by L. L. Ash
“No thank you. Ladies don’t get their cooches pierced.”
A huge, naughty grin spread over her face as I started smacking her with my wallet.
“You little bitch!” I called out, getting one last good whack in while Roman laughed from his spot behind the counter.
He held my card back out to me, elbows back on the counter glass as he leaned toward us.
“Call if you have any questions, ok?”
I nodded and took my card, feeling shy again all of a sudden.
“Have a good night,” he called as we left, twenty minutes after the shop was supposed to close.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe you actually did it!” Josie shrieked.
Cambria giggled and put her arm around me, squeezing me to her before dropping into the back seat.
I stretched into the passenger seat in front, opening my legs to give the piercing some space.
“You are a sexy goddess. Seriously. I want to be you one day,” Josie sighed, getting the car moving. “I love that you actually did it. You are going to make some man very happy in however long it takes to heal.”
“He said four to eight weeks,” I told them.
They hummed in understanding.
“Good thing you guys just broke up,” Cambria added so nicely.
As if I could have forgotten.
“That asshole doesn’t deserve a girl with a hood piercing!” Josie called.
“Here here!” Cambria agreed.
I just laughed, because I agreed wholeheartedly.
The cheating bastard would have gone nuts over something like this. Hell, he might have even gone down on me for the first time in our entire three-year relationship. Too bad he had to dip into more than one pussy, ‘cause mine just got a fun new ornament and he would never find out.
After wasting years on him, I was almost glad when I caught him fucking my frenemy Lizzy. It was a pretty quick and clean exit. I threw my full carat and a half diamond engagement ring at his head and walked out of the room, leaving him and our entire life there with him.
“And holy smokes hotman!” Josie breathed. “He is one sexy piece of man flesh! Did you see those arms? Those hands? Like, oh my God!”
“He’s pretty sexy,” Cambria nodded. “If you’re into the whole bohemian, man-bun thing.”
“Oh, I’m in. So in!” Josie nodded vigorously.
“He has nipple rings,” I grinned, adding that to the mix just to see what Josie would say.
“WHAT?” she shrieked. “Did you see them?”
I shook my head.
“No, I just asked him what he had.”
I kept my knowledge of the ones down below to myself. Mostly because I was only guessing that he had any to begin with.
“What else?” Josie stared at me to the point it was kind of nerve wracking because, well, she was supposed to be driving.
“Not much else. He mostly just talked me through the procedure,” I admitted.
Roman hadn’t really been talkative. Not in the getting-to-know-you sort of way.
“Oh come on! Not even a little hand job while he had his fingers and face between your legs?” she groaned, Cambria laughing along with Josie’s dramatics.
Without Josie, Cambria and I would be boring.
“Didn’t even cop a feel.” I sighed dramatically.
I was grateful he was so professional about the whole thing. It helped me relax thinking he wasn’t looking at me like that. Although it was a little hit to my ego.
Aw, what was I talking about? I didn’t have an ego.
“I’m going to get one next,” Josie grinned devilishly as she got back onto the freeway, the rain that’s been sitting heavy in the clouds all day finally coming down and making the road look like a million sparkling diamonds in the headlights.
“If you do, you’re taking me with you, beotch,” Cambria punched Josie in the arm, then reached forward between our seats and turned up the radio, effectively ending the conversation.
I just sat back and dreamed about those lake blue eyes, rugged short beard and that messy blond top knot on his head.
Chapter Two
Roman
The moment the girls left, I locked up the door behind them and started closing the curtains.
I’d stayed late, and honestly, had been in the process of closing up early when they showed up. I was eternally grateful that I’d been a lazy ass and was taking my sweet time, because I just had my hands on the sweetest pussy I’d seen in months. Maybe even years.
Don’t you judge me. I may be the epitome of rugged manliness, but typically women only liked me for a short fuck then ‘see you later!’ But that wasn’t my thing, and that was why I was in such a fucking dry spell. I wanted a woman that loved me for me, who wanted me, including all my tattoos and piercings. I wanted a woman who wasn’t into me for the ‘experience’ and wanted to bring me home to her parents.
Being a serial monogamist really had its drawbacks, mainly being the shortage of pussy.
I just sighed as I took out the trash from our two private rooms and the cans inside each station that my artists always ‘forgot’ to take out themselves.
If I’d known that starting my own ink shop would really mean I’d suddenly become the parent to half a dozen adult-aged teenagers, I’d have thought twice about it. And when I say twice, I mean about fifty-eight thousand times.
Rolling my eyes, I flicked out the lights and moved to the back, letting myself out and locking up before tossing the big trash bag into the dumpster.
The street lights didn’t really penetrate around the shop, so me and my bike were plunged into some pretty heavy shadows every night when I left, but that didn’t stop me from winking at my security camera and flipping it off. Because, while I might be a one-woman man, I was also a free man who could do whatever he damn well pleased, and I was proud of that.
I slipped my helmet over my head, ‘cause I’m not stupid, then straddled my favorite little beast in the entire world.
Hey, at least I had one girl between my legs every night…
Yeah, not the same.
Stomping down on the starter, I shifted the foot clutch and turned around in the back parking lot, heading home.
Fae.
Like the mythical creatures. Faerie or something like that. I’d read about them at school, you know, getting a degree that I rarely used at my shop.
Her name really fit her. Fae had this like...tomato-red hair. It’s sexier than I’m describing, but damn, I’d think it was fake if she didn’t have a red-head’s complexion. Light freckles sprinkled all over her nose and cheeks, and her face sparked up almost as red as her hair when I told her to get her panties off.
Fuck, that was hard.
It wasn’t usually a hardship to have my hands between a girl’s thighs, but tonight, all I wanted was to press my thumb against her sweet little pink clit and sink my thick fingers into her equally sweet slit until she was yelping from pleasure instead of pain...
It’s hard business, man… Of course I didn’t want to be sued or go to jail for assaulting a girl, so I kept my fingers to myself, minus the bare minimum in order to put that steel bar in her.
Her smell was still in my nose, and I kind of hated that I threw those gloves away, because they smelled like her, too.
I bypassed my exit, opting for a late night ride to get that girl out of my head. As street lamps passed and traffic occasionally appeared around me, I weaved in and out on the road that was newly wet, like it usually was.
Seattle didn’t have much sun, and being the awkward season between winter and spring, the city was typically wet more than it was dry. Just like how I liked my women.
Images of Fae bounced through my head again.
I’d tried to blow everything off like it was no big deal, but seeing her glistening and ready while I was down there, even through the pain, it was such a fucking turn on. I had to keep turning away from her and messing with nothing on the table so I didn’t stare at her like a
psycho. Meanwhile, she was just sitting there, trusting that I wasn’t a pervert. Luckily she’d found me instead of some other parlor. They might not have treated her with as much dignity and respect as I did, especially at that time of night. Unfortunately not every man can turn away and not make a pass at a girl spread eagle in front of him.
It took inhuman strength. Trust me.
How dudes were vagina doctors, I had no fucking clue. Maybe they were all gay. That’d make more sense.
Taking the next exit, I took the long way home, finally parking in the garage of my house tucked away near the Sound and Pike Market.
Houses here were fucking expensive, but being the sole heir of my dad’s multi-billion dollar fortune, I could afford it.
How’d he get it? Real estate.
Yep.
This house, my house, was one of his acquisitions that he gifted me after I finished my MBA at Stanford.
Go ‘Trees’…
To say Dad was disappointed that I’d ‘wasted my life’ buying a tattoo parlor and making art on human canvases was like saying sliced bread was an ‘ok’ invention. Dad was so fucking mad I didn’t join him in his dream, but I had my own dreams. It only took me until I was twenty-seven to figure out that my dreams mattered too, before tossing up my birdy fingers and doing my own thing.
Dad still called, hoping he’d convince me one day to help him in his business, but here I was, running my own business and taking care of my own ‘kids’ who were supposed to be my employees.
I rolled my eyes at my thoughts as I set my helmet on my seat inside the garage.
A chill ran through me, penetrating the thick leather and kevlar of my jacket, so instead of letting myself continue in that line of thinking, I closed the garage door, hung my jacket up to dry, kicked off my boots to do the same before heading into the kitchen.
I threw together a sandwich for myself, then plopped into my plush leather couch in front of my stupidly huge TV. Nothing was on since it was inching towards one thirty in the morning, so I let an infomercial drone about sonic hearing for old people while I ate my ham and cheese, still trying not to think about Fae and her hair, freckles, blue-green eyes and her creamy, flawless skin…
Shit…
Ok, bedtime.
Logically, I’d probably never see her again and if I did, it would be on a professional basis. My thoughts of her were off base and uncool.
Professionalism, Rome. Seriously, I had no idea what had gotten into me.
Munching my last bite, I turned off the TV and headed to bed.
I fell into my sheets, shirt and jeans still on, and fell asleep almost instantly.
My alarm was chirping at me to wake up, but instead of getting a move on like I should have, I took a minute to luxuriate in my awesome mattress and the warm feeling cocooning me.
The snooze alarm went off nine minutes later and I finally forced myself up. Getting myself out of yesterday’s clothes, I got into a hot shower before pulling on a plain black t-shirt and some jeans, not even bothering to look in the mirror when I put my hair up in its typical hipster bun.
Hey, even the awesomeness that is me has to give in sometimes. I loved having long hair, but it got in the way most of the time at the shop, so I’d just gotten used to wearing it up when I went to work. Not going to lie, that man-bun got me a lot of attention from the ladies, and I had no intentions of cutting it off anytime soon.
I picked up a coffee on the way in to Inkubus, barely getting there to open up on time.
“Hey cutie,” Rosie drawled, joining me at the door while I cracked it open, pocketing my keys.
“It’s too early for your sass, babe.” I told her, letting her in first before reaching in to flick the lights on.
“It’s never too early for sass or ass, babe,” she winked at me, heading to her station.
I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt before heading back to my office.
“You get me a coffee?” she called back to me.
“No!” I shouted back, hurrying to drink mine before she stole it from me.
Not twenty seconds later she made it to my office and snatched the paper cup off my desk, frowning when she found it empty.
“You suck,” she pouted.
“You get paid well enough to get your own Goddamn coffee, Rosie.” I eyed her.
“I know. You remind me every time I come in. I just never get up early enough!”
“That’s your own fault, woman! Now git! Get out of my office and open the shop!”
“I have an early appointment,” she said as she left. “But after that I’m taking off again ‘til three.”
“Whatever.” I waved her out.
We went through this little song and dance literally every Wednesday and Friday. Rosie loved to grate on my every last nerve, and I kind of liked it that way.
I heard her talking to someone in the shop and figured her first appointment of the day had shown up.
Getting my books straightened for the first hour of the day, I felt good about the financial projections when I heard the back door open again.
“Sup, Rome,” Freddie peeked his head into my office.
“Hey Fred. It really ten already?” I asked him, shoving my hands through the loose strands of hair over my forehead.
“Sure is. Well, almost.”
“What do you have on the lists for the day?” I asked him, stretching back in my swivel chair.
“Got two people coming in, but I should have some time for walk-ins if you need me.”
“Good. Awesome,” I nodded.
“How’d it go last night?” he asked as I stood and followed him to the front counter. “Sorry I had to bail on you.”
“No worries, dude. Only had one person come in after you left.”
“Yeah? Had to send them off? I only took off like, an hour early.”
“Right after you left these giggling chicks came in. One of them wanted a VCH.”
“Ooo!” He bounced his eyebrows under the wide, black brim of his hipster hat.
See? I’m not the only one folding to the hipster calling.
“She cute?” he asked now, pressing his hands to his cheeks like a teenage girl.
“Sexy as hell. I made time for her.”
“Of course you did.” He laughed, sorting through some of the papers on the counter, looking through the schedule. “You don’t know how to say no to a cute girl.”
He was annoyingly right.
“Whatever. Easy money.”
Shrugging, he patted me on the shoulder.
“Nobody blames you for having a soft spot for sexy, Rome.”
“Good. Besides, you would’ve too.”
“That hot, huh?”
“Dude. Like, super red hair, these seafoam green/blue eyes and freckles all over her face… And her skin was so pale and perfect. It’s kind of a shame I had to meet her in the shop.”
“Oh, of course. She’s just your type. Probably all shy and adorable too.”
I shoved my lower lip out.
“Right. Your kryptonite.” Freddie laughed at me. “Well, at least you filled the spank bank for a little while.”
“Ugh, I hate the spank bank.”
“As does every other human being in the world. Too bad you’re a relationship guy.”
Yeah, too bad.
“Get your ass doing something,” I sighed finally, incredibly done with our conversation.
“You got it, boss.” He slapped me on the back and laughed in his understated, ironic sort of way.
He was a true hipster.
Tanner came wandering in at twenty after noon, when he was supposed to arrive at half past eleven.
“Yo, office,” I told him as he breezed past without even an explanation.
“Got a client coming in now,” was his full response.
“Get your ass in my office as soon as you’re done.”
No response was forthcoming from him as he settled himself in his station and prepped for his client.
“Hey,” A tattooed beauty came up to the front, the bell above the door tinkling behind her.
“Hey, I’m Roman. What can we do for you?” I asked her, putting out my hand to shake.
She took it and smiled through the snakebite piercings in her lips. “I’m here to see Tanner.”
“Yeah, yeah. Hey Freddie, wanna grab Tanner?” I asked Freddie as he dipped underneath the front counter for who knows what.
“Sure!” He nodded, heading off again.
“So what’re you getting?” I asked her, just to be friendly as she waited.
“This.” She held up a conception piece on printer paper.
“That’s sick!” I looked at it, seeing the typical drama laughing and crying masks in a tastefully feminine and colorful pattern.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” was all she managed to get out before Tanner bounded up to us, kissing the girl on the cheek.
“C’mon back. I’ve got it stenciled up already.”
She followed him back and I narrowed my eyes on the asshole.
Tanner was a damn good artist. He never messed up, and he could handle some of the more complicated shit that people came up with. He was also, however, an asshole, and not the good kind like me. He was inconsiderate and difficult for a lot of people to work with, especially poor Rosie. The dude was a royal dick to her, which was one of the biggest contributing factors to Rosie refusing to do this full time. She insisted that two days a week was her max when it came to Tanner’s assholery, so, I did what I could.
The bell chimed again and another woman approached the counter.
I called out for Freddie, giving our walk in to him since he was a couple hours out from his first appointment, then I settled behind the desk, ready for the long, long day to really get going.
Nowadays I didn’t do a lot of tattooing, which was a shame. It was my art and my passion, but I spent so much Goddamn time doing paperwork that I only got clients two or three times a week. My calendar was booked out for fucking months and my clients were starting to get antsy.
I’d played with the idea of hiring someone to just run the place for me, a manager or something, but honestly it had just been another thing that I didn’t want to, or even have the time, to deal with. I liked things just so and having to train somebody in the ways of the shop sounded overwhelming with my current time constraints.
