by Tess Oliver
I caressed her silky skin. “I remember. It was just a small, soft sound. Trust me, I’ve never been so turned on by anything in my life.” I dropped my arms. “I’ve got something to show you.” I walked over to the cabinet where I kept my drawings and artwork. I reached in and pulled out the pieces of paper I’d kept tucked inside.
Scotlyn glanced at them, confused at first but then she recognized the papers. I handed them to her, and she shuffled through them and laughed. “Break. Ouch. Ouch!! All good.” Her eyes were shiny as she smiled up at me. “The notes I used during the tattoo to let you know how I was feeling. You kept them.”
“Yep. Just in case you thought I wasn’t sentimental.”
She hopped up on her tiptoes and kissed me. “Well, you did keep my picture in your wallet long before you met me.” She placed the notes on my work counter and strolled over to the table.
She lifted herself up onto it and leaned back on her hands. “Sitting here on this table, while you drew that tattoo on me, was the most erotic experience ever. And today, we don’t have to worry about anyone barging in or keeping an eye on me because I am yours, and yours only.”
I walked over and grabbed her into my arms. My mouth slammed down over hers. She reached for the fly on my jeans and opened it. A groan rumbled in my throat as she pushed down my pants and took hold of my cock. It strained against her fingers as she twirled her thumb around the moist tip. I lifted her hand away, not having enough will to withstand her teasing. I took both her slim wrists in one hand and held her arms above her head as she leaned against the backrest. I held her captive as I dragged her bottom closer to the edge of the table and pushed her thighs open wider with my free hand.
She gazed at me from beneath heavy dark lashes, her eyes taking on an unearthly sapphire blue, as she watched me enter her. I dropped my gaze down to my cock and watched it slide into her tight, wet pussy. Her head lulled back and her lips parted as she moaned in pleasure.
I held tightly to her hands as she arched her back in an effort to take in more of me. “God, Nix, I’m already close.” She tried to tug her hands free but I held her, wanting to be able to watch her entire body as she came.
“You are a masterpiece, baby, a fucking work of art.” I shoved my cock deeper, and she clenched her legs around my waist to draw me in farther. She ground the slick folds of her pussy against me.
“Don’t stop,” she whimpered. “Don’t ever stop.”
“Never.”
A pink blush covered her face and shoulders, and her nipples puckered into small rose-colored buds. Her pussy tightened around my cock in shuddering waves.
I released her hands and took hold of her hips, yanking her even closer as I pushed inside. She was tight and hot around me as I slammed into her. She lifted her heavy head. Her eyes opened slowly, and now, like I’d watched her, she gazed at me with eyes still glassy from ecstasy. I moved inside of her, bringing myself to the edge and over it. I leaned down my hands on either side of her legs to catch my breath.
Scotlyn reached up and took hold of my face to kiss it. “Now about that tattoo?”
A laugh shot out of my mouth. “You might have to give me a second here.” I dragged my fingers down her breast. “To be honest, this might be the most difficult tattoo I’ve ever done.”
“Just three letters?”
“Yes, and with my face and hands tucked between your legs. By the way, you’ll be a little sore there for a few days. Are you sure about it?”
She leaned forward and placed her arms around my neck. “Having your name in a spot where only you can see it— I want it. Please.”
I kissed her. “I’ll get my stuff together.”
“Should I get at least partially dressed?”
“What kind of a mad man would I have to be to say yes to that?” I walked over to my work counter.
She hopped off the table, and I was disappointed to see her pick up her shorts.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Change your mind?”
She pulled a folded paper from her pocket. “Nope, but I wanted to show you something.” I turned and leaned against the counter. She forced back a grin as she unfolded the paper and smiled up at me.
“Once Nana had finished reciting her memoirs to me, I typed them into the computer and had the manuscript printed. I sent it off to some publishers without Nana knowing. I was hoping I could surprise her with it, but unfortunately…” Her words fell off. She cleared her throat and read from the letter. “Dear Ms. James, Our editorial team has reviewed your manuscript titled Life’s a Peach, and we are excited to let you know that we would like to publish the book.”
“Holy shit, Nana’s memoirs? God, Scotlyn, you never stop amazing me. She would be so damn excited. Hell, I’m so damn excited. I’ll have to call Diana later.” I took her into my arms. “But for now, I’m about to do the best damn tattoo of my career.”
Chapter 24
Scotlyn
“All three bridesmaid dresses have been cut, and I started sewing bodices.” Taylor stepped forward in the line. The band was just getting started. Dray and Cassie were already inside, hopefully snagging us a table. I’d told Cassie I didn’t want any bridal shower because there wasn’t enough time to make people attend both that and a wedding a few weeks later. And I really didn’t need anything. Nix and I had everything we could want. So we’d decided a night out with just the four couples would be a way to make up for it. Finley and Rett had been too busy with the barn, so it was just the six of us.
“I can’t wait to see the dresses, Taylor. And I will pay you for all your time, even if you won’t let me pay you for material.”
She waved off the suggestion as she always did. “I told you, this is such a valuable opportunity for me that I need no payment. Besides, I travel to the garment district downtown once a week. The fabrics are high quality and dirt cheap.”
The club allowed eighteen-year-olds and up, but anyone under twenty-one was branded with a black X on the back of their hand to keep them from buying alcohol. Taylor was still more than a year away from being able to drink legally, and it always produced a pout. But tonight, she took her black hand stamp with a smile, and we walked into the club.
Cassie waved us over. It seemed they’d grabbed the best table in the place. It was just ten steps from the bar but a much farther distance from the speakers. We pushed through the crowded bar area to the table. Cassie leaned closer so she wouldn’t have to shout over the noise. “I ordered some margaritas.”
We pulled out chairs and sat. Nix and Dray set off toward the bar. Clutch and Taylor were across from me. There seemed to be some tension between them but then that was usual. Taylor, who looked especially beautiful with her copper penny hair swept up in a ponytail, reached into her purse, glanced around and quickly untwisted the top from a small flask. She lifted it to her mouth, took a short swig and then replaced the top. She dropped it back into her purse and met Clutch’s eyes as she looked up.
“What?” she asked with complete innocence. “I bought it at the mall.” She lifted her purse and opened it but didn’t remove the flask again. “Isn’t it cute? It has tiny pink skulls on it.”
“Let me see it.” Clutch held out his palm. She peeked around before handing it to him. He folded his fingers around it and got up. Taylor’s eyes opened wide as she watched him lumber across the room and toss the flask into a trash can. I glanced over at Cassie, who pulled her lips tight and gave a tiny shrug.
Taylor crossed her arms and slumped down in her chair. One moment she was a woman and the next a teenager. I tried to remember if I’d ever straddled that line, but life on the streets had wiped away my teen attitude pretty quickly.
I leaned across the table. “Taylor, if you were caught, they’d kick you right out of here. They might even call the cops. These places have to be extremely careful about minors and alcohol, or they get shut down.”
Her green eyes were wet with tears, and it seemed she wasn’t going to come out of h
er sulk anytime soon. The guys returned to the table with their beers. Clutch placed a coke down in front of Taylor. She pushed it away, but for a second, I was certain she would dump it in his lap.
In typical guy fashion, Nix and Dray had not clued in to the tension at the table. “Rett said Nicky King has invited us to come to the house early for the wedding, a little luxury vacation at our best friend’s, the mega-rock star, estate.” Dray looked eagerly around the table. His confused glance landed on Clutch, whose expression bordered on icy. No one answered, but it seemed that Nix had finally noticed a problem.
“Shit, why is everyone so grumpy?” Dray asked.
Cassie slid off her chair. “Shut up and let’s dance. You can put that fancy fighter’s footwork to good use.”
Dray got up and followed Cassie to the floor.
“You could have at least let me put it back in my purse,” Taylor said suddenly.
Clutch drank some beer but didn’t look at her.
She thumped him on the arm, which was pretty meaningless on an arm his size, but some of his beer splashed from the glass.
“When are you going to stop treating me like a kid?” she asked.
Clutch stared down at her but didn’t need to answer. I badly wanted to help Taylor, but shedding the teen years was something she was going to have to figure out on her own. She’d set her sights on a man six years older, and sometimes the age difference was quite noticeable. And, on top of that, Clutch tended to be an older and more mature twenty-five than most.
Taylor obviously decided that slumping down on a chair next to her enormous boyfriend wasn’t working in her favor. She straightened and thrust her chin defiantly forward. Nix and I pretended to busy ourselves with our drinks and with people watching.
“You’re an arrogant asshole, and I’d have more fun going out with my father than you,” Taylor said sharply.
“Then I’ll take you home and you two can make plans.”
Nix got up and lowered his hand for me to take. “They’re playing our song.”
“I didn’t know we had a song.” I placed my hand on his.
“We do now.”
It wasn’t a slow song but Nix pulled me against him and we shuffled our feet over the wood floor. We stayed on the outer edge of the dance floor. Dray and Cassie were tearing it up in the middle.
I laughed. “He really is light on his feet.”
“Yep, that’s one of the reasons he’s so damn good in the octagon. That, and his supernatural ability to not feel any pain.” Nix glanced back to the table. “What did I miss? They didn’t walk in that pissed at each other.”
“Taylor brought in a flask with alcohol, and Clutch threw it away.”
Nix laughed. “That explains things. I’m kind of worried about those two. If Taylor doesn’t mature a little more and a little faster, Clutch might not stick around.”
“But he’s crazy about her. And he needs to cut her a little slack. She’s nineteen. She’s getting more mature all the time. I can tell you, she has an amazing talent that will take her far. It will be Clutch’s loss if he can’t show a little more tolerance.” I hadn’t meant to sharpen my tone, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided that Clutch was being too hard. “The last thing Taylor needs is another controlling parent in her life.”
Nix leaned back. “Hey, why am I getting the tongue lashing?”
“Sorry, my frustration was aimed at Clutch. Not you.” I lowered my head onto his shoulder. “I guess the next time we dance, we’ll be husband and wife.”
“Yes, and Nicky King will be singing. How fucking cool is that?”
I smiled. “Not exactly where I thought my last sentiment would lead, but yeah, it’s amazing.”
“Oh, and as Nicky sings, I will be holding the most incredible woman in the world, in my arms.”
“That’s better.” We twirled around, and I now had a view of our table. Taylor had gotten up. She was propped up on a barstool talking animatedly with two guys. Clutch sat with stiff shoulders, and his fingers wrapped tightly around his beer, trying his damndest not to look Taylor’s direction. Not thinking, I brought up the subject of Clutch and Taylor again. “Still, I can see Taylor’s point of view. I’ve lived with a controlling man, who told me what to wear and how to behave, and it’s not fun.”
Nix dropped his arms and stepped back. His face was hard. “You’ve got to stop comparing every guy to that prick you used to live with.” He marched off the floor and left me standing alone, wondering how I’d managed to get my foot all the way up to my mouth.
I walked back to the table and sat down. Dray and Cassie came off the floor too. It was not exactly the fun and laughter filled night we’d anticipated. I motioned secretly toward Taylor, and Cassie glanced her direction. Her shoulders sank. The mood around the table was grim. Then, Clutch’s chair scraped the ground, and he pounded across the floor toward Taylor. She looked up with fake alarm. Again, she knew exactly what she was doing. Unlike the body surfers at the beach, these two guys didn’t seem as inclined to back down from the giant heading toward them.
Dray looked at Nix. “This should go well.”
Clutch stopped in front of Taylor, completely ignoring the two knuckleheads who seemed to have delusions of immortality. He said something and then stormed out the exit door. Taylor’s face went pale, and she looked ready to pass out. Cassie and I shot out of our chairs and raced over to her.
She dropped right into my arms. “Clutch just broke up with me.” She was in full sobbing mode by the time we got her to the table. We sat her down and pulled up chairs on each side of her.
“Shouldn’t you two go after Clutch?” I asked.
“What for?” Nix responded.
I sighed loudly in frustration, and Cassie shook her head at them.
“Look,” Dray said, and I knew something obnoxious would follow. “When we guys are pissed, we don’t sit down with buckets of ice cream and soothe and coddle and analyze what went wrong.”
“No,” Cassie erupted, “you grunt and toss around the word ‘fuck’ a dozen times and in every form of speech and then you snort down enough beer to put a foamy head on your piss.”
Dray lifted a finger. “And don’t forget wall punching. Punching holes in a wall is an extremely important part of the man tantrum. Clutch is probably outside right now blowing a Viking-sized hole through the wall of this building.”
Taylor shook with sobs. I handed her a napkin, but it wasn’t enough to sop up the river of tears. She looked across the table. “Nix, please,” she cried, “go talk to him. Tell him I didn’t mean it.”
Nix looked at me first and then at Taylor. “Sorry, sweetie, this is something you started. You’re going to have to make it right.”
Taylor collapsed against me. Our table was garnering a lot of attention now. Cassie pulled her keys out of her purse. “Scottie and I are going to take Taylor to our house for awhile.” She threw the keys at Dray. “Now, your plan to get, as you’d so eloquently put it, shitfaced has been thwarted. You’ve just become the designated driver.”
I put my arm around Taylor’s shoulder, and we walked her out of the bar.
***
Cassie didn’t have any buckets of ice cream, but we did manage to polish off a bag of M&Ms. Or at least Cassie and I did. Taylor was in no mood to eat. She was still sniffling up a storm as I dropped her off at her house. Cassie and I had tried to gently let her know that she had to stop teasing Clutch by flirting with other guys. She seemed to mull that notion over some between insisting she didn’t need the guy and exclaiming that she couldn’t live without him.
I knew them both well enough to know that they weren’t over. They’d just hit a rough patch like the one that Nix and I had just hiked through. And tonight hadn’t been all, as Nana would say, sugar and roses between us. There were times when we went out as couples that everything felt right and balanced. Then there were other times, like tonight, when the stark difference between men and women burned so bri
ghtly, it disrupted that harmony.
The kitchen light was on as I pulled into the driveway. Ironically enough, Nix was at the table, leaning over a carton of ice cream, digging into it with a soup spoon. He looked up and I pointed to my own mouth to let him know about the ice cream on his lip. He wiped it away and dropped the spoon in the carton.
He leaned back and held his arms out. “What the hell just happened? I thought we were going out for a few beers and some dancing. How’d it go so wrong?”
“It seems you followed through on the few beers.” I pulled up a chair and dragged the ice cream carton in front of me. “Taylor was obviously too upset to stay out, and Cassie and I are her closest friends. Did you ever talk to Clutch?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I’m sure he just needs to cool off. He loves Taylor. She just needs to grow up.”
I looked over at him. “He knew she was six years younger. He needs to keep that in mind. She’ll mature soon enough, and frankly, some of her best personality traits come from her being a wild teenager. Sometimes, I wish I had some of her spunk.” I picked up the spoon and dug into the ice cream. “All the peanut butter chunks are gone.”
“Yep, because I went through and picked out each one.”
“You pig.” I had Nix’s full attention as I slid the spoonful of ice cream into my mouth. “You know,” I said, “that tattoo is all healed up. But, I think, just in case, my tattoo artist should check it out.”
His chair tipped back on two legs as he got up. He lowered his hand to mine. “I’m at your service, milady.” He had definitely had more than his share of beer.
I stood up and before I could protest, he swept me up into his arms and carried me through the family room to the hallway, nearly crowning my head on the doorway as he glided through it.
