Page 21

Tarynn

Eighteen Months Later

“W hat do you think?”

I study the photos that Crow just took of my back with his phone. It has a great camera, and he took them in front of a huge window so there was plenty of natural light.

“I…” I don’t have words, is what I think.

We’ve been working on this backpiece all year. Most people wouldn’t just go for broke like that and do their back first, but most people don’t have a talented, incredible husband who can tattoo them at any given hour. We made our own schedule for this, sometimes tattooing in the middle of the night, other times, early in the morning. There were a few weekend sessions, on Sundays, when I didn’t have class.

Crow mostly does traditional tattoos, though sometimes people can twist his arm and get him to do other styles. I knew that I wanted something nautical, but the ship with the lighthouse in the background, mermaids at the bottom, and rope surrounding it, defied all my expectations. As far as tattoos go, Crow thought it was too token, and it sounds like it is, but the detail he put into the work is breathtaking. Like him, I wanted it in black and gray. I love the way Crow and Raven’s tattoos look against their skin. I’m so pale that Crow told me color would come out vibrant and probably stay that way for a long time, but in the end, I opted to go without, and I’m glad I did.

I wish I could tell him what a masterpiece it is, but instead, all I can get past my thick throat is, “I love it.”

“Yeah? Let’s go bandage you up and then I have a surprise for you.”

We move away from the window in the hall, back to his room. It’s early and we’re the only ones here. Most of the other artists don’t start until noon. None of them are early risers.

We’ve been here since five this morning. We’ve planned this session ahead of time, to put the finishing touches up on my back, so Connie stayed the night with Tyrant, Lark, and Penny. She’ll always be our dog, but I swear that her favorite person in the whole world is probably that little girl. Penny always gets extra, extra tail wags when Connie sees her. If it’s been a few days, Connie’s whole body practically waggles and vibrates with joy. She’s not a dog who gives kisses, but she’ll always save a few for Penny.

I glance at the time on my phone while Crow gets the transparent bandages ready. They’re a terror to take off, but they help so much with the healing. I’ve never known anything different, but that’s what Crow says, and I trust him. He’s told me stories of how he used to use dog pee pads and plastic wrap to bandage himself up when he first started tattooing, practicing mostly on his legs.

It’s just past nine. Time for a coffee. I ate a big breakfast before we came here. For the first few sessions, big ones, I used numbing cream. I thought that was a cop-out, but Crow said that he recommends it to most of his clients for painful areas. It helps them sit longer and it doesn’t feel like he’s torturing people when the cream takes the edge off. Today, because Crow was just finishing up highlights and doing a few touchups from previous sessions, I didn’t numb. My back burns all over like I just fell asleep and sizzled out in the sun for hours, but it’s bearable. The pride in finishing off this massive piece and bearing the art of the man I love, far outweighs the discomfort.

Crow applies the bandages, taking his time to make sure he has a good seal. We’re at it for twenty minutes to cover every spot he worked on, then he gives me a shy smile. “Would you like your surprise?”

“Is it a latte with extra foam and chocolate shake on top?”

“It’s my cock,” he deadpans.

I laugh, but then I see how coy his smile is. “Oh. You’re serious.”

“We have over an hour before you have to be at the barbershop, opening up.”

Cosmetology school was one of the toughest, most intense things I’ve ever done. The pacing was frantic, far from my pre-med classes, even with the dreaded labs. I loved every single second of it. When I finally passed all the bookwork and tests and got onto the floor to work on clients, Crow rounded up all the guys from the club and brought them over. I always thought that I’d want to be a stylist who did updos and colors, styling and cutting and making masterpieces out of hair to my heart’s content, but I surprised myself by deciding to go into barbering.

Since Crow and Raven moved in with me into the small bungalow, he no longer needed the living space above his shop. He and Raven worked tirelessly, along with just about every single one of his club brothers, to help transform the pace into the shop of my dreams. Neither he nor Raven breathed a word about it, and the renovations took months.

“Plus, all you have to do is walk upstairs. Lots of time for coffee.”

“But you have to clean up in here. You have a client today.”

“Not until one, I don’t, which gives me plenty of time to sanitize this room after I debauch you in it.”

“Debauch.” I shove his shoulder playfully. “You haven’t introduced me to the darkness. There’s nothing debauched about you.”

“Me, no.”

“Or Raven either.”

He shoves his tattoo cart to the other side of his large, private room. The walls are full of artwork, some of it vintage, some of it his. The different frames, some black, some a heavy gilt gold, give new meaning to a mosaic wall. There’s not really an inch of wall space to speak of, between artwork and all the sketches he’s pinned up. The counter at the back with the huge toolbox has all his tattooing supplies stored neatly. On the one side of the room is an antique barber’s chair—a match to the three above in my shop—but the other side has a foldable, portable table, the kind that people get massages on.

Since I was getting my back done, I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to sit in that barber chair in here. He did make the bed extremely comfortable for me, with pillows and lots of breaks to stretch out. No one wants to lay on their stomach for endless periods of time.

“We’ll break that bed,” I protest. “And then where will you be? Your client is getting his chest tattooed today. You need it.”

“I’ll order a spare.”

“On short notice?”

“I’ll find one around here.”

“Hmm. I wouldn’t count on it.”

He sighs in mock annoyance. “I guess I’ll just have to take you up against the wall then.”

“Ouch. My back.”

“From behind.”

He strips off his black nitrile gloves and throws them in the trash. He tilts my face up so I can see fully just how starved he is.

“Would you like me to say please?”

“I’d really like you to say please.” I dig my fingers into his short hair.

It’s buzzed on the sides, taken right down nearly to the scalp in a fade, while the top is long, thirties gangster style. I may or may not have had a few mishaps with his poor hair when I first started and had no idea what I was doing.

Crow didn’t care. He just kept getting it cut off, shorter and shorter. Raven teased me about it incessantly, but the current hairstyle was his choice. He was the one who found the inspiration photo.

His hand traces down my chest, slowly working the skin tape off that attaches the thin tank to my breasts. Before we took photos at the window, where anyone could see, he made sure I had that lovely handmade modesty covering.

It feels good to have it removed, but it’s even better when his big hand cups my breast, his thumb massaging my nipple into a hard peak. My skin flushes hot and my hips bang into him, searching for his cock on instinct.

He tips my chin up, kissing my neck, grazing it with his teeth. “Please,” he groans into my ear, so sexy that my legs almost buckle.

“Yes. Yes, okay. I give up.” I might sound like I’m giving in, or getting talked into something, but as soon as he tears away my boots and tight jeans, he finds out just how soaked my panties are.

“Look how wet I make you,” he croons, pushing the black lace to the side and dipping his finger inside my tight heat.

That’s pretty much a constant state whenever he or Raven is around.

He steers me to the wall, arranging my hands so they’re flat against it. The clink of his belt buckle coming undone and the rasp of his zipper pretty much has me panting. The sound of his shirt sliding away, his boots getting kicked off, every beautiful inch of him getting naked, nearly inspires an instant orgasm.

His hand curls around my hips, guiding them out, spreading my legs apart while my hands brace against the wall.

“I’ll be careful of your back,” he promises. “I won’t touch it or even graze it.”

“I trust you.”

I look over my shoulder, lighting up inside at the soft glow on his face. Even more than telling him how much I love him, giving him my trust is huge deal. I’ve given him everything over the past year and a half. My body. My heart. My soul. My life. My skin, as a blank canvas. My dreams, my fears, my tears, my laughter. He’s given me a whole life in return.

We might not have our families with us, but we have a whole clubhouse full of brothers, their old ladies, and their kids, to be our pseudo-families. I’m so close with Lark and Ella now. I adore Penny. I might not work at Patterson’s anymore, but we still go there all the time, and Patti is always going to be like a big sister to me.

Crow and Raven tried to reach out to their parents multiple times, but like mine have done after they moved, they haven’t answered. We only know where his parents are, and where mine ended up after they left Hart, because the club’s IT guy, Wizard, is a real computer wizard. It wasn’t hard to find them because not hiding. Crow and Raven’s parents are still in California, and mine ended up in Chicago. My dad is working at a church down there, not as a minister, but as a janitor, and my mom works as a secretary part time for a large law firm.

I don’t know if they’re happy. That’s the one thing Wizard couldn’t tell me. I still hope that maybe one day, I’ll be able to find out.

“You okay?”

I realize that I’m still looking at Crow and he’s just seen some very naked sadness on my face. “Sorry.”

“That’s fine.” We both still go to places in our head sometimes. Of anyone, Crow and Raven are both so understanding about that. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want.”

“Oh, I want.” I ram my hips up against him. His cock slips against my lace panties. He hasn’t taken them off. I doubt he will.

He sweeps my braid away from my back, wrapping it around his fist a few times and gently tugging so my head tilts back. After claiming my lips hard enough to bruise, he lets go, hand curling around my hip, the other pushing the lace aside so he can notch his cock at my entrance.

“We’re still riding tonight?”

“Good god, are you going to talk about scheduling when you’re inside of me?”

“I am. It makes me fucking hard as steel that you have your own bike and that you love riding with me.”

“In that case, yes.” He flexes his hips, pushing inside of me in a single thrust, filling me to the hilt. “Oh. Oh, god, yes.” I have to lean forward and spread my legs, push my ass out and push back at the wall at the same time, just to be able to take all of him.

His hand slips between my legs, rubbing my clit through the lace. The bit of abrasive friction makes me cry out, riding his hand and his cock. I drive back into him, letting out a small scream when he bites down gently against my shoulder.

He fucks me like that, nearly taking me to the brink before he guides my face down. “Look at us. Watch me filling that tight, sweet little pussy.”

He does fill it. He slams into me over and over, his pelvis and thighs slapping against my ass, hitting spots so far up inside of me that the world begins to fuzz out.

I watch it all, his thick cock splitting me in half, sliding out of me soaking wet to ram back in. I stay focused until I can’t anymore, until my vision blacks out and pleasure bursts inside of me like shrapnel, a grenade tossed into the room, sucking everything into the explosion.

Crow pumps a few more times then roars out as his climax takes over. His shout bounces off the walls, filling me up with his hot jets and a primal sense of satisfaction. I love being able to do this with him. I got on the pill right after we came back from Vegas so we could do this without condoms and without worry.

We want a family of our own one day, but I’d like to enjoy a few years of working, doing what I’m passionate about, first. I’d like to have a few years with Raven and Crow, loving them, learning them, experiencing life with them, growing as a husband and a wife, before we have kids.

Of course he’s worried that they’ll be like him. He doesn’t have a diagnosis, and now, he doesn’t feel like he needs one. Raven was adamantly against it. He says that the internet is just as helpful as any doctor, but neither of them have spent much time looking anything up.

They are who they are.

Crow and Raven. Adam and Owen. Perfect.

They both thought that the normal, everyday things that other people did were never going to be for them, that whether they hated each other or not, they would only ever have each other.

“Tare? You okay? Do you want me to take you back to the house for a change of clothes and a quick bath?”

“Hmm.” I spin away from the wall, into his arms. “Sure.”

“I mean, I’d rather that you walk around all day, me leaking out of you, smelling like me, so every single man whose hair you cut knows that you’re mine, but that’s just the caveman in me. It’s far more important to put your comfort first.”

“I have a whole day booked with guys from the club. They already know that I’m yours. No scent marking needed.” I surge up and kiss him. “Thank you for being a gentleman. Coffee and a quick bath sounds like heaven.”

“Quick coffee, quick quickie, then a bath?”

I slap his shoulder, laughing loudly. “You’re ridiculous.”

He passes me my clothes and starts slipping into his. “We could just park outside the house and do it in the back. There’s a reason why they call it a shaggin’ wagon.”

“Oh my lord. It’s broad daylight.”

It’s November, which means the bikes have been temporarily garaged. Both Crow and Raven hate cars. They call them cages. They make a small exception for the station wagon. We actually haven’t christened it yet.

“The first thing I’m doing this spring is planning a camping trip up to the mountains. We’ll take the car. Sleep in the car. Eat in the car. Fuck in the car.”

“Sounds like roughing it.”

I put my jeans back on, carefully glide my shirt over my back, and tie up my boots. By the time I’m finished, Crow is dressed, that look on his face that says there’s no way he’s not serious about another quickie.

“You’re insatiable.” It’s a fact, but certainly not a complaint, though I do like to give both him and Raven a hard time about their appetite. The truth is, mine is a match for them in every way.

I walk to the doorway, but turn around. “I fucking love you both. Just so you know. Because I don’t say it constantly or anything.”

He strides over and slaps my ass, hard , before burying his face in my hair. “Love you too, babe.”

“Raven?”

“Of course. You didn’t think I was going to let Crow have all the fun this morning, did you? A man has needs, Tarynn. Needs .”

“Women have needs too, but I guess I only have one.” He waits for me to tell him, brows crashing down in a serious frown. “You.”

He snorts at that, but can’t keep a straight face. “Flatterer.” He sweeps me into his arms, careful to angle me so my back doesn’t hit anything but air.

He locks his room up while I squeal, protesting, but he carries me out the front door, locking that too, and straight to the car. He sets me in the passenger seat like I might break, so gentle and sweet.

Once he’s behind the wheel, he heads straight for home. “Can we skip the coffee, just this once? Then it doesn’t have to be a quickie. It can be a longie. With multiple orgasms and sweet cuddling, afterglows and I love yous galore.”

I can’t even pretend to be put out. I do raise my hands, doing the whole weighted scale thing. “Coffee or you. Coffee or you. Hmm. That’s a hard choice.”

“Take the hard choice, babe.”

“Oh, I’ll take it,” I tease him darkly.

“Is that a yes?”

He’s so adorably hopeful. Playful. Both he and Crow are so lighthearted now. Happiness looks like the best thing in the world on them.

“I love coffee, but you have to know that I love you more.”

Raven reaches across for my hand, then brings it to his lips and kisses my knuckles. It’s Raven here, so of course he gets dirty, licking and sucking my fingers into his mouth a few seconds later.

“I do know,” he whispers between kisses. “That you love us more than anything. We love you right back. More than anything. More than what we thought was ever going to be possible for us. We love you as our wife, our soul, our family. We love you not with logic or reason, but with the impossible .” THE END

Hope you enjoyed the book!

The next book in the Satan’s Angels MC

series is Bullet