Page 14 of Climbing Everest

Brixton

“ S o where are we going?” she asks.

I ignore her.

She called me B. As though my nickname isn’t short enough, she shortened it to B when we were barely sixteen or seventeen. Although she tended to refer to us by our initials a lot back then, mostly to keep from slipping up in front of anyone and revealing our relationship.

“Are you going to ignore me the whole trip?”

I keep my eyes on the road, my knuckles turning white at the grip around the wheel. She smells sweet. Too sweet. Like whatever shit Kato bought for her shower. I don’t think it’s perfume, but it’s not that same warm scent I remember from years ago.

Although, that could have been perfume back then and I wouldn’t have a clue. Not like I ever asked.

I didn’t care.

The only thing that mattered to me back then was that she was mine.

“I thought you boys were inviting Flora over today.”

With a growl, I ghost her with a glance. “Far from a boy, and she’s unavailable today.” I roll my head on my shoulders and mutter, “Thank God,” under my breath.

I haven’t had a chance to ask Madd what the fuck he was thinking when he brought that bitch up. She bogarted so much of Everest’s time when we were young, would drag her to these clubs while they both wore dresses that left little to the imagination.

I don’t know if Everest ever knew, but I was at every single club they visited, sticking to the shadows and making sure no cocksucker hit on her or put his fucking hands on my wife.

And yeah, even as a teenager, I thought of her as my wife, ring or not.

She’ll eventually be Everest Antoniou, but she’ll be no less mine than she is Kato’s. She’ll be Madd’s, too. Our wife. Our woman.

The mother of our children.

After a few more minutes of silence, she leans forward and turns on the radio.

And I promptly reach forward to turn it off. For no other reason than to piss her off.

She sits back with a frustrated huff and crosses her arms over her chest.

While she stares through the side window, I take a peek at her thighs exposed by the short as fuck skirt I chose for the day. Her skin looks so soft and smooth, and I’m tempted to run my fingertips along them and under the skirt to see if she wore panties.

Motherfucker. Now my dick is hard. Painfully hard. It feels like the second the thought crossed my mind, every drop of blood rushed from my head to my groin, and I am not sitting at the right angle.

Raising my ass off the seat a little, I adjust myself and try to give my cock a little more room in my jeans.

I’m getting impatient. I want to fuck her.

More than that, I want to see her reaction over the surprise I have in store for her in the form of piercings.

I want to taste her pussy, see if it’s still as sweet as I remember. I want to feel if she’s still tight, or if she’s been used up like a cheap whore.

I want to make her my personal whore.

All these thoughts are doing nothing to make my dick relax.

“Is this a road trip deal? Because we could stop for fast food or snacks. You didn’t exactly give me time –”

“Ten minutes,” I bark out, my tone harsher and deeper than I intend with my libido on fucking overdrive.

Another of those infuriating huffs and she’s back to watching the scenery pass by her window.

I pull into the shopping center and park around back. She frowns at the brick building and runs her gaze across the doors.

If she’d been paying closer attention, she would know exactly where we are. But this is going to be way more fun. I can’t wait to see her reaction when she catches on to what kind of appointment I scheduled for her today.

One of the perks of being an enforcer and one of the two highest ranking guards on Kato’s crew is getting people to change their entire day around me. Sometimes their entire life.

Before she can start peppering me with more questions, I shove my door open, round the hood, and yank hers open.

When she tries to wiggle from her seat, successfully pushing the skirt up high enough for me to catch sight of silk and lace purple panties, I grab her hips with more force than necessary and lift her out of the cab of the truck, setting her on her feet before swinging her door shut.

The alarm beeps as I hit the button on the fob, then I’m dragging her along with a hand wrapped around her bicep.

Two knocks on the metal door and it swings open, revealing a previous fling, something else I might very well rub in her face once this appointment is under way.

“Brix,” Nico says, taking my offered hand and bringing me in for a back slapping hug.

He’s only a couple inches shorter than me and not quite as broad, but he has even more ink than me and quite a few piercings, giving him a sinister air. He’s also the man who tattooed every inch of my inked skin, as well as putting the jewelry through my dick.

“You ready for us?” I ask as he pushes the door open further and makes room for us to enter.

“Ready for what?” Everest asks, her voice a few octaves higher and her eyes wide.

She knows exactly what this appointment is, or at least has a clue since the buzzing of tattoo guns are heard over the alternative music playing softly in the background.

“This her?” Nico asks.

I nod and search Nico’s face, looking for jealousy or a hint of possessiveness, and find only curiosity.

Like I said, Nico was a fling. He was a good lay, but after Everest, I’d pretty much sworn off any form of relationship or commitment, no matter how good the head was.

Nico leads us to his private studio and instructs Everest to have a seat and remove her top.

“You’re not piercing my nipples,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest as though I couldn’t pull them away and hold her down.

But that’s not why we’re here.

“Hadn’t planned on it.” Nico glances at her chest then up to her face. “Though they’d probably be really pretty with some hoops through them. If you’d worn a button down, you could have just undone a few buttons. So you’ll have to remove the top.”

She’s aware by now she’s getting a tattoo, but she still has no idea what I have planned, or maybe she does. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that I want those letters permanently and visibly on her skin.

“Why did you pick this fucking sweater?” she asks, turning accusing eyes on me.

I simply smirk.

She glares a few seconds, then, holding my eyes, grabs the bottom hem and yanks the shirt over her head.

She’s not wearing a bra. Her full tits are on perfect display and her nipples…Nico’s right. They would look hot as fuck with some barbells or hoops through them.

Another day. This appointment will take long enough without adding a piercing, and Nico already rearranged previous appointments for me.

I tap the back of my hand against his arm and jerk my head for him to follow me out.

Once we’re out of ear shot, I smile. “Make sure you bring up our time together.”

He frowns a second then it dawns on him. “Trying to make her jealous?”

“And piss her off in equal measure. The bitch ran off and became a whore. Let her hear all about the shit we’ve done while she was gone.”

Especially since this will be the first time she’ll discover I’m bisexual. Actually, I don’t even know if that’s the right term since I have no interest in forming anything deeper than a sexual relationship. A good, hard fuck, bust a nut, and that’s it.

Nico understood that, and he didn’t bat an eye when I told him I’d found Everest. I’d told him all about her during our short time together, mostly when I was in the very chair she’s in now. He’d become almost as close a friend as Kato and Madd.

And has been the only person on this planet to see me shed a single tear over the way she ripped my heart from my chest.

He claps me on the back and steps back into the studio. Everest is shielding her tits behind her arms, but she’ll have to move them when Nico starts inking her.

“Same design you sent? You like the changes I made?” he asks.

“Yep. But instead of vertically,” I say, stepping closer and hovering over Everest. “Across this way.” I run a fingertip along her chest, teasing the swell of her tits.

She shudders lightly and a soft gasp escapes her lips.

I smile down at her then back away, making room for Nico to apply the stencil.

“I’ll need you to drop your arms, sugar.”

Everest turns wide eyes and raised brows to me, but I simply cock a brow and shrug. “Like I said, not too many men who haven’t seen your tits. Or would you feel more comfortable if he threw a few singles on your lap first?”

“Fuck you,” she says, then drops her arms, glaring right at me even as Nico cleans her skin and applies the large template that will stretch almost shoulder to shoulder, the top of the design just below her throat.

The only way she can get rid of this one is if she pays for laser removal. I’m not even sure she could cover it with makeup.

Pulling a stool closer, I sit so close I can smell her body wash or shampoo, whatever that sweet shit is on her.

“Need me to hold your hand?” I tease.

“This won’t be nearly as painful as –” She cuts herself off and I frown.

Won’t be as painful as what? What could she possibly have gone through that would be nearly as painful as what she put us through.

Unless she’s counting the way she mutilated our initials. No sympathy if that’s the case. She made her choice.

Now we’re asserting ours.

“You’re making a big mistake,” she mutters, toying with the sweater on her lap.

I huff a humorless sound and continue to hold her glare. Does this tiny bitch think her look will make me cower, make me wither under her ire?

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life,” I say, making sure to pause so she’ll know she was one of them. “But making sure the world knows who you belong to isn’t one of them.”

I nod at Nico when he holds the gun up and hovers it above her chest, waiting to see whether I’ll change my mind, whether I have anything else to add or change.