Chapter 3

3

AMBER

I should be panicking by now. I should be making phone calls and asking someone to come get us out of here. Instead, I was sitting on the floor by the door, handing Clay a tool whenever he asked for one.

“This lock is shot all to hell,” Clay said. “I think it might need to be switched out.”

I gasped. The sound escaped before I could stop it.

“Do we have to call a locksmith for that?” I asked. “My boss is on vacation. Christian, the other tattoo artist, has kind of been left in charge.”

Clay stopped working and looked down at me. “Where is he now? This is a tattoo parlor. Are you a tattoo artist too?”

That was a reasonable question since working here alone meant I’d be expected to tattoo someone if they came in. Plus, I was a graphic designer. But no, I didn’t really plan to add “tattoo artist” to my resume.

“He left,” I said. “He’s not a pleasant guy, so I don’t really want to get on his bad side. Could we call a locksmith? Maybe he could come fix all this before anybody found out it stopped working and…”

He turned to fully face me now, looking down at me with a puzzled expression. “Are you afraid they’ll fire you?”

No, that wasn’t it at all. I could probably find another job. It wasn’t like this one paid all that well. But being able to do my work from here was a huge plus.

What had me afraid was getting on the wrong side of Christian. He was a grumpy guy. I’d never even seen him smile. He might not have a temper, but he intimidated me.

Kind of like this guy. Except with him, I felt safe, protected. This guy also made me feel a little warm between the legs. Maybe it was because he was the first man to see me naked. Mostly naked. Since I’d been raised to save myself for marriage, it was only natural I’d feel drawn to a man I went too far with—intentional or not.

With a sigh, Clay turned back to the door. “I can change out this lock, but I’d need another lock.”

“And that means getting out of here to go get one,” I said.

“Exactly.”

He grabbed the door handle and tried nudging it again. Nothing. The clench of his jaw gave away just how frustrated he was by the whole thing.

“I’d bust out the window, but I definitely don’t want to be replacing an entire pane of glass,” he said. “Plus, this sort of thing probably has to be special ordered and takes weeks.”

“Definitely don’t bust out the window,” I said.

He turned back to look at me. “Maybe we could crawl out a window.”

“But that would just put us on the other side of this door that won’t open.”

“Maybe it would open from the other side,” he said.

That brought me back to my offer to call someone. My roommate could probably come and jiggle the door from outside. But my mind automatically pushed back at that idea. I didn’t want to bring someone else into this situation. I wanted to keep Clay all to myself.

“One of us could crawl out a window and go around, and we could work on it that way,” he said.

I was already pushing myself to my feet, ready to go searching. “I think there’s a window in the bathroom.”

“You go check that out, and I’ll stay here and work on this,” he said.

I was surprised to find I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to stay here and work on this together. I wanted to be with this guy, whether it meant being trapped in a tattoo parlor or going on an actual date with him.

The window in the bathroom was tinier than I remembered, and up high. No way could I get up there on my own. I’d need his help. And even then, would I be able to squeeze through? I wasn’t stick-thin. If my triple Ds didn’t get stuck, my generous ass would, and that would be embarrassing as hell.

As I turned to head back to the main room, dread filled me. I didn’t want to tell him the window was too small for either of us to get through. For once, I wished I was one of those tiny women who was teased for being so petite. At least then, he could lift me easily and slip me through it.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t realize he was in the hallway, barreling toward this room, until I came through the doorway and slammed right into him. His arms went around me to steady me, and my hands landed, palms flattened against his chest.

I looked up at him, and in that moment, I could feel what it would be like to have his lips crash down on mine. It would be…amazing. But his face didn’t move. Instead, he just stared down at me like he was thinking about kissing me.

Should I give him the green light? I knew some guys waited for consent these days, but I didn’t want that. I wanted him to kiss me because he couldn’t wait another second. I wanted him to want me so badly, he couldn’t hold back.

Yeah, this wasn’t like me at all. I was a good girl who went to church and waited until marriage to have sex. But when I looked at Clay, I wanted to get naked again and do things?—

“You okay?” he asked.

That was when I saw the concern in his eyes. All of these scandalous thoughts, and he was being protective and nice. He wasn’t having sexual thoughts at all.

I needed to get it together, and I needed to get it together now .

“Fine,” I said, stepping away from him. His arms fell to his sides, and my body immediately missed his touch. “The window is too small. And high up. I don’t think it’s an option.”

“Let’s take a look.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as he headed around me and into the bathroom. So much for keeping him from finding out I wouldn’t fit through what he’d probably see as a reasonably sized window.

I’d always loved my curves—I’d been proud of them even as I’d downplayed them. But suddenly, I wanted to be that woman who could easily be picked up and passed through a window, which was bizarre.

All I could figure was I wanted him to be my hero. And I wanted to be the damsel in distress who could also help him get us out of here.