Page 11 of Ink

I can see how my words affect her and she preens under my positive affection. I let go of one of her hands and use it to lightly scratch my cheek. I can feel the rough whiskers under my fingertips while I take in Carmen sitting across from me. She’s smart, has a wicked sense of humor, not to mention the biggest heart, but something or someone from her past has clearly hurt her. She keeps her guard up, but when she lets it down I see glimpses of insecurity; and while she puts on a hard front to most people, I can tell that she lets me see it whether it’s unbeknownst to her or not.

Before I can stop myself, I ask her. “Who hurt you in the past, baby girl?”

Her eyes slightly widen and she glances around the room, taking note if anyone is listening in. When she’s satisfied that no one is eavesdropping she lets out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry. I try not to let it affect me, I really don’t but I’m very gun shy about this.” She wiggles her finger back and forth between us. “I was in a long relationship before Lucia’s father and he really did a number on me. We were together from a young age and then became high school sweethearts. He started getting mixed up in the wrong crowd and got involved in drugs. We broke up and I was nursing my broken heart when I met Lucia’s sperm donor. He was a one-night stand and unlucky me the condom broke and we didn’t realize it until too late. I found out that I was pregnant with Lucia four weeks later. ”

I give her a slow nod, encouraging her to continue. I want to know all of the missing pieces. I want the full picture and everything that’s involved in her story of how she came to be here with me.

“I just went through a lot before Lucia. Like I said my old boyfriend made me nervous because the drugs changed him. One minute he would get volatile and the next he would be sweet and loving. He’d never physically hit me but he was verbally abusive and when he was strung out or coming down from a high he’d get unpredictable and I’d never know if it was going to turn physical. After a few months of walking on eggshells and trying to get everything together, I told him I couldn’t be around him anymore.”

I raise one of my eyebrows, silently asking how she was able to just walk away. No man in their right mind would let someone like Carmen just walk away. They’d chase her. They’d come after her because she’s too good to just let go. It’s almost as if she can hear my thoughts.

“Trust me, it turns out he loved doing drugs more than he was willing to get help to stay with me.” She shrugs her shoulders and moves to slip her hand out of mine. I keep my grip on her hand so she can’t slip away from me.

“My only vices are cigarettes and tattoos which I’m running out of space to fit anymore. You ain’t got nothing to worry about with me and drugs. I haven’t even hit a blunt in over a year.”

She smirks at me and slowly raises one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. “I think you might have forgotten a few others.” She pushes my empty beer bottle towards me to prove her point.

I instantly laugh out loud at her humor at my expense and it feels good to laugh after the evening that I’ve had. Just the thought of having to deal with the shit from another MC is enough to sour my currently good mood. I get quiet for a moment and she picks up on it.

“Are you going to tell me what happened at your house? The clubhouse looks packed and the mood doesn’t seem as jovial as usual.”

I don’t want Carmen getting involved or mixed up in any of the club’s shit. I want to protect her, but if she’s going to be around me and a big part of my life, then I’m sure it’s bound to happen sooner or later. I’ve seen how Rider and Rayleighn work together as a team. He tells her what’s going on, but only just enough to satisfy her. I can do that, too.

I waited too long to respond because now she’s pulling away to cross her arms. “Jeremiah Ink if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’m going to start to get pissed off.”

My eyes shoot around the room. I lean forward across the table and hiss. “Shh, baby! You can’t be calling me by my first name around here.”

She rolls her eyes and I swear I can’t decide if I want to kiss her or throw her over my shoulder and carry her upstairs to have my way with her.

Carmen

I swat his hand away playfully as he tries to reach out and uncross my arms but I really do want to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Rider leaving earlier and Ink’s house getting broken into seems like the tip of the iceberg. Plus, I’ve never seen or heard the clubhouse be this subdued. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s just my imagination running wild on me but something just feels… off.

“Ink, I’m serious. Something seems off around here. Does everyone know your place got broken into?”

Ink stands up by the table and I have to tilt my head back to look up into his face. He holds out his hand for me to take and I take it as he helps me stand. “Where are we going?”

“Upstairs.”

I stop mid-step. I wasn’t even aware that he still had a room upstairs but that’s probably the last place I want to be alone with him. Just thinking of all the women he’s probably had in that room with him makes my stomach sour. I’m not an overly jealous woman, but when I have a boyfriend the last thing I want to do is imagine him with other women. That would make any girl go into a rage. “Yeah, no. That’s gross. I bet you haven’t even changed the sheets since your last conquest.”

He grips my hand in his and gives it a reassuring squeeze. “Baby. I just want to talk to you. And no, I haven’t changed the sheets since Valentine’s Day when I got drunk and slept face down in them alone. Just trust me.”

I look at our connected hands and think about it for a second before I nod in agreement. He wouldn’t lie to me—because one thing about Ink, he’s always been honest; even if it hurt. “Ok. Lead the way.” I have only been upstairs one time in the clubhouse, and that was to get something out of one of the prospects' temporary room since he wasn’t allowed a lock. We make our way towards the narrow stairway and go up single file with me trailing behind him. God, his bubble butt looks good in those well-worn jeans. I can’t keep the thought from going through my mind because damn he’s fine.

There are only about twenty steps that lead up to the rooms. From what I can recall Rayleighn telling me, only patched-in members can have a permanent room in the clubhouse, and since there are more members than rooms they’re given to the members who have been there the longest and who want to have them and are willing to pay for them on a monthly basis. I quickly think back on all of my conversations with Ink and all the things that I know about him. If I did the math quickly, he’s owned his house for at least the last two years, so he’s chosen to keep this room for a reason and if I’m being honest with myself, it was probably for the sole purpose of getting laid.

When we get to the top of the steps, he turns right and I follow him down the narrow hall. We pass two doors and stop in front of the third. He digs into his front right pocket and pulls out his keys. He unlocks the door and holds it open and gestures for me to enter. He flips the light on as he follows me in and as the room is illuminated, the visual hits me and it’s not at all what I expected. The room is simple and shockingly clean. There’s a full-size bed pushed up against the far wall, a bedside table, and a lamp. A small desk sits up against the opposite wall with a computer chair pushed in. There’s some tattoo art on the walls and as I step further into the room to get a good look at them, I realize that several if not all of them are sketches of Ink’s tattoos.

Ink sits down on the edge of the bed in silence and indulges me while I look over the room and drawings. When I finish being openly nosey, I turn around to face him and he’s leaning back on the heels of his hands intently staring at me. If I was remotely shy I would probably blush because the way he’s looking at me is as if he’s imagining me naked and riding his dick. He probably is imagining it. I give him a coy smile so he knows that I’m onto him. I glance down at my clothes and tug at my old sweatshirt feeling slightly uncomfortable.

“Come sit by me.”

His voice is raw and sexy and sounds like he’s a man dying of thirst in the desert. I quirk one of my eyebrows up, conveying that I don’t know if that’s the best idea. I turn around and pull the computer chair out from the desk and turn it to face him. A slow smile spreads across his mouth and it’s as if he’s a spider and I’ve now stumbled into his web. Within a flash, he stretches one of his long legs out and hooks it around the base of the chairs’ wheels, rolling me towards him until our knees touch.

I can feel the heat of his body through the fabric of our jeans and it instantly sends an ache to the space between my legs. When my eyes meet his, his bright blue eyes are lasered in on mine and he knows. I know that he knows what he does to me. Without saying another word he leans forward and rests his hands on the armrests of the chair, caging me in. He continues coming closer until there are only a few inches between our faces, we are so close we are breathing the same small space of air. His eyes drop down to my lips and instinctively, I bite down on my bottom lip.

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