Page 31 of Love at First Ink

Muscular tattooed arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hard chest. Snowball hissed before jumping from Marisol’s arms to sit on the dash, tail swatting at the window. She melted into the embrace. When was the last time someone hugged her while she cried? Too fucking long ago.

“I’m sorry, Princesa. Do you want me to go back in there and punch his fucking face?” Cisco asked in all seriousness.

It was such a wild and violent thought that Marisol couldn’t help but laugh. It was borderline hysterical, but shechose to ignore that. “As appealing as that sounds, the fallout wouldn’t be worth it.” Maybe. Probably. Though it would make her feel a lot better to see someone punch Archie in his too-perfect nose. Give his plastic surgeon a run for his money.

Finally, mercifully, the tears stopped. Cisco’s hand ran up and down her back in comforting strokes. She felt his hot breaths against her shoulder. There was no reason for that to turn her on, but something coiled low in her belly. Heat rushed her body in every place that Cisco touched her. She had just been crying over her ex-husband, and now she was practically purring for Cisco. Maybe she truly was as broken as she thought.

Cisco pulled back a moment later, keeping his hands on her shoulder. She could only imagine what she looked like to him. But the way Cisco looked at her had her forgetting about everything wrong with her appearance. He looked at her like she held the secrets of the universe, with reverence and awe. Who knew it took a girl crying to get that kind of look from a man? Maybe she needed to rethink her whole no crying thing.

“Does he bother you often?” Cisco asked, still searching her face for answers.

Marisol just shrugged. “Only when it’s convenient for him and inconvenient for me. Like now.” She was playing it down. Some weeks she would hear from him every day. Sometimes she would go days without hearing from him, and she would think he was finally giving up, but then he or her mother would try to rope her back in.

“I’m sorry, Cisco. I should have told you. This was not how I wanted you to find out. And his behavior was awful. I’m so sorry?—”

“Nah, Princesa, you don’t apologize to me for a man’s behavior. If he does anything to upset you or try to take advantageof you, you tell me.” Cisco looked intensely at her, making Marisol blush.

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated. Cisco let his hands linger on her side a moment longer before wiping the last few remaining tears from her face. “Now, I’m going to take you back to your car, and then I’ll follow you home so you can boss me around. Sound good?”

How could she say no to that?

“I don’t likeit there. Try moving it back to where it was. It’s growing on me now,” Marisol mumbled, holding her hand over her mouth to hide her chewing. Cisco was right: the pizza was amazing, and Marisol was indulging in her second piece—a luxury she often denied herself—while bossing Cisco around in her home.

He was the one who asked for it. She simply obliged.

Plus, she couldn’t help but admire the way his muscles strained against the tight fabric of his shirt. Or the way his shirt would ride up, exposing the delicious abs he hid underneath his clothes. For all of Archie’s faults, he kept up with his body, but it paled in comparison to the quick glimpses she got of Cisco.

Honestly, she didn’t care where the damn cat tower went. She just enjoyed the free show Cisco was unknowingly putting on.

After the run-in with Archie, she was convinced Cisco would be done with her. She couldn’t even blame him. Who would want the type of baggage she brought with her? Archiewas…a lot. And so was her mother, though he didn’t know that yet.

Hell,shewas a lot. It would have been the perfect opportunity for Cisco to cut his losses, drop her off, and never see her again. But that wasn’t what happened. If anything, seeing Archie made him more eager to get to her house. Whether to check to make sure he didn’t truly live here or make sure she was safe, Marisol didn’t know. She had a feeling it was the latter, though.

Cisco grunted as he pushed the tower back to the original spot. Truly, it was better there with the perfect view of the outside. Snowball would enjoy that. “Perfect.” She smiled.

Cisco wiped his brow and looked over the last thing he needed to put together. “Where do you want the litter box?” He cut into the box with the X-Acto knife Marisol found in her junk drawer.

She hadn’t considered where she would want that bulky box. Certainly somewhere out of sight.

“The guest bathroom down the hall and to the left should be fine. Do you need my help?” Marisol was about to get up when Cisco stopped her.

“Nah, I got this. Put on a movie for us to watch. I’ll be done soon. Try to leave me some pizza, yeah?”

“No promises there,” she hummed, taking another bite of the garlicky pizza.

The smile Cisco aimed at her was panty-melting, forcing her to squeeze her legs together. The bastard noticed her not-so-subtle movement and smirked. With one last heated glance, he carried Snowball’s litter box to the guest bathroom.

What was it about this man that made her hot all over? Marisol had never been an overly sexual person, which made dating Archieeasy. Sex had only lasted a few minutes, and she could just lie there. She supposed it felt good…sometimes; other times, it felt like a chore she just wanted to get over. Even as a teen and during college, she had never been drawn to sex like most people her age were.

She didn’t even lose her virginity until she was twenty-five, to a man she had been dating for a year. She thought that was perfectly acceptable, but apparently it was late according to conversations she overheard. Still, Marisol never felt like she was missing out.

And then Cisco. He just looked at her. With his dumb tattooed body and his dumb smirk, and suddenly she needed to change her panties. Her body flushed in ways she didn’t think she was capable of, and she craved…something. Him? His body? The connection? She felt like it was a mixture of the three.

What would it feel like to have Cisco in her bed?Nakedin her bed. The thought alone made her breathless. She wanted to see every tattoo on his body and trace them with her finger. She wanted to kiss his body all the way down to his hip until she was confronted with his co?—

“Done!” Cisco’s voice penetrated her dirty thoughts. Her head snapped up just in time to see him walking back into the living room and sinking down on the couch next to her. His thigh brushed against hers, but he didn’t move to give her any more space. Good, she didn’t want him to.

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