He nodded frantically and stood, shifting from foot to foot.
I turned to Dec and dragged him into a deep kiss. We’d never cared if there was an audience. If we wanted to make out, we just did, which often made people uncomfortable, something that also never concerned us. It wasn’t our job to care about other people’s homophobia. That’s another thing from the long list that I loved about Dec. He matched me perfectly, and there wasn’t an ounce of shame in the way he devoured my mouth.
“I love you,” he growled, cupping my jaw as he ate at my lips again.
“Fuck yeah, you do,” I whispered back, rocking closer to him until I was nearly sitting on his lap.
He slapped me on the thigh and pulled away, and I held in the disappointed groan that threatened to rise from my throat. “I should let Logan go until later.”
We both swiveled to look at him, but Logan had walked over to the cork noticeboard, with notes pinned on it, in the corner of the room. I didn’t know if we had embarrassed him or disgusted him, but I was hoping for the former. He wouldn’t have agreed to come over tonight if he was a homophobic prick.
When he obviously noticed the silence, he turned to glance at us with a shy smile, and I knew I didn’t have anything to worry about. I gave Dec a final kiss before I stood and held out my hand to Logan, and he took it in a firm shake. His skin was a lot softer than Dec’s, not the kind used to hard labor, and it was a nice pinkish-cream color. He would look incredible with black ink.
“Tonight?” I asked with a gentle smile. He seemed like a guy who needed compassion.
“Tonight,” he agreed, with a timid curl of his mouth.
I showed them out of the shop again and gave Dec a kiss goodbye that ended up being longer than I anticipated. He held on tight, and I let him, moving my mouth over his slowly until Marcus’s whistle made us break apart.
I glared over my shoulder, and Marcus laughed from where he leaned against the half wall. He had a client beside him paging through his piercing portfolio. Flipping him the bird, I gave Dec a final kiss before I smiled at Logan as a goodbye, then watched them leave until they were out of sight.
Sighing, I ignored Marcus as I set up my station for the next client.
The rest of the workday went by far too slowly for my liking. I focused on my job, creating beautiful masterpieces on skin, until I finished off the session with my last client. He thanked me, paid, then left, leaving me to clean up my area while Marcus finished off the nipple piercing he was doing with a lovely blonde woman who was a regular here for tattoos. PD had left an hour ago to check on Will at home, and that meant Dawson had also clocked out, because he didn’t work without PD. I felt like I was alone here, with Marcus in the piercing room, which sort of gave me the creeps.
Faye came in and saved me from the eerie vibes as she waved and headed to the break room. Her jet-black hair matched her scary black contacts and the gothic inkwork visible above the scooped neckline of her short black dress. She carried a Hello Kitty bento box and had a sketchbook shoved under her arm.
“Howdy,” she said with a smile. “I have angel wings tonight.”
“Oh no.” I laughed because, without exception, people went to her for those. It seemed like every other job she had was wings. She was shaking her head as the break room door closed behind her.
“You got this?” I asked Marcus when he came out of the piercing room.
“Yeah, yeah. Go home to the husband.” Marcus waved his hand at me without even looking in my direction. “I’ll stick around until Sunny gets here, in case there’s a walk-in.”
I grinned at the client twisting around beside him doing odd light aerobic maneuvers, as if getting used to her new additions, and she returned the smile. “Thanks, man. See you on Tuesday.”
With the weekend and Monday off, I could enjoy three days of anniversary bliss—even if Dec still had to work. The break would be nice. While I didn’t know what was going to happen with Logan—YourBoiFriend—I couldn’t help the excitement that surged through me.
The trip home felt a lot longer than usual and I couldn’t sit still. I alternated between twisting the knobs of the heater and the volume of my stereo. By the time I pulled into the driveway, my enthusiasm was downright uncontainable. I nearly tripped getting out of the SUV.
Dec opened the door just as I reached the steps up to it, and he grinned in amusement, dragging me into a tight hug and passionate kiss that had my belly heating and toes curling. I hooked my arms around his neck, pressing my half-hard cock against his while I subtly—or maybenotso subtly—humped against him.
He chuckled when he broke the kiss to plop one on my nose before he linked our fingers together, dragging me into the house. We didn’t speak right away, but we never needed to when we were like this, high on the presence of each other. I could see why PD and Marcus thought our relationship was strange. Even I couldn’t explain why we worked so well together.
“What are we making for dinner?” I finally asked when he’d dragged me into the kitchen and sat me down at the table. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out the pineapple juice. I watched him fill a glass before he got vodka out of the wall-mounted cupboard above the stove. He poured a good amount of alcohol into the glass and I couldn’t help but grin. He knew exactly what I liked.
“Whatever you want, sweetheart. You decide.” After he replaced the juice in the fridge, he brought me the drink and sat beside me.
“I could cook pasta. Make Nonna’s special recipe with some pizza.”
His eyes slipped closed and he smiled. “Mm. There’s nothing better than your nonna’s Bolognese. Best hot dish I’ve had in my mouth.”
I laughed and took a big sip of the poor-man’s pineapple screwdriver, moaning in pleasure as the sweet liquid slid down my throat. On the last day of work for the week, I had a drink, and when Dec was home he made it for me. I didn’t know what it was about the way he made my boozy reward for getting through another week on the job, but it tasted better when it came from him.
“Do you like your present?” His voice never wavered, but I’d been with him long enough to notice the insecurity lingering there. Dec didn’t show weakness often, preferring to be the one who was in control of everything—strong and indestructible, like he was on the ice—but I enjoyed this softer part of him that wanted to make me happy. This was a side of him only two people had seen so far: me and his mom.
I reached across to cup his jaw and guided him closer so I could slant my mouth over his, kissing him with gentleness. “You know I love it. How was I so lucky to have found you?”
