The mark of a good man
It was too damn early for his driving. I was still drained from the day before, and holy shit was my cooch mad at me. Thankfully, it was in a bruised and sore kind of way; not in an aggressive UTI kind of way, but still.
We pulled up in front of a tattoo studio called Cygnus. Scattered gold constellations glittered across the black facade.
He reached over and stroked my face. “I want to mark you as mine. Nothing over-the-top or overly visible. Will you allow it?”
“Yes, oh my god, yes!” Giddy, I almost slipped climbing out of the Escalade.
Rafael wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me inside.
A beautifully full-figured, rockabilly-styled woman greeted us inside the black and gold studio.
Roses crawled up her throat to frame a cherubic brown face and expertly winged eyeliner.
The red kerchief holding back her blue-black hair perfectly matched her lipstick.
“This is Elaine?” She immediately approached to shake my hand. “I’m Lana Lopez, so nice to finally meet you.”
Finally? I cast a glance back at my suspiciously quiet…lover? He’d called me his girlfriend.
Frowning, Lana peered up at Rafael. “Not to be all in your business, but what happened to your face?”
“A disagreement.” Rafael gestured for me to follow Lana inside.
She whistled and sat me at her station. “Better if I don’t know, then. Ok so your man paid for a session, but he wasn’t sure how much you’d want to do or where, so this is all freestyle, baby!”
Lana’s easygoing demeanor put me at ease. She left us to talk.
Rafael cupped my cheek. “Remember when you asked if I would write out the Dragonsoul theme for you? I have an idea. You do not have to agree to anything, and you do not have to do it today. Lana gets paid either way.”
Excitement bubbled up. He’d been planning this.
Rafael ran a hand up my leg just above the middle of my thigh, and I shivered. “I will draw the music on you like a garter, wrapping all the way around your leg, and line the staff up with the scars.”
Big, stupid tears filled my eyes. He drew back in concern.
I threw my arms around him. “No, I’m happy! This is such a sweet, romantic gesture. I love it so much! I love you so much. Yes, please draw whatever you want so I can keep you with me forever.”
When we called Lana back in, she had the brilliant idea to have it start and end in the middle of the back of my thigh like a Cuban stocking, since it wasn’t a repeating pattern.
She paused cleaning my skin at the fingerprint bruises and gave me a concerned brow raise of sisterhood.
I flushed and gave her a shit-eating grin.
Lana snickered under her breath with immediate understanding.
Once we had the staff situated to my liking, Rafael drew in the notes. The flick of the pen on my thigh tickled horribly, but I managed not to flinch and mess up his work. Lana showed me the back with a mirror. He’d drawn the treble and bass clefs with elegant flourishes.
“Yes, I love it!” I tugged Rafael closer to me. “But first, I have an idea. You wanted to tattoo over my scars. Can I do the same for you?”
His brows raised. “Go on.”
I took the pen from him. “Can I draw it on you? I won’t be offended if you don’t like it, and this is just a rough idea. I’m sure Lana can make it pretty if you approve. Do you mind if she sees your arm?”
Lana laughed and waved a dismissive hand. “Oh girl, I been there.”
I almost dropped the pen and stared at Rafael.
He shrugged. “You wanted to know if there were other exes I got along with. Lana and I can tolerate each other in small doses.”
“Yeah, until that chingada temper of yours shows up. No, thank you. He’s all yours, babe.
First time he got all scary, I walked out and never looked back.
I’ve got all the boyfriend I need now. Girlfriend too.
” Lana pushed my arm. “You’re a hottie and you guys look so happy together.
Actually, I’ve never seen him smile so much in public.
He’s never asked me to tattoo him or anyone either, so you really must be special. ”
“I love Elaine,” Rafael said simply.
Lana’s chestnut brown eyes were so earnest, my initial reaction flushed me with guilt.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be weird. I just wasn’t expecting any of this, and too many new things at once gets a little overwhelming. There’s been a lot of that lately.” A fuck ton, but Lana put me at ease.
“Lana is the most talented tattoo artist I know,” Rafael said. “You should always have the best.”
He pointed to the drawings gracing the walls. Incredible linework. Photorealistic portraits that looked ready to breathe on their own. Impeccable American Traditional, watercolor, and more.
Lana rolled her eyes. “Still a charming-ass motherfucker, I see.” She took my hands, staring into my soul.
“Whatever makes you comfortable, babe. Rafael makes weird fucking choices because he’s fucking weird.
I told him this was another weird fucking choice, but he insisted.
You won’t hurt my feelings if you say no. ”
She has Mandeep energy, just in a different font. Maybe Rafael had, in his twisted way, been seeking kindness all along. He’d just needed kindness with some bite and extra understanding. Something I never knew I had until he challenged me.
“He’s so fucking weird, but I like it.” I grinned, and Rafael let out a breath. “Also, I think this is his way of making amends for certain things.”
He smiled faintly with relief.
Lana adjusted her red kerchief. “Good for you if you can put up with him, though. Rafael’s one of them…what do you call that very specific kind of genius?”
I blinked. “A savant or a prodigy?”
She grinned. “Yeah, he’s like a pussy-eating prodigy.”
Rafael made a choking noise. “Lana, what the fuck?”
“Oh, come on! You can’t get mad at a compliment like that.” The tattoo artist winked at me.
Jealousy flared for a fleeting second, but pride punted it out of the way. Lana was just as stunning as all his other exes, but Rafael had chosen me. He wanted to mark me. And he’d sacrificed his own comfort just to show me I had nothing to fear.
I shared a conspiratorial grin with Lana. “I mean, she’s not wrong.”
He turned away, running his hand over his hair again. A crescent moon-shaped neon light on the wall behind his head crowned him with a golden halo, the edges of the moon positioned like horns. How fitting.
“Turnabout is fair play,” I crowed, and Lana snorted. “How does it feel?”
Rafael grumbled and rolled up his sleeve.
Shaky at first, I wiped away the lines a few times.
Once I figured out how to draw on textured skin, I inked a quill on the inside of his left forearm, since he was left-handed, from his wrist halfway to the crook of his elbow.
The shaft of the feather followed the scars from old attempts.
The rest flowed over the self-harm scars.
When I looked up to ask if he liked it, he had tears in his eyes. Which made me tear up.
“No, do not start that.” Rafael looked up at the ceiling, blinking away the emotion. “I fucking love it, yes.”
Lana nodded with an impressed frown. “That placement fucks. You want color or blackwork?”
Rafael rotated his forearm. “Black. Use negative space for highlights.”
“Shit, yeah.” Lana readied her inks. “It won’t take me long to pretty up that drawing. It’s already good. And I can knock these out today; they’re not complicated.”
Suddenly self-conscious again, I looked up at Rafael. “You sure you like it enough to keep it forever?”
He kissed me into a brainless blob.
Lana smacked us both. “Hey, hey, no fucking in my chair. Break it up, lovebirds.”
1 “Dance With You” -- Live