Dark Ink Tattoo: Episode 4 Read online

  Willa turned to face me as he went down the hall. “That was him. You see what I mean now?”

  “Yeah,” I breathed. But – I looked down the hall he’d walked down – to the bathrooms. We didn’t have much time. “What’s your amazing plan?”

  She held up a hand and counted fingers down. As I heard a distant door squeak open, over the country on the juke box, she reached one, and leaned in. “This,” she whispered, her dark curls brushing my cheek, right before she kissed me.

  I had only kissed three boys. Once in fifth grade, behind the jungle-gym, a bad idea all around. The second in seventh, at the bus-stop, on his last day at school before moving, the culmination of a year-long crush. And the third in tenth grade, outside the science hall, after which he’d written me a note explaining that he was in love with someone else. So my track record wasn’t great, but I could’ve tried harder, there were boys who liked me, and I liked them – but I’d always been scared of what I’d do next. My mom always wanted me to be good, without ever quite defining what that was. All I ever knew was that if I ever let myself be with a boy, after the books I’d read and dreams I’d had, good was the precise opposite of what I’d be. It seemed safer to keep that part of me corked, like a genie in a bottle, somewhere deep inside.

  But then Willa was kissing me – and none of my books or dreams could’ve prepared me for that.

  Her lips were soft and it felt natural to tilt my head to fit hers completely. Her tongue asked my lips for entrance, and I let it in, slowly opening up to this new experience. And then her hands were in my hair and I was leaning forward, using my tongue back and –

  “Well what do we have here?” said a sonorous voice from beside us. Willa pulled back, staring at me, breathing hard – the same way I was breathing too. Then she looked up at him.

  “We’re just friends. Close friends,” she said, and her hand slid up on my thigh. “I came here once before – I know Molly – she said this was a fun place.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” he said. “I know Molly too.”

  Willa dared a smile. “So, maybe we can go back to the real party with you?”

  He looked from one to the other of us again and it was like his gaze was hot, making anywhere it touched me flush. I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Sure,” he said, and Willa was off her barstool in a heartbeat, hand finding mine to drag off on our next stage of this adventure. “Unless you two want to party with me, alone.”

  I dared to look up and saw him staring directly at me. Challenging me. If we went with him, I knew we couldn’t turn back. But I wouldn’t have to worry about frightening him with how secretly hungry I was, either.

  “Ang?” Willa asked softly. I looked to her and saw her nod, then I was nodding too.

  A wicked smile crept across his face. “Follow me,” he said, and took us around the bar.

  Want more? Get Episode 5 now.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  (Untitled)

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Teaser from Dark Ink Tattoo Episode 5