Page 167 of Ink Me Three Times
“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
The sound of the door opening interrupts the moment, and I feel my chest tighten in anticipation. I don’t need to look up to know it’s her. I can feel her presence the second she steps into the shop. She always has that effect on me. Her steps are slow, measured, trying to understand what she’s walking into.
Man, it reminds me of the first time she walked through those doors, late at night, wanting a tattoo of an ex’s name removed.
If only I knew then what this would all become.
“Mitchell?” Her voice is hesitant, uncertain.
I turn toward her, my heart thudding in my chest. She’s standing in the doorway, looking at the signs, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“What’s all this?” she asks, her eyes flicking between the three of us.
Freddie steps forward, his grin back in place. “It’s us. This is our proposal, Ivy.”
I step up beside him, my words coming out steady, even though my insides are twisting. “We want you to stay with us. Build this life. All of it. With all its mess and beauty. But most importantly... we want you, Ivy. To marry us, to be a family with us, to be with us forever.”
I watch her closely, waiting. She looks between the signs, then back to us. Her breath catches in her throat, and for a second, I wonder if she’s going to say something that’ll make all this feel like a mistake.
But then she speaks. Her voice soft, unsure, but carrying something else beneath it. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything right now,” Freddie says gently. “But we’re here. And we want this. With you.”
I watch as she looks back at the signs again. Her gaze lingers on the one I carved, and I can see her fingers twitching, like she wants to touch it, feel the letters under her skin.
Then, finally, she exhales and meets my eyes. “Yes. Yes, I’ll stay. I’ll build this life with you. I’ll marry you, however that will work!”
And just like that, I feel the weight lift. The tension that’s been holding me tight, that’s been squeezing the air from my lungs, starts to fade. Because we’re not just offering her a place to stay. We’re offering her a future. A life we’ll build together. No perfect answers. Just us.
All of us.
The second she says yes, I lose it.
Not in a loud way. Not with a whoop or a cheer. Just this slow, bone deep heat rolling through me, fire in my veins.
I stalk toward her without a word.
Freddie and Timothy hang back for a beat, maybe out of respect, maybe because they know I’ve been holding back all damn day, and I’m about to blow.
“You meant it?” I ask her, already reaching out, already pulling her into me.
Her eyes are wide, pupils blown, lips parted. She nods. “Yeah. I meant it.”
I kiss her before she can say anything else, hard, deep, dirty. My hand cradles the back of her neck, holding her in place as I devour her mouth, biting her bottom lip and sucking it between my teeth until she whimpers. She grabs at my shirt, like she needs it to stay upright.
Freddie’s behind her now, running his hands down her sides, gripping her hips while his mouth brushes her ear.
“You just gave yourself to us for the rest of our lives,” he says, voice smoky. “Hope you’re ready for what that means.”
She lets out this shaky little breath, and it’s the sexiest fucking sound I’ve ever heard.
“I want it,” she says. “I want all of you.”
I spin her around and shove her gently back against the nearest worktable. The wood’s cool against her ass as I lift her onto it, ripping at the buttons of her shirt, exposing skin inch by inch. Timothy’s there suddenly, silent but focused, kneeling at her feet as he tugs her jeans down and off. No teasing. No slow seduction.
This isn’t soft.
This is need.
