I cupped his jaw and made him look at me. “No, it wasn’t Jarod, not entirely.”
“Lila…”
“My mother,” I whispered, the pain choking me. “She was there when I left Cassy’s. Waiting for me. Jarod told her about you and me, that he saw us kissing. She called me a slut and a whore. Told me I’d disgraced the family, and I…I didn’t hold back. I told her about Jarod, all of it, what he tried to do. She blamed me, of course, and she cut me out of her life, like I’m a bit of rot. Like she did Kate.” I broke down then, tears running free.
Jesse held me tightly.
“I know it hurts, Lila, but you’re better off without her poison in your life. I know that better than you think.” He pulled back so I could see his face. “You still have me. You have your friends. You have Kate. And we’re not going anywhere, ever,” he said with so much feeling behind his words, he shook.
“Thank you.”
He wiped the tears from my eyes. “Don’t need to thank me. Having you in my life is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. If she can’t see how amazing you are, that’s her loss.”
“You really mean that?” I said, gripping him tighter, fighting more tears.
“Yeah, I fucking mean it.”
We stared at each other for several long moments, and I gave him a shaky smile. The look in his eyes was intense, so intense my heart raced and I was close to blurting out how much I loved him.
“I’ve always wanted a tattoo; did you know that?” I said to break the tension.
His mouth kicked up on one side. “Yeah? What would you get?”
“Kate and I have always talked about each getting a bird…well, a black-throated blue warbler in flight to be precise. We rescued one once, but it stayed for a long time after we released it, let us feed it. After it finally left, when things started getting tough at home, we started a secret group, just me and Kate…the Blue Warblers.”
Jesse chuckled.
I laughed as well. “Hey, we were little.”
“I think it’s cute,” he said, eyes warm and sexy.
“We used to pretend we were birds, that we could fly away, too.”
His gaze grew intense again.
“Anyway, we thought it would be a cool sister tattoo, something that has meaning to just us—togetherness, freedom. Is that silly?”
“Nope.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. “Let’s do it.”
“What?”
“Let’s ink you up, Bambi. We can do Kate’s next week if she’s still game.”
“You’re serious?”
“Why not? What’s stopping you?” he said, that sexy grin front and center, daring me to do it.
“Okay.”
His grin widened, heart-stoppingly gorgeous, then he lifted me off the counter and carried me to the room he used and set me on a table.
He rested his hands on my thighs. “Where do you want it?”
That sounded kind of dirty and my lady parts perked up. But instead of jumping him, I held out my arm and touched the inside of my forearm. “Here.”
He took my arm, leaned in, and kissed the sensitive skin there. “Perfect.”
I sat nervous as he got things ready. “Is it going to hurt?”
“Yeah, it can hurt, but nothing you can’t handle. Have you seen me? I’m a fucking baby, if it was that bad, you think I’d look like this?”
I giggled, giddy and excited and nervous all at once. He was just trying to make me feel better. Jesse was not a baby, he was a badass, and if he thought I could handle it, then I believed I could as well.
Twenty minutes later I was looking down at my forearm, at the little blue, black, and white bird Jesse had tattooed on my skin, wings extended, taking flight.
It was awesome. “I love it, so much.”
“Glad to hear it. It looks cool,” Jesse said as he smeared some kind of ointment over it, then covered it with gauze. “You can take that off in a few hours.”
“I can’t wait to show Eves.” I gave Jesse I wide-eyed look. “Trix is gonna be pissed, though. She’s been trying to get her hands on my ‘virgin skin’ for ages.”
“Too bad, it’s mine,” he said gruffly and kissed me.
“Thank you,” I said against his lips. “You always make me feel better.”
“That’s my job, Bambi.”
The way he said that made me shiver, in a good way. A really good way.
“And I always make you horny as well, yes?” he said, a goofy, hopeful expression on his face.
And then he had me laughing again. “I’m a horny mess ninety-nine percent of my day,” I said between giggles.
He made a tutting sound. “Only ninety-nine? Looks like I need to up my game.”
His big hands squeezed my thighs and I sucked in a sharp breath. “Your game is just fine.”
“You ever been fingered in a tattoo parlor before, Lila?” he asked casually.
My breath caught in my throat. “Can’t say that I have, Jesse.” I would have squeezed my thighs together if he hadn’t been standing between them.
“Well, that’s a crying shame.” He snapped open the button of my jeans. “I think we should remedy that, don’t you?”
I nodded. How did he do this to me? Make me crave him in an instant, so badly I hurt.
He undid my zipper and I gripped his biceps as his hand slid down the front of my underwear.
I gasped and Jesse hissed.
“Love how wet you always are for me,” he said roughly.
He toyed with my clit and I moaned helplessly, my fingers biting into his muscles harder.
“Right, change of plans. Have you ever been fucked from behind over a table in a tattoo parlor, Lila?”
I shook my head, half laughing, half panting while trying to angle my hips for more of his touch at the same time. He removed his hand and lifted me before I realized what was happening, then he spun me so I was facing away from him and bent me over the padded massage-style table I’d just been sitting on. My jeans and panties were tugged down next and Jesse moved up behind me.
Oh my God. We were going to have sex, right here, right now, where anyone could walk in on us. The idea turned me on so much, my inner thighs were slick.
His hands gripped my bare ass, pulling my cheeks apart, and he groaned. “I’m gonna fuck this ass one day. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Bambi?”
“Yes,” I said instantly. I wanted to try everything with Jesse, anything he wanted to give me. I’d like it. He’d make sure of it.
He squeezed my ass again. “Now as much as I’d like to eat this gorgeous ass and lick your juicy pussy, I can’t. We have a bit of a time constraint. Bull’s due any minute for another session with one of my brothers, Dice.” The crinkle of a condom wrapper. “Which means I have to fuck you quickly so we don’t get caught.”
I shuddered and bit my lip to stop from moaning, excitement racing through me.
Jesse made a rough sound. “Yeah, I had a feeling my girl would like that,” he said as the head of his cock nudged my opening.
I whimpered.
“You want it rough, Lila?”
It was like he could read me, body, mind, and soul. “Yes. Yes, I want that.”