Merry Inkmas

by Talia Hibbert

She looked over her shoulder at Cash and found him staring at her, his eyes full of something achingly intense, yet tender. If she didn’t know better, she’d think that it was longing.

But then it hit him—it might not be a line. Jay might actually recognise Bailey. Because, like an idiot, Cash had been sketching out her face since the day he’d first seen her at that fucking coffee shop. Crap.

There was something about seeing a bad boy blush that made her desperate to keep the moment going.

“Boring guys finish last,” she corrected, pushing the completed forms back to him. “Nice guys finish anywhere they want. Especially when they look like you.”

Fuck. He’d drawn Bailey. Again.

Someone just needed to stir him up and make him sweet all the way through.

He’d been wrong. He’d been so, so wrong. Cash had never been in danger of truly needing a woman. Not until now.

and he thought for the very first time that she might need him the way he needed her.

“Bailey,” he said again. “Sometimes… Sometimes you look at me like…” “Like what?” she asked when his voice trailed off. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I don’t know how to describe it. But it makes me wish I were a better person.”

Because, Lord, it felt like she’d been waiting her entire life to kiss a man like Cash Evans. No. Not a man like him. Just him.

He pulled away, looked up at her. “Alright?” “Yeah,” she said slowly. “It’s… not too bad.” He grinned. “That’s my girl.” Then he bent his head over her thigh again and put the gun to her flesh.

“He never talks while he’s working,” Jay said finally. “I didn’t even know he… processed words when he was working. It’s always like he’s in some kind of trance.”

“You should come home with me,” he said.

“You’ve softened up my boy,” she said, speaking at a normal volume for the first time.

“What I’m trying to say is, he’s smitten.” Monroe smirked. “I’d be concerned if it weren’t obvious that you are too.”

In fact, over the course of the night, she learned that laughter came easy in this house.

“There’s a beast inside of me. I keep it caged. You drive it wild.” Confusion pleating her brow, she peered up at him. “So are you, like, a werewolf?”