Page 13 of Black Widow's Bite

“I know you didn’t do anything, and I don’t get why,” Cain told me. “Were you worried about upsetting Addy or something?” I looked up at him, confused. Would she have been mad if I had hit them? I thought she would be mad that I didn’t defend her better from them, that I let him grab her and didn’t rip his arm off.

“You said no fighting. So I didn’t fight,” I rasped, hunching my shoulders. Cain groaned and rubbed his face.

“Don’t start fights.” he sighed. “If someone fucking attacks you, you can fucking hit them back.” He shook his head. “It’s good you didn’t though, I guess. We don’t need some asshole student filing a complaint against you.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Alright... I guess I need to go find a fucking bed or something. I don’t know.” He threw up his hands, grumbling as he stalked out of the room. I kept the washcloth pressed to my face, staring at the floor.

Addy came bustling back in holding a little bottle. “No ice, but I got some peroxide to get the blood out of your shirt. Give it here.” She held out her hand expectantly. I pulled the shirt overmy head, trying not to brush it against my nose. She stuck it in the sink and poured the peroxide over it, rubbing at the stains. She left it soaking in the sink and turned to me next, taking the cloth out of my hand and checking my face. “He didn’t do much damage, at least.” She pursed her lips, wiping the blood off of my nose and chin as gently as she could. I closed my eyes as her hand cupped my chin, wiping some errant blood smears off my neck. Her kindness made my eyes sting. It felt like someone had taken a piece out of my chest and rubbed salt into it.

I don’t ever remember someone caring for me like this. I’m sure someone did, at some point. Human babies didn’t survive long without a caregiver of some kind. But as far back as my memories went, there was no one. I’ve been on my own for a very long time.

“I’m sorry he hit you.” she murmured, her hand grazing my cheek. My face pressed into her hand, my body responding to her touch like flowers following the sun.

“People like to hurt me,” I rasped, shrugging my shoulders. Her face fell, and I looked down, embarrassed. Wyatt and Cain also looked weird, but Wyatt hid it behind his glasses, and Cain was too scary for people to bother. I was weird, but not scary enough to deter them. I figured my face was clean enough now, so I stood and moved past Addy, wanting to just be alone in my room for a while.

Addy grabbed my hand gently, stopping me, and reluctantly I turned back towards her. “Thank you for protecting me.” she breathed, touching my chest. “And I’m glad you didn’t hit him back. I’d hate to see you get in trouble because of me.” She smiled, and my heart lifted.

“I would though,” I told her earnestly. “I would’ve ripped him in half for you.” That made her laugh, and I put my arms around her, loving how she felt against my skin. Her fingerstrailed along my chest, and she touched one of the small patches of scales that poked through my skin.

“It’s funny. At first I thought these were tattoos,” she mused, and I huffed a laugh. She tilted her head up and kissed my cheek, and I smiled despite the ache in my chest.

Addy didn’t try to stop me again, and I slipped out of Cain’s room and back upstairs, closing my door and locking it. My friends started to stir, hissing as they tasted my pain and fear in the air. When I sat down on the bed, they joined me, wrapping around my arms and slithering over my legs. I was safe in here with them; they told me. At least I was safe in here.

Chapter 15

Wyatt

Ilocked the deadbolt on the front door and closed my eyes for a moment, taking a slow breath in. This session tonight had been a marathon. The client was eager to have their sleeve finished and my shoulders were cramped from sitting hunched over them for six hours. I opened my eyes again reluctantly and went back to clean the room and put away my tools. They’d been very happy with the results at least, and I’d gotten a $100 bonus for getting it done so fast. My clients liked me and I got a lot of word-of-mouth business because of it. After I’d wiped down the chair, I grabbed the beer I’d stashed in the cupboard and cracked it open, not caring that it was warm at this point. My nerves were so keyed up from the session that my skin burned. Even the lukewarm beer didn’t help to tamp down the flames.

A knock on the door made me pause, and I opened it, expecting Cain, but it was Addy. My heart skipped a beat as I took in her presence. I’d invited her, of course, but I wouldn’t have been mad if she’d bailed. We’d just been flirting. She gave me a hesitant smile. “You wanted to show me your work?” she reminded me, and I hastened to let her inside.

“Sorry, of course,” I replied. “Long day, my brain’s a little... yeah.” I ran a hand through my hair and closed the door behind her. Addy sat down in the tattoo chair, looking around the room. Just her proximity was enough to calm the itch of need under myskin. When she’d left this afternoon, I’d felt it return, and had been hard to concentrate on work until they’d returned to the studio. Now that she was in the room, her body so close to mine, I craved the high it gave me.

Her cheeks turned pink, and I realized I’d just been staring at her silently for a little too long now. “Sorry,” I shook my head. “It was a big session. They knock a few things loose up here sometimes.” I tapped my head, and she laughed.

“What was it today?” Addy asked. I sat on my stool and rolled up beside her so our heads could be level.

“I did a right arm sleeve,” I explained, using her arm to demonstrate. “She wanted old-style roses, with climbing vines from her elbow up to her shoulder.” My finger brushed against her bare arm as I recreated the pattern against her skin. “Then on her forearm, it was like a forest of thorns with eyes peering out from the darkness. Eyes are tricky to get right,” I told her. “And then she’d wanted another red rose on her wrist here,” I picked up her hand, turning it and exposing the tender skin of her wrist. “This is a very painful spot. The skin is so thin here.” I traced one of her veins, my own wrist burning.

“How did she handle it?” Addy asked, eyebrows raised. I gave her a coy smile.

“That’s why my clients like me so much,” I told her, fingers still running along her wrist. “I’m the only artist who can make tattoos painless, even the notoriously bad spots.”

Addy frowned slightly. “So you take their pain away? Like you did with my ankle?” she asked, and I nodded. “So where does the pain go, then?”

As an answer, I pulled off my hoodie, which I wore during most of my sessions, and tossed it aside. I just had one of my black tank tops on, my arms exposed, and I turned so she could see the inflamed red lines on my right arm, the ghost of thetattoo I’d done today. She grabbed my hand, looking at the puffy skin on my wrist, the barest shape of a rose still visible.

“God, that looks so painful.” she murmured. “Why do you do it?” Her finger hovered over the lines, not quite touching, probably worried about hurting me further. The thought made me smile.

“I like to think I’m helping them,” I replied with a shrug. “If I can take away the worst parts of the experience and leave the enjoyment of the tattoo, why not? I’m built to handle the pain.” Addy’s face told me that this made her sad, and that’s not what I wanted to do at all. “It’s really okay,” I told her quickly. “The pain doesn’t last as long as it would for them, and sometimes I can send some of it back out if I need to,” I told her. That was a fun trick I’d used a few times when pricks had started fights with me. Nothing sucks more than being punched with the pain of your own hit.

“Here, watch,” I told her and took her wrist again. I traced a tiny line, just a little, because I didn’t want to actually hurt her, and pushed a little of the pain out. Addy jumped, and her eyes widened as a little strip of red appeared where my finger had been. I ran my finger across it again, pulling the pain back in, and I felt my groin ache from the sharp jolt it gave me. I smiled and pushed the little jolt of pleasure out to Addy, replacing the sting I’d given her. She gave a sharp intake of breath and looked at me with narrowed eyes, her pupils dilating from the rush of pleasure.

“I can do it with other things besides pain,” I smirked. “I can give and take a lot of things.” To prove my point, I gave her arm a little pinch and pulled the pain quickly, giving back the pleasure in its place. Addy’s cheeks flushed, and her lips parted in surprise.

“So you... you enjoy the pain sometimes?” Addy asked, her hand brushing over the tender skin of my arm. I hissed as thenerves pulsed, and I felt my dick jump, growing stiff in my jeans. I sent another sliver of pleasure through her fingers and she gasped.

“Sometimes. I don’t enjoy fights, like when someone is kicking the shit out of me. “ I laughed, and she rolled her eyes at me, smiling. “But things like the quick sting of the needle from the tattoo gun, that kind of pain can be good,” I murmured. “When pain is drawn out slowly and deliberately, it can turn into something better.” I leaned over and cupped her cheek, pulling her face towards mine. I kissed her tenderly, and she shifted in the chair to get closer. Her lips parted, and I took that as an invitation to deepen the kiss, my tongue twining with hers as I explored her mouth. I pulled back after a minute, drunk with the feel of her and aching after a day of torturous pleasure with no release, and my control was hanging on by a thread.

“Do you think you’d ever get a tattoo?” I asked her, trying to ease some of the tension building in the tiny room. Addy was still turned towards me, her body terribly inviting, stretched out in my chair. She seemed to think about it for a moment.

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