Chapter 7
“Addictive huh?”
Lilly
“What the fuck Jen!” My eyes are squeezed so damn tight that I don’t even think a tear could slip through right now. “Sorry Lil, I can’t help it. Do you need a minute?” She offers me but all I want right now is to just get this session over with. “No, keep going.” I tell her as she eases up on that one spot that was getting ready to cause me to shed some tears, I swear. “Some people say that the outline is the worst part.” Jenny murmurs as she glides her tattoo gun over my skin in a slow painful way. “Well, that’s comforting.” My reply shoots back with intended sarcasm and she laughs. “But on the other hand this tattoo is going to be huge so I don’t really see any part of this being pain free for you.” She adds, and without looking at her I can almost picture the snarky grin she has. “You are enjoying this way too much plus you are supposed to be my best friend. I think after this our friendship is going to be over.” I say as I try my hardest to stay still. With a laugh she replies. “Quit being such a baby, besides you wouldn’t know what to do without me.” I’ll never admit it anytime soon but she’s right, also she is the only one I can talk to like this and still trust to mark my body for life.
After a minute of nothing but buzzing going on she stops. “Okay Lil, roll this way a bit” She tells me as she directs me how to shift. When I get in the position she tells me to shift to, we hear this loud moan come from down the hallway and it causes us to stop and look at one another. “What the hell is going on back there?” I ask in a low voice and she shrugs but the look of shock still shows on her face. Shane stands up pulls his gloves off and shakes his head. “That girl is trouble.” He says as he makes his way down the now quiet hallway. “Jessa has been in here a lot in the past couple months. I think she’s crushing on either Shane or Dylan, hard to say but she’s an attention whore.” Jen says as she tries to find a reason for Jessa’s outburst before she gets ready to start on me again. “You okay Lils, seriously, you know I can’t help the pain?” The mothering side of her comes out in true concern. “Well other that the fact I want to go back there and see what the hell this chick is up to, then yeah...I’m okay.” “Just play it cool, the guys will take care of her bullshit and you know that.” She acts as if it’s happened before. “Now just relax and lay still. We’ll take a break in a bit and you can move around and get a drink or something, sound good?” She asks and I nod as I try to listen to what they are saying, but they’re still too far away to make it out.
This time when she goes back to work I don’t even feel the pain anymore because my mind is somewhere else. The footsteps however cause everyone’s eyes to look up at Jessa who is now standing at the counter paying. The look on her face leads me to believe that she isn’t happy. Sill quickly finishes the transaction as Shane takes his seat again and apologizes to his client in his chair before gloving back up and continuing, but still no Dylan.
Asking my brother or Sill for that matter would be very unprofessional right now especially in front of everyone out here, but that still doesn’t mean that it’s not driving me crazy not knowing what happened or where Dylan is even.
Fifteen minutes later Dylan emerges and goes up to the counter and talks to Sill for a moment about the time of his next appointment. His ass in those worn jeans he’s wearing makes me imagine what it would be like to see him in action at the gym. I wonder how much of his body is covered in ink. All that I ‘ve seen so far was his chest and of course his arms, tattoos upon tattoos that mark his skin only showed when he changed his shirt one night after work before him and Shane had to go meet some people. But having all of that displayed for the public to see as he lifts a set of weights at the gym… damn, I bet women love watching him break a sweat. I know I would, but that fact that Jessa has seen it makes me a little jealous.
“Okay. Let’s take five” Jen announces to me as she pushes back and stretches. “Agreed.” I sit up with my shirt tucked under the bottom of my sports bra and hop off the table to carefully to do the same, but instead of going outside like Jen and Maddox do I decide to go back to my office and grab my phone and then some caffeine. Plus the cool air feels good on my side right now. Hot on my heels down the hallway is Dylan. I can smell his scent of mint mixed with manliness and it makes my heart pick up the pace. When I get inside my private little room I hear the door close behind me. I turn around only to see his determined face look down at me right before his lips come crashing into mine. His hands hold my head still as he takes advantage of my mouth. It feels so good to be desired this way, if he only knew I’d give him anything he wanted right now, but instead my hands grip his shirt and pull him in to me. He takes my breath away long enough to keep me wanting more before he breaks away.
“If someone would have told me this day was going to be like this I swear I would have started at midnight on you.” His words catch me off guard a little at the same time they cause my stomach to feel like I have just ridden a rollercoaster. “I didn’t expect any of this to happen, but I have to say… I like it.” I gesture from him to my side as he sits on the corner of my solid hard wood desk. His two fingers hook in the waist of my pants and tug me closer to him. When I reach my spot in between his legs our faces are more at an eye to eye level. With his eyes trained on mine his hands softly go around my thighs and hold me there. The sudden urge to run my fingers through his styled short hair is there and I can’t ignore it. This is new and fun so fuck it, I begin to feel his stubble lightly from his chin to the side of his face while gently placing a kiss there, and then I rake my nails through his hair, just like he does himself several times throughout the day. His eyes close briefly and I swear he growls in pleasure which causes me to snicker. His hair is so soft but he is quite rugged in contrast of that. I want to keep going, but I know I can’t, not here anyways.
“What happened with Jessa?” I ask and he sighs then stands up putting distance between us. Immediately I regret asking. “That woman is fucking nuts.” He says as he turns to face me again, looking completely bothered by the mention of her name. The door chimes and I know Jen has come back in so I walk over and open my door to not make us look that obvious. Then I go around my desk and grab my can of soda and open it while Dylan takes a seat in the chair across from my desk and I wait for the answer. His hands slide down his face and then back up through his hair and hold behind his head. “I did a nipple piercing on her.” He begins and I have to stop myself from squeezing the full can in my hand. “Oh.” Is all I can manage before he continues and Jen comes into the room. He looks from her to me and then leans forward with his elbows on his knees, like he is nervous about continuing. Jen reaches up to my secret stash of snacks in the metal bin on the filing cabinet. Then opens the wrapper to a noisy chocolate granola bar. “Don’t mind me; I heard something about a nipple piercing, so feel free to continue.” She takes a bite and leans against the wall. Dylan sighs and prepares to continue. “I do the same protocol for these piercings every time. However Jessa, wanted a little more than a nipple piercing and when I got the ring in and finished she grabs a hold of my…” he shakes his head and looks away as my composure is beginning to wear thin and frustration shows on his face. “She grabs my dick and tried to kiss me. So Sill pulled me back because she was holding on and then your brother came in and told her to never come back.” “What a fucking bitch! You can file harassment charges Dylan!” I stand up and pull my side a bit too much because I can feel it burn as I wince from the tightness of my skin and Jen comes over to my side. “Let’s go killer, we need to get back to work.” I nod but stand my ground. As part owner of this place I’ll be damned if some bimbo wants to come in here and act like that. Dylan stands up and looks at me and chuckles. “It’s done and over with Lilly and I’m not pressing charges, I’m sure her pride is destroyed after that anyway. Plus I’m not hurt or anything.” He explains as he towers next to me. Yeah, he’s not hurt; in fact he probably liked it. Jen rolls her eyes and laughs. “Okay, come on you two can finish this later.”
Walking down the hall and climbing back up on the table with a fire lit inside of me is just what I need, I think. Especially when Jen begins to work at the outline again I realize what people mean when they say that they welcome the pain of a fresh tattoo. It actually makes the next four hours go by a little faster.
The outline isn’t completely finished yet but it’s close to it. Jen got the flowers and vines done down right past my hip. The rest of my thigh she will do another day then Shane can do the tribute to our parents before Jen finishes all the color. A lot more time on the table to come but I actually look forward to it now, plus Dylan’s brief visits to check in on me helped but he was too busy to stay for long. A typical Saturday night with walk-ins always keeps us past close. However as I sat and observed while Jen worked on me, a dozen more ideas came to mind about more ink and where to put it.
They say it’s an addiction, as for that I can see why as I look in the mirror before Jen wraps it up. The bold dark outline stands out against my skin and I want more. I feel liberated and honestly I’ll keep this to myself forever, but I do feel more like a bad ass.
The cool ointment spread all over takes the tightness away a bit before Jen covers it and begins to tell me how to take care of it. I’ve heard this speech a million times over from working here so I got it down pat. When his face shows up in the mirror behind me I don’t even hear Jen talking anymore I just see him. You wanna talk about addiction… that man’s mouth, his touch, is probably worse than anything I have tried. From alcohol, to cigarettes, and the hardest of all…chocolate. He makes me crave what only he can give me and the scariest part is, is that I only just taste tested. I should probably run away, very far away, but I can’t. He can be the easiest climb or the hardest fall. Either way there is a lot at stake.
“You got it?” Jen asks as she finishes and looks up at me. Even though I didn’t register a single word I just nod and pull my shirt out from under my sports bra, give her a hug and a “thank you” then check my phone for the time. It’s late, Sill is gone, Maddox is waiting for Jen, and Shane just came over to talk to Dylan while I make my way back to grab my stuff so we can all leave.
My phone and the papers I printed out for apartments are all I need because tomorrow I finally get to go look. When I get back out front Shane is flipping off the lights as we go out the door. “Thanks again, Jen! I appreciate it; it’s going to look amazing when you’re done with it.” I say to her before we all go our separate ways. “Anytime! You know I’ve been waiting forever for this!” she says with a laugh. “I know you love inflicting pain!” I reply back with a laugh. “You know it! Goodnight!” She says as Maddox holds the door open to the truck for her to get in. “Night!”
Only us three are left as Shane grabs the papers from out of my hand. “Hey!” I say before I reach back to grab them and he tries to play keep away like he did when we were younger as he holds them up. Jerk. This time however, I know he just wants to see what I narrowed my choices down to. So I let him look.
“This one is too far to walk, and this one looks too small.” He flips through the papers as I stand there not even bothering to argue back. “Oh look, this one’s by you.” He hands the paper to Dylan and I feel the heat rise in my face. “Can I have the papers back please?” I hold my hand out and Dylan gets this smirk on his face. While Shane laughs as he hands back over the rest of the papers. “Do you need me to take you to these places tomorrow?” My brother all of the sudden offering to help with my apartment hunting. “Because I’m free any time after noon tomorrow. Besides we should start to look for a car for you tomorrow too. I still have the rest of that insurance money put aside for whatever you want, so you should stop putting it off and we should go look for something safe for you to drive.” My brother says as he crosses his arms just like dad used to do. It’s the last of the insurance money that we have left to spend from when our parents died, because the rest is invested in A&I and savings accounts that we can’t touch for many years. “Yeah I guess you’re right. Plus maybe I can use it to live even farther away now.” I try my best to turn the conversation around from making me feel the loss of my parents all over again. “Nice try Lils. I’ll make you get a fucking go-kart so you only have enough gas for about three blocks.” He says and they both laugh. “You will not!” I say as I snatch the paper off of Dylan and begin to walk away.
Shane’s phone rings and he answers it while Dylan comes up behind me in the doorway that leads up to my front door. “Maybe I can take you to the one by my place in the morning. It might be just right for you. What do you say Goldie locks?” His grin gets me every damn time even though his eyes hold promise, I don’t know if I could trust him. “I would hate for you to have to leave your bed so early for me. Who knows, you and my brother might find some hot dates tonight and get lucky. Lord knows he won’t be home later, so you might be busy in the morning anyway.” I say with a shrug because fuck it, I’m tired and he didn’t seem all that pissed about a hot girl trying to get in his pants earlier. Maybe I should stop this now and walk away while I still can, but before I turn around his hand grabs my arm. It doesn’t hurt but I can tell he doesn’t want me to walk away. His mouth comes dangerously close to my ear and his breath on my neck sends shivers all through me in a very erotic kind of way. “There is no hot date planned or any hook up either. The only one I want in my bed tonight is you, and if you want I’ll go right over there and tell your brother that I’m staying in tonight, just to be with you.” His demeanor is serious as he appears to have no hesitation in letting the world know about him and me. Shock hits me as I look at the massive man standing here staring at me with a look in his eyes that leads me to believe he will do it. Shane says goodbye to whoever he is talking to and starts the ten foot distance to where we are. With Dylan ready to tell Shane and risk everything right now I still feel like it’s too soon. “You can’t.” I whisper to him which causes him to let go of me and disappointment to take over. I feel my stomach turn with regret as he steps away and pulls out his phone. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” Shane tells me. “Okay. Goodnight, be careful.” I manage with a fake smile before I look to Dylan and he looks away. “Will do.” Is all Shane says before his phone goes off with a text alert. He looks to Dylan. “You ready?” “Yep, let’s go.”
No look back no goodbye, nothing. I wonder what would have happened if I would have agreed to his tempting threat. I can’t even imagine what my brother would say about us anyway. Maybe he would be pissed, or maybe he wouldn’t even care, who knows, but now I feel like such a fuck up for letting him walk away. He clearly made it known that he wanted me, and I pushed him away. What a fucked up day and I can honestly say that I’m glad there is no work tomorrow, because my head and my heart need a minute.