MY HAND FLIES OVER THE page as the sketch I’m working on comes to life.
“I know what I want.” Her sweet voice breaks the silence.
I look up from the sketch pad to see Kennedy’s piercing eyes locked right on me from her position on the couch I had moved out back after the dust settled. Knowing I’d never want her far from me, especially after what happened.
That night is engrained in my mind, in my very soul. In who I am.
The fear. The gun. The fire. Kennedy’s terrified cries. Needing to keep her safe.
It’s been almost two months, and her nightmares are just finally starting to end. They were every night she closed her eyes. I’d wake up to her cries and screams of terror, having to hold her close the rest of the night to keep her calm. Make her feel safe.
But we’re finally climbing that hurdle, finding sturdy ground again. Getting back to our normal. In Ruins is almost there, too. The renovations almost complete.
That night still vivid, but not ruling our lives.
“What you want?” I ask, coming out of my thoughts. Confused.
“For a tattoo. I know what I want you to ink on my skin.”
My pulse shoots off through my veins. Flowing wildly and pumping furiously. Excitement and nerves battling for dominance.
“You want a tattoo?” I probably sound like an idiot, but I don’t give a fuck. We haven’t talked tattoos in weeks, and because of what happened recently, those thoughts were far from my mind. They weren’t even in the same stratosphere.
She nods her head.
“Okay,” I swallow harshly. Suddenly nervous for some reason. “What do you want, angel?”
She stands and makes her way over to me before lifting her shirt to just below her tits, exposing her ribs and flat stomach. Pointing an index finger to her left side, she says, “I want an infinity symbol right here.” She taps her ribcage, just barely under her breast.
I bring my large hand to her small body and drag my thumb along her skin. Goosebumps rise in its wake. “An infinity symbol right here?” I question again.
“Yes,” she breathes. Always affected by my touch. “Right over my heart. With…with the word “together” scrolled through it, connecting the lines.”
My heart explodes right then. Clear out of my chest because this woman…fuck, this woman owns every fucking piece of my battered and inked soul.
“Because we’re forever…together forever.”
Unable to resist her, especially now, I bring both hands to her waist and lift before dragging her over my lap. We roll a few inches due to my sudden movements. She breathes out a quiet giggle because of it, before I’m able to plant my booted feet solidly to the floor.
Spanning my tattooed hands across her back down to her luscious ass, she moans at my touch. “You want my ink on your skin, angel?” I breathe on her lips, angling my face down to meet hers. Despite her position straddling my lap, our height difference still has my lips a few inches above hers.
She nods, and I can’t keep my lips off of hers. I dive down, crash landing into her soft lips. Tongue driving into the sweetness of her mouth. Unable to hold back my desperation and want and fucking need for this girl. My angel.
As her hands cradle my face, one of mine lifts from the grip on her ass to fist into her long hair. Angling her head so I can get closer, take more, give it fucking all.
The kiss goes on until we’re both desperate for air, so I reluctantly slow it down, before dropping a few more pecks until I pull completely away. My forehead tilts down to meet hers. Our breathless pants mingling together.
Then her swollen-from-my-kiss lips lift into a soft smile. “I could kiss you forever.”
I groan. “Goddamn, angel. You out to ruin me tonight?” Because I swear she is. First with the tattoo talk, then with that one statement.
Her still-breathless giggle invades my heart and soul. “Not out to ruin, just giving you a truth.”
I kiss her again. No tongue. Just soft and gentle, my lips brushing hers. “You want my truth?”
She nods her head through another kiss. “Yes.”
“I’m gonna love you forever.”
The smile she delivers hits me like a sledgehammer to the chest. Powerful. Deadly.
“You’re sure, angel? This is what you want? It’s permanent remember.” Asking again to make sure she’s certain.
“And so are we.”
It’s my turn to smile then. So fucking wide that I don’t think I’ve ever really smiled until now. “You’re fucking perfection, angel. You know that?”
She shakes her head, never understanding the true depths of my love for her.
“Not perfect. Just made for you.” She blushes that pink that drives me wild. And her words? They set my heart pounding like a stampede of buffalo.
“Damn fuckin’ straight.”
Then I move.
“What are you doing?” she shrieks as I jump up from my stool.
“No better time than the present, right? Get that sweet ass up on my chair.”
She giggles happily, pulling her shirt off as she goes, then climbs up and situates herself so her left side is exposed.
After setting up and getting my tools and ink ready, I wash my hands, slap on a pair of gloves, then prep her skin with some witch hazel.
Nerves try to take me over, but I heave a deep breath to calm down and look into my angel’s eyes; everything else melts away.
“Together.” I kiss onto her lips.
Then putting needle to skin, I create the simplest yet most meaningful tattoo on the woman who changed my very existence. The one I’d give my life for.
The one who saved my inked soul.
The End