by Piper Rayne
After putting on my gloves, I go to work as I would with any client—except her tits, out there on display, are more tempting. Maybe as long as I keep my eyes off of them, I’ll be okay.
Once I’m all prepared, I slide the stool over, allowing my body to be closer to her than I would another client. We’re not touching, but I’m hyper aware of her proximity. “I’m gonna start.”
At the first touch of the needle, she jolts.
“You sure?” I ask.
She nods. “I’m sure. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. If you—”
“I want it, Dylan. More than I’ve wanted anything. Well, except for you.”
Talk about a line that melts the damn heart. She has to feel what I have the last few weeks. The way her smile makes a shit day exponentially better. Waking up to her every morning fills me with happiness from the second I wake. Every day, all I think about is how to brighten her day. To let her know in a small way how much I care for her.
I press the machine back to her skin, and this time, she relaxes. The songs stream through the speakers as I move the needle along her skin. There might be silence between us, but it’s a comfortable silence. I’ll never forget this moment until the day I die.
“Don’t I have to heal afterward?”
“I’ll put some ointment on and cover it.”
“So you make this big romantic gesture with candles and a playlist of love songs, not to mention drawing a special tattoo just for me, and you won’t be able to have sex with me afterward? Seems a little torturous,” she says.
I wipe the tattoo and take the brief break to meet her gaze. “You underestimate my abilities again.”
“Oh, so I am getting lucky tonight?” She smiles wide.
I kiss her briefly. “Definitely. There’s always doggie.”
She chuckles. “I’d say hurry up, but it will be on me forever.”
The word forever catches me for a moment. Forever as in for life or eternity. Endless.
I have no idea what will happen with Rian and me. If she’ll wake up one day and decide she wants the responsible guy. But she’ll look at this artwork I’m inking every day and think of me.
I’m selfish enough to smile because it means I’ll be part of Rian forever.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rian
I lift my shirt for the millionth time in the past week to look at my tattoo. It’s a little crusty, but I can tell it’s going to be beautiful once it’s healed.
“You’re making me jealous. I wish Ethan was a tattoo artist so he could draw on me.” Blanca sips her wine.
We’re up on the rooftop, waiting for the guys to return from getting stuff for a barbeque. We made all the sides, but for some reason, it’s taking them forever to get the meat and alcohol.
“I think we should call the police.” Sierra inspects her nails. “I’m starving.”
“Knox is the police,” I say, dropping my shirt and sitting down at the table with them.
“Do you think Ethan would be jealous if I asked Dylan or Jax to draw me something?” Blanca asks, scrolling through her phone.
Sierra and I exchange a look.
“Um… yeah,” I say.
Blanca purses her lips and nods. “I figured.”
My phone rings and it’s a number I don’t recognize, so I send it to voicemail, and we continue talking about Adrian being in Sandsal again. Sierra’s worried that it’s never going to end and there will always be a reason for him to be out there. Then she’ll have to choose to leave her job in order to be with him.
My phone dings to alert me that I have a voicemail, so I excuse myself and walk to the other side of the roof to listen.
“Hello, Miss Wright. This is Dr. Ted Quinton with NASA. I understand from Dr. Giroux that you’re the one who solved the problem in the contest his organization hosted. I’m very impressed and wanted to discuss the possibility of you coming to work for NASA. Please give me a call back so we can discuss further. Have a good night.”
I hold the phone to my chest for a second then quickly dial back because this has to be a prank. What does NASA want with a math textbook writer?
“Miss Wright,” he answers on the first ring.
“Um… hi, Dr. Quinton?”
“Yes, I’m so happy you called me back.”
“Are you really with NASA?”
He chuckles. “I am.” There’s a pause. “I’m a good friend of Dr. Giroux and helped him make up that problem with the hopes we’d find a new recruit. It’s an entry-level position, but we’re always looking for new talent. I’d love to schedule a video call to talk more about it.”
“You don’t even know me,” I say, still a little stunned that I’m actually talking to someone from NASA.
He chuckles again. “Rarely do we hear people questioning why we might offer them a job.”
“I’m just surprised. I thought it was just the monetary prize. I had no idea it had anything to do with NASA.”
“It didn’t. But I always have my eye out for new talent. I understand you’ve been working at Pierson since graduation?”
“Exactly, so why would you want me?”
“Well, sometimes you find talent where you least expect to. It’s why we like such contests. We find people like you.”
“And where exactly is the job?” I ask.
“Houston. Is that a problem?”
My stomach drops and I grip the phone harder. “Um, no.” Dylan’s face flashes to mind.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll have my assistant send you some paperwork that outlines the position and if you’re interested we can chat a bit more then arrange a flight and stay for some time next week. I can show you what we have to offer.”
“Okay,” I agree in a daze.
“Great. It was a pleasure talking to you. Look for that email in your inbox tomorrow morning.”
“Okay.” I shake my head. “Yes. That’s perfect. Thank you.”
“Have a great night, Miss Wright.”
“You too.”
We hang up and I lower the phone, staring into the sun as it’s setting. NASA wants to hire me? I remember when I had their posters up on my walls as a kid. When I thought I’d love to work there. My mom’s idea, she hung those posters.
I look over the rooftop edge, far down at Ink Envy. Dylan’s life is here. We’ve been together for such a short time; we’d never survive the distance. I’m not even sure we would try. But my heart constricts with the thought of losing him. I lift my shirt and look at my tattoo again. It brings me sadness it hasn’t since I got it.
I sit back down at the table, Blanca and Sierra sit up straighter when they see my mood.
“What’s up?” Sierra asks. “Who was that?”
I shake my head as the door to the roof opens and the guys file out. I force a smile, which isn’t hard because Dylan pulls it from me. Now isn’t the time to bring up a potential job that would make me leave Cliffton Heights anyway.
Each guy finds their girl. Ethan places Blanca’s favorite wine on the table.
“Hey, babe, can you draw?” she asks him.
Ethan looks at Dylan. “I fucking hate you.”
Dylan laughs, his face falling to my neck and kissing the skin there. “Sorry, man.”
“I’ll totally draw you a tat,” Jax offers, starting up the grill.
“Yeah, no, you won’t.” Ethan cracks open a beer.
“Call Frankie. She’ll do something,” Dylan says, and Blanca beams.
“Man, you’re turning all the girls on to ink now,” Ethan says.
Dylan nudges me up, sits down, and pats his lap.
“Is that a no to helping on the grill then, Phillips?” Jax asks.
They’ve gotten along a lot better recently, even joking around, and Jax’s become more comfortable in our group of friends.
“I have my hands full.” Dylan whispers in my ear, “I only care about turning one girl on to ink—and all other things.”
Sh
ivers run up my spine.
“For the love of God, can we please have one dinner without the two of you making out?”
Dylan laughs. “Jealous, Sierra?”
“She’s cranky because Adrian is late coming back,” Blanca says.
Seth puts his arm around Sierra. “Want me to be his fill in?”
She shrugs him off and points at us. “Just be prepared—the sex does slow down at some point.”
“Maybe Adrian just doesn’t have the same insatiable appetite I do.” Dylan kisses my neck while his hands massage any body part he can reach.
The man is insatiable, and I love it. But I know what Sierra is talking about. I’ve witnessed it with Ethan and Blanca. Not that they’re not still super into PDA, but they’ve found a routine now—which looks nice too. I like the idea, but I’m not sure how Dylan feels about it.
“Believe me, he does. It’s just the distance that sucks.” Sierra leans back in her chair and pouts.
“It seems like he’s never here,” Knox says. “What’s up with that?”
She sips her wine. “They’re still figuring out how it will all work. His sister taking over, his parents’ divorce. Hopefully after next month, he’s here more than there.”
The whole rooftop quiets except for Jax working the grill.
“Way to kill the mood, Sierra,” Seth says.
She kicks him under the table as her phone dings. Fumbling to pick it up, she finally gets a hold of it, reads it, and stands, downing the rest of her wine.
“No burger for me.” Sierra leans into Dylan and me. “I’m going to get nailed by my boyfriend.”
Dylan laughs.
And she’s gone before any of us can say anything else.
“It’s like they’re in a long distance relationship,” Seth says.
“It’s just temporary,” I say, and Blanca nods in agreement.
Knox leans against the ledge, sipping his beer. From what I know, Leilani left because he said he would never do a long distance relationship. But I’m not even sure Leilani wanted one anyway.
“Fuck that. Never. I couldn’t stay away from you that long.” Dylan’s arms wrap around my waist and he pulls me into him, licking my earlobe.
“Sometimes there’s not a choice. Would you rather lose the person than do long distance?” Blanca asks, probably because we both feel the need to defend Sierra and Adrian.
“Believe me, there’s no way long distance would work,” Seth chimes in. “I mean, sure at first it’s probably great sex when you get together, but then week after week, month after month, you’re witnessing your friends with their significant others and the longing sets in. Soon fights happen because one of you can’t make the trip to see the other. You’re spending a fortune on airline tickets. Phone sex becomes dull and unfulfilling. Long distance doesn’t work.”
We all stare at him.
“You speaking from experience, Andrews?” Jax asks.
“No. Hell, my entire life has been in this town.”
“And Evan Erickson lives here, so how do you know all this?” Ethan asks.
Seth throws his beer cap at Ethan. “You guys can stop with the whole ‘I love Evan Erickson’ thing. I haven’t been friends with her since I was nine. I like my relationships smooth as butter. Creamy as vanilla ice cream. No rocky road for me.”
Silence commences until Dylan clears his throat. “I’m with Seth. Long distance would never work for me.”
I turn to him. I kind of agree, but I won’t say anything because of Sierra. If you love the person, maybe you make it work. Their situation is temporary, they have an end date. But some couples don’t, and I wonder how they make it work.
“I need sex too much,” Dylan says and laughs, most everyone joining in. “And phone sex isn’t gonna cut it.” He smiles at me.
“What if you actually have strong feelings for the person? You’ll throw it all away just because you can’t have sex with them?”
Dylan’s head rears back when he hears my tone. “Is there something you have to tell me?”
“No. I’m just saying sex isn’t the be all end all for a relationship. There are a lot of other things that are more important.” I stand, grab a bottle of wine, and pour myself a glass.
Dylan straightens in the chair. Jax eyes me at the cooler. Whatever. All these men who think that sex is the number one thing in a relationship annoy me.
“So you’re telling me that you don’t enjoy sex?” Dylan asks. “Because I think I have to call bullshit on that one. Being your boyfriend and everything, I’d know.”
“Being your roommate, I can second that,” Jax says. When I send him a scathing look, he turns back to the grill.
I sip a large portion of my wine. “I’m just saying there’s more than sex. There are emotions, and not just the ones when you have sex. It makes me feel like all I am to you is a sex toy.”
Dylan’s chair slides back along the concrete and he stands.
“Whoa.” Jax holds out his hand at Dylan as he makes his way over to me.
“Fuck off, Owens.” Dylan takes my hands in his.
They’re so warm and welcoming, tears slip from my eyes.
“Rian?” Dylan says in an authoritative voice I’ve never heard him use with me before.
I swipe my eyes. “It’s nothing. I just want to know you’re with me for more than a place to put your dick.”
He draws back as though I slapped him. “I think you know you’re more than that.”
“But yet you wouldn’t do long distance.”
“I think this has gotten way too serious. We’re all talking hypothetical. This wine is delicious,” Blanca says, trying to save the evening.
“Beer’s good too,” Seth says.
Knox is staring at us as though he knows something, but he couldn’t. Maybe he just sees the demise of a relationship similar to what he went through.
“Let’s go downstairs.” Dylan takes my hand.
I didn’t want this fun night to end like this. When I don’t move, Dylan turns back around, his eyes pleading for me to tell him what’s going on.
I know Dylan. Sometimes I think I know him better than he does himself. The minute I tell him, he’ll shut down. The Dylan I’ve fallen in love with these past months could disappear forever.
He says my name again like a plea.
“I got offered a job with NASA,” I say.
And just like I predicted, Dylan drops my hand. “And where’s it at?”
You could hear a pin drop on the roof.
“Houston.”
Darkness covers his eyes for a moment, then a smile plasters his face. Not the genuine smile I’ve been blessed to see every day for months. It’s the one he gives customers who annoy the fuck out of him. “You should take it. NASA? Wow, that’s amazing.”
His arms wrap around me and he pulls me toward him in a hug that holds no emotion. His hands don’t linger under the hems of my clothes, and he doesn’t kiss my neck or forehead. The hug is not a boyfriend hug; it’s a goodbye hug.
Chapter Thirty
Dylan
Rian has no idea how much I’m struggling not to leave this rooftop right now. My pretending that I want her to go because it’s such an amazing opportunity isn’t a front. I do want her to go. She’s magnificent and she deserves the absolute best in life.
But as she sits on my lap and the breeze wafts her perfume to my nostrils, I want to stop the pain slicing me inside. The only way to do that is get drunk or get the hell out of here and away from her—the reminder of what I’m about to lose.
We finish the dinner that her news did ruin because I’m sour and she’s concerned. The others continued bullshit lines of conversation just to fill in the awkward silence.
“Let’s go.” I nudge her off my lap and take her hand, walking her to the roof door. I need to know where her head is at. I don’t stop until we’re in our apartment and I flick the lock to give us at least a warning before someone barrels in here.
When I turn from the door, she’s in the chair by the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest. “I didn’t anticipate this.”
I sit on the couch, my arms missing her in them. “You got the call today?”
She nods. “I’m just as surprised as you. I was going to wait to tell you until we were alone, but then all that conversation about a long distance relationship came up and I kind of lost it.”
I pace the room, unable to sit still because my mind begs me to grab the keys to my bike and get the hell out of here.
“Are you taking it?” The fact that it takes her longer than a second to speak gives me my answer. I hold up my hand. “You are? So it’s just a will I or won’t I agree to a long distance relationship? Or do you not even want one?”
“I haven’t decided anything yet. He’s sending me information. He’s flying me down to see what the job entails.”
“It sounds to me like you’re taking it.”
She sits up straighter. “Where do you get that idea?”
“Because it’s fucking NASA. Who turns down fucking NASA?” My voice grows louder, and I clench my fists at my sides.
“Who said I want NASA? I never did.”
I roll my eyes and stare at her long and hard. Her eyes puddle with tears and my anger shatters. I fall to my knees at her feet, my hands gripping her hips.
“You act like I accepted the job,” she says, her voice hiccupping. “Do you really think I want to leave you?”
If she heard my answer, she’d be mad. But doesn’t this go along with everything else in my life thus far? Somehow, I’m always the one in the rearview mirror.
I raise my head. “You have to take it. It’s a huge opportunity and I won’t let you turn it down.”
I’ve never spoken more truth. I’d die a million deaths for her happiness. That’s how strongly I feel for her.
She runs her hands through my hair. “I’m not sure it’s the opportunity I want.”
“You have to consider it. You have to go down there and see what they’re offering. You have to.”
