Page 80 of Mating of Convenience
“I do.” Slowly, I made myself exhale.Relax, Nathan.
My mate’s eyes lit up as I exposed my leg to him. He was trying to be mature and professional about this, but I knew he was giddy like a kid on Christmas on the inside. I had no idea why he loved tattooing people so much--he’d tried to explain to me that there was ‘no better canvas in the world’, but I never really understood. I still loved to see him get all excited, though.
Humming a simple melody under his breath, he traced the half-done outlines of the tattoo on my calf with his fingertips. It was only the shell of the turtle that was supposed to be there. “I love this tattoo.”
“I don’t think it’s your best work,” I admitted.
“No, but it’s the first time anyone let me put ink on their skin.” Raph turned a brilliant smile at me. “And I got way too hyped up and ruined the experience for you. I’m sorry about that, but I’ll fix it. Thank you for letting me fix it. And thank you for... the wings and the star,” he said, referencing the additions we’d planned. “It’s been on my mind a lot.”
“Yeah, mine too.” I took his hand and squeezed it, and for a moment, we only looked at each other. Raph opened his mouth as if he wanted to apologize again, but I gave a slight shake of my head and he stopped.
“I’m going to make this good for you,” he promised me instead.
“I know you’ll do your best.”
Raph nodded and took something from the nightstand where he’d gathered all his supplies. “Okay then. First we’re going to clean the area so we don’t get any nasty infections,” he told me, applying some cold spray to the skin around my tattoo. The sensation made me shudder as the smell of disinfectant rose to my nose. All of this should have felt clinical, but it didn’t. Not with the way Raph shoved up the leg of my pants to fondle my calf.
“Do you do that with all your clients?” I asked.
“Nope.” He gave me a small smile. “Only the special ones.”
The way he said that almost gave me a hard-on, which was unexpected, to say the least. But hell, it was my wedding night, wasn’t it? Nothing wrong with getting a hard-on, even if I wasn’t sure how I felt about getting horny while being stuck with needles. Not that it was going to be an issue. This feeling felt would go away once Raph started making use of his tattoo gun, but until then... why not enjoy it?
Once my mate was satisfied with my skin’s state of cleanliness, he applied his stencil to my calf. A thin piece of paper with special ink that would transfer to my skin so Raph could trace the lines with his needles. The thought made me shudder in a way that was decidedlynotsexy, but Raph didn’t let my reaction deter him from his plans, smoothing over the paper until the ink stuck to me.
“Don’t worry,” he said as he reached for his gun.
“Don’t tell me that it won’t hurt.”
“I won’t. But I promise that it won’t be too bad.” Looking into my eyes, he stroked his hand slowly up my leg again, continuing past my knee this time. “If you need something to distract yourself, just think about the reward you’re getting after.”
“What reward?”
He wriggled his eyebrows in response. “You’ll see. Just be good for me.”
I nodded slowly as Raph pulled a set of gloves over his hands, still puzzling over what sort of reward my mate might have planned for me. I hoped it had something to do with the way he’d fondled me earlier.
“You can do this for me, right?” Raph asked as if to make sure just one last time.
“Anything for you,” I heard myself respond, and the funny thing was that I meant it. The fear was still there, buzzing in the back of my brain at the same frequency as the tattoo gun in Raph’s gloved hands, but I chose not to let it control me.
Icoulddo this.
My mate and I exchanged glances, and then Raph started his work.
I very nearly yelped when the first round of tiny needles sank into my skin, but then the sound of my omega’s voice distracted me from freaking out just long enough that I didn’t jump off the bed.
“That doesn’t hurt so bad, does it?”
“No, I guess it doesn’t.” When I made myself focus on what wasactuallyhappening instead of what Ithoughtwas happening--needles shooting into my leg and coming out the other side--it really wasn’t the most terrible thing in the world.
“No worse than getting scratched by a cat, is it? And I guess you’ll get a lot of scratches when you’re a veterinarian.” Raph paused for only a moment to flash me a smile. “You can do this, turtle. You’re doing so well for me.”
I stared at Raph. He really had come a long way since he’d put the beginnings of this tattoo on me back in college. Back then I’d felt as if my skin really was just a piece of canvas to him, but tonight, he made me feel like I was part of the process. He made me feel cared for. The longer I watched him, the more my panic ebbed away.
And something else took its place.
Every now and then, Raph would stop for a second, either to fiddle with his gun or to give me a breather, and every time he did, he made sure to tell me how good I was being. He’d stroke my inner thigh, give me a quick kiss or even give me a quick squeeze before strapping his gloves back on and continuing his work.
