Payne finally spoke up, “Jess, do you have anything else like this you might have drawn?” She nodded. “I’d like to see them if you don’t mind. If we open a tattoo shop, I want to be able to show a portfolio of tats I already did as well as ones we could do. I’d love to feature some of yours.”
Jessica stood there with her mouth hanging open. I gently closed it. She snapped out of her daze. “Are you serious, Payne? You think they might be that good?”
“If they’re anything like this, then hell yeah. Bring them sometime so we can look at them.”
“I will. I promise.” With this settled and the design picked out, Payne took a bit of time to transfer it to the correct transfer paper. I insisted she go first. As she lay on the reclining chair face down, I helped to pull down her pants in the back. I could tell she was a little nervous, so I sat beside her and held her hand.
She jumped at the first sound of the tattooing gun, but when Payne started telling her what he was going to do before he did it, she relaxed. After the first ten minutes, she was no longer clutching my hand and could carry on a conversation. We talked about anything and everything with Payne adding his comments here and there.
Quicker than you’d think, he shut off his gun and cleaned her freshly tattooed back. He ran through the after-care instructions and then showed it to her with a mirror. She told him she loved it. He covered it for her and then I got her pants back up.
Now it was my turn. He went to work on my shoulders first. When he was done, he had me turn over and did my chest. The one on my chest had red in the heart and the thorns were black and gray. Her name was in the same script as the one on my shoulders. They turned out beautiful.
When we were all done, she gave Payne a hug which had me growling, her frowning, and him grinning. We strolled out to the common room. Most everyone was still there and wanted to see our tats, so we took time to display them. As we were, some of the bunnies came strolling in. Not sure why they were here so early. They usually came after dark on Friday and Saturday nights.
I saw them throwing each other surprised looks when they saw my tats and the one on Jessica, plus her property cut. Good. I wanted them to know she was my old lady and to stay the hell away from me. Bunnies had caused shit here and in Dublin Falls many times. I didn’t want that to happen with me and Jessica.
Lucy, Farrah, and April were the ones who came in. I breathed a little sigh of relief that Daisy hadn’t joined them. Since the blowup that one night, I didn’t want her doing anything to make Jess feel insecure.
We allowed ourselves to be dragged into a game of pool with Joker and Tank. We were playing as teams. We’d just lost the first game and they wanted to do best two out of three. She agreed but only after she went to the bathroom.
As we waited for her to get back, we talked about some ideas they had for more tats. Loud music was playing, and others were relaxing on couches or at the bar. No one was having sex because it was early, but that would happen at some point. I planned to have her out of here before that started.
Tank and Joker both turned to look at the two women leaning against them. It was Lucy and April. Both women were fun, and I knew they had been with both of those guys a lot. I guess if you had favorites, they were the ones. But even being a favorite, there was no way any one of us would take a bunny as our old lady. Sexist, yes. We didn’t want someone who had been with all our brothers. I was about to go see what was holding up Jessica, when hands slid up my back. I turned around with a smile only to find it wasn’t Jess. It was Daisy. I stepped away from her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Daisy?”
“I came over to keep you company. Do you want to play a game with me? Or we could do something else.” She smirked when she said “something else.” I gave her a look of disgust. She knew I was with Jessica. She had to have seen her cut. She’d come in after we started playing our game.
“You know damn well I’m playing a game with my old lady. You had to have seen her over here a minute ago. She’s the one wearing my property cut.” I said sarcastically.
Daisy sneered. “No, I didn’t. I just walked in. Don’t tell me you gave that dumb cow your property cut, Ajax. She’s not the one for you. She’s too boring. You need someone like me.” I stood there stunned that she’d spew this kind of garbage again. As I did, she suddenly stepped into me, stood on her toes in those stupid high heels of hers and kissed me. Her tongue tried to force its way into my mouth. I put my hands on her arms to push her away. No way I’d want Jessica to see this.
Before I could push her away, she went flying backward and landed on the floor. There stood Jessica. But it was a Jessica I hadn’t seen before. She was pissed and it showed on her face. She had her eyes glued to Daisy and her fists were at her sides. She was breathing heavily in outrage.
“Baby, let me explain—” She held up her hand. I stopped. She stomped over to Daisy who was still on the ground.
She looked up at Jessica and snarled, “Who in the hell do you think you are? You have no right to touch me. I’ll have your ass thrown out of here.”
Jessica laughed in her face. “I think it’s you who had better watch out. If anyone is leaving, it’ll be you. You’re just a cum dumpster for anyone and everyone who wants you. I, on the other hand, am an old lady. I have the cut and the tat to prove it. If you lay another hand on my man, I’ll be rearranging that face. You know the rules, hands off the committed guys,” Jessica hissed. I was trying to not laugh at the cum dumpster remark. The others didn’t care. You could hear them all laughing and making remarks.
Daisy got up off the floor. She looked over at me. “Ajax, baby, tell her she can’t talk to me that way. I’ve been here longer than her. I don’t know why you made her an old lady. Maybe because it makes her safer, but that doesn’t have to mean we can’t continue to see each other. I’ll share.”
I almost swallowed my tongue. Did she just tell my woman she was an old lady just for protection and that she should share? I looked at Jessica. Her face was still red, but I saw a flash of something I didn’t like in her eyes. It was doubt. I stepped up to Daisy.
“Daisy, you’re the one who needs to listen and learn. Jessica is my old lady because I love her. I plan to spend my life with her. There is no room in this relationship for anyone else. I would never threaten our relationship by hooking up with another woman. You need to learn that, or you know where the door is.”
Those around us were all nodding their heads in agreement. She looked at them and then back to me. Her face was full of surprise. She turned to stomp off. I could see she was pouting. As she passed Jessica, I heard her say, “Bitch.”
Jessica didn’t let it phase her. She came back with her own remark, “whore.”
I went over and wrapped my arm around Jessica. She was stiff. I noticed she wasn’t meeting my eyes. I looked back at Tank and Joker. They were giving her worried looks. They could see she was upset.
“Hey, guys, let’s put the next game on hold. I need to have a talk with my woman.” They both agreed. I led a stiff Jessica down the hall to my room. This was not going to be pleasant I could tell, but I needed to get inside of her head.