This Time Around (25 page)

“Bloody back porn,” I sigh.

“Bambi,” Liam warns me again.

“Well it is not my fault if you have freaking sex gods as friends. Give a girl a break, will you,” I wink at Dex, and he offers me a full blown dimple smile.

Holy. Shit.

“Damn it. Dex, honey, please stop smiling around me.” I cover my eyes with my hands and laughter fills the room. You know the kind of laughter that sounds like smooth Dairy Milk chocolate?

“Okay, enough flirting with my girl. Ink her up,” Liam pipes in. Dex sits on his stool and holds my design out to me. I smile at it and the meaning behind it. I am having a double Infinity band tattooed on the outside of my right wrist. It symbolizes our love Infinity but having two Infinity symbols entwined together, is a symbol of bringing mine and Liam’s families together.

“I love it, Dex. Thank you so much,” I manage to choke out.

“No problem, Pen. I am glad that Liam brought you here to us.” He speaks normal, all the anger no longer in his voice, and his face looks softer. I position myself on his chair and hold my hand out to him. He adds the paper to my wrist and holds it down so the ink transfers.

“Check that you like the position,” Dex tells me, and he turns around to get set up to give me my first tattoo. Sweat beads between my breasts and I know that Liam has noticed, because he lets out a small growl beside me. I swing my head up to look at him and Dex chuckles. Liam is staring down my top, watching as the sweat leaves trails on my heated skin. I wore a black Batman vest. I love this top because it makes my boobs look amazing, as the straps cut between my shoulder blades. I threw on my denim shorts and a pair of flip flops. My hair is up in a messy bun, to make sure it doesn’t get in the way, because little does Liam know, I am having two tattoos today.

I sit up a little straighter as Dex turns back around to face me and picks up the tattoo gun. He hits the pedal on the floor and the buzzing starts. Dex looks at me and I nod my head. The first initial contact I expect to jump but I don’t, the feeling is like a really fast prickling. It is not painful as such, but more of an uncomfortable feeling. I get what Liam was saying about it being a nice pain. I feel the warmth of Liam’s hand on my bare shoulder and tilt my head to look at him. The love and adoration shines through his eyes. He smiles down and me and brings his head down for a kiss. The buzzy noise and the prickly feeling fades as I get lost in his touch.

“Dude, let her come up for air, will you,” Dex jokes. I blush and go to pull my head away, but Liam captures my lips in one last fuck you kiss to Dex, making the three of us laugh. It doesn’t take Dex long to finish my tattoo. It was simple and in black ink only. He wipes away the excess ink and adds cream to it, just like Jay did to that girl’s thigh tattoo.

“Have a look at that and let me know what you think.” I turn my wrist just enough to see the new ink on my skin. I never thought I would ever have a tattoo, and look at me now. The black ink stands out against the red sore skin. I look from Dex to Liam and back to Dex.

“I love it, Dex. Thank you so bloody much. This truly means the world to me, this is our family.”

“Dude, it is awesome. Thank you for doing this.” They fist bump, and Dex realises that he needs to change his gloves for my next tattoo. He shrugs his shoulders and looks between Liam and me.

“What’s going on?” Liam asks.

“Ummm. I am not only having this tattoo, but I messaged Dex this week and asked if he could do this one for me also.” Sadness laces my voice. This tattoo makes my heart ache but swell with love at the same time; it is bittersweet. Dex hands the design over to Liam and his breath catches in his throat. He knows the full meaning behind it.

“Bambi. Baby, this is fucking beautiful. She will love it.” Liam hands the design back to Dex and he places the stencil on my arm. The design is for Connie and Jodi. It has an old stopwatch with an angel wing coming out from behind the one side. There are two lilies just under the watch. The most important part of this tattoo is the time on the watch. It says 2.13. It is the time that Jodi’s heart stopped beating and the time that Connie was born.

The rush of tears hits me and Liam pulls me into his side and strokes my hair. I know how much Jodi would have loved this. And Connie will love it. Dex rubs my thigh and waits out my sobbing session. I lift my head and smile at him, which he returns.

“Let’s do this. I have to watch my sexy man get tattooed and his nips decorated.” I wink at Dex and he laughs at me.

“I have my nipples done too ya know.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me.

“Show me. NOW.” I sit up straighter.

She wants to see my friend's pierced nipples. She is damned lucky I trust them both and love her. She is witch I tell you. Dex laughs, the bastard. He stands and lifts his black t-shirt up to my girl. Bambi gasps and moves to touch them and I growl at her. Fuck no is she touching him as well, looking is bad enough. She retracts her hand as if she has just been burned and that only makes Dex laugh harder.

“Oh you, bastard. You scared me. I just wanted to see how they feel,” she cries at me.

“Tough shit. You only touch me, woman.”

“Spoil sport,” she huffs.

“Okay, you two. Let’s get this tattoo started. Are you ready? This one will take longer, like I told you. Liam, here can be your bitch for the next hour. He can get you food and drinks if you need them”

“Oooo, I like the sound of that,” she says. Fuckers. Not that I wouldn’t do anything for her, because I would. “I am good for now though,” she states. And we watch Dex get started on her tattoo. This tattoo is going to be fucking beautiful. It is mostly grey shading and some black. But Bambi wants some faint pink lines added through the angel wing; the wing represents Jodi. When I saw the time stamped on the clock, my heart skipped a beat. We have talked about Knox and Connie’s birth before, so I knew the significance of the time.

We haven’t talked about my tattoos much, she was more interested in me getting my nipples pierced. It is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, but never got around to it. Life gets in the way of the simple things, but you have to take the time and do the simple things. They mean just as much as the big things in life.

I watch in close interest as my girl gets her second tattoo of the day. I am so fucking proud of her. I got to examine all of her virgin skin last night in great detail. I got to taste her and enjoy myself without being rushed. I got to kiss, lick and bite her flesh. Shit, my cock is alive again. He is acting like a freaking teenage boy in Comprehensive school, who just saw the girls in their little gym skirts for the first time. Bambi is the only woman that can get my dick hard just by looking at me, fuck who am I kidding, just by breathing in my direction my dick twitches. I need to get out of here before they see the obvious bulge in my jeans.

“Baby, I am gonna pop out and get you a sandwich and a drink. Do you want anything, mate?” I ask Dex.

“I will take a cheese and pickle and a Dr Pepper. And grab me a bag of Ready Salted crisps, please,” he says, without taking his eyes off the design on Bambi. The buzzing never stops.

“Can you pick me up a chicken salad, please, babe? I will have a bottle of coke and Ready Salted crisps as well, oh and a Wisper, please.”

“No problem. Back in a bit.” She blows me a kiss and I catch it. Fuck I am a sappy shit today. I walk past Jay’s room and ask him for his order which he gives. I walk out of the studio and over to the local supermarket. I pick up everything I need, plus a few extra drinks for us all. I wait in line at the till, I look around and catch eyes with a girl who is smiling at me. Great, Cerys again. When will she give up? I snap my eyes away and look at the lads head in front of me. I tap my empty hand against my thigh, praying the cashier hurries the hell up. I just know that Cerys is going to try and talk to me. Fuck, she always does. She always manages to catch me off guard as well. The line moves forward and I am next.

Oh thank fuck. The boy only has two things so he goes through quick enough. The cashier starts running my items through the till and then tells me the amount I owe her. She does a double take when she sees me, I offer her a smile because come on, I am pretty fucking sexy. She blushes and takes the money from me. When she gives me my change I wink at her, picking up my bag I walk out the door.

“Liam.” I cringe at her voice. Every fucking time.

“Hiya, Cerys,” I say, but keep walking. Praying she takes the hint, but nope. I feel her hand on my arm and I snatch it away and turn to face her. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, I just wanted to talk to you. How have you been?”

“I am good, but I can’t stop I have to get back to Castle Ink. So it was nice seeing you again.” NOT! I say that part in my head though.

“Well, I will walk with you. I need to see these hotties the girls keep talking about.” She giggles at her own words. Shoot me, now. I ignore her and carry on walking, tuning her voice out. I see Addy sitting on a bench by the park and make a beeline for her.

“Listen, Cerys. I need to go. Bye.” I don’t wait for her reply; I jog across the street to Addy. When I get closer I see that she is sitting crossed legged and she is sketching flames. This tells me that she is upset. Addy has a lot of tell tale signs with her moods. I sit next to her and place my bag of shopping at my feet. I nudge her shoulder with mine, and she lifts her head to face me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I have to be, right?” she says, her voice barely a whisper.

“No, you don’t Ads. I hate that you think you need to be strong all the time. They are two full grown men, they can take care of themselves. They did it when you went away. They can do it now.” She nods her head. But I don’t think she is truly listening to me.

“I don’t know how much more I can take, Li. It hurts every fucking time he flaunts girls in my face, or makes shitty comments about shagging some bird on the weekend.” She uses air quotes when she says ‘bird’. I chuckle but I can see the pain in her eyes. She normally hides it well, but lately Jay said that Dex has been getting worse, shoving things in Addy’s face and getting her angry or upset. Dex is deflecting again. He did it years ago and he is doing it now. He can be a real knobhead when he wants to be. But once he loves, he loves hard; always has.

“I know, Jay told me. I honestly don’t know what to say Ads, Dex is a dickhead and he knows it. We all know he has feelings for you, but he still struggles with everything that happened with Fiona. Give him some more time,” I suggest.

“I have given him more time that he deserves, Liam. I think I am done.” Her voice cracks and my heart breaks for her. I put my arm around her and pull her in for a hug. Kissing the top of her head, I offer a new suggestion.

“Get a boyfriend. Make the fucker see what he has missed out on.” She jerks out of my hold and stares at me. Her eyes flicker between mine. I can see a plan forming behind her big brown eyes.

“Fuck, why the hell didn’t I think of that. There is this one lad that keeps asking me out. I think now is the time I call him back.” She gets to her feet and leans in to hug me, her smile big on her face. Proud big brother moment. “I’m gonna go. Thanks, Liam. You're a star.” She takes off towards her car. My job here is done, I just hope it doesn’t kick me in arse later. I pick up my bag and walk back to Castle Ink. Dex should be almost finished with my girl's tattoo. I walk into the studio and make my way to Jay’s room. I hand him his food and he offers his thanks. I carry on to Dex’s room and I can hear Bambi’s laugh, she is laughing at something Dex has told her, and my panic returns. I bet that fucker is telling her childhood stories about us.

“..yeah, he did. The whole school saw it.” Dex holds the tattoo gun away from her skin while they both crack up laughing.

“Oh fuck no. Please, tell me you didn’t tell her about Kelly fucking Jones,” I demand, but I can feel my cheeks heat with my blush.

“He did. I’m sorry, Liam, but that is too freaking funny. How long did the carpet burns take to heal?” She cracks up even more, clutching her stomach as she laughs.

“Whatever.” I sulk and sit in the chair. I place the bag of food in the chair next to me and pull out my bottle of Coke. I open it and take a long drink, ignoring their laughter.

“Okay, I am sorry, babe. We will stop laughing now. Dex, carry on.” She wipes the tears from her eyes and braces for the contact of the tattoo gun again. She flinches this time, I can see she is starting to struggle with the pain. I hate seeing her hurting. I drag my chair closer and take a hold of her hand and bring it to my lips. Bambi smiles at me and I kiss her knuckles.

“It will be worth it, baby.” She nods her head.

“I just need to finish the shading around the wing and we are done, Pen, okay.” She closes her eyes and nods to him. It is a grueling few minutes for my girl, but she is as brave as they come. Dex sits back and admires his work, he tilts his head from side to side before he goes back to add another touch to the design. He sits back again and a satisfied smile covers his face. He taps Bambi’s thigh and she looks at him. Her smile matches his.