Barely breathing hard from the exertion, he sighed as he stared down at her. Cursing under his breath, he pulled out his phone and called Pablo. “I’ve dealt with my little issue,” he breathed into phone. “But I’m gonna need a little help finishing the job.”
“Removal?” Pablo asked, concern missing from his voice.
“Yes, and possibly an extermination,” Bogey replied as he stared at Jody. She was definitely still breathing, though shallowly. The back of her head was bleeding where she’d hit the wall, and Bogey assumed he shoved her into a stud behind the drywall.
“I’ll have someone there in ten minutes. Where are you?”
“At the shop,” Bogey replied.
“Closed?”
“Yes.”
“Ten minutes,” he repeated, and the phone went dead.
*****
“Holy shit, Cameron,” Willow murmured into the pillow she’d buried her face in after the last powerful orgasm had shaken her like an earthquake in her pussy. “I think I’m good for orgasms for the next century.”
“Hell no, you’re not,” he replied as he lifted his hand and patted her naked ass. He lay on his back, trying to regain his strength. “I was planning on another session in about fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll be asleep in five,” she mumbled, though she turned her head so she could look at him to see if he was serious. She lifted her head when their eyes met and laughed. “You’re serious!”
“Damn right I’m serious,” he replied. “I’m going to catch my breath, get us both some water, then we’re doing that again.”
He rose to walk to the kitchen, and Willow’s eyes followed him, watching his muscular ass move across the room. Sighing longingly, she tried to get up, but a head rush prevented her from staying up. With a giggle, she sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for him to return.
“What are you giggling about?” he asked, handing her a glass of ice water he’d made for her.
“You fucked the energy right out of me.” She laughed as she accepted the water and chugged half of it. “I got a head rush when I stood up.”
He walked around to the other side of the bed and set his water on the bedside table before throwing himself on the bed, bouncing her.
“Hey!” She laughed. “I almost spilled my water!” She rolled over, careful not to spill, and handed him the glass to put beside his. She lay on her back and looked up at him with a satisfied smile on her face.
“What’s that tattoo on your back? Does it have special meaning?” he asked as he massaged one of her breasts gently. She lifted her eyes to his, and he watched as a shutter closed and her emotions disappeared. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer.”
“No, it’s okay. I put it there to remember, and sometimes I forget it’s even there,” she replied, a stark sadness in her voice. She sat up and put some pillows behind her back so she could rest against the headboard.
Cameron waited in silence, wondering if she would tell him. The tattoo was brilliantly beautiful, though achingly sad at the same time. A vivid red rose opened at the apex of her spine, its stem following her spine to the center of her back. The green of the stem was almost muted next to the vivid red. Petals fell from the rose as if a breeze had blown them off to die. Three drifted as if falling along the stem, and two lay at the small of her back.
The silence stretched, and he considered making a joke to lighten the mood and change the subject. As he opened his mouth, she began to speak, her face scrunched up to keep from crying.
“I didn’t have the best childhood. My mom is kind of a piece of shit. She’s a junkie, has been since I was small. I don’t remember anything else,” she said with a dispassionate shrug. Her eyes were lost in a vision of her past.
Cameron let her talk, feeling guilty as he listened for anything that might help him with the job he was currently compromising by lying next to her in her bed.
“I have no idea who my father is, though occasionally she had more money than others and claimed the child support had come in. So, maybe my dad wasn’t a total fucking loser who abandoned my mother when she was pregnant, like she told me.” Her voice had grown hard as she spoke. “The tattoo is meaningful. I drew it when I was very young when I found out my mother would sometimes prostitute for drug money. The stem is my life, the rose is what I want to become.”
Quietly, he asked, “And the petals?”
“The obstacles that have tried to stop me.” Her eyes focused, and she was Willow again. She narrowed them at him. “One day, when and if we get to know each other better, I’ll tell you what the five obstacles are.”
“And why some are in the air and some are on the ground?”
She stared into his eyes for a moment, nodded, and whispered, “I don’t normally tell a person I just met about that.”
“Thank you for sharing with me.”
Her eyes hadn’t released his, and he felt that she was searching his soul for the deepest truth he owned. He didn’t flinch from her perusal, welcomed it, in fact. The woman in front of him was special, he felt it, and would become more special as they continued to get to know each other, if she’d let him get close. And if she didn’t find out he was investigating her father figure, Bogey, and her real father, Pablo.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said quietly as she rose off the bed, her eyes leaving his, creating a feeling of loss in Cameron.
“Okay, babe,” he said as she walked away. He cringed as he thought of her upbringing, a sad story that unfortunately wasn’t unusual in this part of California. However, without the knowledge of her real father’s identity, she could at least pretend one of her parents was a decent person.
*****
Cameron left the next morning, after a quickie on the couch in her living room because their goodbye kiss had grown too heated to ignore. Willow was so sore after the last time, which had been their fourth over the course of their night together, that she had to take a warm bath to soothe her body.
She didn’t have to be at work until four, thankfully, because Jody would be there all day. And luckily, by the time she got there, Jody would be ready to leave and she wouldn’t have to deal with her for long. Guilty over her rude thoughts, she reminded herself that she was an apprentice once, too, and she’d asked a ton of questions. Of course, you actually tried to get better, Willow thought rudely before she could stop herself.
Cameron was planning to come in that night so she could actually begin working on the tattoo, which Willow had suggested because Bogey would be there and they would have to keep their libidos tucked safely away…until they left to go to his apartment. He’d promised her a surprise as well. She’d told him it wasn’t necessary, but secretly, she was so excited. No one ever brought her surprises, or gifts, for that matter.
The sadness she managed to keep at bay most of the time pushed at her psyche, and she realized that her confession to Cameron, a surprise she’d given herself, had unleashed some memories she didn’t want in the forefront of her mind.
As she climbed into the tub and eased her body into the warm water and luscious scented bubble bath, she remembered not just finding out about her mother’s prostitution, but walking in on it. She had run to her room and pushed her bed against the door to make sure no one could come get her because while one of the men yelled at her to get the hell out, the other had looked at her with a smarmy interest. No one had tried, and she hadn’t left her room until the next morning when it was time to go to school. Her mother had been alone in the living room, high on whatever the men had paid her in, and completely unaware of her surroundings.
Willow had stayed home from school that day to make sure her mother didn’t die from an overdose. She hid the rest of the drugs and made her mother eat. Her mother had produced a hundred dollars, from her father, she’d told her, and Willow had gone to the store for food. She had been twelve.
With a shake of her head, she let the memory seep out of her mind and let Cameron back in. She�
��d told him something very few people knew about her, and she’d known him for only a few days. But there was a magnetism between them, as if she’d known him in a past life or something. As if she’d trusted him in that life.
He’s trouble, she mused as she bathed. The sex had been amazing, beyond anything she had experienced, and the fact that her past was between them didn’t bother her like it should have. Telling him, though, had been the easiest thing in the world, and her heart, not just her body, yearned to be close to him. She slapped her forehead in exasperation. The man was going to be real trouble.
After finishing her bath, she rose and began to dry off with a fluffy towel, a luxury she refused to be cheap about. She only bought the best towels. Her phone buzzed in the other room, and she wandered through naked, glancing at the rumpled sheets and smirking.
BOGEY: Hey girl, I need you to come in for the day.
Willow sighed, a frown forming on her delicate face. She had planned to work on some class work during the day before she went to work. Cameron would be there that night, and his tattoo would take all her time. No time for class work.
WILLOW: Where’s Jody?
BOGEY: No idea. She didn’t call and she didn’t show up.
WILLOW: I have a ton of class work to do.
BOGEY: You can work at the shop. We won’t be busy today or tonight.
WILLOW: Cameron is coming tonight to start on his tattoo.
BOGEY: Plenty of time to work before he shows up. Come on, kid, do me a favor.
Willow groaned. She really didn’t want to go in this early, but how could she say no to Bogey. He’d helped her out so many times, let her work on class work, let her off if she needed to study. With a sigh of capitulation, she sent him a text saying she’d be there in thirty minutes.
As she dressed, she wondered about Jody. The girl was annoying, but she wasn’t a bad person. And it wasn’t like her to skip out on work without calling. She picked up her phone again, standing beside her bed in nothing but a pair of panties and her bra, and texted Jody.
WILLOW: Hey, did you sleep late? Hope you’re ok. Give me a call
Putting the girl out of her mind, she grabbed some maroon jeans and a black tee shirt with the Beatles on the front and finished dressing. She gathered her school work and shoved it in her bag, grabbed her keys, and left in a hurry. Jody didn’t cross her mind again for several hours.
Chapter 7
Willow walked into the parlor, a little hop in her step despite the ugly thoughts that had dominated her morning. But the evening with Cameron trumped those thoughts, and she shivered with delight. The man not only knew how to fuck like a pro, he made her feel special, and the feeling that she’d known him much longer than a few days was oddly comforting. The memory of his cock thrusting inside of her, his mouth on her nipple, tripped through her mind, and she giggled uncontrollably, looking around to make sure no one was in the shop.
She walked around the corner and dropped her bag gently on the ground near where she sat if she wasn’t giving a tattoo. She pulled out her laptop and plugged it in so she could get to work. Because she had a ton of school work, she hoped no one came in wanting tattoos. Two of her assignments were due before midnight, and she was worried about one of them. The other was finished, but the quiz was giving her grief even though she’d studied and could use her notes.
As she set up her workspace, the tattoo gun purring in the private room for guests who didn’t like to be watched reached her ears, and she wondered if she could poke her head in to see what Bogey was putting on his pal. As she headed for the curtain, Bogey’s bushy face poked out.
“Hey, girl. Hoped that was you,” he rumbled in his deep voice. “Be right back,” he said to the person behind the curtain.
“Who else would it be?” she asked.
“A customer?” Bogey mumbled as he pushed his big body through the curtain, turning to be sure it closed again, which Willow thought was odd.
“Who’s behind curtain number one?” Willow asked on a forced chuckle.
“One of my pals. Wanted to add a tattoo.” He shrugged nonchalantly as if it wasn’t important. His biker friends were in often.
“Oh! Is this the guy with the skull and rose? I’d love to see it!” Willow exclaimed, excited.
“Nah, different guy. I’ll let you know when that guy comes in, though.” He walked over to his desk, picked up a sealed envelope, and tossed it to her. “Your bonus.”
“Bonus?” Willow mumbled after toggling the envelope several times before finally snagging it out of the air. She opened it and gasped, her head jerking up to look at Bogey. “What the hell is this?”
“I told you. Bonus,” he replied gruffly. He leaned back against the desk and stared at her. His eyes dropped to the envelope and back up to her eyes. “You deserve it after all the years of faithful service.”
Willow flipped through the bills, all twenties and a few hundreds. “Bogey, this must be two thousand dollars.” She stared at him, her astonishment clear in her expression. “I can’t take this.”
“Put it in savings. I know you want to buy your own shop eventually. Think of this as a nest egg.” Bogey shrugged again, uncomfortable with his gesture, and hurried back to the curtain.
“Thank you, Bogey,” Willow called. She would have hugged him, but he was behind the curtain before she could move towards him. She stared down at the envelope, wondering where the money had come from. Under no delusions that Bogey’s only business was the tattoo parlor, she really didn’t know what kinds of extracurricular businesses he ran. And she wasn’t going to ask. He’d been good to her since she’d started working there. Her conscience cringed at some of the jobs he might have that had crossed her mind in the past, but not enough to return the money.
*****
Behind the curtain, Bogey raised his eyebrows at Pablo, who smiled gleefully, almost like a little boy on his birthday. “She’s a good girl, even if she was raised by a drugged-out whore.”
“She is a good girl, in spite of that,” Bogey replied. “She was surprised by the money. I think sometimes she suspects.”
“Suspects what?” Pablo asked, frowning.
“That the tattoo parlor isn’t my only business. But she doesn’t ask. She accepts it,” Bogey answered with a shrug as he picked up the tattoo gun to finish the royal flush in hearts on Pablo’s bicep. When Willow had walked in, he had just finished the details on the king, but Pablo had insisted he go talk to her.
“She’s my daughter through and through. Minds her business,” Pablo said proudly.
“That she does,” Bogey mumbled as he pushed the button to continue the tattoo.
Pablo was silent for a time as Bogey worked, listening to the whirring of the gun and mulling over the fact that his daughter was only ten feet from him. He would meet her momentarily, but the rose he’d had tattooed over his heart when he’d found out he had a daughter would remain his secret for a while longer. He touched it briefly as he listened to her speaking. Her voice was beautiful, a lot like he remembered of his mother’s, and he wondered if she could sing.
Movement on his right caught his attention, and he glanced down at Bogey’s work. The cards were perfectly shaped and looked exactly like the sketch Bogey had presented to him when he’d arrived. As he outlined the queen, Pablo hoped that his next tattoo would be applied by his daughter, a thought that brought a smile to his face.
“I think I’ll ask Willow to do my next tattoo,” Pablo announced.
Bogey glanced up at him and returned his eyes to his work. “I think she’d be willing to do that.”
“She isn’t leaving, is she?” Pablo asked when the door opened out front.
Bogey leaned back and looked out the curtain. Two frat boys stood at the counter, waiting to talk to Willow. “Customers. Willow is working the whole evening since my apprentice ran off.”
Pablo chuckled. “Young girls do that sometimes.”
“Not our Willow,” Bogey commented as he
put the finishing touches on the king’s face.
Pablo hummed in agreement. “I’m ready to meet her.”
“Not until I’m done,” Bogey grumbled, wiping the tattoo clear of blood with a cloth so he could see.
“Of course, Bogey, of course.” Pablo smiled down at the gruff man who he considered more than just a business associate. “How much longer?”
“Twenty, thirty minutes.”
Pablo sighed. His anticipation was growing bigger with every scrape of the needle, with every word he heard her speak through the curtain. But he’d waited this long, and he wasn’t even introducing himself as her father, just a pal of Bogey’s.
He began tapping the fingers of his left hand against his leg. He felt ridiculously nervous and chastised himself for it. He’d had meetings with some of the top members of the mafia and hadn’t flinched, been involved in gun battles that left more than one man dead, and had been to prison, the worst hell man had invented. But the idea of meeting his daughter terrified him, caused a bout of nerves like he’d never felt.
Rather than dwell on meeting his daughter, he began listing the things he needed to do over the next few days. The twenty minutes pass quickly, and Bogey announced he was finished. He reached for the cream he used on fresh tattoos to prevent tattoos, but Pablo grabbed his hand.
“Call Willow to do it,” Pablo ordered.
Bogey stared at him, doubtful, but nodded after a moment and rose laboriously from his stool. He grabbed a clean needle and stabbed his hand, only enough to bring a drop of blood from his palm. Winking at Pablo, he stepped through the curtain and called, “Willow, come here for a second.”
Pablo heard her answer as she walked up. “What’s up?”
“I finished the tattoo on my pal, but I stabbed myself putting the gun down. Can you put the cream on while I go clean this?”
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