MAXWELL: Brothers Ink Tattoo (Brothers Ink Tattoo Series Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  EPILOGUE

  Preview of LIAM

  Also by Nicole James

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  EPILOGUE

  Preview of LIAM

  Also by Nicole James

  MAXWELL

  A Brothers Ink Story

  ~~~

  Nicole James

  MAXWELL

  BROTHERS INK

  BOOK 2

  By

  Nicole James

  Published by Nicole James

  Copyright 2017 Nicole James

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Art by Viola Estrella

  Photography by Reggie Deanching / R+M Photography

  Model: Alfie Gordillo

  Edited by CookieLynn Publishing Services

  ISBN#: 9781548831592

  Chapter One

  Maxwell bent over the arm of a client, twisting and leaning to get to a difficult area of shoulder. The bell over the front door tinkled, drawing his eyes up for one brief glance. He saw the back of someone in a hooded rain jacket as they turned to close the door. A cool mist blew in as the sound of the pouring rain traveled through the shop.

  His eyes flicked to the clock; it was lunchtime, and they’d called their order in to Thai Garden two blocks away. He hoped this was the delivery boy with their food.

  His eyes again darted to the entrance and did a double take as the hood of the raincoat was pushed back.

  Holy hotness.

  She was a petite, Asian beauty with long silky hair and big dark eyes—not too much eye makeup, just thick dark lashes and a bit of liner. Her skin was flawless. She stepped toward the far wall; her eyes up on the framed art, and her body came into view from around the reception counter. The rain slicker hung open in front revealing a slender, boyish frame. Low-slung jeans hugged her hips and exposed a teasing inch of skin between them and her tight top. Nice rack.

  Clicking off his machine, his eyes returned to the client in his chair. “Give me just a minute, Ryan.”

  “Sure, no problem. I could use a break anyway.”

  Max smiled and got up to greet their new customer. He moved to the lobby and around the front of the reception counter, leaning an elbow on it. His eyes swept over the young woman, again falling to that gap between her jeans and top. Her belly was flat and toned, and her skin looked like silk. He hoped she wanted some ink. He’d love to work on her.

  His gaze followed hers as she leaned closer, examining the art and photographs of tattoos the shop had done, her eyes moving all over the colors on the wall.

  “See anything you like?” he asked. When she didn’t respond, he spoke a little louder. “Miss, anything I can help you with?”

  Then his eyes dropped to the bag that hung by her side, and the aroma of the best Thai food in town found him. His eyes moved back up to her face. She wasn’t the skinny Asian kid who usually delivered their food. Kiet was his name; they knew him well, as they ordered so often. But in all that time, this girl had never delivered their food.

  “How much do we owe you?” he asked. She still didn’t answer, so he stepped closer and repeated it a little louder. “Miss, how much for the food?”

  Just then she turned, bumping right into his muscled chest. Her eyes got big as she stared up at him, taking a step back, obviously startled by his proximity. He reached a hand out to steady her, but she flinched back as if she were afraid of him. He was a big man with muscled arms covered in tribal ink, and he knew that could be intimidating, especially to a petite girl like her.

  He smiled, hoping to put her at ease and put his hands up. “Sorry. I’m Max. You’re not the usual kid who delivers our food. Kiet. Do you know him?”

  She stared at him, but didn’t answer, and Max wondered if she didn’t speak English. She held out the food and pointed to the receipt stapled to the bag. He took it, hoping his smile would reassure her. His eyes moved over her face. Her beauty took his breath away. How had a girl this beautiful been reduced to running food deliveries?

  He twisted to set the bag on the counter, checking the receipt for the amount, and then he dug his wallet out. As he thumbed through for the money, he called over his shoulder, “Liam, you got a ten? I’m short.”

  When he turned back, he noticed the girl’s attention had returned to the art on the walls.

  “Do you like our art?” he asked.

  Liam walked over, handing him a ten, and they both studied the woman as she stared at the wall.

  “Maybe she doesn’t speak English,” Liam murmured.

  “Damn, right about now, I wish I spoke Thai,” Max whispered back and Liam grinned at him. Max reached for the bag, and his elbow knocked a glass candy bowl to the floor. It shattered with a loud crash.

  “Shit,” Max jumped back. As he looked down at the broken glass, he felt an elbow in his ribs and glanced up to find Liam nodding toward the girl. Max’s eyes swung to her and noticed she hadn’t even flinched.

  “I think she can’t hear, bro,” Liam whispered.

  Max took the ten from Liam, added it to his own, and tapped the girl on the shoulder.
r />   She whirled, startled.

  He held the bills out to her, nodding toward them.

  Just then, Liam made some gestures with his hands. Max frowned, watching him. “When the hell did you learn sign language?”

  “A kid in my high school class was deaf. A lot of us picked it up over the four years.”

  The girl looked relieved and gestured back, a big smile breaking across her face. They continued signing back and forth.

  “What is she saying?” Max asked.

  “Says her name is Malee. Kiet is her brother. He’s sick and couldn’t make the delivery, so her father sent her.”

  Liam signed some more, gesturing to the wall. She signed back, a shy smile on her face. “She likes the colors.”

  He signed some more. She signed back.

  “She likes to draw. The art fascinates her.”

  Max watched her closely.

  “Can you read lips?” Liam asked her, and she waggled her hand before signing. “Says she tries, but she still has trouble with it.”

  Max gestured up to the art on the wall and spoke clearly to her so she could read his lips. “You want a tattoo?”

  Her eyes got big, and she pointed to herself.

  He nodded.

  Max ignored the broken glass, too consumed with speaking to this beautiful girl. “Ask her if I make her nervous?”

  Liam signed to her, laughing and making symbols that had Max thinking his brother was calling him a big gorilla. The girl giggled and blushed, and then she shrugged and held up two fingers about an inch apart.

  He smiled, understanding that sign, and asked, “Why?”

  She made a motion with her hands, like she was trying to wrap them around a large bowl, and then pointed to his bicep. “Big,” she tried to say the word that seemed foreign to her mouth.

  He took her hand gently in his and brought it to his muscle revealed by his short-sleeved shirt. He smiled at her as her eyes got huge as she touched his skin, and suddenly she pulled back, embarrassed, and he was left wondering if she hadn’t touched a man before.

  Then suddenly, she backed up a step. She dipped her head down, her eyes looking up from under her brow. Then she turned and dashed out of the shop.

  Max followed to the window, watching her hurry down the street. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she?”

  Rory walked up, taking in the glass on the floor and Max staring out the window, then turned to Liam. “What’s he looking at?”

  Liam grinned huge. “Big brother is in love.”

  “Say what?”

  “I just saw it happen, right before my eyes. He fell hard.”

  Max swiveled his head back. “She’s pretty is all I said. Don’t make a thing out of it.”

  “Yeah, right. Why do I suddenly feel like there’s a lot of Thai food in our future?”

  Max shoved his shoulder as he walked past him toward the back. “Speaking of… Clean up the glass and maybe I’ll let you have some of it.”

  “Me? I didn’t break the damn bowl, you did!”

  Max laughed and kept walking.

  ***

  Malee turned and glanced back at the tattoo shop, studying the name. Brothers Ink. She’d never been there before. She’d lied to the man when she’d said her brother was sick, and her father had sent her. Her father rarely let her out of the restaurant, preferring to keep her back in the kitchen, like her deafness somehow made her flawed and she should be hidden away. Her mother said he was just being protective of her, but sometimes she wondered if he wasn’t ashamed of her disability. She wasn’t perfect like her brother, who could do no wrong in their father’s eyes.

  She glanced back at the shop. She wasn’t supposed to make that lunch delivery. She’d grabbed it and ran out the door while her brother was busy, glad to escape the confines of the restaurant, even if it was only for a few minutes. Her father may beat her for her disobedience when she returned, but it had been worth it. She’d never seen art like that before. All the colors and designs had taken her breath away. She’d been fascinated. Tonight, in her room, she’d pull out her hidden sketchpad and colored pencils and try to duplicate the beautiful designs.

  Her mind turned from the art she’d seen in the shop to the big man who’d spoken to her. Max, he’d said his name was. Tonight, when she was alone in her room, in addition to her drawing, she’d also practice saying his name out loud until she got it just right, so if she ever got the chance to run into him again, she could say hello to him, and he wouldn’t think she sounded funny.

  She knew her lack of hearing distorted her voice and didn’t sound exactly like other people. But it was hard to form the words correctly, when you couldn’t hear how they came out.

  Her mother wanted her to get an implant that the doctor said would help her to hear, but her father forbid it, saying it was too risky and too expensive.

  Her eyes again strayed back to the tattoo shop as she stood on the corner in the rain, waiting for the light to change. She’d seen that man before—Max. She’d seen him in the gym on Fourth Street where her brother took martial arts classes. MMA, they called it; Mixed Martial Arts. She’d seen Max in there working out on the bag. He had powerful arms, and she’d been mesmerized watching him. She wasn’t supposed to go there either, but sometimes she’d sneak down there when her brother went and watch through the big storefront windows. No one ever noticed her. She made sure to stand off to the side, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

  And now she knew where the big man with the powerful arms worked. Brothers Ink. She smiled a secret smile as she jogged back toward her parents’ restaurant, happy for the first time in a long time.

  Chapter Two

  Max and Liam sat in the break room. Liam was flipping through this month’s copy of Inked Up magazine, and Max was drinking an energy drink when Rory walked in to grab a drink out of the refrigerator.

  “Hey, Rory,” Liam said, not looking up from his magazine.

  “Yeah?”

  “Keller’s is having a sale on guitars.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You buy one, they’ll throw in free lessons.”

  Max laughed, and Rory flipped Liam off as he walked back out.

  “Why do you constantly antagonize him?” Max asked.

  Liam grinned. “Why, you jealous?”

  Jameson walked in and collapsed into a chair.

  “They’ve got handbooks for everything these days. I know because I just spent the last two hours in the bookstore with Ava. Handbooks for names, handbooks for pregnancy, handbooks for motherhood, handbooks for fatherhood, handbooks for smart babies, handbooks for city babies…”

  Liam glanced up from his magazine. “Livin’ the dream, huh?”

  “Shoot me now.”

  “Where is she?” Max asked.

  “Up front, talking to Rory.”

  A minute later, Ava walked in with a bookstore bag in one hand and a twin-pack of muffins in the other.

  “How are you doing, sweetheart?” Max asked as she sat down.

  “I’m doing well. Just starving.”

  Jameson looked over as she unwrapped the package. “You gonna share?”

  She took a big bite of one. “Nope.”

  “There are two huge ones. Are you sure you need to eat all that?”

  She glared at him with a look that promised to go nuclear. “Are you calling me fat?”

  Even Liam looked up from his magazine at that comment. “Oh, dude, you just hit the button that launched all the missiles.”

  She stood up and stomped out of the room.

  Jameson called after her. “Baby, I’m sorry. You know I get cranky when I’m hungry.”

  “He’s never gonna dig himself out of that hole,” Liam murmured.

  “Yeah, there’s no handbook for that,” Max put in with a grin.

  “What, you don’t think she’s gonna forgive me?” Jameson asked.

  Liam continued flipping pages. “Maybe in a parallel universe. Where you aren’t a d
ick.”

  Max tried to stifle his laughter. “I’ll go talk to her. Smooth things over for you.”

  “Thanks, man. I’m exhausted, and you always did have a way with calming her shit down.”

  Max winked. “You’re not the only one with special skills, superstar.”

  He found Ava sitting on the big couch in the lobby, eating her muffins and quietly fuming. He sat down next to her and patted her knee. “You know he didn’t mean it. You’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. He’s just tired and irritable.”

  “He’s always tired and irritable. I’m the one carrying this baby.”

  “I know, but he’s been working long hours on the house, trying to get it finished in time, plus his work here.”

  She dropped the hand holding the muffin to her lap. “I know. You’re right. I’m just so emotional right now.”

  Max grinned at her. “Well, don’t let him off the hook. Make sure he makes it up to you tonight. That rates at least a foot massage or a back rub.”

  She slouched back against the cushions, closing her eyes. “Oh God, Max. What I wouldn’t give for a foot massage right now.”

  “Your wish, my lady.” He pulled her foot up on his leg, turning her sideways on the couch as he slipped her shoe off. “Babe, you think you should still be wearing these high heels?”

  “I’ve given up everything for this baby, Max. I’m not giving up my heels, too.”

  Max grinned. “Okay, Ava.” He rubbed her foot, pressing his thumbs into the arch until she moaned.

  “My God, that feels great. Why aren’t you married, Max? If the ladies knew you had this skill, they’d be lining up out the door.”

  He chuckled. “If you say so.”

  After a few minutes, she rolled her head on the cushion and looked at him. “Are you happy here, Max?”

  He turned his head to look at her. “Sure, I guess.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll never be as good as Jameson, but I get by.”

  “Is there something else you’d like to do? Did Jameson twist your arm into a career you didn’t want?”

  “Not at all. I enjoy working here, but…”

  “But what?”

  “For Jameson this is his passion, but for me… it’s just a job.”

  “And what’s your passion, Max?”