Read Online Pretty in Ink (Voretti Family Book 3) by Ava Blackstone - Free Book Online

he’d probably never even come in contact with fabric that had a pinstripe.
    She hurled the pinstripe-free shirt at his forehead. He caught it with one effortless swipe of his hand.    
    The air-conditioning kicked on, the cold air raising goose bumps on her bare skin. All her tantrum had accomplished was to get her half naked. Annabelle was right. Liv needed to think before she acted.
    Caleb turned away, examining the rhinestone accents on Holiday Barbie’s green velvet gown, but the rigid set of his back made it clear he was pissed. He probably didn’t approve of hissy fits. Or semi-nudity.
    She took a deep breath, but she couldn’t do it. She could not ask Caleb for his shirt back after she’d thrown it at him.
    But she must have made some kind of noise while trying to force the words out, because he turned, as suddenly as if she’d fired her dad’s prized SIG Sauer Prelaz-Burnand rifle into the ceiling.
    “I—” she started. That was as long as his gaze managed to stay on her face. It dipped to the middle of her chest, where her bra fastened.
    His gaze went molten. Feral.
    Blood rushed the wrong way—toward her lips, her breasts, between her legs—when it should have gone to her head. Her nipples hardened against the lace. She forgot to breathe, then had to gulp in air to catch up.  
    She couldn’t smell Ella’s perfume anymore. There was only soap and man. Caleb.
    He moved toward her, gaze focused, mouth set in a determined slant.
    Despite the cool air flowing from the ceiling vent, the heat in Caleb’s gaze burned her. The years fell away. She was sixteen, and so stupidly in love that she’d do anything to be with this boy.
    Her body moved on its own, angling toward him, her lips so close that all he had to do was lean down to meet them.
    He didn’t.
    In the space of one breath, he went from smoking-hot lover to distant, self-possessed Captain Integrity. The desire was so completely gone from his gaze that she felt like a naive child for thinking he was going to kiss her.
    Except, he was having trouble looking at her. His gaze flitted from her lips to her chest, then back up, finally settling on her upper arm.  
    The one on her left side. Exactly where the tattoo was.

CHAPTER 6

    “I T ’ S NOT YOUR name,” Liv blurted out.  
    Caleb didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to, because he was staring at his name in bold, cursive letters that would never come off her arm. His gaze singed her skin, which made everything worse, because, no doubt, Caleb could see that too.
    “Well, okay. It is your name. But it’s not your name. I didn’t put it there because of you. I got it for my boyfriend.”  
    His brows jutted up dangerously.
    “Ex-boyfriend.”  
    He didn’t look pacified.  
    “Actually, it was supposed to be a butterfly.” Shut up, Liv . “Or a flower. That’s what I was trying to point to. But I was shaking a little bit and I guess my hand must’ve slipped, and… You know.” Finally— finally —she got her stupid mouth closed.
    “No.” The word came out flat, like Caleb had crushed it with the power of his anger. “I don’t know.”
    “I’m not good with needles. So I was a little nervous when I went inside.” She really needed to stop there. Telling Caleb the whole story would only give him more ammunition to use against her. But his intense stare was completely focused on her. The muscles inside her throat bypassed her brain entirely, like he was controlling them through the power of his gaze, and the next thing she knew, she’d told him exactly what had happened.
    “You were freaking out so bad you didn’t even know you’d pointed to my-boyfriend’s-name-here instead of a butterfly, and CJ didn’t say anything?”
    “I don’t think he realized how badly I was freaking out.”
    “Bullshit.” The word exploded from Caleb’s throat, so fast and hard it almost knocked her on her ass. “One thing you’re not is subtle. If he didn’t notice, it’s because he