Page 54

I stepped in and sat down opposite her on the shower floor. Face to face, body to body, hot water falling between us, droplets from the spray bouncing everywhere, coating our skin and hair. Wetting us both.
Elaina reached out her hand and touched my tattoo with trembling fingers. “You got this to remember us?” she whispered in awe.
“I did.”
“It is beautiful,” she whispered again, as she traced the design with a fingertip, studying the ink carefully. “A dragonfly in the cherry blossoms…”
“Beautiful like you, Cherry.”
“Why did you have it done?—You got it…p-put on after I was…gone?” Even with all the water falling around us, I could see the tears pooling in her eyes as she asked the questions.
“Because I never stopped loving you and knew I never would. I wanted you forever in my skin.”
A sob came up from out of her throat in a burst of air. She closed those glassy dark blue eyes of hers, and her whole body softened in what looked like great relief.
“So did I,” she said softly, her eyes still closed and her lips still quivering.
Then she turned her back to me slowly, her head tilted to the side, extending her elegant neck. She reached around and pulled her wet hair off to the left, leaving her right shoulder exposed. As I gazed at her perfect skin, I almost stopped breathing when I saw the most stunning tattoo of cherry blossoms and branches done in sky blue and pink. It was very Asian in design and exotically inked, and also larger than I would expect for her slim body. Elaina didn’t have any other tattoos, so for her to have such an impressive image placed permanently on her back, was a gesture of how meaningful our relationship was to her.
Fate can be beautiful and that was an example of one of those times. Don’t ever forget such moments...or the gift of them.
My heart skipped a beat or two as I stared. I’d forgotten about what Ian had told me—his cryptic drunken comment about me not being the only one to have a cherry blossom tattoo. I’d been so focused on the events playing out between us, that it had slipped my mind. She’d never worn any clothes that would allow it to show.
“I wanted you forever in my skin too, Neil.”
****
I traced the air above the design with my finger, just the tiniest little bit above the skin so I wouldn’t wake her. I wanted you forever in my skin too, Neil.
My Cherry was in bed with me and she was asleep. I didn’t want to disturb her but that didn’t stop me from looking and enjoying.
She lay on her side—her body stretched out like a Greek goddess on a dais—the sheet partially draping over her body, but showing enough skin to make me want her again.
The wanting would never be a problem for me. I only had to think about her naked and I was ready. I’d had so many years of practice doing that, you see. Too fuckin’ many.
I vowed I would never be in that situation again with her though. Aching for her when she was lost to me. Afraid of trusting in the only person that could make it right for my heart. So much wasted potential. Wasted
time.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
“You’re awake, Cherry Girl?”
She rolled back over to face me, placing her two hands under her cheek on the pillow. “I am.”
Her eyes moved over my face, studying me with the contented expression of a satisfied female. She looked happy again. She looked peaceful.
She had the look of a woman who was staying with me.
An expression I would have killed to have seen, if only for just one time, in the last six years.
“I was thinking about how beautiful a sight it is to have you naked in my bed. To have you close enough, where I can reach out and touch your warmth just like this.”
I brought my hand to one of her breasts and caressed its softness, plumping the swell first and then ending with my fingers, drawing on her nipple, making it harden.
She gave me a sexy purr and a half smile.
“To smell the scent of you and me, after we’ve been making love together.”