lips, and he reached across the table, offering his hands to his mate. “Oh Bean, I want to know absolutely everything about you.” Indigo winked at him, watching as that delicious blush crept up Logan’s neck and to his cheeks.
“Ask me anything you want, Bean,” Indigo said.
Logan’s eyes scanned his face and then his neck and exposed forearms. “The tattoos, do they mean anything?”
Indigo leaned back in the booth, looking at the intricate flower tattoos on one arm and the geometric style on the other.
“Most of my tattoos are just art, but a few of them have meaning,” Indigo started. He pointed to the geometric side. There lay a triangle with a single dot among all the intricate lines. “This one means to understand and this one means protect, trust, love, and cherish.” Indigo went down his arm, and Logan leaned over, taking a better look. Indigo wished he’d sat next to his mate instead of across.
Logan reached out and traced over the many lines, and goose bumps broke out everywhere he touched. Indigo was forced to bite his lip to keep himself from groaning.
“They look beautiful,” Logan said, finally taking his hand off Indigo, but the smirk on his lips told Indigo he knew exactly the effect he had on him.
Indigo cleared his throat. “Thank you. This arm was mostly Gabriella’s doing. She loved flowers so much when she was three, I let her pick out a bunch at a florist, and then later that night went to go get them tattooed on my arm. I thought she’d pick maybe one or two, but we ended walking out with six, the vines between connecting them all.”
“I feel like I’d get a better picture if you were naked,” Logan said in a husky voice.
Indigo choked on air with his mate’s retort. He coughed a few times as the server came back with their appetizers. They quickly put in their order and were once again left alone.
“You want me to strip right here in front of all these people?” Indigo asked.
Logan growled and fixed him with a glare. “Don’t even think about it.”
Indigo chuckled under his breath. “So possessive.”
Logan rolled his eyes and drank some coffee before his nose crinkled up.
“Coffee not to your liking?” Indigo asked, already figuring his mate out.
Logan shrugged. “It could be better. Now, are there any more tattoos that mean something?”
Indigo lifted his hand and placed it on his neck, on the tattoo he’d gotten a few nights after Gabriella was born and his wife, Teagan, had died. It was a purple daisy with the Roman numeral date.
“There is this one,” Indigo started. He removed his hand and turned his neck so Logan could get a better look. “It’s a purple daisy. It was Teagan’s favorite flower, and it so happens to be Gabriella’s birth flower. The numbers under it is the date Teagan and I found out we were expecting a baby.”
Indigo met Logan’s eyes, and he wasn’t sure what he expected, but the soft smile on his mate’s face calmed his racing heart. Logan reached out, and Indigo met him across the table, making sure not to knock anything over. Logan’s tentative fingers traced the tattoo almost lovingly. Indigo closed his eyes as a swell of emotions rode over him. Logan’s fingers left him, and he almost begged for them to be placed back on his skin, but he sat back.
“At first, I thought I’d get Gabriella’s birthdate, but that was also the date Teagan died, and I didn’t want the tattoo to symbolize that. I wanted it to be a permanent reminder of our family. I felt like Teagan would have liked that better anyway,” Indigo said.
Logan was silent for a minute. He drank some more of the coffee, staring at Indigo intently.
“Would you be open to telling me more about her?” Logan asked. He sighed. “I thought I’d hate this woman who had all your love, but I can’t. Does that make me weird? We’re fated mates, and yet the thought of your wife doesn’t fill me with rage. I’m sad I never got to meet her or see her with Gabriella.”
Euphoria flooded Indigo’s system. How could he be so lucky to have such a wonderful mate? He almost blurted out words of love again but took his cup of water and drank before he said them. When would be the right time? Because he undoubtedly loved the man sitting across from him.
Indigo sat the glass down. “Yes, I’d be happy to