I had watched Harlen and Tyler from inside the house earlier as they spoke, and I could see that their conversation was intense and emotional, but when I saw the way they hugged each other, I felt a warmth fill the walls of my empty chest, tears pricking my eyes. There was respect and gratitude, pain and suffering, but there was hope and promise, too.
When they found their way back to the house, I couldn’t help but focus on their conversation a little more intently as I heard Harlen make a promise, one that filled me with happiness, a sense of belief that just maybe, this one, would carry truth.
He had promised Tyler that he would never hurt me, and with conviction in his low, hushed voice,I believed him.
And for the first time, I was okay with it.
I was ready for it.
Cam moves to peek over Chase’s shoulder, taking a bite out of her burger and assessing his work. She squeezes his arm and talks around her mouthful of food. “Why haven’t you tattooed me yet, asshole?” she asks.
Cameryn is covered in tattoos, her arms a canvas of the sticker kind.
Chase laughs roughly, his eyes never leaving my skin when he says, “What do you want, needy girl?” He bites into his bottom lip and flicks his long dark hair out of his eyes. “Can you tie this shit up?”
“Look who is needy now.” She stirs him up before brushing her fingers through his slightly oily hair, tying it into a low bun.
Cameryn walks around him and kneels next to me, curling her fingers with mine, then she looks at me, even though she’s speaking to Chase. “A cherry, but the stems need to be barbed wire, like the ones at the club.”
Tears well in my eyes when she squeezes my hand that little bit tighter and whispers, “I hope you know how fucking strong you are.” Her lips are at my cheek when she presses a kiss to my heated skin.
A rivulet rolls out of my eye when I breathe, “I fucking love you.”
She smiles, her straight white teeth bright in the darkness of the night when she guides a piece of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear. “Not as much as I love you, Che-”
“I’m in,” Harlen says, and my face cuts to the opposite side. My mouth’s agape in shock because he doesn’t have any tattoos.
“Seriously?” I question, staring into his comforting, gleaming blue eyes.
He smiles, and it’s that goddamn beautiful it wakes the clipped butterflies in my stomach.
“Deadly.”
“Me too.” I almost faint. Turning my head, I watch Tyler twist the chrome ring on his thumb when a smirk tips the side of his mouth.
I start to shake my head. “No way, you guys don’t-”
Chase cuts me off with a laugh, paper towel swiping over my sun for the final time, then he lifts his head up and grins. “So, are we all getting cherry tattoos then?”
The sun was bright as it filtered through the room and strobed off the dark walls. I squint my eyes as I extend my arm outwards to curl Cherry’s warm body against mine, only my heart falls to my stomach when I grasp onto thin air.
I launch upwards, my breath turning harrowing as I internally panic.
Her little giggle settles the beating fists trying to break out of my chest, and my gaze snaps to the open doors of the balcony. I see the waves of her deep red hair first, then her long pale legs that stretch over the couch, and the same white t-shirt that I was wearing last night draped over her otherwise naked body.
She has a book clasped between her hands, and my brow furrows. “Where did you get that?” I ask, shuffling my weight onto my elbows and propping myself up to get a better look at my girl.
“Cameryn,” she retorts quickly.
Of course, Cameryn’s always lost herself in her books,and her cigarettes.
Cherry gazes over her shoulder and licks her full lips, a touch of playfulness tilting them as she smirks. “Do you always sleepin until the afternoon?” she asks as I make good of shoving the blankets off me, pulling on my gray joggers.
Stepping through the open glass doors, I grab the book from between her slim fingers and drop it onto the coffee table with a thunk. She looks up at me, a twinkle in her blue eyes, and I wrench her into my arms, carrying her right back into my room as she giggles. I nuzzle my face into her neck, breathing in her intoxicating scent.
My back meets the suede gray headboard when I sit down, and she straddles my lap. I clench her hips, slowly running my calloused hands beneath her shirt and up her ribs. Goosebumps rise like they always do when I touch her, and I bite into my bottom lip, loving the way her body reacts to me. Cherry’s elbows rest on my shoulders, then she slides both of her open palms through the curls at my nape. Her lips are swollen from the escapades of last night, from when I couldn’t keep my lips off her and my dick out of her.
I need her,again.
