She huffed, and the girl beneath her sat up. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“Both of you. Go. Now.”

“You’re a dick.” That came from Kitty.

“Don’t make me tell you again.”

Bishop unwrapped himself from behind me and strode forward to scoop tiny scraps of clothing off the floor and toss them on the bed. Looking back at me, he said, “You want to go try to find a housekeeping cart to get a clean set of sheets? I doubt you want to sleep on those.”

He was right. It also gave me an excellent excuse to get the hell out of the room as quickly as possible. Five minutes later, I’d raided a linen closet at the other end of the floor that hadn’t been shut all the way, and headed back to the room, hoping the girls would already be gone.

I should have taken a little bit longer, because they were just leaving when I returned.

Both girls looked at me with daggers in their eyes. “Fucking bitch. You better believe we won’t forget this. You wouldn’t even know what to do with a guy like him.” Kitty’s tone was pissed. “No one else ever gets a second shot with Bishop, and you fucking stole mine.”

Second shot? I didn’t even want to think about the fact that she’d had a first.

“She does not exist for you,” Bishop said, anger threading through his voice. “Not another goddamned word. Get the hell out.”

I slipped into the hotel room, desperate to get away from them. Actually, right this moment, I wasn’t too keen on being around him either.

Anger and disappointment rolled through me, and I didn’t want to think about why that was. I didn’t know him. Didn’t care who he screwed or how many at the same time.

I stalked across the room and froze before I could drop the fresh linens on the desk. A room key and four lines of white powder lay across the glass.

“Whoa. Is that—”

Bishop was behind me before I could finish my sentence. “Fuck.” He grabbed the trash can and swept the powder into the bin.

I’d seen the movie Blow; I’d just never seen cocaine in real life.

Bishop dropped the trash can back on the floor, strode to the bed, and tore off the sheets. When he was finished, he balled them up and tossed them in the corner before snatching a clean sheet from the stack I still held in my arms.

I didn’t know what to say, so I rounded the foot of the bed and helped remake it in silence.

When the job was done, Bishop backed toward the door. “You should be good. Room is comped tonight and tomorrow, but after Saturday morning, it’s on you. Room service and anything like that is on your card too.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Look, I’m sorry about Kitty and her friend. I wouldn’t have—”

I held up my hands, palms out, hoping he’d stop right there. “It’s okay. You don’t need to say anything. I mean, I might have to burn the garbage—wait, would that get me high?”

He choked out a laugh and shook his head. “Hold on.” He crossed the room and grabbed the trash can before disappearing into the bathroom. The next thing I heard was a flush. He came out and dropped the can back in place next to the desk.

“You’re all set. I’ll make sure Leon didn’t give out any more keys. If he did, I’ll have him rekey the room and call you to come down to get a new one.”

More than anything, I wanted to ask him why he’d bothered to help me, but I couldn’t find the words to put together. Instead, I went with my sincere thanks.

“Thank you. I really do appreciate everything. I’m not sure what I would’ve done without your help.”

Bishop shifted, looking uncomfortable at my words. “Thank me by staying out of trouble.”

He turned, pushed open the door, and disappeared.

I KEPT THINKING I SAW her. Eden. Fucking mind was playing tricks on me.

But it wasn’t the blond cupcake coming into the shop when the door chimed today. No, she should still be tucked away at the Royal Sonesta—or long gone.

I told myself it didn’t matter which, but I was full of shit.

Last night when we’d walked into the hotel room to find Kitty fucking her friend, I’d expected a full-on meltdown from the girl who had surely never seen anything like that before. But she’d barely missed a beat. She didn’t make any shitty comments about the fact that two girls were about to get it on in the bed I’d told her she could have that night. She just brushed it off and did what she had to do. Even when she ran across the lines of coke on the desk, she hadn’t freaked completely. She’d been shocked and confused, but didn’t blink twice after I swept it away.

I hadn’t expected resilience from her, but that’s what I saw. Now I couldn’t help but wonder how long she was staying, or where the hell she was headed next.

Footsteps neared my room, and I finally looked up at the new arrival. Another familiar face.

“Hey, Bishop.” The smile in JP’s voice was impossible to miss, as was the hero worship in her stare.

The girl was relentless. I’d done work on her sleeves and shoulders, and she’d been trying to get me to take her out since the first sitting. Besides the fact that my dick wasn’t interested, she was too young, and I would have been breaking my rule about not touching any female who walked into Voodoo wanting a tattoo. But JP couldn’t or wouldn’t take the hint.

“What do you need, girl?” I couldn’t find it in me to be mean to her because she was just a kid with a crush, no matter how irritating it was becoming.

Her entire face lit up when I stood from my chair and set my book on the counter behind me. “What do I always need when I come to see you?”

She was an ink junkie, a feeling I understood well. “What do you have in mind this time?”

“Maybe a picnic on the riverbank followed by dessert at my place?”

I suppressed a frustrated groan. One of these days, she was going to have to learn to take a hint. “I meant for your ink. You know the other ain’t happening.”

Her cute smile fell into a frown. “I’m not too young. I swear it.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me. I call the shots. So, what do you want for your ink? Or you just here to shoot the shit?”

“Fine.”

Her huff was cute, but that’s all she was. Cute. Before I’d thought she was too innocent for me, but even JP came off as more worldly than Eden, and my dick didn’t seem to mind that.