13. Chapter 13
HERO
“I’m just saying, I fucked my way into this mess, and I’ll fuck my way out of it,” Jag declares loudly over the music and the buzz of multiple tattoo machines. I lift my needle off my client’s skin just in time for her to jerk with laughter.
“What does that even mean?” she asks me in a low voice.
“With Jag, it’s usually best to not even ask,” I say, shaking my head, then returning the needle to her skin to finish putting the final touches on a few spots of shading.
My mind wanders a little while I work, straight to the same place it’s been going during every free moment I’ve had for the past year.
Onyx Hart . After the weekend in Chicago, I saw him again a few months later in Ohio for more of the same.
Holing up in a hotel room and making each other cum over and over, then tattooing him for hours once we were too tired to fuck anymore.
It’s easy and fun, and if I could stop obsessing about him every second during the months in between, it would be perfect.
I wipe the blood and excess ink off of the tattoo.
“Let that settle for a few minutes, then I’ll get some pictures and wrap it.”
I stand up to stretch my shoulders and neck, and she pulls out her phone to snap a few of her own pictures of her new ink.
I pull off my gloves, toss them in the trash, then make my way over to the water cooler at the front of the shop to get a drink.
An older model Mustang that looks like it’s seen better days pulls into the parking lot while I’m filling up a cup.
There’s a large dent in the front bumper and some rust around the wheels.
If whoever owns it is planning to come in here for a tattoo, I might have to suggest they spend their money on a new car instead.
The car pulls into a spot right in front of the shop, and I sip my water, only vaguely interested to see what kind of person might get out of that monstrosity.
The driver’s door swings open, and I inhale sharply, sucking my mouthful of water down the wrong pipe.
It burns my throat and nose as I cough it back into the cup and then keep coughing to clear my lungs.
My eyes water as I try to get it under control.
Arrow appears beside me and thumps me on the back helpfully.
“Hey, is that…?”
The bell above the door chimes, and the rockstar who’s been the star of every wet dream and fantasy I’ve had in the last year steps inside.
Onyx shakes his hair out of his eyes and looks around until his attention lands on me, still red in the face from nearly drowning myself, my heart racing from his unexpected arrival.
“Well fuck me, it’s Onyx Hart,” Jag says.
A low murmur goes through the shop. Piston has to pull his needle away abruptly as his client nearly launches himself out of the chair to get a better look, and even Brick pokes his head out from his private piercing studio to see what all the commotion is about.
My bones are practically vibrating with the effort it takes to stay rooted to my spot and not rush across the shop to pull him into my arms and taste his lips again.
In spite of everyone else’s interest and excitement, it feels like he only has eyes for me, a smile twisting his mouth as he jams his hands into his pockets and just looks at me silently for several long seconds.
Arrow gives my shoulder a subtle shove, nudging me to stop staring and actually say something. I clear my throat, rake my fingers through my hair, and manage to unstick my feet from the spot I’m rooted to.
“Hey,” I greet him casually.
“Hey.” Onyx tugs his lip ring between his teeth, tempting me to want to do the same. He manages to tear his eyes away from mine and glance around the shop as I approach him. “This place is cool.”
“Yeah, thanks. We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it.” I come to a stop right in front of him, doing a quick visual check for any new tattoos he might have gotten since the last time I saw him.
His smile widens a little more, like he knows exactly what I’m doing. “No one’s inked me but you,” he says quietly.
Satisfaction blooms in my chest, and I nod. “Are you, uh, here for some ink?”
I want to ask how long he’ll be in town, where he’s planning to stay, if I can have him all to myself tonight before he’s back on the road to wherever he’s due to play next. But I can’t ask any of that with half a dozen sets of nosy eyes on us.
“Yeah. It was crazy, we were passing through town on our way to the next show and the lights on the bus went all wacky. They think there must be some kind of electrical problem, so while they get it checked out, I figured I’d swing by and see if you had time to see me.
” His eyes dance with mischief and the same unspoken heat I can feel brewing in my gut.
“Electrical problem?” I arch an eyebrow at him.
Onyx shrugs. “It was like someone fucked with the wires or something. Who knows.” He smirks.
“Gremlins probably,” I deadpan.
“Must be. So… do you have time to give me some ink?”
“Yeah, I actually have a couple of hours until my next appointment. Let me get this one out the door and clean up, then I can get you in my chair.”
“Sounds good.” He rocks forward on his toes. Does he want to kiss me as badly as I want to kiss him?
I’m torn between excitement that he stopped by at all and disappointment that he’s only passing through and can’t stay the night. A few hours to give him a new tattoo is better than nothing though, right?
ONYX
“So, what are you thinking?” Hero asks, cleaning up his space while I sit on the railing nearby waiting to have his hands on me, even if it’s not in the way I would really like.
What am I thinking? I don’t know if I can answer that one out loud in his workplace with clients within earshot.
I’m thinking it’s been too many months since I’ve felt the weight of his cock on my tongue.
I’m thinking that the memory of his moans vibrating against my lips is getting misty and I’d love to refresh it.
I’m thinking I should have sabotaged the tour bus in some way that would have taken more than a few hours to sort out.
“Surprise me,” I say instead.
Hero swivels around and arches his eyebrow at me, the smirk on his lips letting me know his thoughts are in the gutter right along with mine.
“Alright, I think I have something.” He pats the chair to beckon me over and grabs his sketch pad.
I hop off the railing and park myself in his tattoo chair, taking in the shop while he looks for the design he has in mind.
This place really is pretty badass. I can see the biker vibe in a lot of the designs pinned to the walls and the random photos of Harleys hung here and there.
The atmosphere is relaxed too, a low hum of conversation carrying through the shop while the other guys work.
After that initial excitement, everyone seems to have stopped caring that there’s a rockstar in their midst.
“So, whose shitty car is that?” Jag calls over to me.
I chuckle. “Mine. I worked my ass off at the butcher shop on Main Street for a whole summer when I was sixteen to afford that car. She may look a little rough now, but she still runs just fine. I make them hitch her to the back of the bus so I always have her with me on tour.”
“You know you’re rich, right?” Arrow stage whispers. “You could just buy a brand-new Mustang, or any other car you want.”
I shrug. I don’t really feel the need to explain to a room full of strangers that a new car wouldn’t be the same.
A new Mustang wouldn’t be the car I slept in for the first few weeks I lived in Seattle before I managed to scrape together the money for a security deposit on a place.
A new Mustang wouldn’t be the car I drove to my Black Sheep audition in, or the car I was sitting in the first time one of our singles played on the radio.
“Alright, got it,” Hero says. “Do you want to see, or do you actually want it to be a surprise?”
“I trust you. Surprise me.”
He snorts. “You’re going to feel really silly saying that if I end up tattooing a dick on your arm.”
“I’ll only feel silly if it’s a flaccid dick.”
He laughs again and I lie back, looking at the ceiling and purposefully not peeking as he preps the blank spot on my forearm and then presses the transfer paper down to apply the outline.
“So, how’s the tour going?” he asks, pulling on a pair of gloves before dipping the needle into the first cap of black ink.
“Not bad.” I tuck my free arm behind my head to get comfortable and relax into the now familiar feeling of that first bite of the needle against my skin.
The music in my ears isn’t anxious like it was the first time, it’s more of an excited, happy tenor now.
It’s sunshine and July and the color yellow.
“We played on The Tonight Show a couple months ago.”
“I saw.” Hero’s lips twitch with a smile, and a warm feeling settles into my chest.
He was watching? I thought maybe it was stupid at the time, but I was kind of hoping he was. I kept looking into the camera, imagining Hero’s eyes on me from a thousand miles away.
“We’ve only got a few more stops before we’re done for a few months.
I have to be in Seattle for studio time for most of it, but I have a week free.
I was thinking I might get a hotel room in Milwaukee or something.
” I say it quietly, just in case any of the clients here get the bright idea to call a gossip magazine and ruin my one week off.
Hero glances up and grins at me. “Milwaukee is cool. I’ve been thinking about kicking it around the city a bit too. We should hang out.”
“I can always use some more ink,” I say casually, even though my insides are jumping with excitement and my heart is racing.
“It’s addictive once you get started, isn’t it?” Tex interjects, startling me by appearing right behind Hero.
My throat tightens with another laugh, and I glance at Hero again.
“Extremely fucking addictive.” And that’s a fucking understatement.
Way too soon, the tour bus pulls up outside, and Hero starts looking at the clock, probably feeling the time crunch before his next appointment.
“All done,” he declares, setting the tattoo needle down and reaching for the paper towel to clean off my skin.
I sit up and look down to see what he ended up tattooing on me this time, and bark out a laugh.
“Really?” I mutter.
He shrugs. “Gremlins.”
I want to argue that what he actually gave me was a mogwai, but I suppose that’s semantics.
“It’s awesome, thank you.” I want to lean forward and kiss him, but I don’t know how he feels about PDA or if he wants anyone to know we’re more than friends.
The bell over the door chimes and I look over to see Jade standing there with an impatient arch to her thinly plucked eyebrow and a pucker to her lips like she’s been sucking lemons.
It’s right on the tip of my tongue to warn her that her face might get stuck that way if she isn’t careful, but she’s been extra bitchy since her and Gray called it quits a couple of months ago, so I’d better not poke the bear.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” I say to Hero, since I can’t kiss him or say what I really want to say.
“Milwaukee?” he confirms under his breath, and I nod.
“I’ll text you the dates.”
“Can’t wait.” Hero grabs the supplies to wrap my new tattoo.
“Me either,” I whisper.