“Not jail.” Not this time, I think to myself. “Where I’m going, I, for damn sure, won’t run into anyone who looks like you, who looks at me like you do, and I’m pretty sure they won’t taste like you’re going to.”
She bites her lower lip.
“So, there’s my excuse. Now, sweets, what’s yours?”
“Huh?” She blinks her eyes that have been glued to the reflection of my mouth since I mentioned tasting her.
“I told you my story; now tag, you’re it.”
“Graduating college tomorrow. Then I’m going home to pack for a wedding.”
The way she says home concerns me. “Is home a bad place?”
She shakes her head. “I just have a very overprotective father.”
“If you were mine, I can’t say if I’d have let you out of my sight.”
We stare at each other for a few moments. Then she tilts her head back and licks her lips. I move closer and stop just before my lips touch hers.
“Why?” she whispers.
“Because, when you look at a man like me, you should be crossing the damn street to safety on the other side.”
“You put a group of suits on one side of the street and a group of men who look like you on the other, I’m going toward you. Now kiss me or ink me.”
I pull back slightly. “Give me the concept.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” she whispers.
Stepping back, I nod. “I’m going to decorate you first.”
She sighs. “I may change my mind, you know.”
My lips twitch upward. “Uh-huh.”
“It’s not like this is normal for me.”
“It’s also not like you’re completely sober, sweets. By the time I’m done, you will be.” I sit on my chair and put my feet up on the table. “Tell me the concept.”
“The story behind it?” she asks, sitting on the table.
“Absolutely not.” I smirk. “That taints the vision.”
“Four women have given me great inspiration through beauty, wisdom, strength, and love.”
I begin to sketch. “I don’t love flowers, per say, but daisies look like they’re full of life and are highly detailed.”
“Also my favorite,” she says.
“Interesting.” I sit forward and begin drawing. “I don’t want details, but some of the women are no longer here, so one flower fully in bloom, another open but not completely, and another just opening. A lifespan of sorts yet never gone.”
She leans over and watches me draw. Normally, I hate that. With her, I like it.
Once the flowers are sketched out, I write the words She is Beauty on the upper left, beside the flower not yet fully opened. To the right of the flowers and a little lower, I write She is Wisdom. To the left and lower, She is Strength. To the right, She is Love.
“That’s perfect.”
I nod and continue. To the left, aligned with Beauty, I write, She is… Me
After looking it over and adding some detail, I give the sketch a satisfactory nod and look up.
Lust is now replaced by emotion in her eyes.
“She is me,” she whispers, looks up, and smiles softly. “I love it.” Her smile widens. “I absolutely love it.”
“I’m glad, because this is what you’re getting.” I toss the book on the floor then look her over. “Just not sure where yet. Turn for me.”
She slides off the table as I pull my feet down. I push my chair back and look over her rocking body.
“Not the shoulder or neck.”
She looks over her shoulder at me. “Somewhere private?”
I reach forward and take her hips. “Bend.”
“Not a tramp stamp either.”
I nod. “Definitely not.”
I turn her body slightly to the side. “Not here. Turn again.”
She does.
I let go of her then hold my hands out in frame formation and look through it. Middle lower back. I take the back of my fingertips and run them over the area. “Here.”
“That big?”
“Would you rather have an eight-by-ten or a wallet-sized photo hanging on your wall?”
She looks down. “More a five-by-seven, don’t you think?”
I lean back and cross my arms. “Might not be the best person to ask that.” I wave my hand in front of me. “I like my art visible.”
“I’d like mine private.”
“Seven by nine?” I push.
She smiles and shrugs.
“So, basically, you’ll show it off at the beach and when you’re …” I stop when she turns and looks down my body. “You okay?”
“I’d like some water.”
“Thirsty?”
She nods and looks back up into my eyes.
Welcome back, lust. I groan to myself.
I wink then turn and walk out of the room. I know her eyes are still on me.
She’s lying on her belly and squirming so much that I’m stopping every couple of minutes. It’s all good, though; the view is amazing. She’s a perfect canvas. Her ass is in my face so when I’m not working on her, I’m sizing her up. It’s round, hard, flawless skin, and each cheek is a perfect handful.
“You want me to change things up? Leave out some detail?”
“Fuck no,” she groans. “I’d never come back.”
I chuckle, almost done. “Good, because I wouldn’t have anyway.”
“I can’t believe people do this all the time.”
“It can be addicting.”
“Says who?” She cringes when I turn my machine back on.
“Millions of people.”
“I’m aware. But at this moment …” She pauses when I begin again. “Fuck me.”
“We’ll never get to that if you don’t lie still.”
She looks back at me, smiling and blushing. “You better be good at what you do.”
“Sweets”—I wink—“I don’t do anything half-assed.”
She props herself up on her elbows and arches her back so I have to stop.
I place my palm between her shoulder blades. “Almost there.”
“That’s what you said like …” She pauses to think.
I fill in the blank, “Two minutes ago.”
“I better get a sticker or a sucker when this is over. A treat.” She lies down and looks back at me. “Finish me off.”
“I plan on it.”
She lowers her head so her dark chocolate tresses fall in her face, but I see her smirk, her nose crinkling, and her nibbling on her lower lip.
She is … me. That’s all I have to ink to finish the art.
“Three words, and then we’ll see what you’ve got.”
Five
The Last D
Bella
Three and a half hours ago, I stood outside of Body Art NYC with my three roommates on the eve of our graduation.
“We’re really going to do this?” Alice, who looks like a human version of Alice in Wonderland asked, giving them time to contemplate what they had less time to ponder than me. I’d already decided.