“As much as I love this place, and all of you, I’m gonna have to pass on becoming your accomplice.”
All three burst out laughing, their gravelly voices mixing in the air to form a beautiful sympathy. One I could gladly listen to for the rest of my life.
“Accomplice?” laughs Carter. “No, princess. You’re mistaken. The rule is that you become our girl. We have a ceremony. It takes place in the tattoo parlor out back. We each write our names onto your skin. That way, everyone knows who you belong to.”
The dark look plastered across Carter’s face suggests that this ritual comes served with a side of something else. Something lots more exciting than tattoo ink.
I shoot up from the seat and lead the way, and they follow, slow enough that Carter doesn’t get too far behind on his crutches.
“What’s this business with you and Carmen? Alone?” I hear Vex question behind me as we head outdoors. “You know the rules.”
Carter chuckles. “Then it’s a good thing our names weren’t on her ass cheek yet.”
Their names on my ass cheek?
As far as commitment goes, this is pretty big.
Tied to three men for the rest of my life? No thank you.
When you emotionally tie yourself to people, they always find a way to let you down. That’s what I came to learn over the years. But the bikers wouldn’t have saved my life and Otis’s if they were in this for the short term.
The tattoo parlor smells like old wood and antiseptic as I step in through the creaking door. Faded light filters in through blackout windows, giving the space a sense of privacy.
I kick off my shoes and shuffle onto the table as the bikers each take their positions around me.
“On my butt cheek?”
Their giant shadows surround me, sending me into complete submission. Suddenly, I’m a small woman in the presence of three mighty bikers. There’s no way out. No way for me to escape. I can’t stick out my chest and look big when the three of them are built like literal gorillas.
The thought of being vulnerable always shook me to the core. It’s why I wore heeled boots, and why I kept my spine straight, chin up, to command the respect I was desperately trying to earn. Being small like my mother in any shape or form meant weakness.
And weakness was bad.
But this evening, I welcome the vulnerability.
And I feel everything twice as much as a result.
“Out of this.” Vex signals to my pants. “Now.”
“Why should I undress myself when you guys can do that for me?” I lift up my arms and impatiently wait for one of them to remove my shirt.
It comes off in a flash.
They pin me to the flat surface. I arch my back and raise my legs as they remove my pants.
The bra and panty set I’m wearing has been on long before the warehouse incident. Preoccupied with Otis and Sadie coming over, I have not yet had the chance to shower.
That doesn’t seem to bother the men. They cut me out of my underwear using a knife abandoned on the tray table.
And then I’m naked in front of them. Again.
Skipper takes his time running his finger through my panties. He even brings the lace to his face and presses his nose into the material, moaning with satisfaction as he inhales what seems to be the best thing his nose has ever smelled.
“I love it when she doesn’t shower,” Skipper says to Vex.
I sit up and hook my finger under the hem of Carter’s shirt, careful to not interfere with his bandaged leg. He’s wearing shorts—that must be a first for him.
I already feel myself salivating.
