Page 143 of Please Hate Me

More than that, she never let her father fully beat down the person she wanted to be, even if she got a little lost along the way. Mason may have been almost two decades younger than me, but I had a lot to learn from her.

Suddenly, I couldn’t stand the distance between us. I pulled her into an embrace—God, I would never get over how small and fragile she was. Her face was the perfect height to press directly into my belly, and I felt her take a deep, contented breath. Something about the way she melted into me made me feel safe in ways I hadn’t in years.

For over two decades, I’d been feeling like a monster. The feeling had become so familiar that I didn’t even give it a second thought anymore. But as Mason’s warmth seeped into my skin, years of repressing those feelings crashed down on me at once. Finally, I was beginning to feel like a person again.

It was almost impossible to stop myself from crying when she hugged me back, but I managed.

“I love you.”

It was a piss poor way to thank her, but it was true, and I couldn’t hold it back any longer. That’s why I had to repeat myself:

“I love you, Mason Albright.”

I could say it again and again and never get the weight of those words across. But I also knew that ‘love’ wasn’t a word that came easy for Mason, and I didn’t want her to feel pressured to say it back. So I made a joke to break the silence:

“Please don’t go around hugging serial killers.”

Her bright chuckle muffled against my chest.

At some point in Mason’s life, she had to have dropped a halo. There was no way a regular woman could dothisto me. I felt like a lost sinner who’d wandered into heaven.

I held on to this feeling, knowing I would need it to survive the hardships to come.

Chapter 39

Lucian

Not to brag, but I was one hell of an artist.

I could book out for months on end, and none of my clients bitched when I had to shuffle appointments around. I could do any style on any skin tone. I didn’t even mind when my canvases used numbing cream.

What Ididmind was when they wouldn’t stop fucking moving.

“You done?” I asked as I lifted my foot from the pedal, causing the buzz of my machine to stop.

“Nah, man, I’m good,” the dirt-headed frat boy in my chair heaved. Something about the sweat clinging to his forehead told me he was probably lying.

Typically, I refused tattoo virgins who wanted to book a whole sleeve at once; it’s easy to say you can sit for an eight-hour session when you don’t know what it feels like. Regardless, I always made people pay my full rate if they tapped out. I wasn’t going to lose money just because my canvas was a bitch.

This appointment, however, was booked by my apprentice on a day that I wasn’t here. Sera said he looked like he could take it, and I trusted her.

Unfortunately for me, Sera had yet to learn that “tough guys” are the biggest babies in the world.

I placed my gun on the lined tray next to me and grabbed the bottle of disinfectant, spreading a liberal amount across the line work I’d just completed. The guy had asked for a full sleeve of black and gray photorealistic flowers with a clock and the word “family” on his forearm. Sera quoted him two thousand for today’s session, and warned that he would need a follow-up for shading. I would hate to take that much money from him, but hey, he signed the contract.

“You don’t look good.” I grabbed my plastic wrap and circled it around his arm twice.

“What? You can’t kick me out, I—”

“I’m not kicking you out, dumbass.” The last part slipped, but it got him to shut up, so that was fine. “Go outside, go smoke, get a drink of water, walk around, something. If you pass out or vomit in my chair, I’m banning you from my store.”

The frat boy’s eyes reminded me of dirty swamp water as he shot me a piss-poor attempt at a glare.

“You can’t do that. It’s against one of the amendments.”

I choked on a laugh. “Oh yeah? Show me which of your constitutional rights talks about tattoos, and I’ll comp your whole fucking session.”

His bushy brows knit together, and if I didn’t know better, I’d assume this jackass was trying to think of something smart to say.

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