My hands slid up her hips to her sides. There I held tight as I started thrusting. Her beautiful body reacted to everything I did to her. My right hand eased up and cupped her breast. I loved how full and soft she was. She arched her back and groaned, whispering my name as she locked her legs around my back. I moved harder, faster, feeling every inch of her sweet core.

I thrust and held there, deep inside her. I lowered my chest down to hers and kissed her neck. My tongue flickered up to her ear, and I gently kissed to her mouth. As I kissed her, I started to move again. The subtle change from fucking her to making love to her was natural. Going slow, my cock memorized her body like it had done so many times before.

I broke the kiss and put my nose to hers.

I growled. “Fuck, sugar, you’re so beautiful.”

Her hands clawed at my back. “Stop saying that. Just fuck me right now. Then you can be romantic.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

I kissed her lips one more time.

I backed away from her and moved fast. I flipped her onto her left side and thrust back at her. I grabbed her right leg and positioned her right where I wanted her. As I sank back into her, she grabbed for a pillow and pulled it to her face, crying out. I grabbed the pillow and threw it off the bed.

“Sugar, we’re in our own home now,” I said. “Scream all you want and need.”

“Shit,” she whispered.

My left hand cupped her breast. My right hand cupped her ass.

I held her where I wanted her.

I had her where I wanted her.

As she began to climax, I felt an impossible pulse against my shaft, and I had to stop for a second. I hissed, realizing there was no way I’d be able to hold back. I pulled back and pounded forward again. I leaned over her body, my hands going to the bed. I lowered myself down, desperately needing to kiss her. She twisted her body so she could kiss me back and slapped a hand to my face so hard it echoed through the room.

“I’m…”

She tried to apologize, but I just kissed her.

My lower back bucked into her, needing her, demanding her, wanting all of her pleasure, wanting her to feel my pleasure. And she did. She felt it. Because when I started to come, I couldn’t control myself. Hazel brought out the most feral instincts in my body.

She groaned each time I was inside her, our kisses getting wilder by the second.

And then…

I slowly moved away from her body after we were done. But we didn’t stop kissing. Kiss after kiss after kiss, pulling her nude body tight to mine. Holding her there as we were left in the shadowed memory of our love. My hand touching the small of her back, keeping her body tight to mine.

I eventually rolled to my back and pulled her down on top of me.

My hands grabbed her ass, and I growled.

Hazel propped herself up, her hair hanging everywhere.

We just stared at each other.

Then we started to laugh.

For no reason. Because it just felt good to laugh. Because being that comfortable with someone was the greatest feeling in the world.

Her eyes devoured me worse than her camera lens ever could.

I’d forever be in trouble…but I liked trouble.

As far as love went?

I loved Hazel with the green eyes.

* * *

“Can I take the blindfold off now?”

I opened the door and pushed her inside. “In a second.”

I had her walk next to me through the new St. Skin shop. The place was far from done. We still hadn’t even hired a single new person yet. Things were put on hold when I got stabbed. Tate was determined to make this a family thing. But that didn’t mean we weren’t still trying to get the shop going.

Since the stabbing, I hadn’t done a single tattoo. Going that long without inking someone was unheard of. Fucked up as it was, it hurt to move my hand sometimes. The worst thing I could do was mess up a tattoo. So, I needed to take time…and as far as I was concerned, time was up.

I opened the door to my new room at the new shop.

“Take the blindfold off,” I said.

Hazel did. She looked confused. “This is…”

“My room,” I said. “I know. At the new shop. But I got a chair here. And I got some supplies.”

“For?”

I grabbed her hand and ran my finger down her wrist. “For your tattoo, sugar.”

“What?”

I grinned. “Do you trust me?”

“Yeah…”

“Do you want a tattoo?”

“I’ve always wanted one, yeah. I just never knew what to get.”

“Then let me take care of you, sugar.”

I walked her to the chair and sat her down.

I got her comfortable.

For the first time, I was actually nervous.

I never got nervous doing a tattoo. But this was Hazel…this was different.

“I want you to stare at the ceiling and breathe,” I said.

“I trust you, Maddox,” she said.

She gave me her wrist, but it meant so much more.

It was the first tattoo in the new shop. And I was going to do it without a sketch. Just by what I saw in my head.

Pretty risky for a guy who had been out of commission for a while.

I buzzed the needle a few times to make sure it was working. Then I took a deep breath, and I went to work.

The craziest thing about inking Hazel was that it felt natural. It felt good. It was a reminder of why I started tattooing and why I loved it so much.

I only came up for air when I was finished.

I looked at her and saw the look on her face. A mix of shock, a little pain, but realizing she survived it with ease. Which meant she’d want more.

“There,” I whispered.

I backed away and I let her look at her wrist.

She let out a gasped. “Maddox…”

I had tattooed a little camera on her wrist. With a heart in the middle.

“So, when you look down you see what you truly love, Hazel. Capturing those pictures and those moments. Stealing memories to give to people so they have them forever. That’s a really special thing you do.”

“It’s the same as what you do, Maddox. You put it on their skin.”

I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her fingers. “So, we were broken, still trying to figure out how to heal, exposed for each other to see, and all we want to do is make sure others never feel the way we do.”

Hazel nodded. “I wouldn’t change anything, Maddox. I know that probably sounds-”

“I agree,” I said. I stood up and leaned over the chair. I kissed her. “But now, we get to imagine our life as an empty frame, and we get to fill it.”

“What’s the first thing you want to do?”

“Honestly? I want to get you home and see you wearing nothing but this tattoo.”

“After that?”

I shook my head. “That’s all I want right now, sugar. I don’t want to plan anything else. Let’s just keep our eyes, heart, and camera ready for whatever comes our way.”

Hazel smiled as she blinked, her eyes glistening with tears. Then she whispered one word to me.

“Deal.”

THE END.