Amanda was one of the women who came to the club on occasion for some fun. He’d heard she worked at a bank or a post office. That’s not what she looked like, but then the women dolled up to compete with strippers when they came to the clubhouse. Amanda was fully capable of doing that: big boobs, long red hair, and big brown eyes. Add to that a mouth that worked wonders on a dick.
“Are you on your way?” she asked, and when he shook his head she gave him a kiss. “Are you telling me I’m getting the full night with you?”
“That okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I like all-nighters with you.”
Sucking on her tongue, he got up on top of her while removing the cover wedged between them. He seriously owed the kid a big one for taking his girl home. He needed this. It might be possible to have fucks during the day, but a quick tryst wasn’t a full night. As long as Vi lived with him, he wouldn’t take bitches to his house, and he didn’t want Vi to have to be alone at night more often that necessary. So, all-nighters of fucking weren’t that common anymore. And Bear liked the all-nighters.
-o0o—
When the door to Bear’s room closed, Mac took a deep breath. He should probably get back to the party out in the bar, but he didn’t feel like it. Instead he went to his own dorm.
The only reason he’d known Bear had taken off with Amanda was because Sisco had muttered about it. Amanda’d been around for years, since before Mac left for Kansas. She wasn’t one of the strippers working at the club owned by the Marauders, and she was quite nice, but she was a bit too motherly for his taste.
Mac was with sweetbutts on occasion, just not as often as some of the other singles. He didn’t mind one night stands, and he fucked the sweetbutts now and then, but he generally wanted more than fucks. He’d had a girlfriend for almost a year in Emporia, but it hadn’t worked out. They’d broken up about six months before he left.
When Mac saw Vi walking towards the rooms, he understood she was looking for Bear. In an attempt to save her from catching her dad in the act, and also get to talk to her a little, he followed her.
The idea to give her a ride home had occurred to him when she said she was on her way home. Bear might’ve been okay with her walking home, but Mac wanted her behind him on the bike, so he insisted. It’d been worth it, and a few things from his much too short time with her had stuck.
Like her small hand in his. Her hands were so pretty, small and slender; they lay perfectly in his. Having her behind him on the bike had also just been right. She fit with him.
Finally it was the kiss on his cheek. It had been cute that she at first didn’t understand what he meant when he tapped his cheek. It had been a spur of the moment thing, but when she didn’t understand he decided he definitely wanted one. And she’d given it. It might just have been on his cheek, but those lips felt good.
Just thinking about it made him feel like a perv again. He often felt like a perv when he thought about, or was avoiding thinking about, Vi.
He hadn’t made it to the bed when someone banged on his door. It was Mitch.
“I was hoping you were getting laid, but I know you…” he said as he invited himself in.
“If you’ve brought two girls for a foursome, I’ll fucking deck you.”
“Eww,” Mitch did a grimaced. “That’s fucking nasty, bro. Definitely incestuous having a foursome with a blood brother.”
“I’ve seen you in foursomes.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t with a blood brother.” Mitch held up two joints. “I was gonna ask you to go up on the garage roof with me, but now I’m worried you’re gonna try to jump my bones.”
He snatched one of the joints from Mitch and started towards the door. “Come on.”
Mitch had brought a bottle of whiskey, too, and they sat on the roof looking at the party still going on. It had spread outside the clubhouse, and people were fucking all over the lot.
“Is that—” Mac started and then turned his head away. “Oh my fucking god, that’s Dad and Mel!”
“Yeah. I was gonna warn you, but I figured the first thing you’d do was look to see what I meant.”
“Tell me it’s just the two of them. It would be so fucking disturbing if someone else was with them.”
“No. Just the two of them. Never seen them with additions to their fucking.” Mitch pointed towards the other end of the lot. “But that’s Mace, Sisco, and girl.”
“I saw that.” Mac looked at his brother. “Why aren’t you getting all busy?”
“Thought I’d spend the night with my brother. In the non-sexual way,” he added with a laugh.
“You already got some.” It wasn’t even a question.
“Yup. Went looking for you and noticed your bike was gone. Then I found Tricia all by her lonesome. Where were you?”
“I took Vi home. Bear took off with Amanda, and I thought it was best if she didn’t see that.”
“Might’ve self-ignited. She blushes easily.”
She sure did. Blushed and then looked down at her hands—really cute. He had no idea how a girl that grew up in the club could be embarrassed about sex; it was all over the place. They tried to keep it down when there were kids around, but even so, they had bras and panties hanging from the ceiling. Literally. Any underwear found the day after a party was put up there, and once it was up there was no getting it back.
Just around the corner from the clubhouse was a strip club and a sex shop. Two of the legal businesses owned by the Marauders. It had started as a way to launder money; every charter owned at least one club. The money had been sent between charters to confuse the authorities. Since strip clubs generally were a cash business—not like you could slide a card in the butt crack of a girl—it was easy to push money through them.
A few years ago, it had been obvious the money the club made on smuggling pot and diamonds from Mexico was getting too good to be able to launder in the legal business they owned. They’d started to look at other cash businesses, and for a while they were talking about going into the tattoo industry. That’s when Duke, the treasurer of the mother club in Englewood, said there were easier ways.
The system they had now involved transferring money all over the fucking world and digital currency. Mac didn’t get half of it. Mitch had tried to explain, but he’d said he didn’t really give a fuck how it worked.
In a vote, a vast majority of the members had voted to keep the strip clubs. They still filled a purpose, even besides the pussy purpose. The strip clubs were popular and made it believable that the club was making a lot of money.
“Wanna hit the club?” Mitch asked once the joints were gone.
Mac nodded. “Yeah, why not.” He stood up. “Still not going into a foursome with you.”
“Saving that one for your thirtieth.”
“Thanks.”
Since it wasn’t a weekend, the place wasn’t packed and quite a few girls were free. He picked a redhead, and they went to one of the VIP rooms. About halfway through her dance, he realized what it was about her he liked. She was small, with a glowing red hair, and a pouty mouth. He’d fucking picked a girl that looked like Vi! She looked barely legal. It totally turned him off, and after tipping her, he went back to the dorm. It was so wrong. It was not okay to have a boner for the underaged daughter of a brother.
He still looked forward to getting the ink from her, no matter how wrong it was. He liked spending time with her, and ink took a long time. They’d have hours together.
CHAPTER THREE:
It’s Freaking Me Out
-o0o—
MAC WAS ON EDGE. Pathetically much on edge. It was Thursday, and he’d been at Wicked Ink half an hour early. Trixie was behind the counter, and was chewing franticly on gum. She smiled at him when he threw down the magazine he’d been reading with a deep sigh.
“She’ll be out soon,” she said. “She’s doing some stuff for Sami.”
“Okay. How was the vibrating tickler?” He’d been curious about that. It sounded gr
eat.
“Almost chipped a fucking tooth, and it was a bit weird,” she said with a smile. “Like giving a blowjob to a vibrator.”
He laughed, and she kept smiling when she leaned her elbows on the counter.
“Hey, you’ve known JB for a long time, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. Her dad is the VP, and my dad’s the president. They’re close, so we sort of grew up together.”
“You must be a lot older.”
He nodded, preferring not to think about exactly how big the age difference was. “Six years.”
“Did she always blush that easily?”
He tried to remember, but finally shook his head. “She’s… she tended to stay out of the way. She’s always been shy.” He realized he didn’t have many memories of her talking. In most memories, she either drew or eyed him carefully. “She kind of disappeared behind her sister and other more outgoing kids.”
“She’s talked about her sister, Lisa. She said both you and your brother were really close to her.”
“Yeah. It was always the three of us. The three musketeers.”
“Vi’s told me she’s really beautiful, like their mom.”
“Yeah, but she knows she is. She was a bit of an attention whore when she was younger, but still nice.” He shrugged. “Vi looks a lot like Lisa. They’re not that different.”
“Had a feeling that was the case. Teenage girls tend to have a fucked up self-image. JB’s seems a bit more fucked up than usual.”
“How’s that?”
Trixie chewed her gum, blew a bubble, popped it loudly, and smiled. “She thinks she’s butt ugly. Like really fucking ugly. I think that’s why she keeps her hair purple, to keep people from looking at her face.” He stared at Trixie, and she winked at him. “Told you, more fucked up than usual.”
Mac wondered why Trixie was telling him this, and he kept staring at her for a while until they both started laughing. It was just so fucked up Vi would think something like that.
He knew Mel had been upset about how Ella was treating Vi. Mel and Ella might have been friends, but that part had bugged her, and Edie had basically stopped talking to Ella. She couldn’t stand her. Mac hadn’t thought about it much at the time, since he hadn’t seen much of Vi.
Back then, if he ran into Vi, it was usually at Dawg’s place. She’d barely answered him when he said hi, but he’d assumed it was because of her crush on him. He’d never seen her as anything but pretty, but since he’d come back from Kansas he’d thought she was beautiful. Not even mentioning sexy. It might make him feel like a perv, but he still thought it every fucking time he saw her.
“Hey,” Vi said from the door to the back rooms, looking carefully between him and Trixie.
Ugly? He couldn’t get over it and kept staring at her. It was obvious to him most chicks were crazy as fuck when it came to what they thought they looked like, but Vi thinking she was ugly seemed insane.
“Everything okay?” she asked when the two of them didn’t answer her.
“Yeah. Sorry,” he said and got up. “You ready?”
She nodded and gave Trixie a shy, strange look. When he got into the room, she turned her back to him and started to prepare. He took off his hoodie and t-shirt and sat down behind her. She still hadn’t said anything, and he wondered if something was wrong.
“Are you okay, Vi?”
“I’m fine,” she answered immediately. “Lie down.”
She put her hair up before turning around, and she looked at him while she put her rubber gloves on. He chuckled.
“Purple gloves?”
“Sami thought I should have them,” she said and then pointed at his side. “So, here?”
“Yeah.”
For the first time she looked straight at him, and she did it with a creased brow. “I’m not sure it’s going to fit there. It needs a flat surface to look good.” She pointed at the upper part of his chest, just beneath his left collarbone. “It would probably look better here, but I can try it where you want it.”
“No, try it where you think it’ll be best,” he said. He’d learned early on that the best way to get great ink was to trust the people who did it for a living.
He watched her shave and disinfect the area before reaching for the stencil. When she leaned forward to place it, he could clearly smell her hair. He was hoping it would hurt like hell, because if it didn’t he’d be lying there with a boner for hours. He kept watching her. Her pouty mouth with full lips and heart-shaped face that came together in the dimple of her chin. As far as he could tell, there was not a single fucking ugly thing about her, and that was just her face. That thick, rich, curly, violet hair, and her slender body—down to her fine limbs. Her wrists were so delicate they looked like bird’s bones. She was perfect to him.
“When are you getting ink?” he asked mainly to have something to say.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what I want.”
“You can’t be a tattoo artist and not have any ink.”
“Why not? It’s not like the fact that I’m covered in ink says anything about my work.”
“Maybe, but how are you going to try to convince others to commit to lifelong ink unless you have it yourself?”
“Why would I try to convince people to do something that’ll last forever?” she said as she carefully peeled the stencil from his chest before answering her own question. “That’s not my job. My job is to give them the tattoo they want and make sure it looks good.”
After trying to find a retort, he gave up with a laugh just as she pointed towards a mirror.
“Have a look, and see if you’re happy with it there.”
He stood by the mirror. It didn’t take him more than a few seconds to decide it was perfectly placed, but he still didn’t move. Instead, he watched her through the mirror. She was wearing worn cut-offs, black biker boots, and a t-shirt with the Wicked Ink logo. The arms had been cut off, and it looked like the neck had been widened as well. In short, she looked the same as always. Lisa’d been the fashionista, and Vi’d dressed like this, with hoodie and jeans for colder days. When she leaned forward to adjust the settings on the ink machine, he could see right down the neck of her t-shirt. Black bra. She wore a black bra, and he swallowed a groan.
Sami and one of the other guys, he introduced himself as Joe, sat down to supervise the work. That was relief. Someone would be there to stop him from doing something epically stupid.
Once they got started, Sami and Joe started talking, but on occasion Sami leaned over to comment on her work. When he told Vi the lines looked great, she looked like he’d given her a million bucks.
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you look more pleased,” Mac said, and she blushed.
She didn’t answer, just shrugged. “Let me know if you need a break,” she said instead.
“It’s not a bad thing that you’re pleased. You should be.”
She nodded, closed her eyes for a few seconds and seemed to be listening to the music. This time it wasn’t country, more of a folk rock thing.
“What is this music?” he asked, and Sami answered him instead of Vi. She seemed completely focused on inking again.
“Mumford & Sons. I needed a country-free week.”
“Some artists talk when they do this,” Mac said, and this time Vi looked at him.
“Do you want a nice tattoo or a nice conversation?” she asked.
“Fair enough,” he mumbled.
“I told my girl no customer comes back because you’re good at chatting, they come back because you do good ink,” Sami said. “It’s better to let her ink do the talking.”
“He’s got a point,” Mac admitted, but Vi was already leaning over him, lost in her work. He turned to Sami again. “Don’t you need a license to work as a tattoo artist?”
“No, not in Arizona. And technically she’s still practicing, since she’s not charging for them.”
“No one pays you?” he asked Vi.
“No. Not yet. Dad’s
paying for the equipment, and I work here for free to pay for them teaching me. But Sami did pay for my NSC Training.”
“Just bad fucking business to have people working who haven’t done that,” Sami muttered.
“What?” Mac had no idea what they were talking about.
“It’s a certificate. You take a class about blood-borne pathogens and cross contamination,” Vi explained.
“How long will you work for free?”
“Probably for a while longer, and I’ll be an apprentice for a few more years. Sami says I have to have a high school diploma. And I’ve promised Dad that I’ll finish high school, too.”
“Why do you care about a diploma?” Mac asked Sami.
“The girl should get her diploma,” he smiled. “And it’s easier for her to get a license in another state. It’s good to have a license even if it’s not required here in Arizona. Having one makes it easer to get temporary licenses when we work tattoo conventions—shit like that.”
“Still, you’re working for free?” Mac said to Vi. “And from what I’ve heard, you’re working a lot.”
Sami laughed. “I’m not charging her for the teaching, that’s something. It’s not uncommon that guys charge apprentices a lot of money. I can’t imagine all that many of them taking on a sixteen-year-old, either.”
Vi just smiled at that, then leaned over Mac to start working again.
Chris and Joe were chatting, but she didn’t seem to notice. Not even when he joined their conversation. The only time she seemed to take any notice of him, was when he moved. Each time she lifted the needle from his chest and gave him an annoyed glare. After a few times of that, he tried shifting position while she dipped the needle in ink or dried him off.
A while later, he took a shot when she rubbed vaseline on him.
“I need a short break. A smoke—and coffee, if you have any.”
“Out by the counter,” she said and then pointed towards a table by the wall. “There’s water, chocolate, and some nuts over there, you should have some.”
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