by Nikki Ashton
“Charlie,” Katie snapped. “Don’t be so rude.”
I watched as she swallowed, her eyes darting to look at me and then back to her son. Her breathing had got a little faster and I kinda liked how her rack was heaving up and down – because she had a pretty good rack, it had to be said. They looked real, which was a plus point in my book.
“It’s fine,” I said, smiling at Katie. “You think maybe you’d like a tat one day, Charlie?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, and Isaac is going to design it.”
I turned to Isaac. “Your mom tells me you’re pretty talented when it comes to art.”
Isaac’s steely eyed gaze shot to Katie. “You didn’t?”
“Of course I did, because you are.” She beamed at him proudly. “Dex saw my unicorn bag.”
“Mum,” he groaned. “I was like twelve when I drew that.”
Shit, that made the drawing even more amazing. When I’d seen it, I couldn’t believe the detail. I figured whoever had drawn it must have had some training, along with natural flare. To think this kid drew that at twelve meant he had some special talent.
“You should see his other drawings,” Charlie said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “They’re awesome.”
“Yeah, I’d like to.”
“Really?”
Isaac sounded unsure, but I meant it. As an artist myself, I was always interested in other people’s art, especially someone as gifted as Isaac.
“Yeah, really.”
He still looked a little hesitant.
“I tell you what, if you show me your drawings, I’ll show you my ink. I designed every one of them, even the ones in the early days.”
Isaac’s eyes widened. “I’ll be two minutes,” he said, rushing from the room, his insecurities forgotten.
“Mum, can I have a tattoo?” Charlie asked, full of excitement. “Can I have one when I’m thirteen?”
I turned to Katie, but she didn’t seem to have heard her son. She was staring at me, her mouth gaping open and her hands hanging loosely at the sides.
“Sorry buddy,” I said, laughter in my voice from the state of his mom. “You gotta be eighteen.”
Charlie shrugged. “Okay, but when I do, I want Isaac to design it and you to do it – seeing as Isaac says you’re so famous.”
I grinned. I liked this kid, shit, I liked both of Katie’s kids from what I’d seen so far.
“That’s a deal.”
Charlie smiled big and turned to Katie who was still staring at me. “You okay, Mum?”
Katie swallowed hard and shook her head as though dismissing something from her brain. “Yes, sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
I smirked, having a good idea what that thought might have been. I barely knew this woman, but I’d pretty much sussed out that she was an open book, that she found me attractive, and that her pale blue eyes reminded me of a beautiful spring sky. I also knew that my own attraction to her was pretty strong, despite speaking to her for the sum total of about an hour.
I liked that she was a little bit clumsy and had no filter on her mouth or how she expressed herself. Most of the women I knew would go out of their way to appear cool and sophisticated around me. They’d tell me they were attracted to me by sticking out their tits, or giving me the eyes, but I doubted any of them would stare at me trance-like or mutter about what I was packing under my boxers – if I wore any. No, this woman was cool and funny and I liked that.
This woman was all curves and soft edges, and I fucking loved that.
This woman could very well be the woman I didn’t know I wanted.
Katie
When Dex offered to show Isaac his tattoos, I had to be honest, my vagina did a little flutter and some drool possibly formed at the corner of my mouth.
I knew I was staring, and was a little bit mesmerised, but I couldn’t help it. Just the idea of Dex taking his shirt off was exciting. So exciting, I felt a hot sweat coming on, or maybe it was just because my heart was beating wildly, pumping horniness around my body and down to my excitable lady parts.
What was it about this man that had me going so lala? Yes, he was handsome and from what I saw in those bloody jeans, which hugged his arse very nicely thank you, he had a good body too; but I’d had hot boyfriends before. Ryan, the footballer, had been scorching and Carl was still quite handsome – you didn’t bag yourself a wife half your age by being beaten with the ugly stick. Dex though, he made me have naughty thoughts just from smiling at me, and I hardly knew him.
What worried me, was he could be an axe murderer, or a total wanker behind the sexy grin, but I actually didn’t care. Besides, I’d always been a good judge of character and I was pretty sure he was a decent guy. Okay, so I’d married a man who I’d thought I’d spend the rest of my life with and didn’t, but we’d managed eighteen years, so I’d not gone totally rogue. Maybe I should trust my judgement of Dex after all.
As the man on my mind grinned at Charlie asking me if I was okay, Isaac came skidding back into the room, holding onto his black portfolio which held all his drawings.
“Here you go,” he said, passing it to Dex with a shy smile on his face.
“Why don’t you sit down?” I offered. “I’ll make us that coffee.”
Dex looked up from the folder and nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Not wanting to miss out on Dex showing his body – sorry tattoos, I rushed to the kitchen and quickly made some coffee. I even made the real stuff, despite knowing that it would keep me awake and probably make my night sweats twice as bad as normal. I was being stupid, but I wanted to show the nice American man that I didn’t drink crappy instant coffee all the time.
When I carried the tray of coffee and juice for Charlie, into the lounge, I found Dex sitting on the floor with Isaac’s drawings spread out in front of him. He looked up as I walked in and shook his head. My heart sank, surely it wasn’t just me who thought my son had talent.
“These are amazing,” he said. “He’s got real talent.”
“I told you.” I was so full of pride for my boy, who seemed to have lost his way a little bit over the last year. “I told him he should go to Art College, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“I didn’t want to,” Isaac protested. “Although Dad saying only weirdos and people without purpose went to Art College didn’t exactly persuade me otherwise.
Isaac’s shoulders slumped as he obviously recalled the many arguments he and Carl had had about his future.
“I have to agree,” Dex said. “Not about the weirdos and people without purpose, but I’m not sure they could teach him much else, unless of course he wants to do textiles or graphic design.”
“God, no,” Isaac groaned. “That shit is boring.”
“Hey, language,” I warned, even though he usually said much worse – we had a visitor for goodness’ sake.
“See, he’s amazing, isn’t he?” Charlie, ever Isaac’s cheerleader, said.
“He sure is buddy.” Dex studied a drawing of a skull that had snakes coming out of the eye sockets and then back up to me, his expression thoughtful.
“What?” I asked.
Dex turned to Isaac. “I’d like to buy some of these for tattoo designs, if you’d be willing.”
“Are you shitting me?” Isaac’s face broke into a huge grin. “Which ones?”
Dex shook his head. “They’re all pretty damn good, but let’s start with the four skull designs. Sugar skulls are pretty popular at the moment, but I’ve never seen anything as good as these. You okay with that Katie?” He looked up at me where I was still holding the tray.
“It’s up to Isaac. They’re his drawings.”
I placed the tray on top of the coffee table, smacking Charlie’s hand away as he reached for the coffee.
“The juice is for you,” I grumbled, turning to my eldest son. “Well, do you want to sell them?”
Isaac’s head bobbed up and down like an excitable bobble head. “God yeah. That�
��ll shut Dad up for a week at least.”
I sighed inwardly, making a mental note to speak to Carl about his and Isaac’s relationship, which had deteriorated a lot since the divorce.
“Excellent.” Dex pulled the four drawings to one side. “Shall we say a hundred pounds?”
“Bloody hell,” Charlie gasped. “That’s twenty-five quid each, Isaac.”
“Language.”
“Shit.” Isaac blew out a breath. “A hundred quid, Mum.”
“Isaac, language.”
“Hey no,” Dex said, holding up a hand. “I mean a hundred each. I could use these as stencils. At this size I could pretty much charge double that, if not more, each time they’re used. Probably twice again if they have them in colour.”
The three of us looked at Dex in awe. He wanted to buy my talented boy’s drawings for a hundred pounds each.
“Well?” I prompted.
“Fuck yeah.”
“Language,” I said, barely above a whisper, still in a state of shock.
“It’s a deal.” Dex grinned. “Speaking of which, I said I’d show you my designs, but I gotta be honest, I’m not sure they’re as good as these.”
“Oh fuck,” I muttered.
“Language,” Charlie cried.
As Dex stripped off his shirt, I genuinely thought I heard a choir of angels sing and saw a shaft of light shine through the darkness outside and into my lounge.
There was only one word for what I was looking at – wondrous. He could honestly market himself as a tourist attraction and sell tickets.
With a tanned, firm chest that I’d caught a glimpse of in the pizza place, he looked like a man who most definitely worked out. His skin was smooth and almost every inch, up to his collar bone, was covered in tattoos. Both arms were adorned too, stopping at his wrists, and as he stood in front of the boys, answering questions about each design, with them listening intently, I couldn’t help but notice that there was no hint of undies above the waistband of his low-slung jeans.
“Wow, what’s that one?” Charlie asked, pointing to what looked like three lion’s heads, all merging into each other.
“That’s for my family,” Dex explained. “The top lion is my dad, the lioness my mom, and then me, their lion cub.” He smiled softly at the top of Charlie’s head as he peered closer.
“These are amazing.” Isaac’s voice was full of awe and I’d never seen him as enraptured as he was at that moment. “You designed every single one?”
Dex nodded. “I even inked a couple of them myself.”
“How on earth did you do that?” I asked, taking a step forward to get a closer look.
Dex looked up at me and the beauty of his face almost knocked me over on my arse. He was bloody gorgeous, but talking to the boys about something he evidently loved, only added to his beauty.
“It’s not too difficult. Plus, I did them at the tops of my thighs, so they were in a pretty easy place. Hardest part was having to do them upside down. After the first one, I used a stencil.”
“Show us,” Charlie cried.
Dex cleared his throat and glanced at me. “Sorry Charlie, but I’m not really in a position to.”
I gasped, realising that I’d been right, he wasn’t wearing any undies.
“Why?” Charlie asked, frowning.
Isaac laughed and ruffled his brother’s hair. “Because squirt, he’s going comm-.”
“Okay boys,” I butted in. “Let’s let Dex get his shirt back on.”
“Can we come to your studio?” Charlie asked, as Dex picked up his shirt.
“Hey, don’t be so rude,” I admonished, hoping to everything holy that Dex said yes.
“Yeah, of course you can, buddy.”
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah the angels sang.
“Awesome.” Charlie grinned and punched the air.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
We all spun around to see Annie standing in the doorway with her friend, Sally. As both girls looked past us, to the half-naked man standing in my lounge, I saw it on their pretty teenage faces – Jamie and Harry, the footballers, were forgotten. My daughter and her friend were having their first crush on an older man, and I didn’t blame them one bit.
Katie
“Katie,” Carl’s disappointed voice bellowed down the line. “Who the hell is this man who has been half-naked in front of my kids?”
Annie! The little grass, I thought as I slammed my car door – a car that Dex had arranged to be fixed and brought home for me.
“My friend, Dex,” I replied. “And he was showing the boys his tattoos.”
“What, we’re letting them have tattoos now? Don’t you think that’s something we should discuss?”
I rolled my eyes and sighed as I pushed open the gym door.
“No, because I’m not. Anyway, Isaac is nineteen, he doesn’t need our permission.”
“Fine, but answer the question. Who the hell is he, because I’m going to be honest with you Katie, I’m not happy about some pretty boy, tattooed, muscle man, who I don’t know being around my children.”
I had to grin, she may be a grass, but Annie had definitely laid it on thick with her dad at how good looking Dex was. There was nothing like the scorn of a child who felt abandoned and who’d had her crown as daddy’s Princess taken away.
“He’s a friend who helped me when that piece of shit car you bought broke down. He too-.”
“Not that again,” Carl grumbled, interrupting me. “If you looked after it, it should have years left in it.”
“I do look after it,” I protested. “It gets a regular service, but when the mechanic who fixed it says the something or other is worn and the thingamabobs are knackered, there’s not much I can do. Oh, and by the way, I’ve sent the bill for the repairs with Charlie. Make sure you get it off him when you pick him up after football practice tonight.”
Carl sighed. “Okay. So what does this guy do? Is he okay to be around the kids? Do you know whether he’s a paedophile?”
“He owns Heaven & Ink in town, is pretty famous in the tattoo world, according to Isaac, and I have no idea. Did Sophie’s parents check the register when your forty-three-year-old self, began dating their twenty-two-year-old daughter?”
I paused just to listen to Carl’s guilty silence and bask in it for just a few seconds.
“The point is,” he began, ignoring my comment as expected. “I know nothing about him.”
“Well you wouldn’t because you don’t have tattoos and he’s my friend, not yours.”
I didn’t add that I knew nothing about him either. There was no point in pissing him off further. What I did hate to admit, was that he was probably right. I should find out more about Dex. He could be married, or worse, a danger to my kids. It had just been lovely to be looked after and smiled at by a good looking man and I’d lost my head a little.
“Listen,” I said, waving to Mandy, who was already in the studio pulling her hair up into a high ponytail. “It’s not going to be a regular thing. He helped me out and I couldn’t not offer him a coffee. That would have been rude.”
“So why’d he have his shirt off?”
“He saw Isaac’s drawings and Isaac wanted to look at his tattoos. Like I said, he’s a pretty famous tattoo artist.”
“And?”
“And, he bought four drawings from your son. He loved his work and paid really good money for them.”
“Makes no difference,” Carl said, a little petulantly. “I don’t want him taking his clothes off in front of my kids again, especially not in front of Annie. She’s seventeen Katie. She wouldn’t shut up about him.”
“Yeah, I do know how old she is,” I snapped back. “It was my vajayjay she was pushed out of.”
“Katie, please,” Carl groaned.
“Oh stop being such a prude.”
I grinned, loving that Annie talking about Dex had wound Carl up. I knew Carl too well and the thought of his daughter eulogising over an
other man would have pushed his buttons. He was vain and despite what Annie thought, Carl adored her. If there was even a hint of another father figure on the scene, he would hate it.
“Listen, Carl,” I said with a sigh. “While we’re talking about Annie, maybe you should think about having a daddy-daughter day with her. Show her that you’re the best man in her life, despite the fact that you’ve got a beer belly and no tats.”
I grinned and silently chuckled.
“I don’t have a beer belly,” he protested.
And he really didn’t. He was in good shape, not as good as Dex, but he looked okay. I suppose you had to put the effort in when your wife and all her peers looked like they should be on ‘Love Island’.
“You’re right though,” he replied. “I’ll take her out, just me and her.”
Feeling thankful, I closed my eyes. Annie missed having her dad around, and if truth be told, she was a little jealous of her sister having Carl’s time and attention.
“Thanks Carl, she’ll love that and maybe a call to Isaac, too, congratulating him on selling his designs?”
I held my breath hoping that he didn’t go off on a rant about Isaac working in the record shop.
“Yeah, of course. Maybe he can supplement that shit wage he earns at the record shop.”
Yep, too good to be true. “Don’t say that to Isaac, okay? He needs you to be supportive.”
“Fine,” he sighed impatiently. “And don’t let any more men hang around my kids without finding out more about them first.”
“Seriously Carl, there won’t be any more men, but even if there was, I wouldn’t put the kids in danger. Dex didn’t mean any harm. He was just chatting with the boys.”
He paused and then cleared his throat. “Okay, but if he’s going to be around them, I want to meet him.”
I let my head drop back and roared laughing. “There’s no chance I’ll be seeing him again, not like that. No chance at all.”
“So that was it,” Mandy asked breathlessly as we ran forward, waving our glow sticks in the air. “He drank his coffee and left?”
