I ran my fingertips along Damien’s abdomen, enjoying the warmth of his body. Pulling my head up from his chest, I looked at him.
His eyes were still hooded as he met my gaze.
I pushed up onto my elbows and touched the skin on his arm, permanently covered with ink.
Tilting my head, I studied his tattoos. “Do these have a special meaning behind them?”
I ran my palm along his forearm and up to his shoulder as his skin pebbled.
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” I let another moment pass before I spoke again. “What does this one mean?” I traced my fingers along the lines of the snake that wrapped around his forearm.
Damien lifted an eyebrow along with his signature smirk and the butterflies swarmed in my lower belly once again. “Tattoos can represent someone’s worst moments in their life and the struggles they went through. A map of pain drawn on their body. And you’re just going to ask me all about mine?”
I lift a shoulder. “Is that what they are? A map of your pain?”
“A question with a question.”
“Naturally.”
Damien pushed himself up into a sitting position and I followed suit. His leg pressed against mine, and I couldn’t help but let my gaze fall to his cock. Even now, it was an impressivesize, and I had to force myself to look away, or risk becoming distracted… again.
“The flowers…” He touched the two red roses that lay entwined with the snake’s body. “Are for Grant and Maylee. And the snake,” he pointed to the black snake with the red underbelly. “Usually, snakes are known to be a symbol of protection and rebirth, which wasn’t my true intention, but it fit. I wanted a reminder that not everyone is as they seem, and I needed to keep an eye out for the snake in the grass.”
I could hear the underlying pain in his voice. “And this one?” I pointed to the beautiful phoenix surrounded by flames that rose from the ashes on his bicep.
He lifted the corner of his mouth. “I think you know me well enough now to guess, but there is more than that. When Vanessa and I ended, I found out Violet had cancer and she would be fighting for her life. But the two of us, we survived. She beat the cancer, and I made my music successful.”
“You both rose up from the ashes.” My throat tightened, thick with sympathy for the tragedies they’d suffered.
Damien nodded. “But that didn’t stop the cancer from coming back.”
I stilled. “She has cancer, again?”
“Yeah. Even more serious than before.”
“Damien, I…”
He grabbed my hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.”
Even if he didn’t want my comfort, I couldn’t miss the sadness that lingered behind his words or the way he squeezed my hand harder than normal.
I pressed my lips together as I reached up to touch the petals of the flower that decorated the side of his neck. “And this?” My voice came out as a whisper. I honestly hadn’t expected the dark stories behind each piece of art on his body.
“A blue hydrangea. The symbol of regret. So I don’t forget what’s important. Not ever again.”
How could someone so kind and genuine have gone through so much in his short life? He bore so much sadness and remorse in him.
It wasn’t a burden he needed to carry alone.
Not anymore.
I moved into his lap, straddling him as I wrapped my arms around his neck. I placed quick little kisses over each petal of the hydrangea flower. Wishing I could help him forget the pain of the past.
But even I knew that it was the tragedies of the past that made us who we were in the present.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
