I stared.
Then I started to ask, “Are you saying, I mean… are you going to get –?”
“Not tomorrow. Not next week. But this keeps on like it is, Red, it’ll happen. Absolutely.”
I felt my body melt underneath his.
That meant the world to me. The absolute world and I had no idea why.
It just did.
“So, I get your ink, what do you want?” he pressed.
My hands slid up his back, one going in to his chest and up to wrap around the side of his neck and I answered softly, “I don’t know.”
“Link with Tabby’s, under my pec, on my ribs,” he decided.
Link with Tabby’s. His daughter. His beloved daughter.
Close to his heart.
Tears instantly filled my eyes and I dipped my chin and turned my head to the side in a ridiculous and futile effort to hide my emotion.
And I knew the effort was futile when Tack’s sweet whisper came at me.
“Baby, look at me.”
“My turn to make breakfast,” I said but my voice was wobbly.
“Tyra, baby,” he was still whispering and his hand wrapped around my jaw, forcing me to face him so the tears slid out the sides of my eyes, along my temples and into my hair.
“Inexplicable hangover crying jag,” I lied stupidly and futilely. “It happens all the time.”
“Bullshit, Red, you been hungover around me more than once and you have not cried.”
“You’re still getting to know me. I keep drinking like I am, you’ll see it.”
He ignored my idiocy and stated, “That meant somethin’ to you.”
I took a shaky breath in through my nostrils but didn’t reply.
“It means somethin’ to you,” he mostly repeated.
I licked my lips and still didn’t reply.
Tack’s thumb moved out to glide along my lips and his face dipped close.
“Admit it, baby, that means somethin’ to you.”
I pulled in breath through my nose again and whispered against his thumb, “No,” and his eyes flashed but I kept going. “It means everything.”
His thumb pressed into my lips as did all of his fingers along my jaw and his eyes shifted to heated and intense.
“Fuck, came three times last night, built seven in you and now I’m gotta f**k you again,” he muttered, his thumb sweeping away and his lips getting closer.
“Tack, you don’t –”
“Shut up, Red,” he said against my lips, “I’m gonna kiss you. Then you’re gonna sit on my face. Then I’m gonna f**k you on your knees and imagine my mark on you. Don’t got time for your games.”