Eloise

“Try toothpaste,” Gabe says.

He reaches out from behind the shower curtain, water runs down his arm and drips onto the floor. He grabs a tube of Colgate from his sink, and holds it up in front of me as the water runs down our bodies.

“That’s crazy, that won’t work.”

“Nothing else is either. If it doesn’t work, I’ll go downstairs and get my Ink-Out. If it gets tattoo ink off, it’ll easily work for pen.”

For some reason, last night I let Gabe draw on me. He started my collarbones and worked his way down to my toes. It was amazing how quickly he worked, and how high quality the drawings are.

One side of my body is a vine covered in all sorts of flowers. The other side is naughty. He drew the two of us in all the positions he wants us to have sex in.

My entire right hip is a close-up of his face between my legs. My right breast is a three-dimensional picture of his face, with his mouth open and his tongue licking my nipple. On my thigh, he drew my face, thrown back in ecstasy as he makes me climax.

“It’s not really doing anything,” I say, rubbing the toothpaste into my arm and trying to scrub off the picture of me on my knees, sucking his dick.

We didn’t get much sleep, and I’m tired. It’s Friday, and I have to work. But that didn’t stop me from spending the night.

“It’s fine, I have to go home to get clean clothes anyway, I’ll wear a long-sleeve top today. No one will be able to see it.”

“Don’t go home first,” Gabe says, pushing his pelvis against mine.

“I have to. I need clean panties.”

“Screw panties. What do you need those for?”

I laugh, and shake my head. “You’re funny.”

“I wasn’t being funny. I’m serious. While I’m at work today, I want to be able to think about you walking around with no panties on. I’m going to spend the day thinking about all the things I’m going to do to you tonight.”

Gabe grabs hold of me, the spray from the shower splashing over both of us. My skin tingles, even though we had sex right before getting in the shower.

The bottom of the tub is slippery, and my feet slide around as he hugs me. But Gabe is a solid wall of muscle, and I hold him tight to stop myself from falling.

He kisses my cheek, and says, “Besides, if you don’t go home, I get to have you for another thirty minutes this morning. I’ll even make you an omelet for breakfast.”

“You’re corrupting me. But I can’t resist a good omelet.”

“If not wearing panties is corrupting you, I’ve got a long way to go.”

“Are you kidding me? Look what you’ve drawn all over me. It seems like I’m going to be walking around work with smutty pictures all over me.”

“I told you I was going to use my tattoo ink cleaner to get them off. But now that you’ve brought it up, I definitely like the idea of you walking around with these on you.”

My eyes flare as I imagine myself talking to my mother and father with only a thin piece of fabric between their eyes and the pictures of Gabe ravaging me.

“You should show them to Marcy. I bet she’d appreciate them.”

“She doesn’t need drawings, she’s seen the real thing. Remember?”

“I bet she rubbed herself raw last night thinking about us.”

“Oh God, don’t say that. I’ll have to quit right now and never show my face at my parents’ medical practice again.”

Gabe turns off the faucet and pushes open the shower curtain.

“Let’s eat,” h e says.

We both step out of the tub. He pulls a towel off the vanity counter, and uses it to pat me dry.

“There, the ink is smudged a bit but not too bad.”

“What about my arms?”

“Don’t worry about them, I’ll use my cleaner on them. But the rest of these pictures are staying.”

I follow Gabe back into his bedroom. Like the living room, it’s spartan. There is a bed with no headboard, and a chest of drawers.

On the floor are two piles of clothes, a pile of darks and a pile of lights. Gabe pulls a pair of black jeans from the darks pile and a T-shirt from the lights pile.

I’d assumed they were piles of pre-separated laundry, but after putting on a pair of boxers from the chest of drawers, he puts on the clothes he got from the piles.

“Jeez, you really are a bachelor.”

Gabe shrugs but otherwise ignores my comment. I pull on my pants and do them up. They feel weird with no panties underneath. I retrieve my bra from the floor.

“Leave that off for now.” Gabe slides his hand down my arm and hooks his fingers into the bra straps. “I’m not done enjoying the view yet.”

“Is that so?” I put my hands on my hips and try not to laugh.

“It is,” he says, smirking.

“You took my view away. If you want to keep yours, I suggest you take your shirt back off.”

He chuckles, a rich, deep sound that fills the room. I keep my hands on my hips, tilt my head and raise an eyebrow at him. Still chuckling, he pulls off his shirt, revealing the incredible body underneath.

“Better,” I say, and break down laughing.

While Gabe goes to the kitchen to make breakfast, I snoop around.

His apartment is huge, and covers the entire top of the tattoo parlor below. There’re two more bedrooms, but both are empty. There’s a separate room off the living room which is clearly supposed to be a dining room, but instead it is filled with more weights and a few other pieces of exercise equipment.

There is one more room, an office. A desk is up against a window overlooking the street. It’s clearly used, but is surprisingly neat and organized. I glance at some of the papers on it, they’re invoices for Incredible Ink. It seems like he organizes his business very differently from the way he organizes his life.

Sitting by itself on the far corner of the desk is an envelope. The name on it catches my eye. Kaylee Johnson. I wonder why she left when she did. I’d be pierced right now if she hadn’t. And probably still wouldn’t know what it felt like to have an orgasm.

“Breakfast,” Gabe calls from the kitchen.

My stomach rumbles. I guess I worked up an appetite last night. And this morning.

In the kitchen, Gabe sets two plates of food onto a round table. I glance around and I’m glad that the room is clean. He may live like a bachelor, but at least he’s a clean one.

I slide onto the wooden seat and waste no time in starting to eat. Gabe sits across from me.

“How come Kaylee left?” I ask, take a bite of my cheese omelet.

“Still more questions?”

“Yes.” Gabe’s barely asked me any questions about my background. He hasn’t asked any about my family, or my job. I don’t know if he doesn’t care, or if I asked him so many that he’s sick and tired of questions.

“I fired her.”

“But why? Why right when I had an appointment to see her?”

“Coincidence.”

Coincidence? That’s a strange answer. It makes me think that it wasn’t a coincidence.

“I get it, you saw my name on the appointment sheet, and you wanted me all for yourself so you fired her to get her out of the way.”

Gabe bursts out laughing, “If that’s you want to believe, then yes, Jewel, I wanted to get my hands on you.”

I don’t know whether to believe him or not.