More Than Lies
Page 37
No.
She is lying on Adam’s table, on her stomach with her hair pulled up, baring the back of her neck. That tells me exactly what’s going on. Knowing she is letting someone else ink her, has a tightness constricting around my heart that hurts like a mother fucker.
I don’t want her being tattooed by anyone, but me.
This isn’t making sense, but I speak before I realize words are coming out of my mouth.
“Stop, Adam. Get your hands off of her.” My words boom across the large room.
He complies. His hands shoot into the air in a surrender motion as he stands up, followed by his feet retreating backwards. That’s when I notice he didn’t have a tattoo gun in his hands. I’ve either gotten here just in time or just too late.
I stalk in their direction as Tara takes a sitting position. Her face is flustered, but she hasn’t been crying. She looks angry. Her eyes are trained on me, but I’m lost. I don’t know what to say or do. Up until this point, my goal was getting to her. I never thought about what I’d say when I found her.
“Tara, baby…what…no.” My words are soft and broken, not even making a complete sentence. I come to stand in front of her.
“Shawn.” She says my name, but I feel numb. My eyes shut and then snap back open. I’m going to kill Adam.
“Whoa, man.” He must realize my intent when I open my lids and stare directly at him. “Look, dude…” I cut him off.
“The best thing you can do right now is not breathe in my direction. What the fuck, Adam?”
“Shawn.” Tara calls my name out again, but with more bite. I look back at her as she hops off the table. “Come with me.” When I don’t move, she grabs my arms and yanks on me to follow her. I still don’t budge. “Now.”
I can murder him later.
I follow Tara. Her hair is hanging down, covering what I do not want to look at. Is this her way of getting back at me for something I didn’t even do? I can’t see another man’s work on her body.
When we walk inside, I close the door. Tara walks a little further inside, but doesn’t make any moves to turn around to face me.
“Tara, I didn’t sleep with that woman. That kid isn’t—”
“Stop, Shawn.” No, I can’t. I have to make her believe me once again.
“No, you have to believe that I wouldn’t screw this up again and I wouldn’t do that do you.” I wouldn’t. She everything I’ve ever wanted and every day I learn she’s even more than I knew I wanted.
“Fine! You won’t shut up and listen to me then, look for yourself.” She raises her hair, gathering the strands into a makeshift ponytail and moves it away from her neck. I don’t want to look, but she wants me to see it so I focus my eyes on that spot.
I step closer to get a better look. That’s when I see it isn’t yet a tattoo. The ink on her neck is from a transfer. It’s not permanent.
Now that, that’s sunk in, I may have breathed a little easier, but that’s not all. That’s when I take in the design only to lose the breath I just had. Am I seeing this correctly?
“Your silence is killing me, Shawn.”
I can’t speak. I step another foot closer until I’m directly behind Tara, my eyes inches away from what may be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Not just that, but damn seeing my name on her skin is turning me on.
The design is mine. I drew it a few weeks ago. It’s an infinity symbol in black ink and its design has the same elements of the paint splashes on my back. The writing wasn’t part of the original work. Inside the symbol is my name, Shawn is edged in on the left and Braden on the right. Written around the symbol, it says, my forever begins with him and will continue, never ending…
“You’re still not saying anything.”
“Is that supposed to be paint or blood dripping from my name?” Inside the infinity symbol, there are drops of what look more like blood dripping than paint.
She releases her hair. The strands fall, covering the place where she will soon have my name permanently inked on her body. She wants my name on her. That’s unfreakin’ real.
She turns, facing me.
“Blood. Cool, right?” Her smile warms my insides. “I stole the idea from Eve.” I don’t know what that means and right now I don’t care.
“Does this mean we’re okay?” Surely she wouldn’t be doing this if she believed the stripper.
“Shawn, there could always be people waiting to tear us apart. Others, who for whatever reason don’t want to see us happy. They don’t matter and they can’t bring down something as solid as we have. Trust this, Shawn. Trust me and trust yourself. We can do this, be us and be together, but we can only do it if we are in it together with all we have inside of us. No one has the power to break us, except us.” She pauses, bringing her lips up to reach mine. She presses against me lightly before pulling back. “Are you with me?”
Trust myself she says.
Easier said than done, but what choice do I have? I love her. I want this. I want her and I want there to always be an us.
“Yeah, Tara. I’m with you, baby. Forever.” I designed that infinity symbol with her in mind. I had planned on inking it on myself.
“Then marry me.” My body goes solid.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I’m done, Shawn. I’m done being that girl who doesn’t speak up, who doesn’t go after or fight for what she wants. I want you and I want us forever. If you aren’t in this with me, if you think there will ever come a time when you’ll tire of me then end us now.” She pauses taking a large breath. Her words are full of confidence, but I can still see the small amount of self-doubt. She’ll get there, though just like I will. We’ll get there together. “End us now or go all in and marry me.”
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that question?”
“Were you going to ask me today?”
“No.”
“Well, then I have and now I’d like an answer.”
“Yes, Tara, I’ll marry you.” I pull her into my body needing to be as close to her as possible. I wrap my arms around her back and lower my head to kiss her on the lips.
A damn girl asked me to marry her. Never in my life would I have pictured that happening. This is perfect though. This is our perfect and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Tara is my perfect and my forever.
If you’re reading this, then you made it to the end. Thank you so much for reading Shawn and Tara’s story. They’ve been with me for over a year. I hope you loved them, too. Please consider leaving an honest review on the retailers website that you purchased this book from. I appreciate and I’m thankful for all the reviews I receive.
If you would like to join my mailing list, you can do so by clicking HERE.
MORE THAN MEMORIES will be Shane and Whitney’s book. It will be a standalone.
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xoxo,
Nancy
Readers, thank you so much for reading my stories. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to do something I enjoy so much. I love meeting and hearing from all you and I love reading your reviews. Thank you!!
Charisse Spiers, you pushed and pushed me some more. I’m pretty sure at one point you even threatened me. THANK YOU. I’d probably still be sitting at 15k in words if it weren’t for you. I’m so glad we met and became such great friends. My days aren’t complete without our texts.
Jessica Grover, you did a rocking job on the edits. Thank you so much and thanks for turning it around so quickly.
Sabrina Hart, I cannot image writing a book that you aren’t apart of the process. You are the best beta ever. Thank you for all the advice you have ever given me. It means so much and I appreciate all of it.
Lezleigh Bradley, thank you for being my PA. I’m lucky to have you as part of my team. You do so much to spread the word about my books and I appreciate it so much. Thank you for being another set of eyes on this book and proofreading it. You took a lot of stress off
me. Thanks!
Kristie Roberts, thank you for beta reading this book and encouraging me to continue. Telling me it’s one of the best you’ve ever read, meant the world and made me a happy woman. Thank you.
Tee Tate, thank you for all the tattoo world insight. I appreciate the help and advice. It was needed.
Bloggers, thank you for all that you do everyday. Without you, a lot of writers wouldn’t be able to reach the readers they do. Thank you!
N.E. Henderson is a mom, wife, writer, and obsessed fiction reader. She’s an introvert trying to make it in an extraverted world.
She lives in the central Mississippi area with her husband, son, and their Bull Terrier, Xena. If you meet her, you can call her Nancy. In her free time, she loves riding her Can-Am Maverick and finding new off-road trails to explore. She’s a city girl, married to a country boy. In recent years, Nancy has discovered she loves to get dirty and sometimes even a little muddy.
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