Blue

 

Blue was ready to get on with her life and let things return to normal. Spencer had finished cleaning up the glass, the blood, and the beer, and her booth looked like it always had. The smell of disinfectant was thick in the air, and if she hadn’t been there the night before she never would have known anything had gone wrong. She still had her job, the shop was still open, and she still had clients on the schedule who wanted her work on their skin. Everything was fine.

 

Spencer leaned against the doorway, trying to look casual as he played with a stress ball. He tossed it from hand to hand, focusing on the little yellow sphere instead of looking at her. “So, that was some crazy night, wasn’t it?”

 

“You have no idea,” she huffed as she checked her files for the drawing she had worked up for her next customer. She still didn’t feel quite right, but she knew it was all mental. Things would all be fine if she just got back to work.

 

He did look at her then. “Did you get home okay? Those ruffians didn’t try to come after you again, did they? Damn it, I knew I should have called the police.” He slammed the little orb into one hand and squeezed it.

 

Blue sighed and closed her eyes. “No, Spence. It’s not like that. It’s just … It’s really … I’d just rather not talk about it anymore, okay?”

 

“Well, all right. I guess that’s fine. But I just thought I’d let you know that Torque is going to come in today to get the tattoo that I had promised him. The original plan was for him to come in a few months from now, but I rearranged my calendar to make room for him. I’m giving him a really good deal for jumping into the fray like he did. Hell, I might just give it to him for free. He deserves it.”

 

“Oh. Um, okay.” Blue fought to quell the bubble of jealousy that had risen up in her chest. Torque had mentioned that he had wanted her to work on him. Spencer was a good artist, but why wasn’t the biker demanding that he get what he’d claimed he had always wanted? No. No, she couldn’t be thinking about him like that. He was a rough, demanding barbarian and she couldn’t forgive him for using her the way he had. Let him go to Spencer, and if she was lucky, she would stay busy enough that she wouldn’t run into him.

 

When the bell over the door rang, indicating that someone had come in, she cringed inside. Was it Torque? Was he going to grab her again like he had the day before, thinking that he a right to her body simply because he had saved her? Would she let him? But when a bright round face appeared at the doorway to her booth, she breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Hey, Brandy. Are you all ready?” The young woman had come to her a few months ago with lots of ideas in her head about what she wanted but very little direction. Blue had helped her narrow it down and find the tattoo that truly meant something to her: an iris in memory of her grandmother, whose name was Iris. Together they had looked over several different pictures of the flower until they had the one that was just right, and Blue had customized it until it was perfect.

 

“I’m thrilled!” Brandy squealed. “I haven’t told my mom yet. She’s not a big fan of tattoos, but I think she’ll change her mind when she sees this one. We both miss Grandma so much.”

 

Blue smiled. It wasn’t going to be a big piece or a particularly amazing one. It wouldn’t get her in a magazine. But it was still the kind of work she enjoyed. Brandy would come back to her again and again, and they would come to build a special kind of relationship as the young woman’s artwork transformed and grew. “I’m getting everything all set up. Did you need a bottle of water or anything? You’re going to be here for at least a couple of hours.”

 

“That would be wonderful.”

 

“There’s a fridge in the lobby. Help yourself while I get the rest of my tools out.” Blue hummed to herself as she laid out everything she needed. This was her routine, and she liked having it. Her childhood had been so irregular. She wanted to think that her past couldn’t affect her anymore, but it just wasn’t true.

 

When Brandy returned, she was beaming. “I know I shouldn’t say anything,” she whispered, “but who’s the hunk in the other room? He came in right behind me when I got here, but I didn’t get a good look at him until just now.”

 

“What?” Blue stopped what she was doing and turned around. “Who?”

 

“Whoever the other guy is tattooing!” Her green eyes were huge as she sat in the chair. “I caught a glimpse of him as he came in, but now he’s lying there with his whole back exposed. Wow!”

 

Blue’s throat went dry. “Well, I don’t know for sure. And of course, if I did, I couldn’t really say anything. I know we aren’t doctors, but we still like to keep things confidential.” She knew, though, exactly who was on the other side of that wall. She knew it just as easily as she knew it was Brandy in her own booth that Torque was with Spencer. So much for ignoring him.

 

“Oh, sure. I get that.” Brandy took off her shirt, exposing the strappy cami she had on underneath. “But he was hot! All those muscles and those black tattoos. Yummy! Definitely one of those bad boy types.”

 

Blue tucked a paper towel into Brandy’s shirt to protect it from any ink splatter and reached for the stencil she had worked up. She tried to keep her hands steady as she placed it on the young woman’s upper arm. “A bad boy, huh? What makes that so appealing, anyway?”

 

Brandy giggled. “Oh, come on! You can’t say you don’t like those kinds of guys! The ones that want to break all the rules, the ones that look like they would just see a woman they want and take her because they can.”

 

Blue raised an eyebrow. “There are a lot of feminists out there who wouldn’t agree with you.”

 

“Oh, that’s cold!” Brandy flinched as Blue applied the stencil. “And I’m sure you’re right, but you have to admit there’s something sexy about a man who follows his own destiny and doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks. And that guy over there is definitely like that. You should see the motorcycle he rode up on!”

 

Blue loaded up her needle with ink. “Hold still, now. I’m about to start.” She buzzed the first line of the flower, waiting to talk until she could see just how Brandy would take it. This was her first tattoo, and people didn’t always do well. But the blonde girl didn’t flinch or scream, so it was a good start. “I guess there’s a certain sort of appeal to guys like that, but it’s not always a good thing. They can be stubborn and difficult. Sometimes they insist you need help even when you don’t want it.”

 

“Sounds to me like someone is speaking from experience,” Brandy remarked with a smile. “I bet you get a lot of guys in here like that.”

 

“Anyway.” Blue cleared her throat. “You don’t seem like the kind of girl who has room in her life for a bad boy. You’re young and sweet and wholesome. You need a guy who’s a Harvard graduate, one who hosts dinner parties at his parents’ house on the weekends and belongs to the country club. Definitely not a biker covered in tattoos.”

 

“That might be nice someday, when I’m ready to settle down and get married. But I’m not there yet. I haven’t seen the world.” She had a dreamy look in her green eyes.

 

“Trust me, the world isn’t always a nice place. There’s plenty of it that you’d be better off not seeing at all.” Blue hoped this girl would never go through anything like what she had in her life. Her chances were good, since she was eighteen and didn’t look like she had ever lived on the streets. And Brandy might have thought a bad boy sounded wonderful, but it was Blue’s experience that very few of them ended up having a heart of gold like the books and movies wanted everyone to believe.

 

“But don’t you think it would be exciting to just hop onto the back of a bike, wrap your arms around a big muscular man, and take off without a care in the world? That sounds absolutely wonderful to me.” She relaxed a little, sinking into the chair.

 

“You let me know how that goes,” Blue muttered. She thought she could hear the faint thunder of Torque’s voice from the next room. She wanted desperately to convince herself that it was some other man, some other guy with a deep voice who just happened to be getting tattooed by Spencer today. But she knew better. He was there, and she wasn’t going to be getting rid of him anytime soon.

 

She worked away, thinking about what Brandy had said. Most women went through a bad boy phase at some point. Blue wasn’t sure that had been the case for her. Maybe it was because the only guys that had ever even been available to her were bad boys, or maybe it was because they reminded her too much of the men who had already ruined her life. Either way, she wasn’t interested. Granted, she didn’t think any of the Harvard graduate-types would look her way, but she needed someone predictable, stable, comfortable. She hadn’t been able to find one yet, and that was exactly why she was alone. It was better to be single than to be with the wrong person.

 

As she switched colors to the deep blue that was to make up the leaves of the iris, her mind drifted back to the night before. What would have happened if things had gone further with Torque? Would she have allowed herself to give into something that she hadn’t let touch her for a long time? There had been a few boyfriends in her past, but she had never felt the deep connection with them she thought she should have. They were just people to hang out with, and they never meant more to her than anyone else. In the end, she had left them behind without regrets. Now, she needed to do the same with Torque. He wasn’t special just because he had happened to save her at the last minute. He wasn’t good for her, and he didn’t mean anything. Once he was done with his tattoos, he would leave and he wouldn’t come around anymore.

 

Still, she couldn’t get herself to focus on the tattoo. Blue was doing the work, and it was good work, but her hands were toiling without the attention of her mind. She was thinking about Torque, about that tall, sexy body of his, about the way it had felt when he had pressed her up against it. He had sent a flame blazing through her when he had backed her up against the living room wall, and part of her had wanted him to take her and do whatever he wished. Maybe he needed some ink from her, something with a little color to shake him up a little. And in return, he could shake her up a little. She wanted the chance to touch his body again, or maybe to be underneath it …

 

“Are you listening?”

 

“Um, yeah. Just concentrating. What were you saying?” Blue hadn’t even realized that Brandy had been talking away in the background. She had been that lost. This wasn’t the kind of customer service she was used to giving.

 

“Okay, so I was telling my friend Jennifer about this place. She wants to get a tattoo when she turns eighteen next month. I told her she absolutely has to come here. Now, she said she just wants something really small, and I know you said you don’t really do that kind of work anymore, but I thought I’d show you a picture of what she wants and you could see what you think.”

 

“Sure.” Blue listened to her, but absentmindedly. She watched as Brandy flicked through several pictures on her phone. She didn’t really care what Jennifer wanted or what she was getting. Sure, she would care when the time came, but there was little else she could think about since she knew Torque was only a few feet away, sharing the same air. She wanted to know what he was getting, and where. Why did he do this to her?

 

“We’re just about there.” Blue blinked, once again trying to pull herself back to the moment and grateful that nobody else knew what she was really thinking. What would Spencer think if he knew her thoughts about Torque? What would he say if knew that the biker had paraded stark naked into her living room? She swiped gently at the fresh artwork with a damp paper towel to get off the excess ink. “I just need to put in a few little highlights and details, and you’ll be good to go. Are you still feeling all right?”

 

“I’m great! This is so much easier than I thought it would be. You have a light touch.”

 

Blue smiled at her client, jealous of the innocent light in Brandy’s eyes. She was only older by four years, but it seemed that she had lived a lifetime’s worth of experiences already.

 

“Hey, Blue.” Spencer’s voice at the curtain made her look up. She could see his shoes just underneath the length of fabric; he hadn’t drawn it aside. “Can I come in a second?”

 

“Sure.” At Spencer’s Shop, they did everything possible to protect their clients’ privacy. Sometimes, people got their ink in rather inconspicuous places. “What’s up?”

 

He flicked aside the curtain and took a step into the room. “I’ve just about finished this session, but Torque would like to come back tomorrow to finish up the lower half. I’ve got to take off, since Bri has a doctor’s appointment. Can you come over here and take a peek at it, see if it’s something you can do?”

 

She turned back toward her work. “I don’t know. I’m all booked up.”

 

“I know; I was just looking at the planner. But you had a cancellation, so I thought we might be able to get it to work.” He leaned close to speak softly in her ear. “I really don’t want to let this guy down. He did us a big favor yesterday.”

 

With tightened lips, Blue did the last bit of shading around the flower on Brandy’s arm. “Okay. Just give me a minute.”

 

“No rush.”

 

She had kept her hands steady during the job, even while they had discussed Torque and his bad boy characteristics, but it was much more difficult now that she only needed to clean things up and she knew she would have to face him. Blue took off her gloves, took several pictures of the tattoo, and applied a special cream and a bandage before taking Brandy up to the front counter for payment. “If you decide you want anything else, just let me know.”

 

“Oh, I will!” Her grin was huge; it was clear she was thrilled. “And I’ll send everyone I know to you guys. I promise!”

 

Blue knew that Spencer’s Shop didn’t really need the work, but she nodded and smiled. “I’m glad to hear it.”

 

Brandy bounced out the door. Blue watched as she got behind the wheel of a little red sports car that her dad had probably bought her.

 

There was a mess waiting to be cleaned up in her booth, but it would have to wait. She had to face Torque and get it over with. After knocking on the doorway near the curtain, she stepped inside Spencer’s booth. The space was more narrow, and it didn’t have the benefit of windows running along one side of the room. Still, that meant Spencer had more wall space for artwork, and he had taken the liberty of filling it up. Numerous drawings, paintings, photographs, and magazine covers filled every square inch. He had even put a few of them on the ceiling, something that benefitted his customers who had to lie on their backs for their ink.

 

Torque, however, was lying on his stomach on the table. His shirt was draped over a nearby chair, leaving the long, lean muscles of his back exposed. Spencer had been adding to the solid black gallery on his skin by creating a massive black dragon on his back. Its wings were spread, its fangs exposed. The biker turned slightly as she came in, though he couldn’t quite see her. His shoulders rippled with the movement. “Is he doing a good job? Or do I need to smash a bottle in his face?”

 

She smiled in spite of herself. Blue had resolved to remain unmoved by this man, and yet he had a way of breaking that resolve with very little effort. It was irritating. “It looks good,” was all she could really say.

 

“I’ve done the outline and some of the shading, but I think Torque and I both need a break. All you’d have to do is fill it in. I know you’re more than capable of that.” Spencer watched her with his chocolate eyes, practically begging her to do this for him. Torque had suddenly become an integral part of his shop, of his practice, and he needed her.

 

How could Blue refuse? Spencer had given her the chance she had needed as a young artist, and he had never been anything but kind. Even when he was high, he had always been patient and respectful of her. She couldn’t claim to be unable to do the work; it was a straightforward process and her boss had trained her well. Even the idea of being alone with Torque was a poor excuse. That was something that happened all the time in tattoo shops. She was too tough to worry about it.

 

“Yeah, not a problem. Just let me know what time to put on my calendar.”

 

“I’ve already filled it in for you,” Spencer said with a grin. “It’ll be at the end of the day, your last appointment before you close up the shop.” He put a fresh pair of gloves on to give the fresh tat one last wipe-down before he bandaged it. “I’ve already warned him that it might hurt a little, with the sessions being back-to-back like that. I told him he can’t flinch for you.”

 

“I’m sure she could handle it if I did.” Torque pushed himself up easily from the table and reached for his shirt, turning his eyes to Blue as he did so.

 

There was something in his look that unsettled Blue at her very core, like he was melting her with only a look. No, that was ridiculous. He wasn’t Superman, and he didn’t have laser vision. “See you tomorrow.” She practically ran back to her own booth, cursing herself for acting like such a little girl around him. If Torque didn’t know what he did to her, then he was blind. She had a feeling, though, that he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

There would be another client coming to the shop in less than half an hour, which gave her just enough time to clean and disinfect everything. Blue set to work.