Chapter 7 The Circle of Life, Babe
The Circle of Life, Babe
Ariel
An entire day in the car was simply too much for me. I was used to being busy all the time and always on the go.
This being stuck in the car for a whole day wasn’t good for the mind. I needed a distraction.
Thankfully, the hotel Quinton had put us up in came up on the gps and we were ready to stop for the night.
But my asshole bossy husband was full of all kinds of surprises and he’d gotten us all one room to share. There were two king size beds, but still.
What kind of man tried to push his wife into sleeping with two other men?
He was out of his fucking mind, but I refused to so much as text him so I could give him a piece of my mind. He’d get too much amusement out of that.
“I’m gonna order us some room service,” Simon said as he immediately plopped down on one of the beds and reached for the phone.
My mouth twitched as I watched him fondly. He didn’t bother asking us what we wanted and I didn’t mind. By now he knew what I liked and if I didn’t want to eat it chances where high that he would.
Trenton rolled his eyes at his brother’s antics as he carried his bag to the bathroom. He looked at me over his shoulder. “I’m going to jump in the shower. Don’t answer the door by yourself, please.”
Another please from another bossy man in my life. What the hell was happening here?
I sat down on the empty bed and picked up the remote from the nightstand. I spread out on the bed and mindlessly flicked through channels on the tv.
The bed shifted beside me as Simon joined me on the bed. He plucked the remote out of my hand and took over my channel search. I didn’t mind. I wasn’t really looking for anything anyway, I just wanted something to do.
He picked some show about animals and tossed the remote back onto the nightstand with a clatter.
I stared at the tv in horror as a pack of lions cornered a zebra and proceeded to rip it apart and eat it. Who watched this kind of thing to relax? Psycho’s, that’s who.
“Uh, Simon?” I muttered. “This show is kind of gory.”
“It’s the circle of life, babe. Only the strong survive. I think it’s fascinating. If you don’t like this one there was another one on about sharks that we could watch.”
Sharks?
Yeah, no thanks.
Sharks were scary as shit. Beautiful, but absolutely terrifying. Why people wanted to swim with them or get in the ocean at all with those things was beyond me. It was just asking to be eaten alive.
When I watched tv it was all about the drama or mindless entertainment for me. I didn’t watch it to learn things. That’s why I read books.
Simon fed off of knowledge and he was full of all kinds of useful information. He had a busy mind and usually always couldn’t ever just sit still and be.
I could sit somewhere and just pretend I didn’t exist for hours and I’d be just fine.
Usually.
Tonight was not the case and I was anxious and all kinds of jittery. My mind kept wanting to go down a very dark road and no matter how much I tried to steer it in a different direction it just didn’t want to cooperate with me.
I always battled with myself so as not to let the things in my fucked up past drag me down. Usually I could maintain it and I won. This trip might prove me wrong and get the better of me for once.
And I absolutely fucking hated that.
“I want to get another tattoo,” I blurted out. It had been something I was thinking about lately and it sounded like a really good idea to me.
“Yeah?” he perked up at this and his eyes shifted from the blood bath on the television to me. “What are you thinking of getting?”
“I want a dream catcher with yellow and black feathers hanging from it going down my side. To represent Tyson. Eventually, I want to get ink for them all but I want to start with him. He’s been my best friend from the very beginning and it only seems fair to start with him. Does that sound stupid?”
I thought Tyson would love it and it sounded like a fucking awesome idea to me.
“It doesn’t sound stupid at all. You know that’s a painful spot, right?”
I laughed at him humorlessly. “I don’t think I feel pain like a normal person anymore because I’ve experienced so much of it already in my life.
It’s the needle that scares the shit out of me.
I can never watch when I get a tattoo because I’m afraid I’ll pass out if I have to look at it. How embarrassing is that?”
He shook his head as he sat up. “It’s not embarrassing at all to admit when you’re afraid of something.
Especially you. You’ve proved time and time again that you’re not scared of things that would have most people running and screaming into the other room.
You’re all kinds of crazy brave, Ariel Kimber.
It’s a beautiful and frustrating thing, and it absolutely drives me fucking crazy.
I almost wish that you were scared of more things, really.
It might make the job just a little bit easier.
But easy is never the way with you. It’s enough to drive a man insane, if I’m being honest.”
Well, wasn’t that just downright ridiculous.
I was not about to apologize to him for being myself.
I knew he didn’t pick me for himself and it was his magic that did.
But it picked me because we were connected on a soul deep level.
You would think that’d mean I’d be perfect for him but here he was pointing out my faults and complaining like an a-hole.
Seriously, who did he think he was to complain about the shit I did? You didn’t hear me complaining about him being my constant stalker. He watched my every move and then often ran back to tattle on me to either my dad or Quinton. Who really had a reason to complain here?
I think I won that round, thank you very much.
Simon climbed off the bed and walked over to where he’d dropped his bag inside the door.
He crouched down and unzipped one of the pockets in the front.
He rummaged around inside of it and pulled out a black Sharpie.
He walked back over to the bed and sat down on the edge, watching me with those strange silver eyes of his.
They were always intense but now they were focused and made me squirm a little.
“Lay down on the bed, flat on your back, and lift up your shirt to just under your breasts.” he told me authoritatively.
My eyebrows about hit ny hairline but I followed his instructions after fluffing the pillows behind me a bit. I got comfortable and rolled my shirt up until it was tucked under the bottom of my bra. I folded my hands together and placed them over my stomach.
I was oddly comfortable exposing so much of my skin to him. I didn’t know if it was our soul connection or if I was just that comfortable being around him now. Whatever it was, I didn’t question it.
Simon uncapped the Sharpie and leaned over my body. I watched him for a little while as he started to draw on the skin on my side.
Eventually I stopped watching him and my eyes moved back to the tv. Just in time to see a baby elephant get taken down. Big mistake. I sighed heavily as I closed my eyes and let my mind wander.
Thankfully it didn’t wander to where it had been earlier. It went to my dad who was blissfully happy for the first time since he’d re entered my life.
He’d not only found his coven but his female as well. He had an adopted son and a baby on the way. He had a successful business on top of that. His life was so full it was damn near bursting.
Watching him find happiness brought me a great deal of joy. And relief, if I was being honest.
Ever since he’d come into my life his entire existence had been about me.
I loved him but I felt a lot of pressure to be the perfect daughter for him.
And that pressure never came from him but was something I always put on myself.
Rain would be proud of me if I burned the whole world down to the ground around me.
But I always wanted more for him out of life than being obsessed with me because he was the absolute best dad any girl could ever hope for.
I loved that he now had a full life of his own that had absolutely nothing to do with me. And his family just kept getting bigger and bigger. I effing loved watching him surround himself with people who loved him as much as I did.
Depending on what we found in this unit tomorrow I might not even tell him about any of this. Maybe it was my turn to look out for my dad for a change so he could just continue to be nothing but happy and worry free for awhile.
There were two problems with that plan. One had just walked out of the bathroom in nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants and wet hair and the other one was currently drawing on my body with permanent marker.
There was a knock on the door and Trenton answered it without bothering to put a shirt on. I heard a female voice stumbling over her words out in the hallway and I couldn’t help but snicker a little.
Boy, did I get it. I’d stumble when faced with all that masculine beauty for the first time too. Thankfully I’d seen it all before so I didn’t drool like a simpering fool.
“Don’t get jealous,” Simon whispered to me so his brother wouldn’t overhear. “You know all of that is just for you. He doesn’t even notice other women unless they’re a threat to you, or family like Isobel. Neither of us do.”
I kept my mouth shut on the subject. Trenton had all of the patience in the world for me. Simon had clearly run out of his a long time ago and the kid gloves had come off. He was going for broke now and took every opportunity he found to point his feelings out to me.
And I couldn’t even blame him for it.
I was tired of making them wait too but at this point I feared I had taken it too far and I had no idea how to make the first move with either of them.
I always was really dumb like that when it came to the opposite sex.
I should have just jumped their bones and been done with it. Neither of them would complain. But, no matter how many men that I took to my bed, I never got over my shyness that came out of me before I got that first time over and done with.
Trenton came back into the room pushing a silver cart in front of him. The whole thing was covered with lidded plates. It was enough food to feed a family of five and there were only the three of us here in this room.
Fucking Simon. He could be so utterly ridiculous at the best of times.
Simon capped the Sharpie, tossed it onto the nightstand, and jumped up from the bed. He practically sprinted towards the cart.
Trenton ignored his brother and laid down on the other bed with every single pillow shoved behind his upper body.
I took the opportunity to look down at my side for the first time.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Simon had started to sketch out a dream catcher onto me with beautifully drawn feathers dangling from it. It wasn’t done yet but it was the start of what absolutely would be my next tattoo.
As soon as we got home I was making him ink it permanently into my skin exactly as it was. I didn’t care if I had to skip out on showering for this entire trip so it didn’t fade away. I could rock being smelly and dirty for that. Definitely.
Simon dished out all the food. I’d been right and he’d ordered more than I could possibly eat. He also ate everything I didn’t.
I fell asleep content and with a belly full of food while he was still drawing on my skin.
I woke up sometime in the middle of the night wrapped up in his arms tightly while Trenton slept on in the other bed.
I closed my eyes and went back to sleep, happy to know I was exactly where I belonged.