Page 36 of The Other Princess

“So, you thought I’d fuck around on her, seriously?”

“Nah, I just didn’t know how that was going to go down. That Daphne’s a bit off her rocker, man. T-Bone can’t come around without having to peel her off, and swears on the club that he’s seen her outside his apartment a time or two. She’s a fuckin’ leech.”

“Why the hell is she still around if T-Bone’s having issues with her?”

“Some of the other guys keep bringing her back around, because apparently she gives fantastic head or some shit. I hear she deep throats like a champ. No gag reflex.” My brother took the shot that had been placed on the counter in front of him.

I grunted my response at him as I finished off my beer. “Gonna crash in my room here for the night. Don’t let that bitch show back up tonight. If I come out here and see her, it will not end well for her or the dumb bastard who brings her back in.”

“Sure thing,” he told me as he tipped his second shot up toward me in a salute before downing it. “I’m glad she has you, man. I haven’t known how to fix things, to fix what I broke, you know?”

“I know, Jay, and it’s not entirely your responsibility anyway. You were still a kid too, and these guys should have fuckin’ stayed out of kid business, just like they make the kids stay out of club business. It’s done for a reason. They fucked up just as bad, so stop taking all the blame on your own shoulders.” With that I patted him on the back and then hauled my ass up to the room that was reserved for me while wishing the whole way that Ever and I were at a point where I could have stayed at her place and just held her tonight while we slept together.

~*~

A knock on my door woke me the next morning, and I was surprised when I saw my dad standing there. He wasted no time getting to his point though. “I’m headed over to Permanent Marks,” he informed me.

“Okay?” It came out as more of a question, because I wasn’t sure why he was letting me know. It’s not like I was ever privy to his comings and goings unless it directly involved me and club business.

He gave me a strange look before continuing on. “All the other guys have said that you’re always there when they get done to take her out or something. Figured you would want to know I was heading over so you could get ready.”

I smiled at my dad then. He really was going to try to make shit better, and that felt good. “The other guys don’t tell me when they’re going or when they’re done,” I informed him.

His brows scrunched together in confusion then. “How the hell do you know when to get there then? They say you always stroll in right at the end.”

I grinned again. “Zeke, sometimes Kane, let me know when she’s nearly done. Zeke did it because he figured she’d need someone to blow off steam with afterwards considering how emotional and personal this shit is. Kane, well, he did it begrudgingly as a favor to Zeke once.”

“Begrudgingly, huh?” My dad smirked. “Got some competition over there, do ya?”

“No, I fuckin’ don’t, because his dumb ass sat on his feelings too long. Now, he can choke on them, because as we’ve already discussed, she’s mine.”

Merc tossed his hands in the air as if surrendering. “All right, Deck, I hear you. So, long as you have that shit straightened out. Sounds like he’s done right by her as a friend though. All those guys over there have.” The pensive expression on my dad’s face made me wonder what he was thinking, but he didn’t make me wait too long. “Been thinking about asking those boys if they’d like to come hang around a bit, get to know all of us, see if they might want to prospect for a patch.”

“Not sure they have the highest opinion of the club right now, but I guess you could ask.”

Merc nodded. “I figured as much, but maybe they see we’re trying to learn from our mistakes and fix our shit. Sometimes, being willing to change speaks volumes above history.” He clapped me on the back then, something he was doing more and more since I came back home. “Come on, we’ll grab some coffees from that place across the street from the studio, and then you can watch your old man get inked.”

“I’m not supposed to watch. No one else is supposed to know what those tattoos are before the big reveal.”

“I’m sure Ever will share with you. Not that I’m asking you to spill the beans ahead of time, but I don’t think she’d keep it a secret from you if you wanted to know. Hell, it was your damn idea in the first place.”

It took roughly three hours for Ever to finish the ink on my dad’s upper right pectoral. It also took a lot of patience to watch her work on him without his shirt on. My dad may have been getting on up there in age, but he stayed fit, and it showed. It wasn’t even that I thought Ever would look at him in that way, but it made me realize her job was sometimes to work on fully naked, or damn near naked people. Some of those people were dudes. That did not take me to a happy place inside my head. At one point my dad chuckled, earning a reprimand from Ever about how he needed to stay still so she didn’t mess shit up.

“Sorry, just watching my son realize the downside to your job,” he told her.

“What down side? There’s nothing bad about my job.”

“I bet Deck would beg to differ,” my father teased, looking me right in the damn eye as his own crinkled in delight. Ever glanced back at me in question, but I just shook my father’s nonsense off.

“I don’t understand,” Ever finally stated as she got back to work on Merc.

“Yeah, see, he’s just now realizing I’m not the only man who will be in this chair in some state of undress or another, isn’t that right, Deck?”

I grunted, but didn’t dignify his dead-on accurate statement with a response, because what could I say without sounding like a complete and total caveman ready to bash my woman over the head and drag her off to my cave where no other cavemen could ever see her. Actually, that idea had some merit. Hell, our species hadn’t survived all this time for the lack of trying.

“That’s silly,” Ever told my dad. “No offense since you’re in my chair and all, but I don’t even think of my clients as people really.”

It was my turn to chuckle when a man in the next spot over told Zeke, “Damn that chick is cold.”

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