Love in the Light (Hearts in Darkness, #2)(23)

All of which made her very glad that they’d have tonight together. He’d made the arrangements for her to get her first tattoo, and Makenna was thrilled. And a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. But Caden would be right there with her.

The work day finally over, Makenna took the elevator to the first floor—her favorite elevator, the one that made her smile every time she took it because she’d met Caden in it—and made her way to the Metro. Outside, it was already dark, and the cold air bit at her skin. But she was all pure frenetic energy looking forward to tonight.

Back at her apartment, she was thrilled to find Caden home. Wearing jeans and an ACFD T-shirt, he was in the kitchen unpacking containers from plastic bags. “Hey,” she said. “What smells so good?”

“Hey, Red,” he said in a quiet voice. He turned toward her. For a split second, something in his gaze looked wrong, almost disheartened, but then he gave a little smile and his whole face changed. “I stopped at the noodle place.”

“You okay?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Yeah,” he said, hugging her back. “Last night’s shift was non-stop and I couldn’t seem to stay asleep today.”

“Ugh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Well, thank you for getting food. I love the noodle place.” And I love you.

She thought it so often these days that the words lived on the tip of her tongue. After the conversation about Cameron, Makenna had been so tempted to just tell Caden how she felt, but there’d been moments over the weekend where he’d seemed stressed, and she could tell he was at his limit. They’d get there. She knew they would. The way he looked at her, the way he took care of her, the way he made love to her—it all said he felt the same way she did, even if he hadn’t given her the words.

“I know,” he said with a wink. “That’s why I stopped there.” His lips found hers, warm and exploring. She reveled in the little bites of his piercings against her skin as he kissed her again and again.

“Mmm, good appetizer,” she said around the edge of the kiss.

He grinned. “Food then tattoo. Then we can come back to appetizers after.”

“Fine,” she said, feigning being put out. “I guess I can live with that plan.”

“You excited?” he asked, returning to the counter.

Makenna couldn’t hold back her smile. “Really excited. Heath sent me the final version of the design today,” she said. “Wanna see it?”

“Of course,” he said, grabbing silverware from a drawer. Heath was the tattoo artist who’d done most of Caden’s work over the years. “He’s great, isn’t he?”

She dropped her bags on the edge of the counter and fished out the sketch. She found the sheet and made sure it was the right one before she handed it to Caden—because she had two versions of it in her bag. One for Caden to see, and one that Heath was actually going to use to make the stencil. She’d cooked up a little surprise that he couldn’t know about until the ink was done, and she was nearly bursting at the seams.

Caden studied the design for a long moment. “This is fantastic, Makenna. How big are you thinking?”

“That’s the size,” she said, imagining what it was going to look like in the center of her upper back. The circle surrounding the Celtic knot tree was about five inches round. At first, she’d thought she wanted it to be smaller, but Heath had talked her into a somewhat bigger piece so that the holes in the center of all the knot work would remain distinct as the tattoo aged.

“It’s gonna be f*cking beautiful. But then, it’ll be on you, so of course it will.” He leaned down and gave her a nuzzling kiss on the cheek. “Do you want to get changed and I’ll set everything out?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sounds great.” The kitchen, dining area, and living room were one big room, with her bedroom door toward the far end. She paused there and looked back. Caden moved around her little kitchen, comfortably and familiarly, and he just looked so freaking good there. In her space. Well, their space now.

He still had his townhouse in Fairlington, but he rarely slept there anymore. And it was so bare bones in furnishings that he preferred they not sleep there because he feared she’d be uncomfortable. A part of her wasn’t sure why he even kept it at this point.

“What?” he asked, giving her a skeptical look.

She grinned and leaned against the door jamb. “I rode our elevator today.”

He shook his head. “Anything interesting happen?”

“Oh, I got trapped with a smoking hot stranger and made out with him in the dark. The usual,” she said.

He smirked. “That never happens.”

Makenna threw her head back and laughed. Still smiling, she changed into jeans and a pink camisole with a low back, and then she threw a warm, chunky caramel-colored cardigan over that.

She found Caden sitting at the set table, containers of food overflowing with several types of noodles. It smelled amazing—savory and spicy and like she could eat everything she saw.

For a moment, the look on his face made her think he was upset about something, but then he saw her and his expression transformed into a sexy smirk. “Smoking hot, huh?”

Laughing, she took the seat next to him. “You fishing for compliments, Grayson? I already said you were freaking gorgeous.”