Pricked Read online

  Pricked

  Winter Renshaw

  PRICKED

  WINTER RENSHAW

  © 2019

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Copyright

  Important!

  Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Epilogue

  Sample – The Executive

  Also By Winter Renshaw

  About the Author

  Copyright

  COPYRIGHT 2018 WINTER RENSHAW

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  COVER DESIGN: Louisa Maggio, LM Book Creations

  EDITING: Wendy Chan, The Passionate Proofreader

  BETA READERS: Ashley Cestra, Bridget Hobden

  PHOTOGRAPHER: Wander Aguiar

  MODEL: Renato Menezes

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or, if an actual place, are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  E-Books are not transferrable. They cannot be sold, given away, or shared. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

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  Description

  He said it would only hurt a little …

  On her sixteenth birthday, Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. On my twenty-second, I pricked mine on the needle of a tattoo machine wielded by a beautifully complicated man who would go on to become my ruin.

  Madden Ransom was a lot of things. Unfeeling. Opinionated. Rebellious. A tattoo artist with no tattoos, the man was an enigma and then some.

  And while Sleeping Beauty fell into a peaceful slumber as she awaited true love’s kiss, I fell into something else entirely—my heart in the hands of a man who’d never given nor received anything remotely like love.

  I know now that when Madden told me it would only hurt a little … he didn’t mean the tattoo. It turns out you can’t un-love someone, even after you find out he’s the last person you have any business loving. And that is the most painful truth of all.

  Or it was … until his last confession.

  For Candida S. Just ‘cause. ;-)

  I wanted him in the bluntest way.

  I wanted his lips, his hands, his arms.

  I wanted him the way the ocean wants the shore, constantly reaching and running back.

  I wanted him the way rain wants to fall, the way the sun wants to shine, the way words want to be read.

  I wanted him to infinity, to the millionth degree.

  No amount of rain could douse the fire I had in me for him.

  -j.c.

  1

  Brighton

  "I can’t help but notice you don’t have any tattoos.” At least none that I can see beyond his white tank top and ripped jeans. I scan the smooth, tanned arms and the arch of his muscled shoulders as he concentrates on my bare flesh. “Why is that? If you don’t mind my asking?”

  "I’m going to need you to stop shaking." The raven-haired man with bronze skin ignores my questions and quiets the buzz of his tattoo machine. He forces a hard breath through his nostrils like he doesn’t have time for this, resting his forearms on the tops of his thighs as he studies me. “You want this to be crooked?”

  “It’s a little chilly in here.” And I might be the tiniest bit anxious. If I could stop myself from shaking, believe me, I’d have done it by now.

  A cool draft of air from the AC kisses the bare skin of my exposed abdomen, and a rush of goose bumps spray across my flesh.

  His full lips press together as he studies the custom drawing he sketched and stenciled on me a little while ago, and I can’t help but wonder if he always looks this serious. I figured the owner of a tattoo parlor would be more on the laidback side, but Madden Ransom hasn’t so much as smiled since I got here, and every time our eyes meet—little bursts at a time here and there—there’s a kind of heaviness in his stare that I’ve never seen on anyone else before.

  “A lot of people come in here saying they don't have a thing about needles, and then as soon I get started—"

  "—I don't have a thing about needles." I clear my throat, my fingertips tucked under the hem of my shirt, which is lifted just enough to cover the lowermost part of my bra. “I’m pre-med actually.”

  I offer a nervous chuckle and, in this moment, I detest how much I sound like my mother, casually and nonchalantly working humble brags into conversations. Only despite the way it might seem, I’m not bragging, I'm simply trying to prove a point.

  “Good for you.” He doesn’t look up, doesn’t seem to care in the slightest. His needle returns to my skin, the buzz filling my ear, and my body tenses. "The pain okay?" His voice is monotone, disingenuous. I suppose if a person does this job long enough, their sympathy eventually wears off. "You need a break?"

  Madden stops.

  “No … keep going.” Dragging in a hard breath, I let it linger in my chest as I brace myself against the hard bed beneath me.

  He
readjusts his black latex gloves before switching the machine on again. And that’s what it’s called—a machine. According to the research I did before coming here, tattooists hate when you call it a “gun.” I wanted to make sure I knew the vernacular before I wandered in here like a lost child off the street (or an overprotected, naive, Park Terrace princess who’s rarely allowed to venture outside her castle).

  "So, why don't you have any tattoos?" Once more I ask the question that’s been bothering me since I walked through the doors of Madd Inkk a half hour ago. A ribbed tank top made of bleached cotton hugs his sinewy torso, and I couldn't help but notice when he took me back to his station that there wasn't so much as a hint of ink on his perfect skin.

  The man at the next station over gives a puff of a laugh, his full chest rising as he shakes his head.

  "Madd’s got commitment issues for days," he says, turning his crystalline blue focus back to his client and filling in a geometric pattern with ink the color of midnight.

  The sturdy-shouldered man in his chair doesn't so much as flinch as the needle pricks his skin. He just keeps scrolling his thumb along his phone like it doesn't feel like a thousand tiny kittens are scratching his flesh.

  “Can’t commit to a woman, a car, or a tat,” the artist adds.

  "Fuck off, Pierce." Madden returns a gloved hand to my ribcage and starts the machine once more. A moment later, the needle peppers tiny specks of ink into my skin. Every so often, he wipes the area clean and starts again. "About half done."

  He said it would only hurt a little, and that it wouldn't take long, but the past eight minutes have all but dripped by, like morphine into saline, tiny drop by tiny drop.

  "Seriously though, why don't you have any?" I ask.

  I'm not letting this go because it's a valid question given his profession as both an artist and the sole proprietor of this shop.

  Plus, I’m curious.

  And I need a distraction to get me through the rest of this. The front of the shop is covered in wall to wall “flash.” Drawings and renderings. Hundreds if not thousands of them. Back here the walls are less interesting. There are certificates. State licenses. A few framed photos. And a privacy curtain.

  I don’t expect some lengthy, personal response. I’ve spent maybe a half hour with this man and he’s said all of fifty words to me. A simple answer would suffice.

  The needle drags against my ribcage and his mouth flattens into a hard line. "Guess I haven't found the right one yet."

  I don't buy it. And I’m pretty sure he’s giving me an answer just to shut me up, but it's not like I can call him a liar. I don’t even know him.

  “It’s ink, bro. Not a woman.” The artist at the next chair—Pierce—says without so much as glancing in our direction.

  “No fucking shit, bro,” Madden snaps back at him, and I can’t tell if he’s joking or not. His expression hasn’t changed since the moment I first laid eyes on him.

  I lift my gaze to a hand-written sign across the room, hanging behind the cash register.

  NO INFINITY SYMBOLS

  NO TRAMP STAMPS

  NO TRIBALS

  NO CHINESE SYMBOLS

  The distractingly pretty, lavender-haired girl working the front snaps her gum as she hunches over the glass counter, her face colored with boredom as she thumbs through her phone. The shop isn't as busy as I thought it would be, but then again, it's the middle of the day on a Wednesday. It’s not exactly peak hours around here.

  "I think you're going to like this." He wipes a damp rag across my stinging flesh, his inky brown eyes resting on his work. Madden sniffs, though it isn’t quite a laugh. “Shit. You better. It’s forever.”

  He looked at me sideways when I told him I wanted him to choose the design. I didn't come prepared. I didn't bring screenshots or Pinterest pins or any other kind of inspiration. To be perfectly honest, this isn't about the tattoo so much as it is about getting the tattoo.

  "I trust you," I told him as his dark brows knitted together, and then I added, "I just want it somewhere hidden."

  A moment later, I was handed a clipboard and a small stack of forms to complete, trying my hardest to steady my breathing as he prepped his station.

  When he brought me back, Madden suggested the side of my ribcage, in an area easily hidden by bras and bikini tops, and he didn't once ask me why I'd take the time to have this done if I wasn't going to show it to anyone. His one and only caveat was that I never ask him what it means.

  Ever.

  He was adamant.

  “Not even on your deathbed,” he said. One of his colleagues overheard him and called him a “heartless bastard,” offering a laugh that was more amusement than anything else, and for a split moment, I felt like the butt of some inside joke.

  And then I wondered if he was gaslighting me. I know what people see when they look at me.

  Privileged.

  Naive.

  Innocent.

  Gullible.

  Easily had.

  "Still doing all right?" he asks, not glancing up.

  I nod even if he isn’t looking at me right now. "Yes."

  The muscles of his forearm flex as his left palm splays across my skin. A moment later, our fingers brush when he pushes the fallen hem of my top out of the way.

  In the strangest way, this feels like a dream.

  The icy-cold air on my bare flesh …

  The sterile scent of alcohol wipes and powdered gloves …

  The vibrating sting of the needle against my skin …

  The heavy metal playing on speakers in the back …

  The shaved heads, “sleeved” arms, Harleys parked out front, and the girls in half-shirts and mini-skirts all work together to form an ambience foreign to any I’ve ever known …

  I try not to stare too much, but this must be what Alice felt like when she first arrived in Wonderland.

  “There.” Madden shuts off the machine when he’s finished, and then he cleans the tattoo one more time before dabbing on a finger-sized scoop of ointment.

  “Can I see it first?” I ask when he reaches for a bandage.

  He stops, turning to face me, his shoulders slumping like I’m asking the world of him. “Right. Go ahead.”

  Sitting up, I contort myself until I can almost see the beginning of a black and blue outline against warm pink skin.

  “Here.” Madden shoves a handheld mirror toward me.

  It’s a butterfly. Small. Not much bigger than a silver dollar. Brilliant blue with black veining.

  “You done now? We good?”

  I place the mirror aside and let him patch me up. Tattoos are flesh wounds, I know that. And I’ve already read up on the aftercare. I say nothing as he hands me a set of instructions printed on yellow paper.

  Madden cleans up his station before yanking off his gloves and tossing them in the trash. “Missy will check you out up front.”

  “Oh.” I’m not sure why I expected him to walk me up. He’s not a hairstylist or aesthetician. People don’t come here because of the service.

  Sliding off the client bed, I tug my shirt into place and locate my bag. My skin throbs from beneath the bandage, but it’s tolerable and not as bad as I expected.

  “Thank you,” I say, turning to him before I make my way to the front. My gaze falls to his right hand for some reason—as if my subconscious was expecting a freaking handshake—and he definitely notices.

  Awkward.

  I can’t get out of there fast enough, and as I trot to the front in my pink Chanel flats, I’m not sure if all eyes are actually on me or if I’m imagining it. I’m sure to them, I’m an alien—a strange sight. I even heard one of them say, “They don’t make ‘em like that in Olwine,” when I first arrived.

  If they only knew how much I’d rather be like them than like … me.

  I envy their freedom more than they could ever know.

  As soon as I pay—$150 cash plus a twenty-five percent tip—I step lightly toward the door an
d eye my little white Volvo parked on the corner, but the closer I get, the more I realize something looks … off.

  “Oh, my God.” I clap my hand over my mouth when I see it—the boot. “No. No, no, no.”

  A sign a few feet back says: NO PARKING 4-6 PM MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, and I check the time on my phone.

  4:07 PM.

  “Seriously?” I talk under my breath, a habit my mother detests. But if she knew I drove to Olwine today to get a tattoo, she’d detest that even more.

  I grab the ticket off the window and dial the number on back, which goes to voicemail after a few rings.

  Great.

  Taking a seat on the curb, I hold the ticket in one hand and my phone in the other and try, try again.

  And again.

  And again.

  I just need the jerk who did this to take it off so I can get home before my mother marches down to the police station and tries to file a Missing Persons’ report—which she’s done before when I was forty minutes late coming home from the library once.