CHAPTER 6

TANNER

The shop is busy tonight and the music is playing loud. Trinity picks Alice in Chains and I like the beat as it pulses through my bones, still thinking about the brief but intense kiss with Penelope earlier.

Compared to any other encounter with a woman in my life, that one was innocent, but I could not stop thinking about Penelope.

What is it about her?

Coming back to work should have put me into my business mode. It usually always does but the questions that Trinity keeps asking me as well as the desire coursing through my body just make me think about Penelope more. I clean my station, thankful for a break as I glance at the clock. Almost eight. I could step out back for some fresh air and maybe jerk off again like I did earlier. Fuck knows that I am still hard.

The women I’d worked on so far today were as flirtatious as always but they weren’t Penelope. I am just leaving my area that is specifically off to the side so I could have some privacy but still hear the goings on of the shop. When I heard Trinity greet Mollie and then the surprise in her voice as she says hello to someone else.

Who is it? I turn my head to see Mollie, the familiar friend of Trinity’s, but then my eyes settle on a blonde standing beside her. All my blood races to my cock as I slowly take in Penelope, her eyes locking on mine for a long moment.

She is wearing a little black dress that clings to her tits and waist before moving easily against her body mid-thigh. Her hair is styled into a messy look and her eyes lined with dark makeup. This is not the Penelope from earlier.

“Tanner, Pen here tells me that I’m your photographer for the new tire ads. I thought we could all discuss it over my tattoo,” Mollie greets me with a knowing smile as I frown at her. Mollie is shooting the ad? I glance between her and Penelope quickly, noticing the fact that they are friends as Trinity glances back at me.

“At least I know the shots will be good,” I reply as Mollie smirks at me. Trinity calls her back to her area and I stalk the blonde as she stares warily at me.

“How about you, Penelope? Are you looking to get anything done tonight?” Without Mollie by her side, Penelope looks a little nervous as she watches me lean over the counter, oblivious to any other customers in the lobby.

“A tattoo? No. I would never,” she stammers as heat washes over her edgy, gorgeous face. That liner really makes her eyes pop and the pink flush brings them out even more. “Mollie thought we could talk about the ad tonight.”

“You don’t strike me as the kind of girl to work out of your pristine office, Penelope.” I lift part of the counter and nod for her to come inside as she glances around shyly. I can feel eyes on us as she walks forward but all I can see is her toned legs in that little skirt, ending in a heel higher than the one that she was wearing earlier.

Fuck me running.

I let her pass by me as my body responds eagerly, I am not even sure what I am going to do with her. Could we really talk business in this shop?

“It was Mollie’s idea before we go out to dinner,” Penelope responds as she pauses and looks around. The way we are set up in here was that Trinity was across from me but my section was a little more private than everyone else’s was. I could talk to anyone around me, but to see me they would have to walk in. If I am doing a tattoo on Penelope, we could talk and work all at once. The staff would get a kick out of the ideas since they’d been teasing me about my new modeling career.

“Sure I can’t interest you in some ink?” I ask as I press closer to her to whisper in her ear. “I could do a little tire to commemorate this project.”

“No other customers?” she asks in a shaking voice as I watch the shiver climb up her body. With my height, I can look down and see the hard nipples pressing against her dress as well as a hint of her sweet cleavage.

“Not for a while,” I reply, lost in the sight. “Come, have a seat.” The girls are too busy laughing to talk now and Penelope looks over to see her friend leaning forward in front of Trinity, bare from the waist up. “That’s probably going to take a little time.” I lead her to my area and offer for her to sit down, watching her skirt climb as she did. “If you were to get something, what would it be?”

“Perhaps something representing strength,” she tells me as I look at her. “It takes a lot to get where you want in this world.” Penelope’s voice is low and I sit down and roll closer to her. I think this girl has some grit to her after all.

“That it does,” I agree as I lean against the leather, just beside her ass on the seat. “I like tattoos that mean something.”

“Do yours?” she asks as she looks over my arms slowly, pressing her hands into her lap.

“Every last one.” My skin tells a story about how my parents divorced when I was seven. The ink gets the emotions out of me and reminds me every day of the hardships in my life as well as the successes.

“It looks like some people just throw anything on their skin,” I say, “but I think it through and wait for my best artists to do the work.”

I inch my hand out to touch her bare skin, watching Penelope tense before she let out a long breath. Her lips part and she swallows. I start to move my hand, knowing that I need to touch her. Penelope looks at me as she drops her hands to her sides, touching my arm that rest beside her.

“If I were to get a tattoo, I have always liked the idea of something celestial. A moon that shows how bright the world is at night and that there is hope out there.” Penelope shrugs and I picture it in my head.

“A full moon with stars twinkling beside it. Not huge but good detail,” I muse as she looks at me. “I like the night as well. I think I do better work then.”

“I work late a lot for the same reason.” I know that before she even told me and I reach for my sketch pad. Penelope doesn’t say anything as I draw my idea and hold it up for her to see.

“I’d make the sky that dark indigo color and the moon a light yellow with a hint of orange. Maybe just make the stars a pale white.”

She smiles as she looks it over and I raise an eyebrow at her.