’m not going to do anything to talk her out of it.

“Do you have a date you need this done by?” she asks as she glances at me from across the garage.

“No. Take as long as you need. It’s been like this for years.”

“It might take me a few months since I’ll be fitting in this job when I have time.”

Months would be perfect. Any amount of time would be great as long as it means she’ll be here. I’ll handle Liam. Lulu is too good for him, and I know he is falling for Sharla even if he pretends it is nothing more than fun. “That’s fine.”

Her smile widens. “Then I’m done. We can go eat.”

“You’re done?” I can’t keep the shock out of my voice. “Really?”

She starts to move back toward my desk, carefully stepping around shit Liam left out on the floor. “Yeah. I’ll need a lot of things. Too much to make one list for right now.”

“I’ll pay for them.”

“This is a gift. ”

“Your time is a gift, Lulu. The supplies, I’ll buy.”

She opens her mouth to argue, but I can’t let her go out of pocket to fix our disaster of a garage.

“No arguments.”

She gives me a tight smile, and I don’t know her well enough to figure out if she’s annoyed or happy. “Fine, but I get to pick the restaurant tonight.”

“Burgers?” I ask.

She shakes her head as she sits down at Liam’s desk, looking completely out of place here. “Pizza.”

“You’re my kind of girl,” I say without thinking.

Her cheeks turn the prettiest shade of pink. “I like my food, even if my hips don’t.”

“What’s wrong with your hips?” I’ve checked them out more than once, and when I say they’re perfect, I mean they’re perfect. My hands would have a field day on them if I ever have the chance to get her naked.

“They’re biggish. Thick.”

“No one wants a bone,” I tell her, my mouth already salivating at the thought of touching them. “I want something to hold. The thicker, the better.”

“Really?” She blinks a few times like I’m lying and she doesn’t believe me.

“Do you like a bony guy?”

“Well, no. I need something to snuggle.”

“Exactly.” I smirk, wanting to wrap her in my arms immediately, but then I remember we’re in the garage and she isn’t my girl .

“Then pizza it is, with extra cheese.”

“Attagirl. You got a spot in mind?”

“Vito and Nick’s?”

“The best. But I can polish off an entire pizza myself, so we’d better get two.”

“I like your style, Oliver.”

I stand and give her a big smile. “I’ll drive.”

“Great because my rental sucks.”

My eyebrows rise. “You’re still in a rental? What happened with Randall?”

“I’m meeting him tomorrow to buy a new one.”

I make a mental note to call Randall tomorrow morning and make sure he gives her the best deal possible. I want this woman around, and that doesn’t start by my stepdad ripping her off to make a few extra bucks.

I motion for her to head toward the exit as I turn off the lights, ready to lock up and run out of here. “Do you need help?”

She glances over her shoulder at me. “You want to come?”

I nod. “If you want me there, I’ll be there.”

“I’ll think about it over pizza,” she says as we step outside.

I turn to lock up the door, and I smile.

That wasn’t a no. No one wants to waste a day at a car dealership, but I’ll do just about anything to spend time with this woman, including suffering the torture of buying a car I’m not even going to drive.

“Pepperoni?” I ask as I slide my key into the lock, ready to get out of this place.

“Duh. Is there any other topping?”

When I turn back toward her, she’s staring at my ass.

I have her.