My cheeks grew hot, and I ran a hand over my face. “Sorry, I get like that sometimes. I….” When someone wasn’t an artist, it was hard to explain to them. Dec accepted my uniqueness and took it in stride, but some people I’d met never understood it like he did. “I see skin and think about what I’d like to tattoo on it. To me the body is a canvas. I’m an artist. Sometimes I get caught up in my fantasies. I didn’t mean to stare.”
“What would you tattoo on me?” he asked earnestly, and the question made me pause.
“Seriously?”
He smiled. “Yeah, tell me.”
“A phoenix,” I said without any hesitation. My words made him freeze, and I quickly continued. “I don’t know you, but I know that look in your eyes. I’ve seen it plenty of times before when people come into the shop. Sometimes tattoos take that pain away from them, or it gives them a reminder of the pain they’ve been through and how strong they really are. A phoenix is a sign of strength, of someone who’s been through a fire and is reborn. So if I had a choice, I’d needle a phoenix into your skin.”
He sucked in a deep breath, and then after a few seconds that dragged on for too long, he relaxed and smiled. “Interesting. Thank you for telling me that.”
I nodded, not sure what else to do. We started walking again and checked out the stalls as we came to them. Each person had their own specialty, from children’s toys and books, to clothing, to different kinds of foods. I bought a couple of containers of cookies for Dec, because he could more or less eat anything he wanted with the way he worked out, and some strawberry preserves. Logan didn’t buy anything, though, and when I offered to get him something, he merely shook his head.
“Have you always lived in New Gothenburg?” he asked when we stopped in front of an artist’s table. The man who I knew only as Jeppie was spray-painting a mountain landscape during a full moon night on a blank piece of canvas as a live art exhibition. A crowd had formed around him, including us.
“Yeah. Born and bred here. What about you?”
“Never lived outside of Minetto.”
I nodded. “Dec’s from Minnesota, if you couldn’t already tell.”
He laughed. “I’m not surprised. Minnesotans bleed ice.”
“That’s my boy.” I joined in his laughter and tugged his coat sleeve, gesturing him to keep moving. Jeppie was talented, but I’d seen his work a million times. “He’s a good man. I’m very lucky.”
“You are,” he agreed, gaze roaming to a man in a top hat juggling bowling pins to entertain a small group of children outside a customized-bowling-ball booth.
“What about you?” I couldn’t help myself. I shouldn’t have been approaching the topic, and if Dec was here, he would give me one of his disapproving glances, but I wanted to know. “Can I ask, are you… straight, Logan?”
His face flamed a deep red and he ducked his head. I hated that I couldn’t see what was going on in his green eyes. “Yeah.” His voice wavered, and I didn’t believe him, but I knew when not to push.
“Cool.” I smiled. “Don’t be embarrassed about last night.”
“Last night?” he echoed, cheeks blooming even brighter when he shot a surprised look at me.
“In the bathroom.” Dec would never approach it with him, but I didn’t want him to be embarrassed. “It’s normal. Doesn’t matter who’s having sex in front of you, getting hard is healthy. So you don’t have to hide your boner from us or be ashamed of it. We’re not going to force you to have sex with us just because you’re hard.”
“Oh. Fuck. I didn’t think you’d realized.” His right eye twitched, and he glanced away again, shoving his hands into the pockets of his borrowed jeans. They fit him well, but we were around the same size anyway, though he might be slightly skinnier.
I patted him on the arm and chuckled. “Yeah, we did. Dec wouldn’t have mentioned it, but we’re all dudes. When I was your age, I got hard at the thought of an ass. You can imagine how often it happened.”
He snorted and ran a hand through his reddish-brown hair. “Yeah. Sounds about right.”
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know that you’re not here to be a third for us. We’re not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.” That didn’t mean I hadn’tthoughtabout him joining us, and I knew Dec well enough to guess he’d probably imagined it as well. We agreed he was hot. Every time he spoke, I thought about the words he’d said last night, how his deep, lullinglivevoice had gotten me off as quickly as Dec’s cock in my ass could. The combination of the two had sent me over an orgasm cliff I’d never fallen from before.
“Thanks.” There was something there, unsaid words that lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he kept his mouth shut, and so did I. Pushing at him probably would mean making him run for the hills, and I wanted him around.
“So, um, what’s going to happen with Dec away?”
I led him toward where I knew the bear claws were, but we walked at a slow pace. “Well, we usually have long-distance sex, either over the phone or Skype. So, I guess you can be there, too, doing your thing if you still want to? We’d pay you, of course.”
“Yeah, yeah, that sounds fine.” His hesitation was gone, and I winked at him. He laughed in response.
“Are you ready to have the best bear claws in the East?” I teased.
“I guess I have to be,” he replied. I grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the stall where the lady who baked them—Madam Winters, apparently—was standing. Beside her was a blond man I knew as her son, who looked like he’d prefer actual hell than this place, but that wasn’t anything new for him. He was cute in a sophisticated way, but he always seemed like he could smell something foul.
“Hello again, sugar,” she said in greeting.
