Page 116 of Ryder
He grinned, dragging the neck of his t-shirt down.
“Right fucking here, baby. Where you can see it as often as possible.” He’d gestured to the upper part of his chest, which was kind of where I’d hoped it would be. He had fewer tattoos that far up, almost as if he’d waited for me.
“I like the idea of that.”
An hour and ahalf later, we were down in the club bar, which was full of bikers, and strangely, didn’t terrify me like it might have a few days ago.
There were two chairs prepared with towels over them, and Has-Been and another biker I didn’t know were setting out tattoo equipment. My heart jumped in my chest. It’s really happening.
Reacher cleared his throat, and the scattered muttering in the room died off instantly.
“Brothers, we’re here for an unprecedented event today. Most of us are pretty much hedonistic bachelors, but one of ourbrothers has taken it upon himself to shackle himself to an old lady! I know there was some concern about their union, but let me make this very fucking clear. Tori is Tori. Regardless of who her father is. We’re not entering into a marriage with her father. We’re welcoming Tori into our family. So, Ryder, and Tori… hell, I’ve never done this before. Let’s get on with the damn tattoos, so we can get drunk, yeah?”
I stared at Ryder. This was the big ceremony he was harping on about? He laughed.
“Yeah, Tori is gonna be my old lady, and if any of you bitches have a problem, I’ll see you outside after.” He turned to look at Has-Been.
“Love you like a brother, man, but you so much as look at her body, and I’ll tear those dreads from your head, and make you eat them.”
His words broke the awkward silence that had fallen after his first comment, as laughter broke out, and they all started ribbing each other.
Ryder grabbed my hand, and led me to the seat by Has-Been, before he grabbed his brother in one of those bro-hugs the bikers seem to do quite often.
“Make sure you spell my name right,” he muttered as he backed away, shooting me a smirk.
Then he dragged his t-shirt over his head, and took the seat beside me, bare-chested and ready for his new ink.
Stitch appeared with two glasses of vodka, which he held out for us, and then everyone raised a glass of whatever the fuck they were drinking, chanting our names. It was actually kind of magical. From there, everyone started milling around, and settling at tables, or on sofas, while two tattoo guns started to buzz.
Ryder held up a hand before his guy could even get started, and got out of his chair, pushing it right up against mine, then he sat back down, reaching for my hand.
“You okay, baby?”
I nodded. “Let’s get this done,” I turned to look at Has-Been, “I want it here.” I started unbuttoning the blouse I’d worn, while Ryder grabbed my hands, and cursed.
“What the fuck.”
I grinned, letting him hold onto my hands. I’d revealed the area below my collarbone, which was what I wanted. Almost exactly where Ryder’s would be.
“What’s your problem, Ryder? I want it right here.” I pulled a hand free, and pointed, and he grinned wickedly.
“You’ll pay for that later, baby.”
Has-Been had been watching us, and cursed under his breath.
“Ryder, you okay with this? There’s no way to avoid… uh… I’m gonna have to lean… on…stuffto get to it.”
“Tits, Has-Been. They’re not stuff,” I whispered, and he groaned.
“Jesus, woman. Ryder?”
He let out a long breath.
“Just don’t fucking touch anything unnecessarily, and don’t fucking get a boner.”
I was giggling as Has-Been gently cleaned the area I’d indicated, and then the tattooing began.
It burned. It was stinging. It was downright painful at times, but it was for the best possible reason. For us.A biker marriage, in many ways.
