Chapter Nine
Inked
I decided to take a chance as I started my car and made my way across town to his house. When I passed the bar, a shiver ran up my spine. I had no idea how I was going to handle going back there. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind as I parked outside of Drake’s house. He opened his door before I was even out of my car.
“About time, I thought you changed your mind,” his eyes traveled up and down my body, “Wow, you look great.”
I smiled to myself at his compliment, “Thanks, and no way, if I make plans to get murdered by some hot guy with tattoos and a bad attitude, I keep them.”
“So you think I’m hot do you?”
I mentally face palmed as I realized my slip up.
“You completely missed the whole getting murdered part didn’t you?”
He walked over to me and slipped a hand around my waist as he led me to his car. I felt the tingles running down my back as he touched me.
“I always focus on the important things, now get in.”
He pushed me gently toward the passenger door before walking around his side and getting in. I stood there debating whether I could still make a run for it when he rolled my window down.
“Get in. Don’t think I won’t throw you into this car. I’ll even get on top of you to hold you down if it comes to that, not that I would mind.”
I groaned as I opened the door and slid in, slamming it behind me.
“You’re so bossy.”
“Yeah but you love it.”
“Not really, it only adds to your annoying qualities.”
He grinned at me as he pulled onto the road and started driving in the direction of the business district, “I wasn’t aware that I had any annoying qualities actually. Please enlighten me to what they could possibly be.”
I looked at him in astonishment, “You seriously want me to list everything bad about you?”
He shrugged his shoulders as he weaved through traffic, “Sure, why not. Besides, none of the other girls I talk to have anything bad to say about me. Actually, they often yell how good I am, several times in a row.”
I felt my face grow warm.
“I’m sure they do. Alright, let’s see if I can manage to name off all your bad qualities by the time we get to wherever we’re going. This is going to take a while.”
He grinned but stayed silent, waiting for me to start.
“Well first, you’re bossy. Then the fact you refuse to tell me where we’re going. You’re also self-centered and arrogant. You walk around like you own the world and expect everyone to just bow to you.”
He cut me off before I could continue, “I don’t expect everyone to bow to me, just the female population. I mean, can you blame me though? You said it yourself, I’m smoking hot and I ooze sex appeal.”
“I don’t remember saying you ooze anything hot shot.”
“I read your mind and I know what you’re thinking right now too. I bet you’d like to either rip my clothes or my head off.”
“Try the second one,” I grumbled as he pulled the car into a small lot. I glanced up and noticed we were at a tattoo shop, “What are we doing here?”
“This is your surprise, you’re going to get that tattoo.”
I shook my head as I looked at him in shock, “Not a chance, I told you I don’t handle pain well.”
“I’ll be with you the whole time, and I’ll even let you hold my hand if you want to.”
I glanced up at the shop again as I bit my lip, “I don’t know Drake. What if he starts it and I can’t handle it? I’ll be stuck with half a tattoo for the rest of my life.”
“You mean she.”
“What?”
“You said what if he starts it. My friend Katelynn is going to do it for you.”
I raised my eyebrows at him, “So you think that having my tattoo done by one of your skanks is going to improve your chances of getting me in there? I might catch an STD from her or something.”
He acted as if I had insulted him personally, which I guess I had.
“She isn’t one of my skanks. She’s someone I’ve known for a long time and she does good work. I called her and she came in on her day off to do this for you so get your ass out of my car and let’s go get inked.”
“I’ll go in, but I’m not promising you anything.”
I opened my door and stepped out, my legs literally shaking with fear. I took a step and stumbled. Drake was beside me in a flash as he caught me and held me up.
“You weren’t kidding about being clumsy were you?”
“Bite me.”
I pulled myself free from his grip and slowly walked to the shop. I had no idea why I was even out of the car, there was no way I could do this. I looked over at Drake. It was because of him, my decisions always had to something to do with him. As we reached the shop, I pulled on the doors but they were locked.
“Well look at that, they’re closed,” I turned and started to walk back to the car but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
“They are closed, but she came in to do this for us.”
He knocked loudly on the doors and a moment later a tall woman with bright pink hair appeared. She unlocked the door and opened it, waving us in. As soon as we entered she locked the door behind us and turned to Drake and me.
“Hi, you must be Chloe. I’m Katelynn.”
She seemed nice enough but I wasn’t totally convinced.
“Nice to meet you. Listen, I’m not sure what Drake told you, but I don’t want to get a tattoo.”
She raised a pierced brow and glanced at Drake, “Really? Drake here acted like you were excited. Why don’t I show you what I’ve got and if you still don’t want it, I won’t force you.”
I nodded as she led us down a hallway covered in pictures of tattoos. Some of the pieces were truly amazing and had obviously taken hours to do. One stood out among the rest, it was a black and white portrait of a woman. The artist had been so detailed that if I reached out and touched her face, I almost expected her to be real.
“This is amazing.”
Katelynn glanced back as she opened a door at the end of the hallway and motioned for us to enter, “Thanks, that’s one of mine. The man who got it wanted it in memory of his fiancé. She died in a freak accident.”
“Wow, that’s so sad, but the piece is so beautiful.”
She nodded as she pointed to a chair, “Take a seat by the desk and I’ll show you what I drew up.”
I sat down and glanced around the room. Like the hallway, there were several pictures of tattoos on the walls, and a photo album sat on the desk in front me. I opened it up and started looking through several pieces of flash work. I stopped on a page covered in different heart designs and an idea popped into my head. I grinned up at Drake as Katelynn sat down next to me with a piece of paper in her hand.
“I’ll make you a deal Drake. I’ll suck it up and get my tattoo if you get one with me. But I get to pick what you get and where you get it.”
He raised his eyebrow and grinned, “Oh really?”
“Absolutely, but you have to go first.”
Katelynn was watching us with an amused look on her face, “Are you two together?”
I whipped my head around to her, “No! Why would you think that?”
“Sorry, it just seemed like you were.”
“No definitely not,” I turned my gaze back to Drake, “Do we have a deal?”
He stared at me for a minute before answering, “Alright, deal.”
I grinned as I looked at Katelynn, “Good, now that that’s settled, show me my new tattoo.”
She held the paper in her hand out to me. I took it and stared down at the ink on the page. It was simple really, just my “Nunquam Amavit” in a beautiful flowing script with a small black silhouette of a bird beside it.
“I love it. Where should I put it?”
“Well, it depends on if you want to hide it or not.”
I shook my head as I glanced at Drake, “No, I don’t want to hide it, I want to remember this moment forever.”
She gave me a knowing grin as she caught me looking at Drake, “Then I’d suggest your wrist or your neck. Whatever you feel comfortable with.”
I thought for a moment as I looked at the drawing. “I think I want it on my wrist.”
“Good choice, I made it small enough so that it should fit perfectly,” She took the paper from my hand and held it up to my wrist, “Yeah this will work perfect. Now what tattoo did you pick out for him?”
I grinned as I pointed to a tattoo on the page in front of me, “This one.”
She burst out laughing as she looked down at the tattoo I had selected. It was of a butterfly landing on a flower shaped like a heart. Underneath that, the words “pretty lady” were written.
“I love it! Now, how big do you want it and where am I putting it at?”
I glanced up at Drake who was sitting across the room from us with an amused look on his face. “Don’t you want to come see your new tattoo?”
“Nah, I’ll look when it’s done.”
I gave him a devilish grin, “You’re going to need a mirror.”
“Really? And why is that?”
“Because it’s going on your ass.”
I sat in a chair next to Drake as she prepared both our tattoos. I glanced at him to see him watching me.
“Are you nervous?”
“Of course I am. I’m getting something permanently tattooed on my wrist and it’s probably going to hurt and I’m going to cry like a baby.”
He grinned and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his side, “I should be the one who’s scared. I’m getting a tattoo, on my ass mind you, and I don’t even know what it looks like. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone you know.”
I snuggled in tighter to him and took a deep breath. His scent assaulted me and I took another deep breath as my body started reacting to being so close to him. He rested his chin on my head and starting running his fingertips up and down my spine. The movement distracted me as I focused on every brush of his fingers against me and I felt my eyelids flutter and close as I rested my head against his chest.
It was moments like these that I truly appreciated the gentle side of him. He always pulled out the hard ass card when others were around, but when it was just the two of us, he completely changed. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I loved both sides of him and that scared me. I was getting too close too fast and I knew I’d have scars by the end of this.
Katelynn cleared her throat and my eyes flew open to see her watching us with a secretive smile on her face.
“Come on over Drake, you’re up first.”
He released me and stood, taking off his jacket and setting it on the chair. As he walked over to where Katelynn stood, he slowly undid the buttons on his jeans and pulled them down so that I had a clear view of his ass. My mouth fell open as I dropped my gaze to the floor. He chuckled and I glanced up to see him watching me.
“What’s wrong Chloe, see something you like?”
And there was cocky Drake back.
“Actually I hate to avert my gaze because your ass is so blindingly white it hurt to look.”
Katelynn giggled as she motioned for Drake to lie down, “I like this one, she’s got spunk.”
He glanced over at me, “Yeah, I kind of like her too.”
I played with the rings on my hands as Katelynn applied the outline to his skin and picked up her gun.
“You ready?”
“Yes. Chloe come over and watch, that way you’ll know it’s not so bad.”
I rose slowly from my chair and went to stand behind Katelynn. The view from here was amazing and I tried to concentrate as Drake spoke, but my eyes were glued to him and my brain was on leave.
I jumped as Drake yelled my name.
“Sorry, what?”
He smirked at me, “If you would stop staring at my ass you’d hear what I was saying. I told you to watch my face when she does it. That way you’ll see that I’m not in any real pain.”
I jumped again as the gun came to life. She held his skin taunt and slowly lowered her gun. Just as she touched his skin, Drake screamed out in agony. My hands flew to my face to control my own scream as Katelynn jerked back.
Drake’s body started shaking with laughter.
“You guys are so easy.”
I stomped over and smacked him across the back of the head.
“You jerk! That wasn’t funny!”
He continued to chuckle, “Ouch, sorry. Go ahead, I’ll try to control myself.”
“Laugh now, but if I screw this up it’s on your head, not mine,” Katelynn said as she glared at him.
“I said I was sorry. Now ink me.”
I smacked him again.
“What the hell was that for?”
“You’re being bossy again, so lay there and shut up.”
Katelynn slowly lowered the gun back down and went to work on outlining that tattoo. I watched his face as she worked and he showed no sign of pain, except an occasional twinge. In less than half an hour she was done. He stood slowly and walked to a mirror in the corner of the room. I expected him to start yelling at me as he turned until he could see the image, but he just stood there in silence. He stayed that way for a few minutes and finally I couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“Drake, say something. How mad are you at me?”
He pulled his gaze away from his reflection to look at me. He walked silently across the room, his jeans still low on his hips, and stopped in front of me with a serious expression on his face.
“You want to know what I think?”
I nodded as he leaned in closer to me. I closed my eyes, waiting for him to start yelling at me.
“I think this is the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.”
I opened my eyes and peeked up at him.
“Come again?”
He started chuckling as he pulled away from me.
“I love it, and every time I stare at it I’ll think of you.”
I started laughing, “Um, exactly how often do you stare at your own ass?”
“I don’t normally, but with this little piece of you back there, I might have to do it more often.”
“Wow, like I said before, you’re such a charmer.”
He grinned as Katelynn came over and covered his new artwork with a bandage.
“You know the drill, leave the bandage on for a couple hours, and put Petroleum Jelly on it a couple times a day for about three days.”
He nodded as he pulled his jeans back up and buttoned them, “Got it. It’s your turn now Chloe, get your butt over there.”
I walked past him and sat down in the chair as Katelynn cleaned up and started setting up for me. After she had everything ready, she applied the outline. I sucked in a deep breath as she powered up her gun and dipped in into the ink.
“You ready?”
I shook my head no and motioned for Drake to come over. He walked over to me and stood on the opposite side from her.
“Will you hold my hand while she does it?”
His eyes went soft and he smiled, “Of course I will.”
He pulled up a chair beside me and sat down as he laced our fingers together. I stared down at our entwined fingers and smiled as she began moving the gun across my skin. I tensed a bit at the stinging before relaxing.
“That’s it?”
She looked up at me and smiled, “That’s it. See, all that worrying for nothing.”
I started to pull my hand away from Drake’s but he stopped me.
“I’m ok, you don’t have to hold my hand.”
“Well you might decide you need it and it won’t be there. I’ll hold onto you just in case.”
Katelynn finished mine a lot faster than she did Drakes since there was a lot less detail to it. She applied the bandage and handed me a sheet with aftercare instructions.
“This will explain everything you need to know. If you have any problems, my phone number is on the bottom.”
I stood up and threw my arms around her.
“Thank you so much for this.”
She froze at first, then hugged me back gently.
“You’re very welcome.”
I pulled back and looked at Drake with a huge grin on my face. I walked over to him and threw my arms around his neck as well.
“And thank you for making me do this, I never would have been able to do it by myself.”
He smiled as I pulled back, “Sure thing sunshine. Let me pay her and we can get out of here.”
My eyes widened, “No, you don’t have to pay for it, I’ve got it. Actually, I’ll pay for both, since I made you get one too.”
“I know I don’t have to, I want to,” he turned to Katelynn, “How much do I owe you?”
She shook her head, “Nothing, this one’s on me.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, now get out of here before I change my mind.”
Drake hugged her briefly before putting his hand on the small of my back and leading us out of the shop to his car.