Chapter 33
33
DAISY
Shade kisses the side of Bryce’s head and then leaves. I watch him lock the door behind him, tug his hood over his head, and disappear down the street without a second look. He doesn’t seem like the type of guy to trust just anyone with this place, and that speaks volumes to their relationship. A friendship that I had no idea existed until now.
He’s a very handsome guy, with a towering height, thighs the size of tree trunks, and a dark aura about him that I’d find alarming if I hadn’t met him in these circumstances. If that’s your thing, I’m sure he’d be a real catch. From his confident, flirtatious jokes, I would put money on him hardly ever striking out with women.
Bryce moves around the table with skilled ease, not fumbling with the supplies or how they’ve been set up on the rolly cart. She taps the gun and then nods, not having adjusted or swapped out even one thing. They’ve been perfectly prepared just for her.
“Does Poppy know about Shade?” I ask, unable to help but dig into all of my burning questions.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know once I’ve shown you my idea and gotten you up on this table.”
She’s already turning to the thin piece of paper on the cart by the time I realize she’s talking about the tattoo she wants to give me. I didn’t notice the paper before or the design printed onto it in bright blue.
“I drew it the other night and sent it to Shade to get his opinion before I even contemplated taking you here or showing it to you. It’s simple, but with the right colours . . .”
“Let me see,” I murmur.
She picks it up with extra caution and slowly extends it toward me. I don’t touch it, not wanting to risk ripping it. Instead, I stare at the sketch and blink back the tears that cause it to become warped.
“Good or bad tears?” she asks, the paper beginning to shake before she sets it on the cart of supplies.
I shake my head, sniffling once. “It’s perfect. I want you to put it on my skin.”
She takes my face in her hands and kisses me softly, content with the simplicity of it. I return the kiss with the same ease and cover her hands with mine, enjoying the affection and the warming effect it has on me.
“Do you have a spot you want it?” she asks against my mouth.
“I trust you to choose.”
Her next inhale is shaky, and I kiss her once more before leaning back. “I’ll need access to your thigh.”
“Pants off, then?” My voice is so breathy, the temperature suddenly cranked in the large space.
“Yes. Then hop up on the table, and I’ll get the stencil on.”
I swallow past the ball of nerves in my throat and reach for the button on my pink, baggy jeans. Bryce watches my every move with what looks like envy in her eyes. All she’d have to do is ask, and I’d let her take them off herself.
Once my jeans are open, I start shimmying them down my legs. “How do you want me to sit?”
“Just on the edge. Face me.”
I squat to grab the jeans at my ankles and lay them on the table before doing as she said. The leather is cold beneath my bare legs, and I suck in a sharp breath.
“Sorry. I should have warned you that it would be cold.”
“It’s fine.” I’m already warming up because of our proximity.
Bryce rolls a stool over to the table and snaps a pair of black medical gloves on. She reaches for the stack of antiseptic wipes laid out on the cart beside her and rips one open. The wipe is colder than the leather was, but as she leans over my lap, her hair tickling my arm, I don’t so much as blink at the sensation.
“I’m going to put it here,” she explains with a swipe of her gloved finger over the outer part of my upper thigh. “Are you okay with the length of the design on the stencil?”
“You could tattoo an eggplant on my cheek and I wouldn’t have anything bad to say about it, Frosty. The length you chose is perfect.”
She rolls her eyes and curls the side of her mouth into a half smile. “No eggplants.”
“No eggplants,” I agree.
“I’m going to shave the area and then apply some gel to help with the transfer.”
“Okay.”
The razor she grabs comes from a bulk-sized box of cheap ones, which I imagine is because they’re only good for one use. She plucks the cap off the blades and starts to swipe it down my skin. It takes only a few seconds, and then another wipe runs down the area, cleaning away the tiny hairs.
I watch with weighted breath as she works, the focus on her face captivating. Even with something as boring as prep work, she’s tuned the world out.
When she wheels the stool back and starts riffling through the rest of the supplies, I pinch the hem of my shirt and shift on the table. My reactions to her passion and adoration for tattooing, combined with her closeness and the fact I’m in only my shirt and underwear, are extreme. I’m flushed from the tips of my ears down to my toes and everywhere in between. My nipples are tight and sore, and the space between my legs is wet, so much so that I worry she’ll be able to tell if she comes close enough.
This isn’t supposed to be a sexual act. It’s sweet and thoughtful and is my chance to see Bryce in her element. Yet, I have to press my thighs together while she’s busy and fight back a shiver at the pleasure that sparks.
She hasn’t given me an opening to touch her in the same way she’s touched me yet. I don’t know if that’s because we agreed to go slow or if I haven’t been obvious enough in my interest in exploring every inch of her body. Either way, I’m struggling with it more and more as the days go on. It’s not surprising that I’m turned on right now or that I’m contemplating lunging off this table and pushing her onto it instead.
“—now I’ll put the stencil on, and you can tell me if you like the placement.”
I clear my throat and look down at where she’s bent over my lap again. There’s gel on my thigh and the stencil hovering above it.
“Are you okay?” she asks, her eyes narrowing.
“Yes. Continue, please.”
With slight hesitation, she drops her stare and smooths the stencil over my thigh. When she pulls it off, the design is in place.
“Do you want to go look at it in the mirror?”
I don’t have to think about my answer. “No. It’s perfect.”
She squeezes my knee and nods. “I’m going to start with the outline and then work my way in. It shouldn’t take long to get it drawn, but I’m planning to shade it in with some yellow afterward. If we get to that stage and it becomes too uncomfortable or you don’t want to continue, we’ll stop. I can finish it another time.”
“I’ll be fine, Bryce. Just focus on the art, and I’ll worry about everything else,” I soothe .
“You’re always my priority. Everything else is just background noise.”
My chest flames. “Your passion isn’t background noise. This is what you love to do. I’m just feeling really grateful that you want to share this part of yourself with me in the first place.”
She holds my gaze for a moment, and I swear I can hear the combined sound of our erratic heartbeats. We’re two complete opposites, yet for some reason, we’ve found each other. I feel like that makes me one of the luckiest people in the world.
“I like sharing things with you,” she admits.
Reaching for the tattoo gun, she faces away from me. I didn’t miss the red tint of her cheeks but choose not to tease her about it.
Bryce does a handful of things with the tattoo gun before moving on to the ink. She pours the yellow and black into separate tiny caps and then changes her gloves. The gun starts buzzing for half a second before turning off again.
Wheels move along the floor as she comes to the edge of the table. I stop rubbing my thighs together at the last second and puff out a relieved sigh when she turns her attention to my thigh.
“This should be the easiest position, but if it gets too uncomfortable for you, tell me. I’m serious,” she says sternly.
“I will.”
“It shouldn’t hurt necessarily, but it will feel uncomfortable at first. Like a bee sting or a slight pinch in one spot repeatedly. I always find that it becomes less noticeable the longer it goes on.”
The gun starts buzzing again, and I try not to hold my breath as I wait for the needle to touch skin. Bryce’s fingers are hot through the gloves as they stroke my thigh and then pull the skin taut.
“Try not to jerk,” she murmurs.
And I don’t. The first press of the needle to my thigh isn’t painful. It’s surprising, but I keep my cool, breathing slow and steady .
Folding my hands and laying them between my legs, I say, “That’s not too bad.”
“Good, Sunshine. I shouldn’t take too long with this outline.”
I wouldn’t mind if she did, which is probably pretty weird. The constant reassurance that her non-tattooing hand provides with only a constant pressure on my thigh has me content sitting here. She’s even moving her thumb back and forth as the needle turns the blue lines black, as if she needs the contact as much as I do.
I keep my head down so I can watch her. “So, does Poppy know about Shade?”
“Yes. But she’s never met him.”
“Why not? I thought you two were best friends.”
She uses a piece of paper towel to wipe away some of the excess ink from the tattoo and then continues with the outline.
“We are. But this isn’t a piece of myself that I was ready to share with anyone before. Not even Poppy.”
“But you were ready to share it with me?”
Her eyes flick up to mine before falling to my thigh once again. “You’re different.”
“How so?”
Okay, yes, I’m digging. Sue me. This is my chance to poke and prod inside of her mind, and I’m not going to waste it.
“Poppy’s been in my life since I was just a kid. She will always be my best friend. But you’re more than that. There are some things that Poppy just doesn’t need to know to be my best friend, but that you do if you’re going to be more than that.”
She pauses to wipe my thigh again, and this time, the gun doesn’t start back up right away.
“There are pieces of my life that I’ve always kept just for me. My relationship with the only person I’ve ever let get to know me outside of my family in Cherry Peak is one of them. Shade might be an asshole at times, but he’s important to me. He’s hardly older, but it still feels like he took me in like a big brother the day I showed up here. Keeping him and this place to myself was just instinct. But you’re not someone I met in childhood and who knows me the way Poppy or even Anna does. You need to get to know me as I am right now, today, and Shade is an important piece of that.”
I pinch a chunk of her black hair between my fingers and tuck it behind her ear to distract myself from the swell of emotion in my chest.
“I’m happy that you trusted me enough to bring me here. Every piece of you that I discover only draws me closer, and I like getting closer to you, Bryce.”
“You’ll know more about me than anyone else does if I’m not careful,” she breathes out before starting the gun back up and continuing to outline the tattoo.
“Would that be a bad thing?”
“Only if you learned it all and decided to leave afterward.”
It’s the most honest and vulnerable thing I’ve ever heard her say.
“I don’t see that happening.”
She sneaks a look at me from the corner of her eye and jerks her chin in brief acknowledgement. It’s not acceptance or a sign that she believes me, but I’d never expect her to take my word for something so heavy.
“What was it like growing up in such a full house?” she asks, leaning further over my thigh.
“Loud,” I blurt out. Her laugh is instant. “But in a comforting way. If it was quiet, you were alone. I think the lack of loneliness is the biggest benefit of a big family. If you’re upset and need to speak to someone about an issue, you have your pick of therapist. But it can also be a bad thing. If you need time alone, it’s harder to get it when you have a handful of people worried and knocking on your bedroom door to try and help.
“It took me a while to get used to the silence that came after Giana and Josette left home. First, I was excited because Gi had always had the biggest bedroom of all of us, and I beat Johnny in rock, paper, scissors for it. But I quickly realized that she was actually gone , and the girl who was always the first to offer advice or a shoulder to cry on wasn’t here anymore. Johnny is the best brother in the entire world, but he isn’t my sister.”
Bryce has listened to every word I’ve said, nodding along and humming from time to time. Her genuine interest in my life means everything to me.
“You mentioned that your moms were supportive when you came out. Was everyone else?”
I flex my toes in my sneakers and relax the muscles in my leg that I didn’t realize I’d been tensing. “They were. What about you? If your parents accepted you, did your stick-up-the-ass, rich relatives?”
“They don’t know what my sexuality is.”
My mouth gapes wide. “What?”
“They don’t deserve to know. Not to mention that they wouldn’t give a shit anyway. They’d probably crinkle their noses and tell me I’m wrong, then pretend I never told them in the first place.”
“What happens if you get married to a woman one day? Would you not invite them?”
She wipes my thigh and twists to stare up at me, expression completely open. I lean forward, drawn close by the honesty in her gaze and continued strokes of her fingers across my sensitive flesh.
“ When I marry a woman, there won’t be a single person in attendance who doesn’t deserve to be there. Sharing blood and DNA doesn’t give anyone access to my most important moments. Those are sacred, and I won’t have them tarnished by unwelcomed faces who were invited solely out of obligation,” she swears. To who, I’m not sure.
My stomach swoops. Something about her declaration touches parts of myself that I never knew existed. It unlocks a mountain of hidden desires .
“I’ve never met someone more headstrong than you.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“It’s an incredible thing,” I correct her.
She furrows her brows and wets her lips. “You’re making it very hard to go slow.”
“When I mentioned slow, I didn’t mean tortoise speed,” I tease lightly.
“Are you saying you want to go faster?”
I take a deep breath and drop a bucket into my well of confidence. “We’re here alone, and I’m in my panties. If you shifted an inch to the left and watched as I spread my legs, you’d see that they’re damp. They have been since you kissed me outside.”
Her eyes drift shut as she sets the gun on the table. “Christ, Daisy. I don’t know what it is about you that has me second-guessing myself all the fucking time.”
“Yeah, you need to stop that.”
“I’m just trying not to scare you. I can be a lot when it comes to relationships, and I’m stressing myself out toning it down.”
I ignore the way my thighs have stuck to the leather and push myself off the table. My legs are wobbly for a moment before I stabilize myself.
“I might come off as sweet and innocent, Bryce, but there’s a time and place for everything. I’ll always be kind and gentle and understanding to those who deserve it, but I’m not afraid to be demanding and confident when the moment calls for something a bit stronger. You’ve mentioned my backbone before, so don’t think for one minute that I won’t use it when it comes to this,” I tell her, my voice steady.
She tips her head back to keep eye contact, and when her pupils expand, eating at the electric blue, my pulse skips.
“And what exactly is this ?”
“ This is you being too cautious,” I start, placing my hands on her shoulders and pushing her until her back touches the edge of the table. “ This is you thinking your needs come second to mine. ”
She grips her knees and heaves in a breath.
I bend forward until our faces are at eye level and finger the button of her jeans. Her throat strains with a swallow.
“ This ,” I continue, unsnapping the button and tugging down the zipper, “is me returning the favour from last week like I’ve wanted to since you first got between my legs.”
“Daisy.” She chokes on my name.
Thinking back to her words about Kristen in my old bedroom, I taunt, “It’s baby when I’m between your legs.”
Her head drops back completely, and I grin while dropping into a squat and tugging at the band of her jeans. She lifts her hips, and despite being nearly painted on, they come down easily.
The black lace panties that cup her between her legs are thin and tight as they stick to the curve of her pussy. I drop onto my knees and ignore the slight pain that follows before trailing the backs of my fingers up her thighs. The skin rises with goosebumps as I trace the shape of each peach inked there.
“I saw these tattoos in your room,” I confess.
Bryce shivers when I reach the stems of the peaches and linger there, not half an inch from the black lace. “How?”
It’s like she knows the answer already but needs to hear it from me.
Shifting further between her legs, I drag my knuckle along the centre of her panties. They’re slick, just as wet as mine, yet there’s one difference. The small hoop at the top of her seam that bumps against my knuckle isn’t something I’m used to, and it excites the hell out of me.
“I snooped in your room a couple of days after moving in. And I don’t regret it.”
Before she can respond, I have her panties shifted to the side and her bare pussy in front of me. Pink and glistening, the sight of her excitement makes my belly tighten with desire.
Her breathing is so laboured I risk a glance upward to make sure she isn’t close to passing out. The feral gleam in her eyes as she fixes her gaze on me proves that she’s more focused than ever.
“When did you get this?” I rasp, tapping the black clit piercing with my nail. It looks like a nose ring but with a ball in the centre of the hoop.
She hisses, hips lifting to chase the sensation that just sparked. My eyes threaten to cross, and I lean in to give the metal a soft kiss.
“Fuck, baby,” she gasps.
Her fingers strangle her bare knees, and I part my lips over that small ball, taking my first taste of her. A moan claws its way up my throat.
“When did you get this?” I repeat my question.
She releases her knees and reaches one hand behind her to grip the table while the other finds my shoulder. “Three years ago.”
I hum against her pierced hood. The metal hoop is cold, but against her hot skin, it’s not noticeable as I slip my tongue beneath it and lift. When I pinch it between my teeth and tug gently, Bryce whimpers, the sound so high-pitched and desperate it rattles my brain. Driven by the need to hear it again, I repeat my motions before blowing a stream of warm air over the spit-slicked skin.
“Stop toying with me,” she demands weakly.
I smile against her and abandon the piercing, continuing to explore. She slides an inch down the stool, giving me more room to work. It’s as much for my benefit as it is for hers.
Parting her lips with my tongue, I dip a finger inside her entrance and close my eyes at the tight grip. She moans, clenching around the intrusion as I slowly work my finger out and then back in again.
Her lower abdomen strains with the effort it’s taking to keep from bucking herself off the stool, so I pick up my pace. After today, I’ll have another chance to take my time with her .
If Shade were to come back while I have Bryce in this position . . . Fucking worth it.
“Will you tell me what you like best?” I ask before swiping my tongue along the length of my finger.
“There’s a reason I got the hood piercing.”
I drag my tongue up through her puffy skin until I find her clit and its pretty jewelry and suck. With it suctioned between my lips, I flick my tongue at a quick pace, cutting the foreplay.
Her moans turn into cries, and then the fingers curling into my shoulder move. She slaps a palm to my nape and tightens her hold until her nails prick into the skin. Pride flutters in my chest, and I don’t say a word as she uses the hold to pull my face flush to her pussy.
Hips jerking, she grinds against my tongue, demanding her pleasure. Driven by similar urges, I’m unable to stop myself from reaching between my legs and pressing my palm against my panties, rubbing my clit.
They’re soaked through, so I shove them down one of my hips and dive eager fingers beneath the fabric. I’m slippery and swollen with arousal as I start working my clit with the pads of two fingers.
“You touching your pussy, baby?” Bryce asks between gasps of air.
I refuse to stop working her pussy with my tongue, so I nod my answer. The pace of her grinding picks up, and I slip another finger in beside the first.
“Fuck . . . Fucking shit. You’re going to make me come,” she mewls.
Good .
I release low, needy sounds and swirl my clit faster and faster, chasing the release that’s bubbling in my core. Bryce clenches around my fingers, and her clit pulses in my mouth.
“Fuck yourself, baby. Two fingers like you’ve got inside of me. I need to taste you. ”
I moan, nudging my fingers inside and using my palm to keep the pressure on my clit. Two strokes and I’m there.
My hearing blows, but I hear her cry out in bliss seconds before she sucks my fingers deep into her pussy and smacks the table. I suck harder and hum, sending the rumbles zipping up her body.
A moment later, her fingers go lax around my nape, and I remove my mouth. My laugh is sudden, but once it’s out, another follows. Bryce tenses briefly before letting out a laugh of her own.
“Are you okay?” I ask through a giggle.
She runs her fingers from my neck to beneath my chin and then guides it up. Careful not to hurt her if she’s too sensitive, I pull mine out from inside of her and wipe them off on the dry part of my panties.
“It’s going to smell like pussy in here when Shade gets back,” she mutters bluntly.
“I’m sure it isn’t the first time,” I tease.
Moving to wipe cum off my second set of fingers, the ones from inside me, I pause when Bryce shakes her head, eyes on my hand.
“I told you I wanted a taste.” She parts her lips, tongue slightly extended.
I sink my teeth into my bottom lip and offer her my fingers. She immediately wraps her mouth around them and sucks them clean. Regardless of just coming, I clench at the approval in her gaze before she releases me.
“Just as good as the first time.”
My cheeks heat. “I hope we learned something from this.”
“Other than me having a hood piercing and your pussy tasting as sweet as honey?”
“Well, yes. But also that I’m interested in you, Bryce. Not just emotionally. Physically . You don’t have to hold back on me, and I won’t hold back on you. ”
Her eyes soften, the fingers beneath my chin curling to hold it. “Okay, Sunshine.”
She bends down, and I meet her halfway in a kiss that seals our promise. I feel her smile against my mouth and steal one more kiss before backing up.
“Now, what do you say we finish this tattoo?”