I have to clear my throat again to gain composure. “Move around a bit. You know, twist your body, lift your arm . . . make sure you like the way it looks from all angles.”

He does, leaning over and arching his arm, giving me a harsh view of those scars as they stretch under the halogen track lights. Abruptly, he turns and my eyes automatically drop to that V and the waistband and the bulge hiding beneath the thin navy-blue cotton before I can help myself.

“It’s good.” His voice pulls my gaze up to his face and the hidden smile.

He caught me. Thankfully he has the grace not to say anything.

He climbs onto the table and stretches out on his side. “Like this?”

“Almost. Can you slide over to the middle? I’m going to need room to sit up on the table.” Normally, I’d stand over or sit next to a client, but seven hours of leaning will wreck my back.

He adjusts without a word, giving me just enough room to perch one ass cheek and nudge myself up next to him.

I take a deep breath, peering at the half-naked man lying before me and the tattoo machine gripped in my hand. I’m a jumble of nerves right now. I’m afraid that the second I put this needle to Sebastian’s skin, I’m going to feel the same revulsion I felt last night working on Bobby. I’m certainly feeling an attraction to Sebastian that’s becoming hard to ignore, a desperate need for intimacy and diversion, even if it’s only temporary. But there’s something else amid the skittishness I feel, something steadier that’s pulling me to him. I think I just feel safer when he’s around.

This tattoo is a lot to take on, and clearly I’m not myself, the way I’m acting today, all needy. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this right now.

Sebastian suddenly rolls onto his back to stare up at me. “Are you sure you can handle seven hours of this?” he asks, as if reading my mind.

It’s like he knew those words would flip that switch inside me. It’s one thing for me to doubt myself internally. It’s entirely different for someone else to voice that same sentiment.

I press the pedal and a buzzing sound pushes the music into the background. He rolls back without another word. His raised arm isn’t out of the way so I push against it, reveling in the shape and size of his triceps for a brief moment.

And then I begin to mark Sebastian.

Everyone reacts to that first stroke of the needle differently. Some people flinch, some grit their teeth, some close their eyes. Sometimes it’s not what I can see but instead what I can feel, as tension tightens their muscles, and deep breaths swell their chests.

With Sebastian, there is nothing. And in a sensitive spot like this, to have absolutely no reaction is just not normal.

“How is that?” I ask anyway.

“Fine.” And it is fine, based on the even timbre of his voice. I guess the thick layer of muscle is more protection than even I expected.

I begin on the outline of the reaper’s head, the side of my palm ever so gently resting against him as I work, his body heat warming my skin even through the latex.

This is where my clients usually begin talking. They’re excited, they’re nervous, it’s a bit awkward to have a stranger touching their flesh and they want to get comfortable . . . there are plenty of reasons for them to strike up a conversation. It always starts with small talk—the basics about the person, the all-too-common “What’s the weirdest tattoo request you’ve ever had?”

Depending on how detailed the piece is and where I’m doing it, at some point the conversation usually veers into personal territory. Their dysfunctional relationships, failed marriages, their lifelong battle with weight, the loss of a child that has inspired their ink work, spirits of deceased family members sending them signs from beyond the grave.

People divulge all kinds of things that I never asked to hear, that I’d rather not hear, and that they never planned on telling me. It makes me feel like a bartender at some seedy desert bar in nowhere-Nevada. But I keep quiet and go along with anything they want to talk about, because that’s part of the job. Ned’s Rule Number Two: These people are letting you permanently mark their bodies, so shut up and smile and let them cry about their pet gerbil that they accidentally stepped on when they were two years old if that’s what they want to talk about. While I avoid small talk outside the shop, I’ve become something of a connoisseur when a client is in my chair. I’ve had to.

But Sebastian hasn’t said a word in ten minutes. I’m beginning to think he could go seven hours in complete silence.

I can’t do the same, or I’ll end up thinking about Ned and the night he died, and then this tattoo could go horrifically wrong.

“So, tell me a little bit about yourself.”

“What do you want to know?” It’s like he was waiting for my question.

Everything, I realize. I just don’t want to have to ask. At some point I’m going to bring up the whole military thing again, because that’s interesting, but seeing as he quickly shut the door on that conversation before, it’s probably not the best place to start now. “Do you live in San Francisco?”

“Yes.”

“Whereabouts?” I realize that I forgot to get the personal information clipboard back from him. I was too distracted by . . . well, him. And the idea of rats in here. I’m not even sure that he filled it out yet.

“Potrero Hill.”

“Huh.” I search for something to say as I wipe excess ink off his skin with a paper towel. All I can come up with is, “Very residential.”

He doesn’t answer.

“Did you grow up around here?”

“Yes.”

I give him a few moments to elaborate, until I realize that he’s not going to. Great. He’s clearly not into small talk. “Well, this is going to be a really long night,” I mutter under my breath.

That earns his smile. I’m pulling teeth to get him to talk and he’s amused.

“Which part of San Francisco did you grow up in?” he finally asks, flipping the question on me.

“Who says I grew up here?”

“Did you grow up somewhere else?” He throws this out with a hint of a challenge in his voice.

“Richmond. Until I was fourteen.”

“Huh . . . very Asian.” He’s mocking me for my earlier “residential” comment, I can tell.

“Well, I know this will come as a huge shock to you but I am part Chinese.”

“So I’ve noticed.”

And I’m back to trying to read that calm, even, unreadable tone.

“What do you do for a living, Sebastian?”

There’s a long pause, and I assume he won’t be answering that question. I heave an annoyed sigh.

Earning another smirk from him.

He’s going to drive me insane.

“I’m in security,” he finally says.

Security? “What . . . like a mall cop?” I say, and I regret my condescending tone the second it comes out of my mouth, because what if he is a mall cop? God, I hope not. While I don’t really care what a guy does, just picturing Sebastian in one of those ill-fitting uniforms and hovering around a teenybopper chain store, watching for twelve-year-old shoplifters, has somehow knocked him down a notch or three in attractiveness for me.

Please don’t be a mall cop.

“No. I’m not a mall cop.” He chuckles, forcing my needle away from his skin until he settles down. He has a nice laugh. And nice straight white teeth, I see, watching him from this angle. When his laughter dies down and my needle touches his skin again, he admits, “I’m a bodyguard.”

I have to pull away again, to process. “Really . . .” That is way more interesting—and appealing—than a mall cop. “I’ve never met a real bodyguard before. That sounds dangerous.”

“It can be.”

“Who do you protect?”

“People who need bodyguards.”

I wipe away the excess ink just a touch harder than I probably should. “Are you always so evasive?”