The music continued to play, but Madeline had stopped singing as Hero kissed me hard in front of the whole club.
Cheering mixed with primal sounds from the guys, almost like they were a band of gorillas—or rather cavemen. I couldn’t help but laugh as Hero wrapped me in his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to claim my woman, then take her to bed. I need you,mi vida.” The neediness of his voice made my spine tingle..
“I’m yours.”
“Fuck yeah, you are.” He moved toward a microphone. “Yo!” He shouted, getting everyone’s attention.
Maddy cut the music, shuffling over to Storm in her favorite brown boots, dropping onto his lap.
“First, I want to wish my brother a happy birthday.” He pointed to Storm. “You know I don’t do mushy, but I am fucking happy to see you smiling, man.”
Storm pointed to his wife, then kissed her because why not? The scary-ass biker couldn’t ever get enough of her.
“I share in your joy.” Hero tugged me closer, lowering his lips to mine for a quick kiss. “See this gorgeous redhead?”
The band of gorillas erupted. I swore this kind of thing didn’t happen when Storm claimed Maddy. I loved being different from her.
“She’s mine, fuckers. Mine. I better not catch any of you eye-fucking her, hitting on her, or looking cross-eyed at her, or I will fuck you up. Tara is my woman. Protect her with your life.”
And with that, he kissed me hard as his brothers whistled and shouted. Hero lifted me into his arms and carried me out of the bar up to his room.
“Did you hear thatmi vida? You’re mine.”
I buried my face in his neck, kissing it. “And you’re mine.”
“Fuck yeah, baby. Tomorrow we’ll get my mark on you.”
I should’ve been worried about getting a tattoo linking me to Hero forever. But I wasn’t. I wanted this just as much as he did.
25
Hero
TARA DIDN’T SO much as wince while getting her tattoo. My woman made me damn proud. Especially when she told the new tattoo artist, she wanted my name spelled out on the fingers of her left hand. I loved the idea and did the same.
My tattoo covered my hand in flames while Tara had dainty ones on her hand. We did without the typical “property of,” feeling it was evident with each other’s name on our hands.
I watched the chick working on my woman. Couldn’t get a good look at her the way her dark hair shielded her face like a curtain. Art had recently hired this woman named Karma to take over half his customer load at Human Canvas. Now that he was sitting at the council’s table, he needed to divide his time between the parlor and the club.
“Can I ask you something?” Tara lifted her gaze to the brunette finishing up the last flame on her tattoo.
“Sure. Just don’t get too personal.” Karma kept her head down, focused on her art while chewing a wad of gum.
“That’s a wicked cobra wrapped around your arm.”
I tilted my head, not having noticed it before. It was pretty wicked.
“Thanks,” Karma snipped.
Tara’s eyes flicked from me back to Karma. “Is it eating itself? Is there some meaning behind it?”
Karma stopped and sighed. She considered Tara a second. If she lost her shit on my woman, there’d be hell to pay.
“The cobra goes back to ancient Egypt. It’s a royal symbol. But an ouroboros tattoo like mine means eternity or circle of life. The dude who trained me did this piece.” She pointed to her arm. “He said it fitted my name,Karma, because what goes around comes around.” She shrugged her shoulders, running her finger over the cobra.