He shuddered, but it wasn’t a shiver of disgust.
Nope.
His cock currently refused to think of anything but that mental image. Bella. On the kitchen counter. Covered in peanut butter, her perky nipples slick with his saliva because he’d just suckled all that delicious nut butter off of them.
Kill. Me. I seriously need help. Probably an exorcism or something. Likely. Because she’s some kind of demon or ghost haunting me. He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
So instead of staying in nice, comfy Phoenix where he damn well belonged, licking his wounds, trying to figure out what the next step in his suddenly not so ordinary life was. He should have let his family and friends in, should have been grieving the death of his marriage.
Not always fanaticizing about Bella. Using their little whiskey-fueled session as spank bank material. Not planning on how the hell he was going to find her and get her back into his bed.
He was a good boy. At least, he used to be.
The problem was, between his wedding day two weeks ago and now, he had no idea what the hell happened to him.
CHAPTER 7
Bella
How ridiculous was it that Rhett was there, at her shop, sitting in Rick’s room, ready to get a tattoo he totally didn’t even want.
She saw right through him. He could have just like… texted or something, if he was going to hunt her down. Not that I would have answered.
Bella crept silently over to the closed door of Rick’s small room. She leaned her ear up against it, thought it was pretty unnecessary since the door was basically hollow. Rick’s voice drifted out.
“So. Your first one, huh?”
Rhett’s voice was less sure, though he tried to keep a level tone. “Yeah. That’s right.”
“Can’t ever go wrong with a panther. They’re classic. Traditional tattoos are the way to go. They’ll always look good, even if you’re lucky enough to hit a hundred.”
Bella smiled. It was the same thing Rick always said. Always. Like, even to existing clients who knew what to expect. He had guys on their tenth or fifteenth or twentieth tattoo, most or all with him, and he still gave the same little speech. It was okay though. Rick was a good guy. He was approaching fifty, was a huge man who liked to wear faded jeans and leather jackets, drove a bike, and had almost no bare skin left, a good half tattooed by himself on himself. His shaved, tattooed head and huge flowing black beard with the wild streaks of grey intimidated more than a few people. The face tattoos along his temples and jawline, blending into the ink on his neck, didn’t help either. Bella knew Rick was a softy though, right from the minute she met him.
“Right. Uh…”
“So, where were you thinking for placement?”
Rhett hesitated. “My lower leg maybe?”
“Excellent place for a panther. I like how it looks alive like it really is crawling up, moving. It makes the art look really good.”
“S-sure.”
Rick’s voice sounded through the room, the humor in his tone was unmistakable. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m going to need you to lose those pants. Then, we’ll get started. I keep the door closed, but if you’re nervous about being in your skivvies, I’ll get you one of those paper sheets.”
Bella clapped her hand over her mouth to contain a giggle. That was also something Rick always said. He disliked it intensely when his clients showed up for work on an area and weren’t prepared. Like, if they were getting work on their lower leg, why not wear a pair of shorts? Seeing as it was Rhett’s first tattoo though, Rick’s voice didn’t have the normal cutting sarcasm he saved for his regulars who still didn’t get it.
“No- uh- that’s fine. No sheet needed.”
Bella didn’t even know Rhett really- uh- aside from sleeping with him on the most inappropriate day of inappropriate days, but she could tell how nervous he was. She’d been through that with a lot of clients. First or second timers or people going through a tattoo in a painful area. They knew it was coming and that it was going to hurt. She didn’t mind dealing with the nerves. She did what she could to calm the hysterical down and the rest, she let them ride it out. She always found the adrenaline helped carry her through the first hour into a state of numbness when she settled into it and could actually enjoy it. Even the painful ones.
“You’ll hardly even feel it on the side of your leg. A few little pricks here and there. It’s going to feel like a weird burn, maybe a little sharp, a little pinchy. Hang in there. Don’t panic or anything. It does numb out quite quickly. You won’t feel anything again until I start the shading and go from there. It will probably feel a little raw then. Again, don’t worry. That isn’t the worst of it.” Rick’s movements as he set up his room were obvious. He moved with methodical ease and Bella imagined all of it, even though she couldn’t see any of it. “You’ll hate the raw meat feeling the worst. We like to call that the hamburger stage around here, but don’t worry. You won’t think that way until it’s just about done, then I’ll numb it out and wrap it up and you’ll be good to go. In a week or two, you’ll be as good as new and probably ready to come on down for another.”