14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Twelve years ago
Paige looked at the large storefront window with ‘Elite Ink’ stenciled in white letters on the glass and then back to David, who stood at her side, watching her. When he’d said he had somewhere to go and wanted her to go with him, she hadn’t expected to end up at a tattoo parlor.
“Are you getting a tattoo?” she asked, reading the short list of services offered by Elite Ink: tattoos, laser tattoo removal, and piercings. She doubted he was getting a piercing and since he didn’t currently have any tattoos that he would need to get removed, she figured he was here to get one.
“Yes,” he answered, carefully gauging her reaction. “Does that shock the hell out of you?”
“No, it doesn’t shock the hell out of me.”
“You look shocked.”
“I just didn’t know you were thinking about getting a tattoo, is all.”
“Are you opposed to them?”
She shook her head. “No. I just can’t think of anything I’d want permanently inked on my skin. But you’ve obviously thought of something, though.”
“I have,” he confirmed with a smile. “And I’ve been wanting to get it done for a while.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“So am I here for moral support?”
“In a way. But mostly, I just wanted something pretty to distract me while I’m getting it done.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her. When he pulled back, he felt a little bit nervous, a little bit excited, and a lot determined. Then, with a grin, he led her into the tattoo parlor.
Once inside, Paige was slightly taken aback to find that David’s tattoo artist was a young woman named Therese. She had an edgy look that befitted her place of employment, with dyed, cherry-red hair, heavy make-up, and piercings in her eyebrow, nose, and lip. Her skinny black jeans were strategically shredded across her thighs, allowing for teasing glimpses of colorful artwork underneath, and were tucked into shiny red Doc Martens. In contrast, the ink on her arms was on full display, thanks to the tank top she was barely wearing. Every inch of skin, from her shoulders to her wrists, was covered in exquisite, floral tattooed sleeves that literally had Paige mesmerized.
After introductions were made, Therese took David back to get him ready for the tattoo, leaving Paige alone in the waiting room for a few minutes. She took the time to check out the hundreds of framed pictures and designs of tattoos on the walls, wondering which one David had chosen. A fire-breathing dragon? A wolf’s face? A skull and crossbones?
And where would it go? On his chest? His arm? Maybe his back?
Paige was still contemplating all the possibilities when Therese reappeared. With a smile, she led the way down a long hallway to her private work space, where Paige found David shirtless and sitting in a chair. He was sort of straddling it, his bare chest pressed against what was normally the chair back, making it clear that whatever tattoo he was getting was going on his back. He pointed to a small stool on wheels for her to sit on, and after she did, rolled it forward until she was directly in front of him.
Therese sat on a similar stool behind David and put on a surgical mask and a pair of black gloves. Off to one side, there was a tray stand not unlike the ones a dentist would use for his instruments, with what Paige assumed were Therese’s tools of the trade. There were little colored ink pots, packaged alcohol wipes, stacks of gauze squares, spare gloves, and several different sized needles—but what really caught Paige’s attention was the tattoo machine that Therese picked up. Paige had been expecting to see something large and possibly menacing, but it really looked like a short, fat pen.
Therese did a little ‘test’ on David, to show him what it would feel like; it sounded like a dentist’s drill.
“Try and stay as still as possible, okay? If you need to take a break and stretch, or whatever, let me know. If you need a drink of water, let me know. If the pain becomes too much, or you feel light headed, let me know immediately,” Therese said from behind her mask. “I don’t want you passing out on me.”
David frowned at her over his shoulder. “Has that ever happened?”
Therese nodded. “A few times. They were big biker guys, too. ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’, is actually kind of true.”
“Jesus. Okay.”
“I didn’t tell you that to freak you out. I just want to make sure you tell me if you feel unwell, in any way. I won’t think you’re a pussy if you tell me you need a breather. I’d rather you tell me you need a breather than tip over without warning while I’m working on you and fuck up an hour’s worth of work that I then have to try and fix. I really hate that.”
David’s eyes widened.
Therese winked. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Paige squeezed David’s hand. “My moral support is starting right now.”
David settled back into position, now slightly wary.
“I’m going to try and get everything done today, but it’ll depend on how much you can take.” Therese surveyed the design on David’s back. “So, we’ll see how it goes.”
David took a breath. “Okay.”
Therese glanced at Paige over David’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky girl,” she murmured, before the buzzing sound of the tattoo machine filled the small space as she started to work.
Assuming Therese had said that because of David’s looks, Paige smiled and said, “I am,” at the same time that David said, “She is.”
“So, how long have you two been together?” Therese asked.
“Eleven months, one week, and five days,” David answered. “Give or take a couple of hours.”
Therese raised her eyebrows. “That’s really specific. Most people would’ve gone with ‘almost a year’. How did you meet?”
“We met in a bar on Groundhog Day,” Paige answered, exchanging a smile with David.
“I met my boyfriend in a bar, too,” Therese said. “In the women’s bathroom, actually. His friends dared him to follow me in there and hit on me, and he did.”
“That’s actually kind of sweet,” Paige told her.
Therese nodded. “It’ll be a funny story to tell our kids one day.”
“How long have you two been together?” asked David.
“Three years, six months, two weeks, two days and um …” Therese glanced at the clock on the wall and then tacked on, “Ten hours.”
Therese then continued to work steadily, with utter concentration, for the next two hours. She also kept up a steady stream of conversation, which Paige figured was to help David focus on something other than the needle stabbing into his back.
Paige held his hands the entire time, alternately squeezing and rubbing them. She also peppered his face with kisses, when it became a little flushed and his beautiful hazel eyes took on a cloudy layer of pain. And although he never complained, Paige could see when he was nearing the end of his tolerance and was glad when Therese stopped.
“Everything is done,” she announced.
David nodded. “Good. I’m not sure I could’ve taken much more.”
“Same here. My hands were starting to shake a lot.”
“What?”
“Just some on-the-job humor.” Therese laughed and took off her mask. “Tattoo virgins are the best.”
David had Paige return to the waiting room so he could look at the finished product and also get the after care instructions for his tattoo.
When David came out a little while later, he was holding himself a little stiffly, but was happy as he paid the receptionist.
“Are you okay?” Paige asked him once they left and were outside. “You look kind of high.”
He took her hand. “I feel kind of high. I think it’s the endorphins. Holy shit.”
They walked back to his apartment, which took about fifteen minutes and once inside, he closed the door and pushed her against it, kissing her. Usually, he was gentle and took his time, using his tongue to tease her with gentle licks and strokes. But now, he owned her lips with his—almost plundering—and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to take his time with anything.
“I need to be inside you,” he said, his voice rough with need.
With him pressed against her, she could feel how hard he was. She nodded her assent, her mind already detaching a little as she let him lead her to his bedroom, which was kept abnormally neat for a guy. Pausing at his dresser to get a condom out of the top drawer, he then backed her up to his double bed and put his hands under her skirt and pulled her panties down with quick efficiency.
As she stepped out of her sandals, he unfastened his cargo pants and shoved them down just enough to free his cock and roll the condom on. They fell to the bed together, moving up toward the middle, where he settled in between her legs for a moment before pushing inside her.
As he sank all the way in, she closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath and forced herself to relax through the initial discomfort.
“Jesus,” David groaned with pleasure, as he moved in and out of her with hard, measured thrusts. “You feel so good.”
“So do you,” she whispered, wishing with all her heart that it was true.
He pulled back a little so that he was looking down at her and Paige felt her breath get trapped in her chest. It was something he was doing more and more often and she knew that staring into each other’s eyes while their bodies were intimately joined should’ve been a romantic moment, but … it wasn’t.
The more he liked to look at her during sex, the more uncomfortable it made her feel.
Her response was to grip both sides of his face and pull his mouth roughly down onto hers in a bruising kiss. She could feel him starting to tremble as he tried to hold off his orgasm, so she brought her knees up and dug her heels into his ass to make it difficult for him to do so. Not long after, when she knew he was nearing the end, she doubled her efforts.
“Oh, shit,” he muttered against her mouth, as he came, hard. She could feel it, the way his cock pulsed inside her with each release and as he drifted down from his orgasm, he continued to push in and out of her with lazy strokes, riding out his pleasure. When he was finally still, he rested his forehead against hers for a moment and then kissed her.
“I love you,” he whispered.
At his heartfelt declaration, her throat grew tight and her eyes prickled with tears. This wasn’t the first time he’d said it, but it always affected her this way and in that moment, she felt whole. “I love you, too.”
They lay together, still joined, for several moments. Because they were mostly clothed, Paige could handle that the room was full of early afternoon light—if they had been naked, she’d have dragged them both under his covers, pretending to be cold.
“So, when do I get to see your tattoo?” she asked, drawing him out of his post-coital haze.
“How about right now?”
While he got up and went to the bathroom to dispose of the condom, she retrieved her panties and quickly put them back on. When he came back, his shirt was off and he looked a little nervous.
“I need you to do me a favor while you’re back there,” he told her. “Can you remove the Saran Wrap and put some of this on it?”
She nodded, then took the container of ointment he was holding, which basically looked like Vaseline. Taking a deep breath, he slowly turned around. Her eyes immediately went to the tattoo, which was clearly visible under the layer of Saran Wrap, and when her brain registered what she was seeing, her heart started pounding in her chest.
“Oh, my God, David,” she breathed, taking in the artistic rendering of her face,with her name above it, in curving, two inch letters. “What have you done?”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s the picture you took of me.”
It was only one of a dozen or so pictures he had managed to take of her in the eleven months, one week, and five days they’d been together. She didn’t like her picture being taken, so most of them were taken without her being aware of it. This one had been taken at a party, when she’d been smiling at something Jules had said, turning her head just enough to be slightly in profile and tilted upward.
“Yes,” he said. “My favorite one.”
“This is what Therese meant when she said I was a lucky girl.”
“I think she just meant because I’m so hot.”
Paige was too much in shock to appreciate his obvious overplay and she stared at the tattoo again. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“Me, either. It hurt like a bitch.”
She swallowed around the lump in her throat and slowly peeled the Sarah Wrap off with shaking fingers. “David,” she said with another deep breath.
“I’m kidding. It didn’t hurt that much.”
“You know what they say about getting such personal things of a … girlfriend … or whatever,” Paige said as she got some ointment on her fingers and began gently applying it to the newly inked, slightly red skin. “No names, stuff like that. You pretty much doubled down on what you’re not supposed to do.”
“I know what they say. And I don’t give a shit. I wanted you—and your name—on me.”
“What is your mom going to think?”
“Well, she’s probably never going to see it, because I don’t take my shirt off around her,” he said. “But even if she does, I’m not going to care what she thinks. The only opinion I care about is yours. Which, I might add, you haven’t even given me, yet.” He gave her a pointed look over his shoulder.
She trailed her eyes over the beautifully detailed tattoo; Therese was very skilled. “It’s beautiful,” she told him truthfully. “But I still can’t believe you did this.”
“You keep saying that.” He turned around to fully face her. “But I feel like you’re trying to say something else. So just say it.”
She didn’t even know how to say it and didn’t think his reaction would be good when she did.
“I think it’s beautiful,” she began slowly. “I do. And I can’t even tell you what it means to me that you did this. But what happens if … there’s another woman in your life? She won’t like seeing me—or my name—inked on your back.”
He tilted his head, eyes narrowed. The conversation wasn’t going the way he’d thought it would and he wasn’t happy about that. In fact, he was starting to feel worse than he’d ever thought possible. “You think there’s going to be another woman in my life? Is that what you think? Because that’s not going to happen.”
“How can you be so sure? We haven’t even been together a year.”
Silence descended between them for a moment and David paced away from her, his hands going to rub his face before falling to his sides again. Her eyes took in the details of his tattoo again and she swallowed hard.
“Am I in this alone?” His voice was whisper soft. “Is this just fucking to you?”
“No,” she was quick to assure him. “No. You’re not in this alone. And this isn’t just fucking to me.”
Still facing away from her, he asked, “Do you love me, Paige? You say you do, but do you really love me? Or is it just something you say because I say it?”
“Yes, I really love you. But …”
“What?”
“But I just don’t know how real it is.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we’re twenty-two years old—”
“Almost twenty-three, actually.”
“—and I don’t know if it’s ‘Till death do us part’ love.”
David drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly as her words pierced him. “Well, I do.”
He went to his nightstand and opened the top drawer. She watched him lean down and grab something before standing up straight once again, one of his hands in a fist. Not bothering to shut the drawer, he walked toward her and said, “Every time I say I love you, I mean it in an all-consuming, gut-wrenching way. This is it for me, Paige.”
He let his fingers fall open with a noticeable tremor. Astounded, Paige gazed at the stunning ring resting in the palm of his hand, unable to blink for a moment. The setting was platinum, with a large, golden-brown, oval gemstone as its centerpiece, surrounded by little diamonds.
“I bought this two months ago,” he revealed, looking down at it. “I know it’s not your typical engagement ring, but once I saw it, everything else looked so ordinary. It’s called a chocolate diamond and immediately made me think of your beautiful eyes … and nothing else in the store would do.”
She stared at him. “Are you fucking crazy?”
David’s gaze met hers, his expression resolute. “Maybe,” he said, with a shrug. “Probably. But I know what I want, and what I want is you.” He picked up the ring with his forefinger and thumb and then held it out toward her, glad to see his hand a little steadier now. “So, are you going to marry me, or what?”