2. Creed

Chapter 2

Creed

T he bells above my tattoo parlor door ring, signaling that I have a new customer. I don't glance up from the drawing I'm working on. One of my regular customers wants a tattoo in a style that is not my normal style. It's a paying customer, and like they say, the customer is always right, no matter how tacky I find it. The least I can do is make it the best design I can.

At least it's something different than the seashells, seahorses, or whatever other sea-related design. Having a tattoo parlor in a seaside town is the hottest-selling tattoo for this tourist town.

I'm so wrapped up in my design that I barely hear the click of high heels hitting the hardwood floor until a soft cough pulls me out of my creative flow. I feel a scowl form on my face as I drag my gaze away from my design to the floor, where a pair of bare legs catches my eye. I feel a pull in my groin I only feel when I'm around McKenna. Hell, the only time I can get hard is when I'm either around McKenna or thinking about her. It's shit for my nonexistent sex life.

How many twenty-six-year-old virgins are out there in the world? Maybe we should start a support group. Because if I can't have McKenna, I don't want anyone else. Not that my feelings mean anything to her. Her face is plastered all over the internet with a new guy on her arm every day. What does she need with a lowly tattoo artist like me anyway?

Sure, I was the one to pull away, but she was on the rise to fame and fortune. I couldn't tell her how I felt about her when she needed to concentrate on her career, and all the exposure her rise to fame would help this struggling tourist town and its economy. Love Beach has always been a popular tourist destination. Still, once McKenna was discovered, the town's tourists grew twice its size, with people hoping to get a glimpse of McKenna or just wanting to feel closer to her by visiting her hometown.

A part of me hopes this is actually someone else standing in front of me and not McKenna so I can finally get over my infatuation with the girl of my dreams. But the part that matters, my heart, knows that standing before me is my little Siren.

"Hey, Creed." Her seafoam green eyes flash in something I can't quite put my finger on, but if I know McKenna, and I do like the back of my hand, she's up to no good.

"Hey," I grunt, turning my attention back to my drawing and away from her tempting body and needing to hide my ever-growing erection from her.

"So I'm here for a tattoo." She scoots around the counter and bumps her hip into mine, just like she used to do when we were kids when she was trying to get me to go along with one of her crazy plans. Even at such a young age, McKenna had me wrapped around her little finger.

"Yeah, what kind of a tattoo?" The heat from her body, where her hip is still touching mine, makes it hard to utter more than a few words.

She steps back, and I instantly miss her touch, "A mermaid right here." She points to the left side of her body over her ribs. "One to match this one." She lifts the hem of her dress, revealing more of her creamy thighs until a crude design of a mermaid appears. It's the first tattoo I ever did, right there on her upper thigh.

When I was sixteen and she was thirteen, I told McKenna about my dream of one day becoming a tattoo artist and owning my own shop like my uncle. She was the only one who believed in me—so much so that it was her idea to break into my uncle's tattoo parlor one weekend. I'd watched my uncle ink numerous clients. I'd even helped him set up and clean up. I knew what I was doing. I just needed a chance to prove it.

I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't tell her no when McKenna stuck out her thigh and told me to mark her with my ink. Even if we were too young to understand our bond, we could still feel it until I ruined everything by not showing up on her eighteenth birthday or any day after that. It's been five years, and even though I kick myself every day for breaking up our friendship, I know in my head it was the right thing to do. Now, if only my heart would listen.

"Hey, Creed. My shift is over. I'm going to head out, but I'll see you at home." Serena, my newest apprentice, walks into the main space from the hallway leading to the private tattoo rooms. She looks up and stops on a dime as her eyes land on McKenna. "Sorry, I didn't know you had a customer…" Her voice trails off, and that's when I realize she has just figured out McKenna's identity. "Oh my, you're McKenna Carlisle!" her voice takes on a high-pitched sound I've never heard from her before. "I know all your songs by heart. What are you doing here? Oh, that's right, you grew up in Love Beach."

Serena continues to ramble off question after question, and to her credit, McKenna answers each one with a smile, even though I can tell by the faint squint around her eyes that something is bothering her.

"Creed, you never told me you knew McKenna Carlisle." Serena playfully hits my shoulder in mock anger with a laugh.

McKenna's eyes follow the path of Serena's open hand to my shoulder, the small gasp that escapes McKenna's ruby red lips is so subtle that I almost miss it.

Does she think we're a couple?

I glance into McKenna's eyes, and the pain reflecting back at me is too much to bear. "McKenna, this is my apprentice Serena. Her apartment is being renovated, so she's staying with me for a little while in my guest bedroom." The strain around McKenna's eyes loosens into a more relaxed expression, followed by my explanation of the sleeping arrangement. "Serena, this is McKenna. She's an old childhood friend. She's here to get some ink."

Serena's eyes shift to McKenna's still-exposed thigh, "Oh, are you getting that covered?" She points at the mermaid tattoo on McKenna's left thigh.

"No, actually, I'm looking to get a matching one on my ribs." McKenna lowers her skirt over her thigh, concealing my mark. "And I came here to have the best of the best ink me."

"Well, you certainly came to the right place." Serena gives me her usually friendly smile, which I don't think anything of until I see McKenna's eyes narrow and shift to Serena's hand still resting on my shoulder, and the strain around her eyes returns.

Serena and I are just friends—neither of us has feelings for each other besides friendship, but it looks like my little Siren is jealous by the way her cute little nose is scrunched up.

"You know I've changed my mind. I don't want the tattoo after all." McKenna sighs and turns toward the door, misinterpreting Serena's situation.

I'm at a crossroads—do I let McKenna believe that I'm in a relationship with Serena and let her walk out the door? Or do I tell her everything I've been holding in for all these years? I'm not the same guy I was five years ago. I'm a successful business man—I own my own shop in Love Beach with a second location opening next year in Myrtle beach. I may not be McKenna Carlisle rich, but the girl I grew up with never cared about fame or fortune.

I take two steps toward McKenna, and with two little words, I seal my fate: "McKenna, wait."