Read Online Heart of a Tattooist: Dark Romance MC Club Alpha Bad Boy Obsession (Tattooist Series Book 3) by Lexy Timms - Free Book Online

some dinner.”
    The place he steered her into was dim and quiet. Everyone inside was attired much like she and Mitch were. Nobody batted an eye at her shorts and tennis shoes or his hat and boots.
    They took a seat near the back and the server handed them both a menu and Mitch asked, “Would you like some wine?”
    She’d love some food. She hadn’t eaten since way earlier in the day and she was famished. “Yes, please.” She perused the menu. The prices were good, beyond good, to her relief.
    The wine came and Mitch poured them both a large glass and asked, “See anything you like?”
    Yes. You. Her face heated and she looked away from him quickly. “How’s the chicken salad?”
    “The best in the country. I mean that too.”
    “Then that’s what I want.” She laughed, “You invited me for dinner and I show up in shorts and order chicken salad. You must be so impressed.”
    He set his wine aside and leaned across the small table. His cologne eddied across the air to her nostrils. “I am,” he said softly, seriously. “Very impressed.”
    He was the most confusing man she had ever met. “Why?”
    “Why? Because you are so unlike every other woman on the planet.”
    She shook her head, “No, I’m just like every other woman on the planet.”
    His eyes were hooded. His mouth, that full sensual mouth, pursed slightly then he said, “I don’t think so. You’re a rare and unusual woman, and I’m glad as hell you came to dinner with me.”
    “I’m glad you found me.” She was. She honestly was now that she’d had time to think about it. If she was being brutally honest, she might as well tell him everything. “I thought about you a lot but…but I didn’t know how to get a hold of you and even if I had …well, I’ve changed a lot.” She sucked in a slow shaky breath. “So if you’re expecting…I don’t what you’re expecting, but I can tell you the woman you met in L.A. isn’t here anymore.”
    Mitch’s gaze didn’t waver. “I wasn’t expecting her. I was expecting Cara. You.”
    “How would you know there was a difference?” She’d barely realized it herself. How could he see it, even before she did? In one night?
    “I was hoping you wouldn’t be the same.” He smiled. “You were there, Cara. The night we met, it was just all the layers on top that I had to look through to find you.”
    There he went, catching her off-guard again.
    “I can only run into so many mountain lions.”
    She bit her bottom lip, a little frustrated and a lot perplexed. “If you didn’t like me on the outside, why chase me down?”
    Mitch leaned across the table and took her hand. The touch of his fingers sent a bolt of electricity through her. “Cara, I was attracted to you then, yes. Something about you captured me. It sounds like a country song; running with mountain lions, capturing my heart.” He grinned and picked up a napkin and pretended to scribble it down. “Seriously, though, I wanted to get to know the woman who laughed and talked to me that whole night.” His tongue ran over his soft lips and her gaze dropped to watch a moment, almost disappointed when it disappeared back into his mouth. “I won’t bullshit you. Meeting you was like being hit by lightning, especially when you drove me up into the mountains. But sitting around with you, talking about everything else, and just being with you, that was what made me come after you—not the rest of it.”
    It was flattering. Crazy flattering.
    But did he mean it?
    She wanted to believe it but that same old doubt and insecurity came rushing back in. If she wasn’t the woman she had worked so hard to be, who was left but the young girl and woman who’d had to change herself almost completely just to be loved and wanted by anyone?
    Thankfully their food came. Cara took a bite out of her chicken salad sandwich. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. It’s delicious.” She was thankful for the distraction and having to react to Mitch’s words.