Old Ink (Get Ink'd #3) - Ali Lyda Page 0,89

with tight friction while he fucked my ass. Our grunts and cries mingled and I felt the second orgasm threatening me. It was going to hurt, my body unused to this kind of back-to-back demand. I welcomed it.

“I’m coming,” I breathed, “I’m coming, holy fuck, I’m co—”

Reagan pulled me up, settling me on his lap while still jackhammering into me. I climaxed, the cum shooting from me in a large arc. He held me close, and I felt the wet twitch of him deep inside me.

His heart was banging through his chest, my back feeling each rapid thump. Reagan plucked and pulled at my nipple, making me squeeze and clench around his cock until I was mewling.

He pulled out and laid me down gently, padding to the bathroom for a towel to clean us up. This he did with the tenderest care, the warm dampness gently wiping me down and soothing my abused hole.

Reagan wasn’t done, though. He finger combed my hair until my eyelids grew heavy. “I don’t want to sleep yet,” I said, then promptly yawned.

“I can stop,” he murmured, his fingers stilling.

“Don’t want that, either.” This came out in a mumble that might have been nonsensical. I thought that’s what I said, at least.

“This is my favorite part,” he whispered. “Helping you come down.”

With great effort, I moved so that I was pressed against him, my cheek tucked into the damp, strong nook of his shoulder.

“I feel the closest to you after.” I sighed, my fingers drawing light circles on his chest. “I don’t want to go back to school now.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, you do. It’ll be good for both of us. If you stayed, I don’t know if I could keep my hands off of you just yet. But I want to get to know all of you, Channing. This summer was just the beginning. With the distance between us, we can talk more, keeping learning about each other. And when we visit on weekends, we can make up for all the lost time.”

My heart was flying. “I’d like that. When I graduate—”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I’d like you to take some time to think about it, but what about moving in with me? I could use a live-in figure model,” he said, even though the last part was at least partly a joke.

“Don’t have to think about it,” I said, my hand trembling. I pressed it to his skin to stop the elated quaking. “I want to. I’m going to bust my ass to get through the double major now, you know.”

“I’ll be waiting for you, darling.”

One thing working in a tattoo parlor taught me was that perfection wasn’t a thing. Every tattoo might be gorgeous, but there would always be a place a line was slightly too heavy or the color didn’t want to saturate. The imperfections could drive you crazy if you let them. You could focus on them until something beautiful was boiled down to regret.

Reagan wasn’t perfect, not like I’d believed him to be all those years ago. Neither was I, that was for damned sure. But we’d proven something critical: we’d be able to live with those imperfections. I knew in my heart we wouldn’t lose the big, beautiful picture that was us over the bumps and challenges.

And that?

That was its own kind of perfect.

24

Mateo

Good lord, the campus was packed. The school where I taught was a local community college, but this was one of the state’s big public universities, and it felt like everyone was present for graduation. Although we were definitely part of the problem—the entire shop had come out to celebrate Channing’s graduation.

The man of the hour was smiling in his robes, Reagan’s arm over his shoulder. They leaned into each other like they couldn’t bear an inch of space. It was as sweet as it was gross.

Okay, it wasn’t gross, I was just wrestling with some jealousy. I’d expected Javi to settle down. He’d always been a bit apart from us in maturity, and family life suited him. Dane’s relationship with Christian hadn’t been a surprise to me, either, even though everyone else had been shocked. But Dane had been my roommate for a long time, and I’d known his playboy act wouldn’t hold up forever. His heart was too big.

But Reagan and Channing? Sure, I’d thought they’d hook up. Last summer when Channing had come back to work, the shop had smelled like cleaner and sexual tension. But looking at them now, relaxed and