Love At First Hate (Love At Firsts Book 2)(26)

“I’m glad I can make you hard.” I smirk.

“Always. Anyway, it’s been a while since you’ve had…company.” Finally, he’s starting to open up slowly.

“Can’t say I see the appeal to f*ck random guys anymore. It’s fun for a while, but it gets old really quickly. I was never much of a player. I like to have sex with someone I have feelings for. It makes it more special, and it’s a lot more passionate.” I shrug.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“So you’re telling me you’ve never had sex with someone you had feelings for?” I’m dumbfounded.

“Sadly, no. I don’t think I’ve ever had true feelings for anyone. I’ve had to repress the little emotions I was feeling for different reasons. When I was in the military, besides the hot men walking around mostly in just their boxers or naked, which messed with my head. I did start to develop something, more like affection, for a female soldier who was there. We were spending a lot of time talking, and I don’t know if I was starting to fall for her or just enjoyed the companionship, but then there was the bomb explosion, and I never heard from her again.”

“That’s horrible, on all accounts. You never should have to repress your feelings.” I frown, highly disturbed by that fact.

“I know, but what can you do when whatever you do is considered wrong, and you have your entire family against you?”

“I wouldn’t know.” I hate to say this to someone who’s never had a loving family. I’ve never had any problem with mine. They all were supportive, so I really don’t know how he feels.

“It’s alright. I’m used to it by now.”

“You shouldn’t. In my opinion, you should have done what you did yesterday a long time ago.”

“I should have, but I didn’t have the balls to do it. I’m not sure if it’s because you were there or whatever. It felt like it was time to stand up for myself.”

“I mean what I said last night, whenever you need to talk, you know where I live. Come talk to me.” I smile at him.

“Thanks, I might hold you to that.”

“You better or I’ll just invite myself over whenever I feel like you need me, which can be quite often.” I shrug.

“You think I’m that big of a mess?” he scoffs.

“No, I just think we had a good night last night, and I wouldn’t mind a redo or ten.”

“I wouldn’t mind either. It’s the first time in ages that I felt like I could be myself without being judged. It was refreshing.”

“Please, always be yourself with me. That’s all I’m asking of you.” We look at each other intently when Spencer, Haven, and the entire clique joins us outside of the shop, breaking this intense moment. I’m not sure if I should be annoyed or grateful, but we fall into comfortable discussions amongst all of us, and Nate can finally get to know my best friends. He seems to really warm up to them. Gabby is all over him, but not in a creepy way, for once.



March 8, 2016

Today is the day I’m getting my thigh tattooed, and I cannot wait. Not because I enjoy the pain, but because I get to spend hours with Nate. Mind you, he’ll have his face close to my crotch all day. It’ll be hard not to get a boner, especially with his hot self around me, but it wouldn’t be the first time for him to see me with a boner.

Before I get to the shop, I stop at a little café and get a couple of coffees to go. I’m not sure what they all drink, but free coffee is always good. I take a few packets of sugar, milk, and coffee biscuits before making my way to the shop.

The little bell above the door dings as I walk into the tattoo shop.

“Hey, handsome!” Mina greets me and takes the platter with all the coffees.

“Hey, gorgeous, how are you?”

“Much better now that you brought coffee.” She giggles.

“Someone hasn’t had her coffee fix?”

“No, there was a power outage in my building this morning. I had to bring my hair dryer here to get ready. It was a nightmare,” she huffs.

“I can imagine. You look fabulous as always.” I smile at her.

“Always the charmer.” She grins and slaps my chest playfully.

“That he is,” Nate says walking toward us.

“Good morning, handsome.” I smirk at him.

“Good morning. Thanks for the coffee.” He sounds almost grumpy.

“My pleasure.” I take my own and take a sip of it. Heaven.

“We can get started whenever you want. It’s going to be a long day for you.”

“I’ll get to spend it with you so it won’t be that bad.” I rub his back as I follow him to his private station.

“Wait until I tattoo the inside of your thigh. You’re not going to like me that much then.” He chuckles.

“I can imagine.” I frown.

“Do I have to worry that you’ll tap out after an hour?” He raises his eyebrow at me.

“No, I can deal well with pain, but I can imagine it’ll be tender. I’m sure you can make me feel better.” I smirk.

“Whenever you need breaks, tell me. I can go over the time we have today if needed. I don’t have any other appointments.”