Hair a little bedridden, she smiled easily and said, "Starving."
I wiped my finger through the remainder of the chocolate sauce on the plate, collecting croissant crumbs as I did, and then brought it to my mouth.
They were store-bought croissants from the pantry, served with chocolate sauce and strawberries. It was an easy breakfast and one Lily suggested after we rummaged through the pantry for food. She didn't mind if we didn't cook something extravagant. She just wanted to get back to bed faster, which only made her a little more irresistible. Watching as she skipped back down the hallway in only underwear and my T-shirt, with a bowl of strawberries in her hand, did things for me. Things I had to get under control if I didn’t want the sheet to tepee while we ate breakfast in bed.
To be fair, it was morning.
I stacked the dishes on the nightstand and leaned against the headboard, bringing my attention to Lily as she finished off a strawberry. Her legs were crossed and there was a faint line between her eyebrows.
“What’s up?” I lowered my hands to my lap and rested my head back.
She considered for a moment as she dropped the last bite of strawberry onto her plate. “I was wondering, or trying to remember... Yesterday afternoon, when you were standing at the end of the bed, removing your pants… I noticed you have a tattoo on your left thigh.”
I didn’t mean to pause when the words left her mouth. She was bound to find out about it eventually, especially if the activities of yesterday were going to happen a little more frequently.
She was watching me with concern, her face slowly becoming one etched with guilt.
“It’s not one of those tattoos, Lily,” I assured her quickly.
The relief visibly washed through her, but she still frowned a little. “So...what is it?”
“It’s, uh.” I cleared my throat, picking at the sheet. “I got this way before I ever met you.”
Her head tilted to the side and her frown became more confused. “Okay?”
I kept my eyes on her a little longer, chewing the inside of my cheek before I sucked in a breath. “Fuck it.”
Lily watched my movements with a little concern, but mostly curiosity, as I removed my sweatpants beneath the sheets. Careful not to flash my junk, I lifted my left knee, the one furthest from her, and pulled the sheet down so that my thigh was exposed and everything else was hidden beneath the sheet bunched at my hips.
The room fell into complete silence as she slowly moved closer to get a better look at the tattoo, kneeling beside my legs with her hands in her lap before she reached across to it. Delicately, she traced her finger along the shape of the wolf skull that took up most of my left thigh. I remained still.
This was the first time I had ever seen her expression unreadable.
Her fingers skimmed across the flowers around the skull.
“They’re lilies,” she whispered. Her eyebrows raised ever so slightly at her namesake etched into my skin.
"The wolf is the unofficial animal of Italy..." I hadn't taken my eyes off her as I spoke. "And Italy's national flower is the lily... My family is all from Sicily and I'd considered getting the national fauna and flora for that region instead, but Mom, despite her own Sicilian heritage, suggested the wolf and the lily since she'd done so much traveling as a dancer across the country…"
Lily finally brought her eyes to me, and I braced myself.
But then she smiled gently. “It’s beautiful.”
My eyebrows went up. “You’re not freaked out?”
“Of course not. It represents your home.”
The corner of my mouth lifted as I sat forward, bringing myself closer to her. I slung my left arm on top of my bent knee and tilted my head, studying her face. Her smile became a little more bashful, but she held my gaze, challenging herself not to look away.
“Yes?” she asked, a hint of coyness in her voice.
I raked my eyes up from her mouth. Dangerously close to possibly spoiling this entire thing if I told her what was really on my mind — what I almost blurted out multiple times before until I stopped myself.
“Nothin’,” I smiled lazily.
That was a lie.
“Uh-huh...” The tip of her tongue swept across the part in her lips, where a knowing smile played as she thought. Her eyes dropped to my neck, and then a fraction lower, before she reached out and brushed her fingers across my right collarbone. Her touch lingered at the scar there. That hadn’t been what drew her curiosity though as her eyes scanned the faded tattoo across it. “What does this say?”
