skin where it would stay forever.
It was fucking sexy, he thought.
And not long later as Shannon sat straddled on his chair with her top pulled up and bunched in her fists at her chest, Cole realized he’d underestimated just how sexy it was.
She was.
Her skin was smooth and like ivory, her jeans riding just low enough to reveal the dimples on her lower back. Dimples he wanted to kiss. Although slender, Shannon had slight curves that made Cole’s hands flex for want. And then there was her arse which was… fuck. Her slender waist sloped into gentle hips and then a fantastic, tiny but rounded apple bottom that he just wanted to bite.
He’d just shifted her hair over her shoulder and dirty, horny bastard that he was had an immediate vision of fucking Shannon on her knees with her hair fisted in one hand while his other grabbed a handful of that tight little rounded arse of hers.
Fighting getting hard, Cole concentrated on her tattoo, talking quietly to her and then letting a comfortable silence reign once he felt her relax. Usually he totally lost himself in his art when he had a tattoo gun in his hand but there was no way he could forget that it was Shannon’s skin underneath his needle.
“Are you okay?” he asked after a couple of minutes.
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice soft. “You?”
He grinned. Turned on but otherwise great. “I’m good, Shortcake.”
“How does it look?”
Trying not to laugh at her cute impatience he replied, “Like I just started it three minutes ago.”
She giggled and his free hand that was resting gently on her hip wanted to curl into a grip, an involuntary reaction to pull her into him. He stopped himself just in time and laughed at her giggling and at his own fucking ridiculousness. “It’s going to be pretty cute when it’s done,” he assured her.
But she stopped giggling.
Shit.
He knew ‘cute’ wasn’t really what she was going for.
“Cute but fierce,” he hurried to say and this time allowed himself to squeeze her hip. “Perfect for you.”
She laughed and he relaxed. “Cute. That’s my lot in life.”
Despite her laughter there was something forlorn in her tone. “How do you mean?”
“That’s how people describe me. ‘Oh, Shannon, you look so cute in that picture,’ et cetera. I suppose it’s better than ‘you look like you’ve been pulled through the bushes backwards,’ so I’m not complaining.”
Was she kidding? She really thought she was just… cute? Wanting her to see herself how he saw her, Cole gave it to her straight. “There’s more to you than cute. People call you cute because you’re petite… but you’re sexy too… Mostly you’re beautiful in a way that stops a man in his tracks.”
And that was no lie.
She’d stopped him in his tracks when he was fifteen. Literally.
Now she’d made his whole fucking world stop.
She was silent so long he worried he’d pushed too much. But then she let out this breathless little sound followed by, “Thank you.” and he heard the amazement in her voice.
And the pleasure.
He squeezed her hip again, impatient now for the day he could touch her all he wanted because she belonged to him.
They fell into an easy silence and Cole concentrated on finishing the dragon. To be honest he went slowly, drawing the moment out, and a tattoo that might have taken him forty minutes took him an hour. He was disappointed when he said, “Done.”
“Really?” She sounded surprised.
Cole chuckled, wondering how long she thought these things took. “Really. I’ll put some film wrap over it to protect it.”
He took his time doing that too.
Once he’d finished he sat back and said to the back of her head. “I know you’ve probably heard the aftercare speech a million times, but I have to give it to you anyway.”
She glanced over shoulder, giving him a smile he knew she didn’t even realize was sexy. “Hit me with it.”
Oh he wanted to hit her with it alright.
Fuck.
“Take the film off in four to six hours. Clean the tattoo with a mild soap—Rae will definitely have some—and warm water. Massage, don’t scrub. If you’re showering tonight or in the morning, don’t let the spray hit the tattoo at full force and keep the water lukewarm.” Don’t think about her naked in the shower, don’t, don’t, don’t. Fuck, too late. “It also helps to run the shower at ice-cold on just your tattoo before you get out—this closes any pores the warm water might have opened, allowing