missed a show in here yesterday, sister. I laid the last of Noelle and Jasper's marks."
Lex curled her fingers around the leather armrests. "How did you pry them apart long enough to finish the tattoos?"
"It was damn near an act of God, I'll tell you that." His pen tickled her skin with the first slow stroke. "Not that I mind the show. But why am I telling you? You know how hot they are together."
"If you like the idea, you should try it again for real." Lex licked her lower lip. "Noelle's getting so bold. She doesn't even whisper anymore when she asks Jas to hold me down and fuck me."
"Fuck me, Lex." Ace glared at her from under the rakish fall of his hair. "You trying to get my hands shaking? I'm making art, here."
"You deserve a little teasing now and then."
"I suppose I do." He edged the lace of her panties down and continued his sketching. "Oh well, we'll all get a show in a couple nights. How's the party planning coming along?"
"Fine." Everything exactly the way Jasper and Noelle wanted it, a fitting celebration to the beginning of their life together. "You bringing a date?"
"And deny everyone their chance at me? That would be selfish."
"Uh-huh. You're not nearly as convincing as you think you are, you know. At least, not to me."
Ace tried to scowl at her, but the expression didn't fit his face. By the time he capped the marker and reached for one with a finer tip, the corners of his mouth were curving up again. "Didn't there used to be a saying about glass houses? I always wondered about that, to be honest. Was life really so easy before the storms that people lived in glass houses?"
"It's a metaphor, honey. About hypocrisy." She winked at him. "Not that I would know anything about that."
"Mmm." He bent over her abdomen, his brow furrowed with concentration as the narrow tip of the pen glided over her skin. "Don't throw stones, Lex. I'm busy building your glass house."
That was one thing she'd always liked about Ace--he didn't judge, but you sure the hell couldn't put one over on him. "You really think it's a mistake?"
He shrugged. "Depends on what you're trying to accomplish, doesn't it?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe...I want to show Dallas that he should be careful what he wishes for."
Ace pursed his lips and said nothing.
Fine. "Maybe I want to show myself, too. Fair enough?"
"I think it'll be educational all around." He flashed her a wicked grin. "And, sister? Between your body and my art? It's going to be fucking fantastic."
Educational, he'd called it, and she suspected he was right. Dallas would lose his shit, of course--good or bad, that much was a certainty, not a possibility. Either way, things would change.
They had to change.
Lex leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "Here's hoping."
"Oh, Lex."
At least Noelle was laughing. Lex cocked her hip and studied her healing skin in the full-length mirror. "Don't sound so scandalized. It's just a tattoo."
Noelle rested her chin on Lex's shoulder, her gaze fixed on the mirror. Dallas's name stretched between Lex's hipbones in elegant, intricate calligraphy, the swirls and flourishes melting into thorny vines. Tiny rosebuds nestled amongst the sharp points, some caught on the edge of bloom but most still tightly furled.
"It's beautiful," Noelle said, her voice thick with amusement. "And clearly Ace's work. The thorns are so real, you'd think you could prick yourself on one."
"So it meets with your approval?"
"I didn't say that."
Lex turned and eyed the fresh ink winding across Noelle's throat and collarbones. "It's not something settled," she murmured. "Not like yours. But it's a push, one he can take however he wants."
"Mmm." Noelle's fingers drifted up to brush her new tattoo, almost as if she couldn't help the gesture. "Did you guys have another fight? I heard you went out the night of the blackout."
"I had something to unload." Lex eased by her and dropped to the bed. The little orange kitten curled on a pillow mewled his protest at being jarred, and she soothed him by stroking one fingertip in a tiny zigzag between his ears.
"To sell, you mean." Noelle tilted her head. "Something from your closet?"
"No, something new." She told Noelle about the deal, and about the solar converter she'd nicked from a loudmouthed drug dealer from Sector Three. "I figure Walt needs it more than that asshole. But I had to sneak around because I don't want Dallas