BONUS EPILOGUE KINGSTON
“Are you sure the current arrangement we have is okay?” Claire asked, and I looked up into the bathroom mirror to meet her gaze and nodded. To anyone else not following along the conversation she’d had with herself, they’d have been worried with how the question was phrased.
I wasn’t worried.
“It’s going to be great. Your brother’s not going to hate you for daring to use someone else.”
She rolled her eyes at my very serious tone that had nothing to do with being serious, and grinned. “I’m going to blame you if Hudson hates me forever and ever. I’m just saying.”
I dried my hands on the towel, and turned around so I could put hands on her hips. She was so small compared to me, so fragile. Yet there was nothing fragile about Claire. She was my everything, the one person I could trust with my weaknesses, my strengths, and everything in between. It had taken me far too long to realize what I had been missing in my life. And yet to realize that that missing part had been there the entire time.
I was so fucking in love that it was hard for me to breathe some days, and yet in the end, it didn’t matter.
Because I had her. And I didn’t need anyone else.
She looked up at me and squinted.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
She raised a brow. “Well, I was on it last night.”
I threw my head back and laughed, my whole chest shaking as she leaned her face against me. I could feel the heat of her skin, the fact that she was blushing so hard at her words.
But that was my Claire. Sweet, innocent, and oh so fucking dirty.
That’s why I loved her.
“You can ride my face later, and maybe, I’ll let you eat my cock. Just because I love you so much.”
“You are such a giver,” she teased.
“I give good orgasms. You know this.”
“That is true.” Her face sobered for a bit, as her fingers slid across the scars on my side.
We were safe. We were unharmed. And we had a long way to go. But in the end, my job was dangerous and we both knew it. But every day that I would come home, I would come home to her. And that’s all that mattered in the end.
“Okay, Hudson’s doing my tattoo today, Leif is doing yours, and we’re going to have some fun.”
“And then I get to watch Phoebe get her Montgomery Ink brand from Sebastian. I really do feel like you guys are a cult.”
I rolled my eyes as I walked into the bedroom, Claire’s fingers linked in my belt loops as we moved into the room.
“It’s not an actual brand. It’s a tattoo. And everybody gets their own color of the Montgomery Ink iris logo, and most people these days just incorporate it into other art. So it’s like a Where’s Waldo of the tattoo.”
The Montgomery Ink iris was the logo for the original Montgomery Ink Inc, and Montgomery Ink down in Denver. It had been incorporated into every other business my family, in its multitudes, had created over time. I had mine twice on my body, mostly because it was fun to hide it and see if people noticed. Some people had it tiny where only their significant others could see, others had it blatant and embellished in a way that made it personal.
Even though it was never required, every single one of my aunts and uncles and grandparents had it. And most of the cousins in my generation had it as well. Not all of them, because I knew they were waiting on the perfect piece to come to mind, but enough of us.
And once you were married into the Montgomerys, you tended to want to have it too.
I frowned as I thought about it, sliding my shirt over my body. I watched the way that she watched me, and I had to swallow hard, and think happy thoughts. I did not want to have a hard dick as I drove us to Montgomery Ink legacy.
“Why were you frowning?” she asked.
“I was thinking that maybe we are a little cult-like. That should probably worry me.”
“You don’t make us drink the Kool-Aid, though we do have to eat the cheese. That might be a little worrying.”
“It might be,” I teased.
“Are you ready for your ink?”
“I’ve been ready.”
I kissed her again, and we made our way out to my SUV, and then headed toward the shop.
I was finally getting the tattoo that I had helped Hudson design all those months ago. Between multiple donations, getting hurt on an assignment, and life, I hadn’t been able to get my tattoo done. Plus, Hudson’s art had blown up on the internet, going viral. So the guy was just as busy as any of the Montgomerys, and the waiting list for the shop was over a year now. They still had places for walk-ins and lotteries, because my family didn’t want to become too elite in some eyes, but Hudson was damn busy. I was just grateful I got the family discount.
At least the discount when it came to time. We all paid our own ways. With so many of us, we wouldn’t be able to last long in this environment if we didn’t.
We made our way inside, as my Aunt Maya stood in front of the main desk, arms over her chest, full sleeves of tattoos shining under the light.
I’d always heard the naysayers saying that tattoos would destroy your life, and what would you look like when you were past forty, wearing ink on your skin like you felt like you were still a teenager or twenty-something year old.
To that, I showed them my Aunt Maya. Or at least, I thought of her.
My aunt was kick-ass, amazing at what she did, and looked like a warrior princess. It didn’t matter to anyone else that she had tattoos, because to her, they were part of herself. And she happened to run a multi-million-dollar business because of it.
“There you are. So I hear that you’re here for a tattoo and I’m not part of it?”
I rolled my eyes and opened my arms. Claire stepped to the side slightly, as my aunt hugged me tightly, then moved to pull Claire into the hug.
“I’m not here to razz you. I’m just excited.”
“You’re Noah’s mom, right?” Claire asked, and my Aunt Maya beamed.
“I am. Noah and Ford are off with one of Ford’s brothers doing this family thing. Greer just finished work, so I’m going to kidnap her for a girls’ night. I’m very mean.”
“I don’t think there’s a mean bone in your body.”
“That is very sweet of you to say. I’m only mean when I’m a mama bear. Now, I cannot wait to see your ink. All three of you are in good hands.”
I turned to see Phoebe and Kane walk in, and then Aunt Maya gave each of them the same hugs, and soon we were laughing, and finding our way to our different parts of the shop.
“So, a dragon?” Hudson asked, as he glared at his sister. If it was a true glare, I probably would have kicked the other man’s ass, even if he was becoming my friend. And because Claire would probably get upset with me.
But I saw the humor in his gaze.
“It’s because of Kingston’s penis. It’s what I call it. So I want it inked on my flesh.”
I choked on the sip of water I had just swallowed, as everybody looked at me for an instant, the silence in the building thick, before everybody burst out laughing, and Hudson’s ears pinked.
“Seriously? You’re just as bad as the rest of them.”
“So says the man who works with them. I’m getting a dragon because I’m fierce. And I’m fiery, and Leif is going to make sure that it surrounds the scar the way that I want. I’m happy. Be happy with me.”
Hudson leaned down and kissed his little sister’s forehead, before glaring at me.
“You hurt me, and I stab you in the heart just like Maleficent.”
“Honestly, they should have just invited her to the party. All of that dragon and sewing nonsense would’ve been avoided.”
“Sewing?” Leif asked as he clucked his tongue and went to sit in front of Claire.
“Let’s get started.”
While I would’ve wanted to sit down and hold Claire’s hand during it all, she didn’t need me for that. She was just as strong and fierce in her tattoo glory. We worked on the shading on my forearm, all the way up to my shoulder, and I smiled over at Claire. She lay on her side, Leif working his hardest. Phoebe’s tattoo was simple, as they were only adding our crest to an existing tattoo.
“That’s looking great,” Nick said as he sat down next to Hudson, but Hudson didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, he stuck out his tongue awkwardly, and went and focused on his work.
I didn’t mind the focus, since this would be on my body for the rest of my life.
I was done a little bit before Claire, so as I stood up to roll my shoulders back, get the kinks out, I looked down at the love of my life.
“Doing okay?”
“I’m getting sleepy.”
“I swear, I don’t know how the two of you get sleepy during your tattoo. I am apparently a weakling,” Phoebe said, as she looked down at her hip where her new tattoo lay.
By the time she was done, and we went over the care instructions, I was hungry, a little sore, and had Claire underneath my other arm. Her tattoo was on the other side of her body. So she could lean into me, and neither one of us were hurting our newly seared flesh.
“I cannot believe I still have another session to go.”
I rolled my eyes as I got her into the car. “I can’t believe he’s almost done with yours at all, to be fair. You only have the highlights to go. And only because you were starting to swell and adding white ink to that wouldn’t have been good. You are such a fucking trooper.” I smacked a hard kiss on her lips, and she gripped my hand, the urgency in her eyes worrying me.
“What’s wrong?”
“I love you. From the moment you laughed at me for hiding in a bathroom when a bear came, I loved you.”
I pushed her hair back from her face and smiled.
“I love you too, Claire Bear.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Hudson calls me that. We need a new name.”
“Well, I guess fuck buddy doesn’t work either.”
Her nose scrunched and I grinned. “We’ll keep working on the nicknames. But I love you. And you’re stuck with me. So just stay safe, okay? Don’t cut up any of that ink.”
“I can always get a desk job,” I said, being serious.
She shook her head. “Never. You need to be you, just like I need to be me. So I will plan us some amazing Montgomery parties, because now the whole family’s stuck with me. And you’ll come home safe to me. That’s our deal. Always.”
“Always. What do you say we pick up some of those frosting laden cookies and go home and eat them naked?”
“Are we allowed to have sex with new tattoos? My care instructions didn’t say anything about it.”
“We’ll have to be careful with the sweat and the vigorous activities. So no hot tubs, no long showers where we submerge ourselves.”
“Deal. I’ll be very careful when I ride your face.”
I burst out laughing, kissed her again, and knew that one night would’ve never been enough. Neither would two or three.
We had our forevers, inked in place, and plans begun. I had fallen in love with the woman who had been by my side. Fallen in love with the woman I hadn’t let myself see.
But now she was here.
And she was all mine.