Page 25 of Patchwork
My hole is tender and my balls are sore from coming too hard too many times. I feel boneless and I can’t stop smiling. The buzz of the tattoo machine and the gentle sting of the needle dragging across my skin barely registers through my happy haze.
“You look well fucked,” Hero murmurs, and I crack an eye open to see him grinning proudly. His lips are swollen from hours spent kissing, and he has the worst case of sex hair I’ve ever seen.
“Accurate,” I say with a laugh.
I open my other eye and watch him with interest. There’s a furrow of concentration between his eyebrows and a glimmer in his chocolate brown eyes. I’ve always loved the passion in an artist’s eyes when they’re deep in their craft, and that’s exactly what this is. My body is his canvas, and, for a little while, I get to be his art.
“Can I ask for something ridiculous that I have absolutely no right to ask?” Hero says, not taking his eyes off his work as he carefully inks music notes across my right pec.
I chuckle. “I’m intrigued. Go ahead.”
“Don’t let anyone else tattoo you?”
My heart stutters and my spent cock twitches. I arch an eyebrow at him, and he catches my eye for half a second, a blush creeping into his cheeks.
“Like I said, I know I have no right to ask. I just… I guess I like the idea of being the only one who gets to do this to you.” He chews absently on his bottom lip for a second, making careful strokes with the needle. “You’re a rockstar—I know you’re going to fuck groupies in every city you visit, and I get it. I don’t even know if you want to see me again after this weekend, but I thought it would be kind of cool to have something that’s just between us.”
My throat tightens and a warm feeling spreads through my gut. I nod and a slow smile spreads across my lips. It’s laughable that he thinks I could give a single fuck about having sex with anyone else.
“Just you,” I promise.
Chapter 12
PRESENT
HERO
“Hey,doyouthinkwe could go somewhere?” Onyx asks, his fingers tangled with mine as the door to Wooley’s swings closed behind me, leaving us in the dim light of the parking lot with nothing but the sound of crickets and distant traffic.
“Somewhere in particular or are you just not ready to go home?” I clear my throat and pick the helmet up off my bike seat. “Er… back to my place.”
“There’s this spot I used to go to all the time when I lived here. I want to see if it’s still the same.”
“Sure.” I hand him the helmet and swing my leg over to climb on.
Onyx gives me the directions, then pulls the helmet on and clambers onto the seat behind me, wrapping his arms around me and snuggling up close like he did before. The bulky helmet bumps against the back of my head, and I chuckle as I rev the engine. He’s only been here for twenty-four hours, and it’s scary how nice it already feels to have him on the back of my bike,coming home with me after hanging out at Wooley’s for a few hours, just being in my life like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
But I already decided I’m not going to let myself overthink it, so I ease out of the spot and roar out onto the street, taking the directions Onyx gave me. The place isn’t far, but it’s outside of town, a few miles into the quiet wooded area between Fall Crosse and Belland. It’s exactly the kind of spot I can imagine a bored teenager going to get away and angst about how misunderstood they feel.
I take a dirt road up to a clearing on a hillside that overlooks cornfields and dairy farmland as far as the eye can see. The only light is from my headlight and the nearly full moon. I park and we both hop off. Onyx pulls the helmet off and drags his fingers through his hair. He takes a deep breath, and I see his shoulders relax as a smile creeps slowly over his lips.
“You have no idea how many hours I spent up here, watching the cows grazing in the fields and practicing my guitar.” He plops himself down in the grass with his legs outstretched and his hands braced behind him.
I join him on the ground, refusing to audibly groan as I lower myself. The last thing I want to do is give away my age that pathetically. He leans over and lets his head fall on my shoulder.
“Seems like a pretty good place for a date too,” I muse.
“How’d you guess? I actually think I lost my virginity…” He lifts his head up and cranes his neck for a second, then points to a spot a few feet to our left. “Right there. And I had my first kiss on this very spot where we’re sitting.”
Amusement and just a little bit of irrational jealousy bubble in my chest. It’s ridiculous to feel possessive over something that happened a decade or more ago, but I wish there was a way to tattoo my lips onto his, to erase anyone who came before me or who might come after me. That’s obviously impossible, but Islide my hand to the back of his neck and pull him close anyway. Onyx grins as our noses bump. I can’t erase his first kiss on this spot, but I can be the last kiss he’s had here.
Like he’s reading my mind, we lean in at the same time and fall into a slow, drugging kiss. No tongue, just our lips moving together in a dreamlike rhythm that feels perfect for the warm, quiet night.
Eventually, we break the kiss and lie back to look up at the stars overhead.
“When did you move to Fall Crosse?” Onyx asks.
It takes me a second to do the math in my head before I answer. “It’s been about twelve years now, I think.”
