Faster We Burn

chapter Twenty-four

Stryker

It was what I had wanted that very first time I’d met her. Watching her face as I drove her to the edge of pleasure and pulled her back was something so beautiful I didn’t think I could ever do it justice with my pen.

Afterward, I lay with her, our sweat mingling and our bodies as close as they could be without being physically connected. She was busy reading my tattoos.

“You figured out what you want yet?” Her skin was still ink free.

“Not yet.”

“Well, how about we practice?”

“What do you mean?” I unwrapped my arms from around her and sat up, grabbing a marker from the box on her desk. I’d been planning this ever since I got her naked.

“How about we try out a few. What was something you considered?” I held up the marker and she smiled.

“A butterfly on my shoulder.” She pointed.

“Turn over.” She rolled onto her back and turned her head so she could watch me. I dragged the marker across her skin, making the outline of a butterfly, as if it was resting on her shoulder. I grabbed a few other colors so I could make it more vibrant. She giggled a little at the touch of the marker. I finished the butterfly and then drew a flower below it, as if the butterfly had stopped on it to rest.

“What next?” I said.

“Um, how about a starfish?”

“Where?”

She turned over. “My hip.” She pointed to her left hip and gave me a little smile. I let my eyes trace her body. I’d seen it many times before, but I had a whole new appreciation of it now.

It was so tempting to drop the marker and make her moan like she had earlier. Leaving the cap on the marker, I and slowly drew it over her body, from her collarbone and down her breasts to her bellybutton, where I made a circle and then lower.

“Starfish,” she said in a harsh voice, her eyes closed and her hands fisted in her blanket.

“Of course, how could I forget?” I uncapped the marker and started to draw, watching her skin pimple with goosebumps. I drew one starfish and then a clam and then some more shells, starting a seascape on her hip that stretched close to her bellybutton.

“What’s next, my sweet canvas?”

“Use your imagination.” She seemed to be out of ideas.

“So I can draw whatever I want?”

She grabbed my wrist before I could start drawing again. “Within reason.”

I grinned at her and gave her a kiss, which was meant to be quick, but turned heated before she nipped my lip near my lip ring.

“You’ve got a lot of skin to cover.”



***



I covered her shoulders and arms and stomach and back and ass and legs and feet with drawings. Flowers and swirls and stars and quotes that reminded me of her and song lyrics and little things that made me think of her. There was no continuity, except that they all reminded me of her.

I drew hearts on the bottom of her feet and sat back to admire her. She looked over her shoulder, trying to see her back.

“Come on,” I said, reaching for her. I picked her up and carried her to the full-length mirror that hung in her closet. I set her down and turned her so she could see.

“Wow,” she breathed. “You are freakishly talented.”

“An artist is nothing without good materials to work with, and a muse.”

She looked away from her beautiful body to meet my eyes. “Oh, so I’m your muse now?”

I touched a poppy I’d drawn on her shoulder in bold red marker.

“Every artist needs one.”

“You seemed to do pretty well without me before.”

“That was because I didn’t know what I was missing.”

“Hm,” she said, touching my more-permanent ink. “So I guess we’re not friends anymore, huh?”

“I beg to differ.” I kissed the poppy and picked her up, making her squeal as I tossed her back in bed. “I think you are my very best of best friends.”

I kissed her, not being able to hold back anymore.

“You and me,” she whispered against my lips.

“No space.”



Katie



It wasn’t until I woke up in Stryker’s arms the next morning that I realized I couldn’t go to class the way I was. He’d drawn all the way up around my neck, giving me what looked like a lace necklace, not to mention my arms and hands and legs. Unless I wore a bodysuit, everyone would be able to see it.

“Was this some sort of ploy to get me to not leave this room?” I said when his green eyes finally opened. I would totally paint my walls that color.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” He rolled over me and his dick pressed against me, ready to go again. I stroked him with my hand and he growled in my ear. He tried to remove my hand, but I wouldn’t let him.

“Your turn to learn patience, my friend.” I kissed my way down his chest as my hand worked and he swore and moaned. It was nice to know that I could affect him as much as he affected me.

I took him to the edge and back with my hands and my mouth, making him mine until I straddled him and we became united again.



***



“I did have class today, you know. And I’m sure that any moment now someone is going to knock on the door and ask me to go to breakfast,” I said, still panting. Some of the beautiful drawings were smudged, but I was still covered in them.

“What, you don’t want to go around like a walking art project? Afraid of what people will think?”

“No, I just don’t want them staring. I can’t deal with more people looking at me. It’s like being at the funeral all over again.”

“Shit, I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”

“No, it wasn’t. You just forgot, and so did I.” Even if it was just for a little while. Knock, knock. Reality calling. “I can’t believe I forgot. Oh my God.” I sat up and moved away from him.

“Oh my God. My dad is dead and we had sex and you said you loved me and I said it back. Oh God, I’m going to hell.” I tried to get out of bed, to get away from him, but he held onto me. I squirmed against him.

“We shouldn’t have done this.”

“You have got to stop blaming yourself for things, Katie.” He shook me a little as he said it. “Do you honestly think your dad would want you to stop living just because he did?”

I knew he wouldn’t. I thought back to what he’d said to me when we’d had that chat in the basement. That I was strong and he was proud of me.

“No.” He took my moment of weakness to pull me into his chest, right next to his heart.

“What is the point of being alive if you don’t live it?” His eyes were bright and his voice was urgent. I’d never seen him like this. “I know you’re scared and I’m scared as hell too. That’s what love is, being scared as hell, but doing it anyway because it’s worth it.” He held me so tight, his arms like ropes that tied me to him, tied this moment together.

“You terrify me, sweetheart.”

“I terrify you. Me, with the pink obsession? I terrify the guy with the piercings and the tattoos and the, ‘I don’t give a f*ck’ attitude?”

“Terrifying things come in pink packages.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I’m not scared of you, big bad boy.” He unwrapped his arms and held my face.

“I never, ever want you to be scared of me.”

“You’re not Zack,” I said. “You’re not anything like him.”

“That is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, sweetheart.”

Just as he was leaning down for a kiss, there was a pounding on my door.

“Um, you wanna get that? Just tell them I’m not feeling well, maybe?” He climbed over me and put his pants on as I pulled the blanket up to cover myself.

“Oh, hey, Stryk,” Simon said. Stryker made sure to keep the door only halfway open so they couldn’t see me. “We just wanted to see if Katie was up for breakfast, but…never mind.”

“She’s…she’s not feeling that great. We’ll probably just have something here.”

“Sure, yeah, that’s…that’s great.” I could hear other voices, but I couldn’t tell who they were. “See you later?”

“Sure thing.”

“Is she okay?” That was Lottie.

“Yeah, she is.” He wasn’t facing me, but I could hear the grin in his voice. “She just needs to take an extra day, I think.”

“If she needs anything…”

“I know. I’ll call you, I promise.”

He closed the door and I could hear them chattering. More than one of them had a problem with voice volume modulation.

“Thanks for that. I wasn’t sure what they’d say about all this.” I motioned to the drawings that had stained my sheets a bit.

“Anytime, sweetheart.” He took his clothes back off. “Now where were we?”