Spider: A tattoo romance (Rough Ink Book 2)

by MV Ellis

  I made a note to look at ways I could be there for her more between seeing clients and running the studio.

  The three of us made it through the funeral by the skin of our teeth, and later at the neighborhood hall we’d hired for the wake, knowing there would be way too many people to cram into the house, I looked around the packed room with gratitude. So many people had shown up to pay their respects to Dad and give their support to us.

  It was the small beacon of hope for me in what I would always remember as the grimmest period of my life. There were friends and relatives from far and wide. Old, new, and very new. Dad’s friends from units through the years—men and women he’d served with or who’d served under him. People he’d risked his life for and vice versa. Even a few he’d served under.

  Kota was in full uniform, only the second time I’d ever seen her wear it. The first was when she’d attended a Memorial Day event and had stopped by the store to collect something she needed from her desk. I’d been in for a few hours catching up on admin and had popped my head out of my office to say hi. Then as now, it was a shock to see her looking so formal and somber; her usual out-there styling toned way down. She almost looked like a different person.

  Other than that, Kota was just Kota. Because of her history in the forces, military funerals were a real tough gig for her that brought up memories she’d far rather forget, so I appreciated her putting her own comfort aside and donning her uniform to support me. She was a one-of-a-kind, single-issue human, and whoever knew her couldn’t help but love her, even when she was her prickliest—which, if we were honest, was often. Not that we’d have it any other way.

  The rest of the SK:eTCH family was there also, all lending their support in their own very different ways. Zed and Harley were on hand for anything practical—moving furniture in the hall before the wake, helping the caterers unload and get set up, driving people who needed lifts from the cemetery, supporting my brother or mom. Harley had been more forthcoming with the words of support and encouragement, but Zed wasn’t the type to broach issues of a more emotional nature, even when he’d met and fallen hard for Vivi. But he showed his support the best way he knew how, and that was more than enough.

  He’d also given me as much paid leave as I needed with no specific end date, and he was back doing full hours at the studio until I returned. The guy was a legend. Gruff and surly as all get-out most of the time, but he was pure solid gold despite the less-than-polished delivery.

  Kian wasn’t a big talker either, but he was a great listener and had helped me run through my eulogy a couple of times, giving me a few pointers here and there. Jorja was all about positive vibes, even when the worst happened. Sometimes her hippy-trippy, unicorn-and-glitter-sparkles approach grated on my nerves, but on a day like today, being greeted by her thousand-watt smile and warm hug had been just what I’d needed. True, she’d dissolved into floods of tears as we’d hugged, which had made me cry too, but it was a funeral, so it was expected. Still, she’d warmed my heart regardless.

  Emi was there too, though trying to be low key and keeping what she considered to be a respectable distance. I searched around the room until I met her familiar gaze. She looked away hurriedly, horrified to have been “caught” watching me, I was sure.

  I kept staring her way until she furtively glanced in my direction again, a guilty look sweeping over her face when she was busted a second time. I knew a blush was darkening her velvety soft skin, even if I couldn’t see it. I gave her a look that I hoped conveyed what was on my mind, that I didn’t want her a respectable distance away, or any distance in fact. I wanted her by my side, close enough to see her blush.

  I motioned for her to come toward me and watched as she weighed up what to do next. When a few seconds had passed and she hadn’t moved, I took matters into my own hands and went to her. As I crossed the room, I had to stop every few paces to speak to somebody else who wanted to express their condolences or share a memory about Dad. I appreciated everyone’s sentiments, but the one person I most wanted to speak to seemed to keep getting farther away. She wasn’t, but the sea of people between us was growing, so she may as well have been. I kept her within sight as much as I could without being rude to whomever I was talking to.

  When I finally reached her, Emi looked like a deer in headlights, and for some reason, that made me want to do things I had no business thinking about at any funeral, let alone my own father’s. I pushed my hand to the spot just above her butt that drove me out of my mind, then lowered my mouth to her neck, inhaling the essence of her before bringing my mouth to her ear.

  26

  Emi

  “Hi. Thank you for coming.” His warm breath tickled me gently, sending an electrified sensation rippling through my body, and I fought the overwhelming urge to kiss the fuck out of him. I chastised myself for being so inappropriate at a funeral, and not just any funeral, but Chris’s father’s. Sometimes I wondered about my sanity. Perhaps I really did need to reconsider my refusal to see a therapist.

  “No need to thank me. I wanted to be here. I mean, I wanted to be here for you.”

  “Well I want you to know I appreciate it. A lot. Although I’m trying to figure out why you’re hiding away. I need you near me.”

  His voice had a coarse edge to it that wasn’t always there. Not that I was surprised. It had been a rough day after a rough week and a bit, and Chris had been the glue keeping his family together. Of course the cracks would begin to show. I wanted to wrap him in my arms, hug him and kiss him, and tell him I was there for him, but it wasn’t the time for PDA.

  “I just didn’t want to overstep, that’s all. There are hundreds of people here, and everyone wants to express their condolences. I didn’t want to be in the way. Besides, I haven’t met your mom and brother yet, and I didn’t want to force you into having to introduce us all now, or assume you even wanted to.”

  “Holy shit!” He rubbed vigorously at his jawline, making a V with his thumb and finger. “With everything that’s been going on and how close we’ve become in such a short space of time, I feel like you’ve known me and the rest of the family forever, but that’s not the case at all. I’m so sorry. How rude of me.” He looked concerned—his gray eyes so clouded with doubt that I felt bad about being a source of distraction when his focus should have been elsewhere. It was the exact reason I’d been trying to keep a low profile.

  “No. Not at all, Chris. Cut yourself some slack already. You’ve just buried your father. You’ve been looking after your mom and Benji, plus organizing all of this.” I motioned around the room. “It was a beautiful service, by the way. I know your father would’ve been proud.”

  “Thank you. For being here, and for always knowing how to say the right shit to make me feel okay. Now, not because I have to, or because you’ve forced my hand, or whatever bullshit you think, but because I’d really fucking like you to meet my family, would you come over here with me and let me introduce you to Mom and Benji, please?”

  I hesitated. It felt all shades of wrong to be doing the introductions under these circumstances, especially to his mom. But I wanted to be there for him in any way he needed me to, just like I’d promised. I started popping my knuckles in the same sequence I always did when nerves hit, then stopped when I saw Chris was watching me quizzically.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that you did that the day we met. Seeing you do it now gave me an eerie flashback. I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it now. Apart from the fact that it’s terrible for your joints, I also know it means you’re stressed, and I don’t want to cause stress in your life. Ever.”

  He reached down, slotting his fingers between mine and then curling them so we were making a fist together, with his hand on top. He lifted his arm and brought the palm of my hand to his lips, kissing gently.

  “That said, you have nothing to worry about with meeting my peeps. Benji is a teddy bear—albeit a loud, sometimes overexuberant one—and Mom is
pretty out of it, to be honest. She’s barely eaten or slept this whole week. I’m surprised she’s still upright. I’m expecting a big crash soon.”

  I nodded. I’d noticed how much weight his mom had lost since I’d seen her that first time at the morgue the previous week. She’d been slight then, but now she was nothing but skin and bones. I could see why he’d be worried.

  “Besides, Benji is hanging out with his girl, so it’s only fair that I do the same. I can’t have my kid brother showing me up with his smoothness.” His smile was broad, as it always was when he spoke talked about Benji. I could even hear it when we spoke on the phone.

  It was clear they were close, despite the age gap. I loved seeing the brotherly bond between them. Growing up an only child, I often wondered what life would have been like if I’d had a sibling. Someone who understood my situation at home. Someone to hide under the bed or in the closet with. I always thought somehow maybe things would have been different if my father had gotten the precious boy he always bitched about missing.

  Now Noah was an only child too, and I worried I’d done wrong by not giving him a sibling. I knew from firsthand experience that being solo in a family like ours was hard work—maybe in any family—but with Tommy missing the first four years of Noah’s life, and then the way things unfolded after that, there never seemed a good time to have another. More to the point, it never seemed like a good idea. No matter how many kids we’d had, any family with Tommy at the center was never going to be the solid unit Chris’s was.

  I opened my mouth, full of comments to counter his, but he silenced me by dipping his head and swiping his lips across mine, just like he had that Friday. Again a flush of arousal spread through my body, leaving me tingling from head to toe. I shivered and closed my mouth, deciding to keep my thoughts to myself. As much as it wasn’t the place for huge PDAs, neither was it the right time for us to have the chat about “us.” I parked the issue as something to come back to in a few days, or weeks even, when the dust had settled a little in Chris’s life.

  I let him lead me through the crowd, stopping multiple times to speak to various people as we worked our way toward his mom, who was near the front of the room, greeting an endless stream of well-wishers. The lieutenant general had been an extremely popular man. He sounded like he was just about the polar opposite of my father: smart, funny, a people person with a bark way worse than his bite, a dedicated husband and father, an incredible soldier. I would have loved to have met the man who was so influential in making Chris the man he was. Still, I felt honored that he wanted to introduce me to his mom under any circumstances.

  Hand still curled around mine, he sidled up to his mom and kissed her on the cheek. She was midconversation. She smiled and reached for his other hand as she carried on speaking. My heart melted into a pile of goo just watching that simple, genuine gesture. Something they considered insignificant was so meaningful to me, having been raised in a family where it would never have happened in a million years.

  When she was done talking, she turned to Chris, her smile broadening.

  “Spider. There you are. How are you doing?” She took both his cheeks in her hands, kissing one.

  Chris squirmed like a thirteen-year-old, and I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling. He was so tall and buff, and he looked even more unbelievably hot than usual now that he was wearing a black suit. He may have been a casual guy, but he was built for tailoring. The fact that a few of his tattoos were just peeking through at the collar and cuffs only added to the appeal. It was all shades of wrong to be ogling a guy at his father’s funeral, but I couldn’t seem to help it.

  “I’m fine, apart from you pinching my cheeks and kissing me like I’m six years old, Ma. What about you?”

  “I’m functioning. For the second-worst day of my life, it’s been almost-bearable. It’s lovely to see people, even under the worst circumstances. And I’m enjoying hearing different stories about your dad. People have told me some things I’d either forgotten or wasn’t aware of, and it all just makes me love him more. Oh God, I miss him so much. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, do life, without Mackie.”

  Her voice cracked and a huge tear raced down her cheek. Standing on the other side of Chris, I felt like an intruder on a private family moment, again, so I made to withdraw my hand from his, only for him to squeeze tighter. Unable to remove myself from the scene, I suddenly became fascinated with something in the far corner of the room.

  Chris slid his other arm around his mother’s shoulder and drew her in to his chest.

  “I know, Mom. It won’t be easy. Not for any of us. But you have me, and you have Benji, and we’re just gonna have to figure this shit out as we go along, the three of us.”

  “Yes, I know we will. It all just seems so hard right now.” Her voice was muffled as she spoke into his chest. “And speaking of your brother, where is he? I haven’t seen him for a while.”

  Chris looked around the room before answering.

  “I can’t see him anywhere. He’s probably in the backyard making out with Zara.”

  “Hey!” She slapped his chest playfully.

  “What? You know it’s true. The guy is a total horn dog. No chance he’d pass up an opportunity to get all over his girl after not having seen her for more than a week. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to hose them down to separate them.”

  “Okay! Enough about your brother’s sex life already.” I could hear the smile in her voice, and I loved the way Chris had used his own particular brand of charm to cheer his mom up without being too obvious.

  She pulled away from her son’s chest and dabbed at her eyes with a hankie, then smoothed the wrinkles out of her tailored black jacket and matching black pencil skirt. It was when she finished and looked up that she noticed me standing there, almost jumping back in surprise.

  “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t see you standing there. I thought we were alone.”

  So much for a nonawkward introduction, then.

  “Yeah, sorry, Mom. I came over because I wanted you to meet somebody.” He squeezed my hand even harder still. “This is Emi.” He angled his body toward me and looked down at me with an expression on his face I was sure would have spoken a thousand words to his mom. “Emi and I have been spending some time together. Getting to know each other, I guess you could say. So I wanted you to meet her. Emi, this is my mom, Evelyn.”

  “Hi, Evelyn.” I outstretched my hand. “Nice to meet you, though under very sad circumstances. I’m so sorry for your loss. Your husband was obviously a wonderful man.”

  “Thank you. He was. So nice to meet you, Emi. You can call me Evie, by the way. Everyone does.”

  Mack and Evie. Even their names sounded cute together.

  “Okay, thank you. I will.”

  Evie looked at her son, raising an eyebrow, which earned an identical gesture from him in return. I watched in fascination as a wordless conversation passed between the two of them. After a few moments, Chris grinned wide and was met with a warm smile from his mother.

  “So, Emi, tell me about yourself. What do you do for work?”

  While I rambled on about my job as a travel content writer, my mind was in a scrambled panic, hoping she didn’t ask me how I knew her son. “He saved my life by rescuing me from a violent and abusive boyfriend who held him hostage at gunpoint at his place of work” wasn’t the first impression I wanted to give.

  I didn’t want to lie either, so that put me in a tricky situation. I guessed I could tell a half-truth and say we met when I went in for a tattoo. It was true, though not at all an accurate portrayal of how things went down.

  As my mind raced, I realized she might already know the circumstances. They were a close family, so there was little chance that Chris had been held up at gunpoint and failed to mention it to his mother. Still, I dreaded the topic coming up in conversation.

  In the end, I didn’t have to worry, as the whirlwind that was Benji and his girlfriend, Zara, joined us.
Judging by the fact that Benji seemed to be wearing almost as much red lipstick as Zara was, and her hair was a little messy for typical funeral styling and definitely more unkempt than it had been when I’d caught a glimpse of her earlier, Chris had been accurate in his guess of what they’d been doing.

  Chris greeted them as they approached.

  “Hey, Benj. Hey, Zara. Nice to see you again.” He leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. She blushed furiously and looked at the floor, mumbling, “Hey,” to the top of her shoes. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was nursing a little crush on Chris. Too cute.

  “Hi, Spider. Hi, Mom.” Ben looked at me but said nothing. This was going to go down in history as one of the most butt-clenching family introductions ever.

  “Mom was looking for you. Where were you?”

  “In the parking lot, making out with Zara.” Benji’s voice was extremely loud. I remembered it ricocheting around the stark hallway at the hospital the day their dad died, though it somehow seemed even louder in a room full of people speaking in respectfully hushed tones. He was either unaware of or unfazed by the two hundred pairs of eyes looking at him with curiosity as a result of his outburst.

  He wore a matching tailored suit to his big brother’s and had his straight blond hair gelled and styled in the same way too. He was every bit as dapper as Spider, and it struck me how alike they looked while also being quite different.

  “Good for you, buddy, but you might want to keep your voice down a little, huh?”

  Benji looked at Spider as though he’d lost his mind. “Why?”