Before long, he lay shirtless on a padded table Jeremy had pulled into the center of the room and Jeremy was asking him if he was ready to start.
The first bite of the needle was easier to bear than he expected. Just as Charlie started to think getting a tattoo was no big deal, Jeremy would hit a place that hurt enough to steal his breath. And then he’d move on again.
“Doing okay?” Jeremy asked as he wiped at Charlie’s side.
“Yeah,” Charlie said, loving the idea that this sentiment was going to become a part of him. Then maybe he could actually live it. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Anything,” Jeremy said.
Charlie breathed through a particularly intense area of the tattoo and then asked, “What is your No Regret tattoo for?” Jeremy had the letters inked on the back of each of his fingers. Of all Jeremy’s ink, it was probably the one that most intrigued him, because Jeremy seemed like a guy who was totally satisfied with his life, a guy who had no regrets.
Jeremy continued to work as he spoke, his voice quiet and thoughtful. “Back when I first started working as a tattoo artist, a -couple of things happened that made me really look at my life and think about who I was.” He paused to dip the needle in more ink. “The first was that my father was not thrilled with my career choice. He’d always been supportive of my art, but he wanted me to doing something real with it, he said. Like be a graphic artist or go into advertising. We had a -couple of rough years over that. Makes me wonder sometimes what he would think of the fact that I used the insurance money from my parents’ accident to buy this place and open my own shop.”
Charlie couldn’t have been more surprised to learn that, like him, Jeremy had struggled to gain his father’s approval. It made him feel even closer to Jer.
“The second,” Jeremy said, continuing, “was that I had a customer refuse to let me do his ink when he remembered seeing me out with a guy at a club. It got pretty ugly, actually, and I was honestly scared that my boss would decide I was a liability and fire my ass. But then Aleck, my boss, ended up sticking up for me, and he became one of my closest friends.”
“Are you still in touch with him?” Charlie asked, hating that someone as kind as Jeremy had been treated so badly.
“He died. Heart attack. It was part of what led me to open my own place,” Jeremy said. “And then the last thing was that a girl I really liked couldn’t handle the fact that I was bisexual and had been with men.” A long pause. “All three of those happened kinda close together, and they shook the ground I was standing on for a while, you know?”
“Yeah,” Charlie said. He could certainly understand how things like that would make you question yourself, even though it was hard to imagine Jeremy, of all -people, experiencing a crisis of confidence. One of the things Charlie admired about Jeremy was just how self--assured and comfortable in his own skin he always seemed. What Charlie wouldn’t give to be more like him.
“When I finally got right in my head with who and what I was, I got the tattoo. I wanted to remind myself to live life looking forward, not second--guessing every decision I’ve made and step I’ve taken.” He paused again. “I’m not always successful,” he said more quietly, “but I try.”
Emotion nearly overwhelmed Charlie—-admiration, respect, affection, and maybe even something more. Not that Charlie had much experience with anything more, but his gut told him he could very easily fall for Jeremy Rixey. Or, maybe, that he was already falling. “I really admire you, Jeremy,” Charlie said.
“I really admire you, too, Charlie,” he said.
Carefully, Charlie lifted his head and looked over his shoulder to where Jeremy sat. “Why?”
Jeremy paused and his light green eyes absolutely blazed at him. “Are you serious?” Charlie nodded, because he couldn’t imagine what someone would find admirable about him. “Because you are a survivor. And you’re courageous. And you’re good in a crisis. And you’re brilliant. For starters.”
“Oh,” Charlie said, laying his head down again. That’s how Jeremy saw him? Because he sure as hell liked Jeremy’s view of him more than his own. Maybe that was something else he could work on. Right after he conquered the fear thing. It didn’t hurt to dream, did it?
“Can I tell you something else?” Jeremy said after a while.
“Of course.”
“It’s very unprofessional,” Jeremy said, amusement in his tone.
“Okay,” Charlie said, unable to hold back a smile.
“Putting my ink on your skin is making me really fucking hard.”
Charlie’s heart tripped into a sprint, the words heating his blood and engorging his dick. “Yeah?”