Page 38 of The Other Princess

“She didn’t have to ink me up with her emotions, because I didn’t betray her,” I reminded him. That shut his shit right the hell down.

“I know this can’t be easy for you, since it seems we’re putting you in the middle, but…”

“There is no but, and you are not putting me in the middle, because if you do this I won’t be a part of it.” I stared my father right in the eyes as I spoke the words to let him know exactly what I meant by them.

“Over an early peek at a tattoo?” My dad scoffed.

“No, it’s about your integrity. I will not stand beside men who can’t be trusted to keep their goddamn word!”

My brother stood then. “I told you all it was a bad idea. I am happy to wait, and I feel like I’m the one here who should be worried the most about what she put on me.”

“We’re all thinking those same thoughts for our own reasons, J-Bird,” Double-D told him.

“I can tell you this,” I said quietly, trying to gather my patience. “I know what each of the tattoos is already, and none of them are embarrassing in any way you could possibly muster up in your imagination. Everyone already knows what they’re about, so if that causes you embarrassment – the way you treated Ever in the past – then that’s all there will be, and it’s embarrassment you earned for yourselves at the expense of a child’s trust. The art you will display on your body is all tasteful and then some.” I sighed, running my hands through my hair to push back the length that had grown so much since I left the Army. “If you do this, if you decide to take an early peek, then you not only don’t trust your brother’s word, but you don’t trust the girl who has never done anything to earn your distrust or disrespect, and you will lose us both in a permanent way.” With that, I walked out of the room, and decided to go stay at my own house for the night. I didn’t want to be under the same roof as them if they chose to destroy everything I’d been working towards healing.

Chapter 16

~ Declan ~

I picked Ever up the following day without knowing what the men had decided once I left. None of them had bothered to contact me to let me know what happened, and I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good or bad thing. I figured even if they didn’t tell me I’d be able to tell if they’d cheated once they see the tattoos at the reveal. There was no way they’d be able to fake their responses to those images.

“Hey, babe,” I offered with a smirk as she opened the door looking a little frazzled.

“Where are we going again?” She asked as she turned away from the door, leaving it open so I could enter. I followed her inside and shut the door behind me.

“Nowhere special, casual dress is fine.”

“Casual dress,” she repeated. “I inked a tattoo on one of the Joker’s guys today,” she admitted before running back into her bathroom.

“You did what now?” I followed her once again, not angry, because I knew she worked in a shop that had no club affiliation, and therefore she’d have to deal with any clientele who walked through the door. Granted, she could have turned him away, but she was so green in the tattoo world she probably also didn’t have the ability to turn paying clients away just yet.

“He just wanted some chick’s name tattooed on him. I convinced him not to use her name, and instead asked him what he liked best about her.” I snickered at that thinking about the answer most bikers might give.

“You didn’t draw a pair of lips sucking a dick did you?”

She laughed as she poked her head back out of the bathroom and nearly ran right into my chest. “No, nothing like that. Apparently, she’s sort of nerdy and has a dirty librarian look to her that he can’t resist. It was sweet, so I gave him this really cool book where the ink was bleeding out and dripping down into his heart.” She pointed right over her chest where she must have inked it. “It was really sweet, and he let me take a picture of it to put in my book.”

“That’s fantastic, babe. Sounds like it was a badass tattoo, and one he won’t regret as much as if he had her name put there and things didn’t work out.”

“That’s what I figured.” She glanced up at me then, her hand stroking my chest absently as she watched me. “You’re not angry with me for inking the enemy?”

“Why would I be mad at your for doing your job? The shop doesn’t have an affiliation, babe. You’re free to ink whomever you choose to. Just be careful, because I’m sure some of them will know who you are to the club.”

“Yeah, he mentioned that he knew who my father was, but he didn’t say anything bad. Just thought it was cool that I was working there on my own merit instead of over at Aces. Once he we were done, he told me he was damn glad I was working here, because I managed to keep him from doing something completely stupid and he got to walk away with a kick ass tattoo in its place.” She beamed at me, obviously proud of the work she had done, and the praise she’d received, no matter where it came from. I pulled her in close and kissed her senseless then, because I couldn’t resist. Her smiles, which I was seeing more of as each day passed, were something I couldn’t resist.

“Where are we going today?” Her words came out as a breathless question, and I just smiled, because what I was going to show her was going to blow her mind. I just wasn’t sure if she would freak out and run on me, or if it would turn out to be that thing that sealed our fate and glued us together forever.

“We’re going to my house,” I explained and I watched as confusion swept over her stunning features.

“Is your family going to be there?”

“My family?” Now it was my turn to be confused.

“Yeah, you know, your mom, dad, brother?”

“What the hell? Why would you want to know if they would be at my house?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to be prepared for whatever I was walking into. You know the last time I saw your dad, not counting the ink I gave him; he wasn’t exactly nice to me. And your brother is… well, he’s just an unknown at this point.” She bit her lip, worrying it needlessly between her teeth.

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