sure what magazine it was or what the story was about, I couldn’t read then, but the couple looked at each other as if they would die for the other. The man was in an Army uniform and the woman in a pretty dress. They both showed off their tattoos, the woman had a key on the back of her neck and the man a lock on the top of his arm.
“That sounds beautiful,” Lana murmurs.
“I want that one day,” I admit quietly.
Her head shifts on my shoulder to look up at me, “Well, since you and your brothers aren’t hurting for money and you’re twenty-one, Mack, there’s nothing stopping you from getting a tattoo.”
A short chuckle escapes my mouth quickly.
Lana raises her upper body until we’re looking into each other’s eyes. “What?”
“I’m getting tattoos, Dove. I got plans for a whole sleeve on my left arm, but what I meant was I want that kind of relationship with a woman, one where we make a life-long commitment to each other. And I’m not talking about a bullshit marriage with a piece of paper that can easily be torn up and deleted as if it never happened. I mean ink, something engraved in us forever, that we will be buried with.”
We stare at each other for a moment and I see a lot happening behind Lana’s beautiful eyes. My hope is that she’ll tell me to go to Hell for talking about a ‘supposed’ woman while I’m lying in her bed and she’s naked next to me. I want her to tell me that she’ll bitch-slap any other female who tries to take me from her.
But I’m probably not being fair to her. I know my Dove doesn’t compete, or fight for what she wants. Right now anyway, but I’ll change that.
Her father has messed her up too much. The asshole can’t distinguish between the wife who took off and his daughter who lost her mother when she was eleven. Ever since I’ve been around, Jae Scavello has told his daughter what a disappointment she is because she looks considerably like her mother. That she too will let down those who love her because of her selfishness. The man needs fucking glasses because Lana bends over backward for her father and brother—they snap their fingers and she’s there for them.
My brothers and I have watched this happen since we met the Scavellos. Not so much in the last few years, as Rex has gotten older and started pulling his father into line when he gets out of hand with Lana. Although the nasty words hang in the air and the backhanded remarks still happen daily.
I’m not sure what a father is supposed to be like, but seeing how Jae treats Lana, I don’t think I’m missing out on much.
Lana lies back down, placing her head back on my shoulder, her arm across my chest. “You will have that one day Mack, you’re a good man.” Her voice is distant, but I hear the sincerity in it, that finding a good woman and being happy is truly what Lana wants for me.
I rub at an ache in my chest. I’m partly to blame for her not realizing she’s the one I want in my future. We’ve kept our close relationship a secret for too long, years in fact. Initially, it started with flirting, secret hand holding and stolen kisses, and next sex, first fucking and then something deeper, something so natural that I didn’t even realize it was happening. It snuck up on me one day when instead of ripping Lana’s clothes off I wanted to go slow, I wanted to cherish every moment and inch of her body.
I’d fallen in love with my Dove and I’d been too much of a coward to ask her if she felt the same, until today.
I turn on my side, lower my eyes and lift Lana’s chin until her stare meets mine. I search her features for sadness or rebellion. I’d love her to fight for us, but my Dove has been beaten down too many times. And it’s my job to make her realize I’m not going anywhere, that who she is is exactly what I want. She’s enough.
“You’re that woman, Lana.”
Her eyes widen and her lips part.
I can’t even smile at her reaction because it shows how far we have to go until she learns how worthy she really is.
“I want that tattoo with you. I want everyone to know we’re together