“C?” His voice was softer now, reserved just for me.

“Huh?” I pushed out the question faintly at the touch of his hand on my knee under the table, and I pulled myself from the depths of his eyes.

“Help me out with the mural?” he said giving my knee a small squeeze from where his hand still rested on it.

I should really say no. Decline and make up an excuse why I couldn’t paint with Wes. However, the tenderness in his touch and the encouragement in those damn eyes had the word yes tumbling from the forefront of my mind and onto my lips.

“There you are.” A smoky voice stopped me from speaking. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

A tall and slender girl stood at the table just behind Wes. She placed her palm on his shoulder and tossed her corkscrewed hair from her face. She looked wild. I bet Wes liked wild.

I sat back into my chair and turned back toward the group for the first time since I’d locked eyes with Wes. The looks on their faces said plenty. Lennon smirked, and I flipped her off. Kensie smiled, and I smiled back. August’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“I wanted to tell you that the tattoo you did for me last week is healing nicely,” the girl’s smoky voice purred across the wooden tabletop. I was sure I could have hidden the disgusted grunt that came from my chest, but I didn’t.

“Oh yeah? Is it looking good?” Wes asked excitedly and almost innocently. I could have held back the curl of my lips, but I didn’t. He wasn’t stupid. He had to know what she was up to, and he was playing right into her.

“It’s perfect.” She dragged her hand from his shoulder and moved it to the waistline of her jeans. “Come me with to the bathroom, and I’ll show you.” Her fingers gripped onto the button of her jeans.

Absolutely not.

I shoved out of my chair, causing the whole bar to hear the screech. I yanked my white tank down covering the button on my jeans and strut my way to the bar. I heard my name called in various ways from various voices, but I didn’t turn back. I wasn’t going to sit by and pretend to ignore Wes and yet another one of his harlots.

I didn’t know why I let his female endeavors get to me, but I did. Time and time again, my heart would cringe and my stomach would turn with the parade of women Wes encountered. One after the other, they’d come and go. Sometimes I wanted to call him out on his impulsive conduct, and other times I wanted to shout at the harlots to treat him with a little respect. Every time, though, I bit back the words and pushed them back down into my chest.

I sat down at one of the stools and waited for the bartender’s attention. “Be with you in a sec, beautiful.” He winked at me and continued to attend to the customers before me.

He was a handsome guy, gorgeous actually. He was tall with mocha-colored skin and a closely shaved head. He and I had gone out a few times, but we were at two very different places in our lives. Did I mention he was ten years older than I was? Yeah, it didn’t work out well when I was twenty-one and he was thirty-one. Wes was much closer to my age, still older, but we had a lot in common. Stop thinking about Wes.

“Can I buy you a drink?” I turned to politely decline but changed my mind when I saw the guy asking me. He was hot with intentionally disheveled hair and a boyish smile that held a small gap between his teeth.

“Sure, thanks,” I replied sticking out my hand. “I’m Capri.”

“I’m Shane. Nice to meet you, Capri.” He smiled and turned to the bartender who’d made his way back over to us. “I’ll take another Guinness, and the lady will have—” He turned to me.

“A Cosmo, please,” I told the bartender even though he already knew my drink.

“Thank you,” I told Shane. We spent the next twenty minutes or so getting to know each other. He was a junior at SDSU, majoring in Kinesiology. He had no tattoos, didn’t use one swear word, and never once did another female approach him. Perfect. After exchanging numbers, we said our good-byes and I went back to my friends.

Kensie was nowhere in sight, which could only mean she was somewhere on the dance floor. Thankfully, August hadn’t followed and sat in her vacated seat talking with Lennon. His dancing was equivalent to a baby giraffe taking its first wobbly steps—so awkward it was sweet.

“Where’s your lady friend?” I asked Wes, pulling my hair over one shoulder and slipping into my chair. I was surprised to see him still in his place at the table. I’d expected him to disappear with the tatted twat.

“My customer?” He folded his arms across his chest. “She left.”

I nodded and took a sip of the water I’d brought back from the bar with me.

“I told her that I’d take her word for it.”

“Her word for what?” I spun my straw through the softened edges of the ice.

“That her tattoo had healed okay. I didn’t let her show me her goodies.” He shrugged one shoulder and looked off toward the dance floor.

I nodded.

“So, you gonna do this mural with me?” he asked, suddenly sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees. The new position had him invading a quadrant of my space. I sat back initially, but then his scent of sandalwood and beer beckoned me closer. The notes of the fragrance reached out and dragged their fingers under my chin, pulling me in closer to him.

“No,” I said, less determined than I’d wanted to sound.

With that, Wes sat back into his chair retreating from my space and pulling his scent with him. With the release of the invisible tie, I snapped back into my own chair.

“I knew you’d turn it down.” Wes shrugged. “Just thought I’d ask one more time to make sure.”

“What do you mean you knew I’d turn it down?” He irritated the hell out of me. “I don’t even paint. Of course, I’d turn it down.” I scoffed at him and pushed my water away.

“So maybe you don’t paint anymore,” he said, “but you used to, and you loved it.”

He was right. I did love to paint. There wasn’t any other thing in the world that filled me when I needed to be full or drained me when I needed to be emptied. My time with paper and a brush had become sacred and private. Bringing anyone into that part of me, especially Wes, was a bit unsettling and completely frightening.

“You don’t want to, you don’t want to. I won’t push you. I’d hoped you’d be up for the challenge, but I kinda knew you’d rather sit back and look pretty.”

Those were his parting words to me before he stood up and swiftly strode out the door. Jackass.

One hundred and one, one hundred and two, one hundred and three, okay lies. This counting thing to fall asleep didn’t work for shit. Maybe I went wrong at the rhinos? I mean, a guy like me didn’t count sheep, but these rhinos hadn’t made me the least bit sleepy either.

I sat up and swung my feet over the side of the bed. Resting my elbows on my knees, my head fell into my palms. It was not the damn rhinos. It was the little blonde that I practically begged to paint this mural with me.

I’d known only two things for sure in this world. One was that life changed, and the other was that I didn’t beg. Ever. So, I’d recently added a third to that list. Capri was an anomaly. I didn’t know what was going on lately. I didn’t know if it was a change in me or a change in her, but it was as obvious as a hooker on a street corner that I wanted her. That was probably a bad comparison. In fact, there was no comparison because I’d never felt this way before.

A knock sounded on my front door. Who in the name of Uncle Jesse could that be? “Ugh,” I grumbled, pulling on my sweats and flipping on the hall light. Bright. Why? Why were lights so bright?