Barber Shop Ink - Book 2: Between a Hedge and a Hard Place

by Penny Blush

  I wanted this conversation to be over, but there was still a little more to tell.

  I grabbed the bottle of rum, unscrewed the lid and took a healthy swig right from the bottle.

  “It took a while for a few of my uncle’s men to pry Travis from my arms. My uncle told me later that it took him three days to get me to acknowledge anyone, to talk, to explain what had happened, and that was when everything changed.”

  “What changed?” Memphis prompted.

  “My uncle stopped seeing me as his niece, a daughter and started seeing me as a tool for his business and a weapon. Uncle Charlie told me I had to stop seeing Stella and working in the salon. I had to start training and learning the business.” I took another mouthful of rum, letting his warmth spread and fortify me to finish. “I learned how to use a gun, how to launder money, and I trained to be a doctor. I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to get certified if I wanted to. I became the staff doctor for my uncle’s empire and developed a reputation all of my own as a healer and a punisher.”

  I talked long into the night and gave Memphis more details of my life, there was still more to tell, but for now, it was enough.

  “My uncle is a dangerous man Memphis. Davan warned me to stay away, but I was stubborn and thought I knew better. My stupid stubbornness almost killed me, but that’s a story for another time.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling emotionally drained and exhausted.

  We sat in shell-shocked silence, not saying anything. I just sat and prayed that this would not be the end as Memphis processed what he had heard. As the time stretched on I became more and more worried, my emotions bubbling up, I needed to be alone, to have just a moment to myself.

  “I’ll be back, in a bit,” I said, standing up slowly from the bed.

  “Where are you going?” Memphis asked flatly.

  “I just need a bit of time.”

  “Hedge you don’t have to leave, this is your home. I’ll… I’ll go,” Memphis said attempting to get out of bed. He sounded worried, and it gave me a little glimmer of hope that I hadn’t just blown up our relationship with my confession.

  “I’m just going to have a shower and get something to eat, so lay back down,” I said pushing on his chest until he lay back against the pillows.

  “Don’t go, Hedge, please.”

  “I’m not going far, I promise I won’t leave the apartment. I don’t talk about that part of my life. I keep it locked away for a reason. I… I just need some time to clear my head.”

  “Okay, but just so you know, you leave, and I will follow. You try to hide, and I will find you, okay?” He raised my chin until I was looking at him. “I need you, so don’t leave.”

  I couldn’t handle the emotions swirling in his eyes or the ones churning through me. I nodded, pulling away before the constant flow of tears started. Under the warm, soothing stream of the shower, I let go of my control and let the emotional dam break.

  Sometime later I sat on the deck, cocooned in my brother’s hoodie and wrapped in a blanket that smelt like Memphis and I cried. I cried and cried until there were no tears left and I felt empty. I had never shed so many tears as I had since meeting Memphis. It was cathartic, and I realized it was because I felt safe and secure with him.

  I didn’t feel the need to keep everything bottled up because I felt comforted by him. Years of repressed feelings and emotions sprung free. I just hoped I could finally stop being spun around by feelings from the past I hadn’t dealt with and that after this episode of uncontrollable crying that my emotional schizophrenia would now finally, calm.

  Watching the sun gradually peek its head above the horizon, casting light and shadow over the river, I reconciled myself to my fate.

  I had told Memphis almost everything – all except for how I got out from under my uncle’s control.

  I prayed that it wouldn’t change anything. I prayed that he would still want me. I prayed that we could put all this behind us and now move forward. But, I also resigned myself to the fact that if Memphis wanted out that I would walk away without any fuss. It would kill me, but I would do it.

  I tiptoed back into the bedroom. Memphis was lying on his side turned away from me. Well, if this was all going to end I wanted one more night, and well one more morning wrapped in his arms. I crawled into bed, Memphis rolled onto his back, opening his arm instinctively for me to curl into my spot on his chest, his arms wrapping around me, his hand on my hip. Within a moment my breathing slowed, and my eyes grew heavy.

  “I love you, Baby Girl,” he whispered, tightening his hold on me, “Now, always and forever.”

  Chapter 5 Memphis

  It was mid-afternoon when I woke. My body ached all over, but my head and my heart felt lighter. It was as if the weight of the burden of keeping secrets and lying to Hedge had lifted. I looked over at the most beautiful and amazing woman I have ever known.

  She was laying, beside me, her back against my side, using my shoulder as her pillow. She clung to me in her sleep. Her arms wrapped around mine as if she was hanging on for dear life. Like she was trying to keep me with her, afraid that I would disappear.

  My gaze travelled down the length of her body, my tee that she was wearing to sleep in had ridden up as she tossed and turned in her sleep. Revealing the sweet curve of her ass. Her very naked, perfect ass. I turned onto my side, groaning in pain as quietly as I could and wrapped myself around her.

  I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deeply. The scent of vanilla and berries from her shampoo soothing me. She shifted in her sleep, causing her to rub that biteable ass against my painfully hard morning wood as she snuggled closer to me.

  I was in pain, sore, and I ached all over. There wasn’t a part of me that didn’t hurt, but that didn’t stop me from grinding back against her.

  I ran my fingers of my free hand up her smooth, delectable leg. Drawing swirling, sweeping designs on her skin, little goosebumps rising in their wake.

  Her smooth lightly sun-kissed thigh - a perfect canvas. With every brush of my fingertip on her skin, a design formed in my mind. I grew harder still at the thought of her laid out on my tattoo bed - naked, as I marked her skin permanently with my art. The idea of Hedge wearing one of my designs on her body from mid-ribs, snaking its way down the curve of her hip to mid-thigh had me so turned on and so unbelievably hard. I bit my lip at the thought muffling my moan.

  Not caring about the pain screaming through my body, I gently rocked into her again. My hand continued its upward journey, disappearing under the soft grey cotton of the tee that had now become my favourite piece of clothing. My fingers skimmed across her belly, over her ribs, tracing the side of her breast as I nuzzled against her neck, kissing the sensitive spot behind her ear.

  “Memphis,” Hedge sighed sleepily, as I cupped her breast, teasing her nipple with my thumb. Her eyes fluttered open as she rolled her hips against me.

  “Morning Baby Girl,” continuing to lay soft kisses on her neck.

  “Morning Baby,” her voice husky from sleep, went straight to my dick, making me moan again. “Memphis what are you doing?” she asked, pushing her breast into my hand.

  “Saying good morning. I just want to make sure that your day starts right,” I smiled against her sleep-warmed skin kissing her neck.

  She let me tease her a little more, then groaned “Baby you’re going to have to stop.”

  “Why, Sweetness?” I asked, rolling her nipple between my fingers. “I don’t want to stop.”

  “Because, Memphis you’re hurt,” she said in half-hearted protest.

  “It would hurt me more to stop at this point.”

  Please, please don’t make me stop I silently pleaded. I slid my hand down Hedge’s body. My fingers teasing between her legs.

  “Baby, please,” she begged.

  “Please what Sweetness?”

  “Please don’t stop,” she groaned as my fingers lightly grazed her clit.

  Nothing was going to stop me. I brought my hand back up
Hedge’s body, pulling my tee with it. Peeling it from her, she turned to face me, and I shifted, leaning over to kiss her.

  She responded immediately, alleviating any concern I had that she might pull away and disappear after last night.

  We had both said a lot, revealing things that we both would have preferred never to see the light of day. But they were things that needed to be said, baggage that needed offloading and I for one felt better and believed that we were both better for it.

  Our tongues danced as we kissed. A soft moan escaped her lips. I tried to suppress a groan and not the good kind, it was a groan of pain. My jaw ached from where a steel capped boot had connected, rattling my brain. I was lucky I had such a hard head and an equally hard jaw that the boot only cracked the bone and not broken it. But the side of my face was still black and blue, swollen and painful as fuck.

  “Baby Girl, I’m sorry,” I groaned again, flipping onto my back, rubbing my face. “It’s my fucking jaw,” the lust filled moment shattered.

  Hedge rolled into me a little so that she could look me in the eye. “Baby, I told you we should stop. You’re still healing. You need to rest…”

  “Hedge,” I interrupted ignoring her instruction to rest when something that I should have noticed before now caught my attention. “What happened to your eyes?”

  “What are you… oh, shit…” she closed her eyes and turned her face away from me.

  I turned her face back to me. I wasn’t going to let her hide. She looked at me with watery eyes, her real eyes. Her actual eyes and right then I saw the genuine Hedge, and I understood.

  The same. Mirror image. It all made sense.

  We locked eyes. A mirror image of the same eyes. My blue eye looking into her chocolate coloured eye. Her midnight blue eye into my brown.

  “Baby Girl, you need to talk to me,” I said, running my thumb under her chocolate coloured eye. “What happened to your eyes? Why aren’t they both blue?” A single tear slid down her cheek. “They’re the same.”

  “Memphis,” she whispered.

  I wasn’t going to let her get away with clamming up and not talking, not now. “You have Hetro-idium, or whatever.”

  She let out a small laugh, “it’s called Heterochromia Iridium.” I had never known what it was actually called I just knew that they were different.

  “Why didn’t you say anything? I don’t understand, they’re beautiful. Why hide it? Why hide it from me? How did you hide them from me this whole time?”

  “It was… It was just easier, you know. I didn’t like people staring at me. I didn’t like the attention.” A deep sigh escaped her beautiful pink, kiss-swollen lips. “So, I covered it up with a coloured contact. I hid my uniqueness so that I wouldn’t stand. After a while it was just normal for me to hide them. I found contact lenses that I only had to change out once a week. I’ve gotten good at hiding parts of myself I don’t want others to see. I was with Thomas for almost two years, and he never knew.”

  “Don’t,” I said just as she reached back to kiss me.

  “I’m sorry,” she said sadly turning from me.

  “No Baby Girl, that’s not what I meant.” I laughed quietly at her misunderstanding, turning her back to me. “What I meant was, don’t hide. Especially not from me. I love your uniqueness. I love everything about you. I love you, Baby Girl,” I whispered, tightening my hold on her. “Now and forever.”

  I could see the question in her beautiful eyes. I kissed her before reassuring her.

  “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. I don’t say ‘I love you’ unless I mean it and I do. I love you, Hedge, even if you won’t tell me your real name,” I smirked.

  She kissed me softly, whispering, “I love you too, Memphis but I’m still not telling you.” She smiled against my lips, “I love you Memphis.”

  My heart exploded, I didn’t expect her to say it back. My heart overflowed with love when she did.

  “I… I’ve” she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them, searching my eyes. Hedge had so much emotion swirling in her lovely eyes that it made my chest hurt. “Outside of my family, I have never said ‘I love you’ to anyone before, only you.”

  We kissed, reveling in the declaration. It was fierce and passionate, our tongues sliding against each other’s as we held onto one another tightly not wanting to let go. Our kiss was expressing our emotions, saying everything words could not.

  “Ahhh, fucking jaw,” I groaned, breaking the kiss.

  “Baby, it’s fine I love you.” She smiled saying the words that made me happier than I can ever remember being. “I can wait until you’re all better,” she assured me.

  Seriously, how the hell did I get lucky enough to deserve someone like her?

  I kissed her nose. “Say it again.”

  “I can wait it’s…”

  I cut her off growling. “Not that. Tell me you love me.”

  Placing a hand delicately over my bruised jaw, looking deep into my eyes she whispered fiercely, “I love you.”

  I kissed each eyelid. “Say it again.”

  “I love you, Baby.”

  I kissed each cheek. “Say it again.”

  “I love you, Memphis Blue.”

  My hand slid down across her stomach in slow descending circles. “Baby Girl, I’m so very sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For, getting beaten up. I’m sorry that you had to patch me up. I’m sorry that you were worried about me. I’m sorry that because of me you were scared. But most of all I’m sorry that I can’t pleasure you the way I want to.”

  “Memphis, Baby, it’s fine. Really, it is.”

  “No, it’s not. My stupid jaw hurts so fucking much. It sucks because I should be able to kiss you the way I want to. I should be able to use my mouth on you the way I want to,” She softly kissed the bruise on my jaw. “I can’t use my tongue the way I want to.”

  My hand had made its way back between her legs.

  “Tell me,” she moaned.

  “I love you, Baby Girl.” She smiled, kissing me again.

  “No Baby, tell me what you want to do to me, with your mouth, with your tongue,” she moaned again as I slid a finger between her folds.

  “Tell you?” I smiled against her lips. “You want me to tell you how I want to kiss you?”

  “Umm-hum,” she replied.

  “I want to kiss your beautiful mouth. I want my lips on yours, feeling how soft they are. I want to run my tongue along your bottom lip. Biting it a little, making you gasp. I want to slide my tongue against yours. I want to taste every inch of your mouth. I want to hear you moan as my beard rasps against your skin.”

  “More,” she moaned, rocking her hips against my hand. “Tell me more.”

  “When I’ve had my fill of your beautiful mouth, I want to kiss my way across your jaw until I can reach the sensitive spot behind your ear. The spot that I know makes you moan when I kiss it. The spot that I know makes you wet when I run my tongue over it.”

  Her breath caught in her throat as I rolled her head to the side so that I could do just that. Kissing and licking the spot behind her ear. My hand left her pussy, running my fingers down her leg to her knee, lifting it up over my aching dick. Settling her leg over my hip while trying to avoid the cuts scrapes and bruises. Opening her up to me so that she couldn’t squeeze her thighs together, giving me better access.

  “I want to kiss my way down your neck using my lips, tongue, and teeth making you hotter. Making you wet as I make my way lower.” I blew my warm breath across her jaw and down her neck, making her moan out. “… until I reach your breasts.” I palmed her breast and squeezed gently. I heard her breath hitch, encouraging me to continue. “I want to cover your creamy skin in kisses, before taking your nipple into my mouth and sucking.”

  I couldn’t help it. I needed to taste Hedge. I swiped my tongue over the hard peak of her nipple and then blew across it watching the bud tighten.

  “I want to worsh
ip your breasts, taking my time with each of them.” I lightly kissed each. “I would hate for either of the girls to feel like they were neglected.”

  I winked at her as my fingers worked lazily. Stroking up and down the inside of her thighs getting close, so close to her pussy, but never touching. I would move my fingers back down her leg every time she shifted her hips to get me closer to where she wanted me.

  “Memphis, you’re teasing me,” she tried to shift her hips again, “please.”

  “Baby Girl, describing what I want to do is taking some time.” I skimmed my fingers across her pussy, running from top to bottom making her shiver.

  “Now, where was I? That’s right; I was worshipping your breasts with kisses, bites, sucks, and licks.”

  I dragged my middle finger back up through her wet pussy, circling her entrance. Teasing her before making my way up to her clit to give it the same treatment. Circling the edge of her clit, but never touching how she wants me to, making her whimper.

  “I want to kiss my way down your stomach, occasionally nipping and biting. Not enough to hurt, but enough so that I still have your attention.”

  “Memphis, oh…” She moaned, “… you definitely have my attention.”

  “I want to take my time, kissing, licking and tasting your skin before I make my way to where you want me. Where I want to be.”

  “Oh God, Memphis I want you. I need you, please,” she pleaded.

  Ignoring her pleas, I continued.

  “When I am finally between your legs, my face level with your pussy. I would spread your legs wide, so I have access to everything.” I teased, dragging out the word ‘ev-er-y-th-in-g’ so that it had six syllables as I keep sliding up and down swirling my fingers. “I want to lower my head between your delectable thighs and lick you. Running my tongue from bottom to top.” My fingers mimicked my words, gliding from her ass to her clit.