Come into my office.
He was copying cursive lettering onto tracing paper and tweaking the designs a bit.
“You wanted to see me?” My voice was shaking and overly high-pitched.
“Yeah, you’re going to tattoo this onto my friend’s chest. He’s standing out there. His name is Dane.”
One more deep breath and I was out the door, walking with my arm outstretched to my very first client ever that wasn’t fruit, myself, or a very brave friend.
“Hi, Dane?” He nodded at me as I took his hand. I was trying hard to not show my nerves, but I probably looked like a deranged clown. “I’m Serena, I’ll be tattooing you.”
He offered up a kind smile as his eyes scanned over my body. It was normal; most people generally eyed me over to check out my ink. “It’s nice to meet you.” His voice was calm, cool, and collected as his gaze glassed over for a second.
“So are you nervous about me being an apprentice?”
The chick that was with him smiled sweetly as she jabbed her elbow into Dane’s ribs. “Dane? Serena was asking you questions and you just froze.”
“Sorry, I got distracted.” His face turned beet red as the chick rolled her eyes, saying, “Yeah, I bet you did.”
I had to stifle my laughter as she walked over to Cruz’s station, talking to him about her tattoo.
I watched as Dane’s face turned red with the jealousy that seemed to be taking over him when she pulled her shirt up and over her head as Cruz moved a screen in front of his area to give her privacy.
“So, Cruz said you want this on the left side of your chest?”
His jaw worked as he glared at the screen while nodding.
I rolled my eyes. “Like here?” I let my fingers glide over his pec right where Cruz had told me to put the scrolling letters. I let the slow graze of my fingertips break him from his jealous stare. His eyes snapped to mine and I smiled at him sweetly, biting my bottom lip a bit to finish out the foreplay.
“Take your shirt off. Let’s get this shit started.”
As I peeled off the stencil from Dane’s chest, I read the words carefully to make sure there wasn’t a typo anywhere:In black ink my love may still shine bright.
I let Dane check it out in the mirror.
“Ready?” I asked as I pulled my gloves on and set up my ink in front of my gun.
Dane nodded and that’s all I got.
“You’re not very chatty, are you?”
He cleared his throat as I let the needle buzz to life in my hand. “No, I am. My mind is just somewhere else right now.”
“Behind that curtain or in the gutter?” I let a coy smile linger as I felt the vibration from my gun radiate through my hand into my entire body. It was thrilling to finally be sitting in a chair about to press ink onto this hot guy’s chest. It was a complete turn on, but I had to keep reminding myself that his chick was only a few feet away.
His face, neck, and chest turned all kinds of red as he muttered, “The first. Or maybe both.”
I scrolled over the letters, trying to chat here and there with Dane even though I could tell he was one of the silent types of clients. The more I looked at him, the more he looked like someone I knew, or had met, or something, and it was driving me mad.
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
He cringed as I traced the K.
“Um…I really don’t think we’ve met. I would have remembered you.”
I wiped, dipped, and kept going, still trying to figure out how I knew this dude.
“You look so familiar.”
