by L. L. Ash
“For the pain, and the nakedness.”
Just like that she started unzipping her jacket, revealing a silky tank top that just brushed over her breasts.
“See?” she said, lifting the tank top over her head.
I didn't have time to prepare.
I wasn’t ready.
I was instantly hard the moment my eyes made contact with those beautiful milky breasts again, this time covered with no bra, only yellow little smiley face emoji pasties.
Holy hell…
“You certainly did.” I coughed and adjusted my position in my stool to give myself some room to breathe between the legs, if you know what I mean.
“I also did a couple shots before coming in to help take the edge off. Figured that would help with the pain.”
Shit… I couldn’t seduce a drunk girl… That was beyond my realms of douchebaggery.
Resigning my dream of maybe seeing the rest of her after the tattoo was done, I put my professional face back on and wiped her sternum and ribs down with antiseptic, looking to see how the tattoo was healing.
“The girls love it. Just so you know.”
I looked up at her face, seeing a teasing, and maybe seductive look on her face.
“Yeah? Did you tell them I’m basically a pro?”
I wiggled my eyebrows at her and grinned before dipping my machine in my ink cup.
“Hell yes. You’re so awesome.”
I didn’t say anything, just smirked.
I had an issue with smirks. I did that instead of smiling. Honestly, I didn’t even know if I could smile a regular person smile anymore.
She giggled until I touched down on her skin with the needle.
Moaning, she pressed both her arms over her head and squeezed her eyes shut as I started putting in the shading and intricate details.
And fuck it was hard to concentrate when her boobs were all in my face, little grunts and groans flowing from her lips as she sat there in what I knew was agony.
She was getting a tattoo in one of the most painful spots, not exactly what I’d typically suggest to a newbie, but damn, it fit her so well.
Pressing against one milky globe, my fingers sank into the soft, supple skin as I pushed aside the breast unnecessarily.
Call me a perv if you want, but I just had to feel her under my hands again. I wished I didn’t have to wear the gloves and I could feel her flesh on mine. The one time our skin really touched was like a fucking electric shock. It sent a rapid tingle down my entire body, sending my chubby into full wood.
Poor girl didn’t know what she’d gotten herself into with me.
Sighing, I took my fingers away again and let my hand rest back on her ribs, holding the skin taught.
She was drunk-ish and I had to keep my hands to myself.
“So, when did you get your first tattoo?” she asked me after a few more minutes, her eyes still squeezed closed.
“On my eighteenth birthday. The moment I was legal.”
“What’d you get?” she asked, curious.
“Got a lion head on my bicep,” I shrugged. “Simple.”
“I want to see it!” she said, practically sitting up.
I yanked the needle away from her skin so I didn’t accidentally mark her and sat back in my chair, trying not to watch her breasts bounce with her movements.
“I need a break anyway.” She sighed.
It’d been a grand total of maybe fifteen minutes. We were in for a long night, evidently.
“Please?” she begged, those seafoam eyes making it impossible to say no.
I stripped off my gloves and unbuttoned the flannel shirt that was rolled up to my elbows, as per usual.
Pulling it off, I draped it over another chair and pulled up the left sleeve of my white t-shirt.
“It’s not really that special,” I told her, letting her see my very first tattoo.
The thing that made me fall in love with this world.
“Wow…” She sighed, lifting a hand to touch the realistic lion’s face, mid-roar.
Her fingers trailed down my arm, taking in the full sleeve.
“It’s incredible,” she whispered reverently, sending tingles all the way up my spine, then shooting goosebumps down my skin.
“Thanks,” I smiled, gently shaking her off before she realized how she affected me. “Ready to keep going?”
She nodded and laid back, moving her hands behind her head again.
I got a new pair of gloves on before dipping down and getting another faceful of boob.
“How long have you been doing this?” she asked now.
“Oh, about ten years. Just over. I started doing it full time about five years ago though.”
“Really? That’s so cool.”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do before that? Did you always want to do this?”
“Not always. I started apprenticing in my twenties, wanting to be part of the world while I was going to school, but I finally pulled my head out of my ass and decided to do it full time. It’s what I love, so why shouldn’t I do it?”
“Wow. That’s inspiring.” She sighed, looking toward the front windows of the shop. “I wish I had that kind of tenacity. I just do whatever my mom and dad tell me to do.”
I grunted.
“Been there. They never understood this part of me. My dad freaked out when I came home with my first tattoo, and when I got my ears pierced he about shit his pants.”
Fae giggled and looked back to me, her face glowing, eyes looking at me with something like admiration.
“I can see parents freaking out over gauges in your ears.”
“These aren’t gauges. Just earrings. I didn’t want little assholes for ears when I took the rings out.”
She winced before laughing.
I let her laugh at my awesome joke, holding back the needle while her ribs bounced up and down.
“Stop making me laugh.” She grinned at me. “It hurts.”
“I’m glad you didn’t wear a bra this time. It can irritate it further.”
“Oh, I did what you said and took that thing off the moment I got home last time.” She nodded. “Hurt so much.”
“But it looks amazing, right? You’ll have it forever. Absolutely worth the pain.”
She nodded, closing her eyes again.
“You can try to fall asleep if you want. It’s the best thing to help with pain management.”
“Why can’t you guys just numb it?” She groaned again, shooting more blood straight to my groin.
“Against the law. It’s stupid.”
She nodded again in agreement.
It was silent for a while except the buzzing of my machine in the background. Its rhythmic sound had me in my safe place, putting me in a bit of a trance while I created art on my human canvas.
Her breathing evened out for a little while and I was relieved when she fell asleep. It gave me some time to separate myself from her mentally... emotionally. I had to. I wanted to jump this girl’s bones, and that could get me a lawsuit.
I was pretty damn positive, judging by the way she looked at me, that she was into me too, but I couldn’t...I just couldn’t.
“Hey babe, need you to move onto your side,” I told her, hesitantly waking her so she could move positions.
She gave a sleepy groan and moved onto her side slowly, wiggling until she was comfortable.
I sat there, biting my tongue as she did, pressing my hand into her waist to get her situated how I wanted her, trying so damn hard not to touch her inappropriately.
It was her left side that I was working on now, putting the details into the lace and beads, but those perfect tits were in the way again. Or rather, one was.
Grinning while her eyes were still closed, I did what I’d done last time and cupped that breast, pressing it out of the way so I could work.
And oh it was so fucking good.
Don’t squeeze...don’t squeeze…
I didn’t. I kept it professional.
She woke on her own as I made it back to her sternum, the most painful part.
“Aren’t you done yet?” she whined.
“I’m close, babe,” I told her, flicking my eyes up to hers for just a moment.
She was looking at me, eyes hooded in either sleep or lust, her lip tucked between perfectly white, rounded teeth.
Fuck me…
“Been a while since a man said that to me,” she whispered, then slowly, oh so achingly slowly she realized exactly what she’d just said.
I just let a slow smirk turn my lips as her mouth opened in shock.
“Oh my God! I’m sorry!” She looked horrified.
I just chuckled.
Here I was, holding her boob while she was hitting on me.
Guess I was right. The attraction was mutual.
She put her hand to her face while I finished up the last of her tattoo.
Lifting my foot off the pedal, I set my gun down and grabbed my rinse and some extra paper towels.
“Don’t even worry about it.” I grinned at her.
“Seriously… I didn’t have that much to drink, I swear. It was just a couple gulps of a rum and coke Josie put in a bottle for me to drink before coming in...”
“You’re not the first girl to hit on me in my shop, and you won’t be the last, promise,” I told her, simultaneously easing her of guilt and making myself look like a conceited asshole.
Two-for-one special...
A series of looks passed over her face as she processed my words, my hands working in the antibacterial cream into her skin.
I didn’t let her think too hard about it because I announced that we were done,
Her eyes lit up as she pushed herself slowly to a sitting position.
“I can’t wait to see it!” She vibrated in excitement.
Imploring her to get up slowly, I pointed to the mirror at my station and stood back, arms folded across my chest as I watched her really see it for the first time.
“Oh...wow… It’s gorgeous!”
Her fingers floated in the air above it, probably scared to touch it.
“You approve?” I asked her.
She nodded emphatically before turning to me.
“Thank you!” She put her arms around me, bare body pressing into my shirt.
Hopefully she didn’t notice the instant wood I had again...for the twentieth time that night.
Out of the direct light, I noticed that her freckles, spread across her chest from shoulder to shoulder, darkened and made her skin look even milkier.
“Seriously,” she pressed her hand to her stomach beneath the tattoo. “You’re brilliant. I’m glad you decided to do this instead of whatever you were going to school for.”
I laughed.
“I’ll make sure to tell my dad.”
“Good.” She nodded and admired herself for another minute before returning to the chair for me to wrap it up.
After putting her shirt back on over the wrap, I cleaned up my station really quickly and readjusted the beanie on my head that was trying to fall off after all my leaning forward.
“Is it really twelve thirty?” she asked, looking at her phone.
“Yep,” I nodded, glancing up at the clock above my head.
She tsked and moved out of my space, plopping into the black velvet couch in the designated lobby area.
She’d certainly gotten comfortable in my domain fast.
I tossed the trash in my can before saying fuck it and heading to the front. I’d make everyone help me take trash out in the morning.
Settling on the tall stool behind the desk, I made up her bill and told her, “Finishing up, let’s just call it two hours. So that’s two hundred.”
She scowled.
“No way! I know how this stuff works. You round up hours. So it’s three. That’s three hundred.”
“Are you arguing the price up?” I laughed.
“I’m trying to be honest and fair.” She pulled out her credit card.
Running it for two hundred, I handed it back to her.
“There.”
“You’re a jerk.” She frowned, signing the receipt.
“Do what I can.” I smirked at her.
“Then let me at least buy you a drink, or dinner or something.” She lifted an eyebrow.
She looked nervous asking that, but the gumption she’d managed to come up with was so sexy. If we left the shop, then she wasn’t my client anymore. She was up for grabs at that point.
“Ok. Tell you what. You can buy me both. I’m starving.”
She grinned, her eyes lighting up with it before she tried to stamp her pleasure down again.
“Ok. Well, meet me at Hooper’s when you’re done,” she told me, already walking away, out the front door.
I watched her get into her car and take off, then let out a big breath.
Maybe I would get somewhere with her… Not that I minded my blue balls or anything…
NOT.
I pushed the pressure off myself, promising that if it went somewhere, great. If not, I got to hang out with a dead sexy chick and got free dinner and drinks. There wasn’t a downside that I saw. Either way I won.
Hurrying to shut off all the lights, I went out the back door, gave my typical bird to the camera out back before getting on my bike.
Luckily it was dry and I wouldn’t have a wet ass when I went into the bar.
Every stop light went against me on the way, making a seven minute ride a ten minute ride, but when I got there, I saw her standing outside the front doors, a beer in each hand, one to her lips already.
I pushed down the kickstand, then settled my bike near the front of the bar before removing my helmet as I approached.
“Pretty girls shouldn’t be standing outside bars this late at night all by themselves,” I scolded with a smile.
“Of course you drive a motorcycle. Gotta continue with that bad boy persona, right?” she asked as she handed me the untouched beer in her hand.
I took the one from her other hand that had just been to her lips and lifted it, drawing on it slowly as she watched, shocked.
Mmm, vanilla.
“We going to hang out here all night or get some grub?” I asked, shouldering my way into the bar.
She followed close behind me as I shifted through the crowd, making way for us.
I found a standing table near the back and settled against it. She did the same.
“Ok, so Fae. You got to ask me a shitton of questions today, so it's my turn.”
“What is this, twenty questions?” she laughed.
“No. But it can be. Shall we play?”
She shook her head violently.
“Not drunk enough yet. Sorry.”
Grinning, I sipped my beer as a waitress approached us.
We ordered a ton of wings, something I was shocked Fae would eat, then added two more beers onto the tab.
“So,” I sighed, leaning toward her. “You know about my parents disapproving of my life choices. It sounded like you understood what that was like.”
“Not quite,” she admitted, staring at her perfectly manicured pink fingernails. “I always do what they want me to do, so at this point they still approve.”
“Why?”
I knew exactly why. I’d lived that life for years.
“I don’t know… My parents are good to me, you know? They’ve done everything for me, given me everything...I just don’t want to disappoint them.”
“But do you want what they want?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“Well...most of the time...”
Shit...ok, this conversation had to end before I started assembling my soapbox.
“Why’d you decide to get a tattoo? You totally don’t look like the girl who always wanted to have a tattoo.”
“I’m not.” She grinned, her cheeks turning red before my eyes.
“So? Tell me.” I grinned at her.
“Well, I might have...maybe...”
&nbs
p; She puffed out her cheeks, eyes wandering around the bar, looking at everything but me.
Her breath finally gushed out along with the words, “I wanted to see you again.”
Well hot damn.
“I’m glad you came back in,” I admitted back.
If she could come right out and say it, so could I.
“Really?” she asked, looking confused.
“Really,” I assured, grateful to the waitress who plopped our two fresh beers onto the table. “Why do you seem so surprised?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t know...I guess I just figured you weren’t interested. Like, you’ve stared at my boobs for hours, and even put that ring in...down there… Usually guys who are interested make some kind of move.”
“It’s my job, Fae. I could get sued for hitting on a client. You’re supposed to feel safe with me, no matter what body part I’m working on.”
“Oh, really?” She looked disappointed.
“So it’s a good thing we’re not in the shop anymore.” I looked up at her to see what her reaction would be.
Of course her cheeks went even redder, but her lips turned up into a wicked smile.
“I see. So I’m not your client anymore?”
“Not since we left the shop. Far as I see, a pretty girl asked me to dinner, and I accepted. Simple as that.”
She pulled that plump lip between her teeth again, her face a mix between bashful and full-on come hither.
“So this is a date?”
“Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” I grinned, pressing my new beer bottle to my lips.
I missed the subtle taste of vanilla lip gloss she’d left on the rim of the other one.
“And why not?” she asked, fully in flirtation mode now.
Her eyelashes were fluttering and her cheeks glowed with excitement, giving her pale flesh a pink hue.
I was so intent on that particular shade of pink, wondering if I could replicate it on my canvas, that I almost missed that she asked me a question.
“Why not?” I asked, making sure I heard her right.
“Yeah. Isn’t the definition of a date when someone pays for someone’s dinner?”
Biting at the inside of my cheek, I smirked my smirkiest smile.
“When I take you on a date, Fae, you won’t have to ask if it’s a real one or not.”
Her eyes widened at the promise that underlined my words.
Damn. I was laying it all on pretty thick for her. I guess I really did just need a good fuck. And who knows? Maybe it could turn into an actual relationship. That’s what I’d tell myself to avoid my natural guilt.