Elspeth deposited a mixed drink in my open hand. I looked at her, confused but appreciative. “Thank you,” I said before turning back to William. “I do things they don’t approve of.”
Elspeth chimed in. “Like your art class.”
“Yes and . . .”
“You got a tattoo,” Elspeth added.
“Aha! Yeah, my tattoo.”
William muttered, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“You don’t believe me?”
He shrugged. “Could be fake.”
I was truly offended. “That thing took five hours. I’ll show you when I’m not wearing a dress.”
“Oh, really?” he said with his eyebrows raised.
Damn, the alcohol was already making me say things I was going to regret. “I just mean that it’s in an area where I’d have to lift my dress and...”
Elspeth started chanting, “Unzip, unzip!”
“Elle! Why are you condoning this?”
“Come on, you don’t have to get naked for him to see all of it. It goes up to your middle back.”
I looked at William’s smug face and, with the help of the tequila, found some bravery to call him on his bluff. I turned my back toward him. “Fine. Unzip me.”
I gathered my long hair over my shoulder and waited. I never thought this was the circumstance where William would be undressing me, but I’d take what I could get.
He dragged the zipper down halfway, and I closed my arms forward to open the dress wider. I turned to look at William’s reaction and took in his heated gaze.
My delicate but intricate tattoo had vine-like leaves and branches twining around my spine with dainty pomegranates and flowers stemming from the ends.
I cleared my throat. “See.”
He squinted and took the pad of his thumb, dragging it on his tongue. Then he smudged his finger against my ink, and I couldn’t control my shiver. Feeling his saliva on my skin made a pool of wetness gather in my panties. His calloused thumb was rough, and it was so foreign and new. If Elspeth wasn’t here, I’m pretty sure I’d be humping her brother into the floor like a feral animal.
Seemingly satisfied that it didn’t smudge, William shrugged and held onto my waist to keep my dress taut ashe zipped it back up. His hand lingered on my waist as I straightened, and I sat back down in a haze.
Elspeth cleared her throat. “Pretty, huh?”
William grunted and took another swig from his drink as I silently sipped mine. My tongue felt heavy in my mouth, and my mind was swimming.
“What made you get it?” William’s voice was gruff.
“I just wanted something that was mine,” I said in almost a whisper.
He looked at me like he saw me, like he knew the feeling. He was always so good at that growing up. I never felt like he would judge me, and I didn’t have to say much for him to understand what was going on in my head. After all these years apart, it seemed like the unspoken bond we had still tethered us to one another. I never had this feeling with anyone else. It always confused me how I could find so much comfort and understanding from someone I only saw a few months at a time.
Elspeth started drying glasses. “She drew it herself. That’s why she’s going to kill it in that art competition.”
“How is that art competition going? All signed up?” William looked at me knowingly.
I took a sip to avoid the question and Elspeth’s waiting gaze before she yelled, “Nairie!”
William chuckled darkly. “She won’t do it.”
