“Words are right,” he said. The guy never cracked a joke. He was always straight to the point.
I’d talked him into helping me with the Cyrillic, in addition to the few lessons he’d given me as far as speaking Russian, in exchange for all the shit he was putting me through for his sledge hockey game in a few weeks. It seemed only fair.
“All right,” I said to Ravyn. She was probably seven or eight months pregnant, with violet dreadlocks and bright tattoos all over her body. I’d never had a woman do any of my other tats, but they’d all been done in other cities. Asking around had led me to Ravyn and her tattoos. A look through her online portfolio was more than enough to convince me she was the artist for this job. I nodded at her. “Let’s do this.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
“All right. I’ll go put this on transfer paper and we’ll get started.” She headed up to the front of her shop.
I took out my phone to send Tori a text.
She should be busy at the studio for at least a couple more hours, so the tattoo might be close to finished by the time she could come out. She’d been selected to be part of a community ballet for Christmas, and she had also started teaching a class for four-year-old beginner ballerinas in addition to all the classes she was taking. The video she’d done for The End of All Things had garnered her a lot of attention in the Tulsa ballet community, opening up countless doors. She’d even been invited to audition as a principle for the Tulsa Ballet next fall.
All of that meant we were taking our time in planning our wedding. We didn’t want to just throw something together. We’d already had a quickie. Now we wanted something meaningful, something including bits from traditional Russian weddings, some American traditions, and maybe a few things that were specifically about the two of us.
I sent her a note, asking her to meet me here when she was done, and then I dropped trou and settled into the chair so Ravyn could do her work on my thigh. Once he’d verified the Cyrillic for me, Dima took off.
Ravyn didn’t talk much while she worked, but at least every twenty minutes, she had to stop to go to the bathroom. The stopping and starting was starting to wear on me when Tori walked through the shop doors.
She shook her head and raised her brows when she saw me. “You’re getting new tattoo?”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help but grin. Tori was going to flip when she understood what it was about. I nodded at Ravyn. “Mind if she takes a look now?”
“No problem. I’m almost done. And I could use a bathroom break, anyway.” She wiped the excess ink off my skin and backed away so Tori could lean in.
Tori started crying almost immediately. “It’s for me?”
“Who else? Get closer. Take a look at the wings.”
She sat in Ravyn’s chair and wheeled over. “Yesli ya izbavilsya ot moikh demonov, ya by poteryat moikh angelov,” she murmured.
“Please tell me that means If I rid myself of my demons, I would lose my angels and it’s not some bullshit Dima thought it would be funny to slap on my thigh.”
She laughed through her tears. “Dima wouldn’t do that. He’s good man.”
“Sweetheart, I think we’re going to have to have a talk about what constitutes a good man.”
She bent over me to give me a sound kiss. “I know what makes good man. Good heart makes good man. You both have good hearts.”
I still wasn’t sure about that, but I figured I’d better take her word for it. My heart belonged to her, so it needed to be better than good. It had to be the best, because there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d give her anything less.
Catherine Gayle is a USA Today bestselling author of Regency-set historical romance and contemporary hockey romance. She’s a transplanted Texan living in North Carolina with two extremely spoiled felines. In her spare time, she watches way too much hockey and reality TV, plans fun things to do for the Nephew Monster’s next visit, and performs experiments in the kitchen which are rarely toxic.
If you enjoyed this book and want to know when more like it will be available, be sure to sign up for Catherine’s mailing list. You can find out more on her website, her blog, at Hockey Romance, at Facebook, on Twitter, at Instagram, and at Goodreads. If you want to see some of her cats’ antics and possibly the occasional video update from Catherine, visit her YouTube account.
SMOKE SIGNALS is Book 2 in the Tulsa Thunderbirds hockey romance series, a spin-off from USA Today bestselling author Catherine Gayle’s Portland Storm series.
BURY THE HATCHET
SMOKE SIGNALS
GHOST DANCE
RITES OF PASSAGE
Look for Book 3, GHOST DANCE, to release on May 19, 2016. Book 4, RITES OF PASSAGE, will release November 10, 2016.
Want to join in the Tulsa Thunderbirds discussion? Join the Facebook reader group.
If you enjoy this book and want to try more of the same, be sure to look for the Portland Storm books.
BREAKAWAY
ON THE FLY
TAKING A SHOT
LIGHT THE LAMP
DELAY OF GAME
DOUBLE MAJOR
IN THE ZONE
HOLIDAY HAT TRICK
COMEBACK
DROPPING GLOVES
HOME ICE
MISTLETOE MISCONDUCT will release as part of a charity anthology on November 17, 2015. LOSING AN EDGE will release on February 18, 2016. GAME BREAKER will release on July 21, 2016. Also, join Catherine Gayle’s mailing list to receive ICE BREAKER, a Portland Storm short story prequel that you can’t get anywhere else.
If you prefer to buy boxed sets, there are a couple currently available.
PORTLAND STORM: THE FIRST PERIOD
PORTLAND STORM: THE SECOND PERIOD
There is also a reader group on Facebook for the Portland Storm series.
Smoke Signals Page 26
