SAWYER

1.

She demanded my shirt off, and I had no objections to it. As I took my shirt off, she grabbed for the front of my jeans and wasted no time in ripping them open. Her hand slid inside, over my boxers, and I gritted my teeth as her hand began to explore.

I backed away just enough so I could pull her hand from between my legs. Maybe not the smartest move in that moment, but I knew she would get everything she wanted and then some soon enough. Her hand touched my stomach and ran up to my chest and to my shoulder.

“Fuck, Sawyer,” she whispered. “Why do you have to look like this?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I said and made my next move at her.

I pretended like I was going to kiss her but skipped her lips and went for her neck. My hands slipped into the sides of her pants and gently pushed them down. I began my descent, trailing kiss after kiss down her chest, cutting between her breasts because I knew it would drive her crazy. The moment my lips touched her belly, she shuddered and gasped, grabbing my hair. I knew how ticklish she was but I always knew how to kiss her in a way that flirted between ticklish and feeling really damn good.

I gently stripped her pants down as I kept kissing down, going to my knees before her. In some fucked up way, this was my offering to her. I could spend every single day of my life apologizing trying to figure out what happened before, or I could just get on my knees in front of her and show her what she meant to me.

Kate kicked out of her pants and I was left to face off with a pair of dark blue panties. My fingertips curled around the front of them and I gently tugged, revealing more soft skin for my lips to explore. I kept pulling and I kept kissing, feeling her heat and the wildness of her desire attacking my nose. That feral smell was enough to make any straight headed man and make him instantly insane. My hands moved to her hips and I pulled as hard as I could, making it fucking clear that playtime was over.

I gave Kate three seconds to kick off her panties and then she was finally all mine. My hands eased to the back of hers and I pulled, spreading her legs just the way I wanted her to be. The sight of her sweetness left me wondering what the hell had I really been thinking when I left all those years ago. She was perfect and always had been.

I came forward, writing the words I fucking love you with the tip of my tongue. Although I was pretty sure she didn’t get the message. I sliced between her folds, finding her sweet center, my tongue demanding some of her forbidden honey. When I had my sampling, I inched up and swirled against her tender clit. That’s when I moved my hands to her perfect ass and pulled, bringing her tighter against my mouth. She jumped at me, moved to her toes, and let out a whimpering cry. Her hands grabbed for my hair, pulling, her body convulsing with jumpy thrusts as I went for the kill.

I knew the spot and I knew how to hit it and I knew how to never give up on it, no matter what she tried to do to me.

As I slightly turned my head, I had more of her. All of her. And I wasn’t going to let up until I got what I wanted.

That happened a minute later when she started to shake and melted into my mouth.

But that was just the beginning.

* * *

2.

I climbed into the bed and nestled my body up against hers. On our left sides, her back to my front. She was still breathing heavily from what I had done with my mouth. But trust me, all I wanted to do was tell her how beautiful she was and how much I love her.

I touched her hip and pulled her tighter, my cock digging its way between her legs. She parted herself for me, reaching back and touching me. Her fingers against my thickness, gently sliding from tip to root and back up again. I sucked in a breath and watched her touch me. I thrust a little, a warning that I wasn’t going to finish like this. I needed to be inside her.

Her hand tried to grip me, pulling, guiding me to her body.

The moment I felt the swell of her sex, I gritted my teeth and readied myself not to thrust once and explode. That’s what her body was capable of. She was deadly. And I was okay with that.

I turned my body just a little, my legs almost on top of her legs, taking control again. Her hand moved from my cock and grabbed at my ass, her nails sinking hard into me.

I thrust and entered her, sliding myself inch by fucking inch, taking myself to the hilt. She turned her head, burying her face into the pillow, crying out in a now muffled voice. I tightened my grip on her curved waist and pulled back, giving her a quick second to catch her breath before fucking forward again. I held her right there, offering myself over and over to her, feeling her as she felt me.

Kate slowly moved to her belly and I went with her, guiding myself on top of her, never stopping for a second from having her. I kept my right hand on her hip as I pulled at her when I thrust forward. My other hand was flat against the bed. She began to match me, chasing me down when I pulled back, messing with my rhythm but making damn sure there wasn’t an inch of myself that didn’t feel her.

She turned her head and gasped for a breath of air.

I moved her hair out of her face and eased back a little, sliding my hand from her hip down to her leg and pulled, bringing her to her knees. I watched the way her back arched as she showed me all of her body. She had more curves than a roller coaster and she kept me just as dizzy. I felt myself reaching the swelling point of no return. I made the quick move to ease away from her and turn her to her back so I could face her and stare into her eyes as I came.

I sank back into her as she clawed at my back.

I moved as fast as my body needed but I never looked away from her.

She was all mine, and not just in that moment.

I wanted her to be all mine for the rest of my life.

* * *

3.

It had been another busy day at the shop. I couldn’t believe the amount of people who came just to say they were there. People wanting to take selfies with the guys as though they were celebrities. I knew that St. Skin had its own persona online but it seemed to be a little out of control. But the guys loved it. The people loved it too. They would drive for hours and across several states to have a chance to get tattooed by one of us. Those who didn’t know who I was were hesitant at first, only until they were told that the place was named after me.

I finished up my last piece - a mushroom and a fairy on a woman’s arm - and decided to call it a day.

I opened the door to Prick’s room and gave a nod. “Long day, brother.”

“Yeah. Good day though. Want to get a beer?”

“It’s hard to turn that down.”

“But you’re going to,” Prick said. “That’s what pussy does to you, man. It traps you. Like a Venus fly trap, brother. Catches you and slowly turns you into mush.”

“Is that why you hit it and run?” I asked.

“No,” Prick said. He stood up. “I don’t hit it and run. I make it very clear what I’m about to do. And what happens after. You can’t imagine how many nice goodbyes I’ve had. It’s like an appointment. You get Prick, you get the dick, and then you hit the skids.”

I laughed. “Wow. What a life to live.”

“You only get one,” Prick said with a wink.

“Something tells me you should put half the shit you say on t-shirts. You’d make a fortune.”

“Then I could quit this dump, right?”

“Quit?” Tate’s voice growled as he stepped up next to me. “Who’s quitting?”

“Prick is,” I said. “He’s going into the clothing business.”

“Clothing business?” Tate asked. “I thought he was in the business of taking off clothes.”

“Again, you’re misguided,” Prick said. “I don’t take clothes off. They do. Makes it so there’s less attachment. See, there’s an art to the one night stand.”

“And a medicine cabinet full of antibiotics,” I said.

Tate laughed.

“Fuck you,” Prick said. “Both of you.”

“I think we hit a nerve,” I said.

“Maybe irritability is a side effect of one of those antibiotics,” Tate said.

“You know, with my expertise, you’d think I’d get better treatment around here,” Prick said.

“We’re just messing around,” I said.

“I’m not,” Tate said.

Prick threw us the middle finger and the three of us laughed.

I turned away from the room as Tate started to talk to Prick about numbers. I watched as Cass crouched to catch his daughter jumping into his arms. He scooped her up and stood up, walking to Diem, kissing her.

It made me smile.

Family.

That’s all I ever wanted.

That was the idea behind St. Skin.

Me and Tate grew up damn near living on the streets. Learning so much about people and how different the world could be, but how it was all beautiful. We wanted to create a place for people to come to and not feel judged by their ink and express themselves in a way that kept them away from the demons that wanted to destroy them. The demons that hid in the bottom of a bottle. The demons that snuck up on Prick. Or just demons that lived in our hearts. Regret. Doubt. Worry. Fear.

That’s what St. Skin was. A big family.

Cass left the shop, carrying his daughter, holding hands with Diem.

It almost made me a little jealous.

I went back into my room to finish cleaning up when I saw I had a text message from Kate. It was almost as though she could somehow read my mind.

You should come over… and meet Jason.

* * *

4.

I didn’t know who I had become as I stood at the door, waiting for Kate to open it.

When she did, she saw me standing there holding a pizza with one hand and a bag of something with the other.

I entered the apartment and felt nervous. Which was bullshit because I had no reason to feel nervous. I truthfully owed nothing to this kid, but in some messed up way, I wanted to make sure I gave him a good impression of myself. Or maybe it was because I knew something about his life that he didn’t.

“I’ll grab that,” Kate said and took the pizza. “Hey, Jason, come meet my friend. He brought pizza.”

“Pizza!” a little voice yelled.

I saw his head bop up from the couch and he came charging into the kitchen and froze when he saw me. I realized I probably looked a hundred feet tall to him. I also realized he mustn’t have hung around with Tate and the St. Skin guys or else he wouldn’t have looked so shocked to see me.

I crouched to one knee. “Hey, Jason. My name is Sawyer.”

Jason looked right for Kate.

She stepped next to me. “He’s a good friend of mine. He likes to draw too.”

“I actually draw on people’s arms,” I said.

“Really?” Jason asked. “With a pen?”

“Something like that.”

“Cool. What’s in the bag?”

“Jason,” Kate said.

I laughed. “It’s all good. I heard you like dinosaurs and snakes, right?”

“Yeah,” Jason said.

“Check this out,” I said and offered the bag to Jason.

Now, imagine me bolting out of St. Skin, getting on my motorcycle, and darting all the way across the freaking town to a small strip mall so I could find a store that had a toy section. And I spent way too much time trying to figure out what was a cool toy, so I sort of cleared the shelf.

“Wow,” Jason said as he took out the first dinosaur.

“Figured you could add all those to your collection,” I said.

“Look at this, Mommy!” Jason squealed.

I stood up and saw the look on Kate’s face when Jason said Mommy.

I reached for her hand and squeezed it.

The worst thing I could probably do is tell her that she was his mother. It was the truth, but it didn’t stop the pain of the reality that Jason didn’t know about.

“You didn’t have to do this,” Kate whispered.

“I know. I wanted to. It was pretty fun hanging out in the toy section again.”

“Jason, do you think you should say something to Sawyer?”

“Thanks,” Jason yelled out.

He dropped two of the dinosaurs and came charging at me. I wasn’t expecting the hug, but the kid had a fierce grip on my leg.

I touched the top of his head for a second. “No problem, kid. Hope you enjoy playing with them.”

Jason broke away and looked up at me.

I wasn’t ready for the question he asked me next.

I don’t know if me or Kate were ready.

“Hey, are you my father?”