Page 149 of Devilish Ink

I looked up at Liam. Dublin Ink certainly was stocked with liquor and there was probably half a box of Lucky Charms in the kitchen, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of dinner and drinks I was imagining for date night.

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to hide my apprehension.

Liam beamed down at me. “I got you a present.”

“A present?” I asked.

I resisted dragging my feet as Liam guided me by the small of my back toward Rian.

“What kind of present?”

Sheepishly, Rian lifted his tattoo gun and waved it back and forth.

“Atattoo?” I asked, consciously tugging down the long sleeves of my shirt, dread filling my stomach. “What tattoo? Where?”

Liam took my fidgeting hand as my heart thudded in my chest. He kissed the back of it.

“Trust us?”

The whole time Rian was tattooing I didn’t dare open my eyes.

Over the years of tattooing, I’d had plenty of clients who did the same. Kept their eyes sealed shut the whole time, too afraid to look.

But they all knew from the start what would be there on their skin when they opened their eyes at the end. I didn’t have a clue what Rian was putting on my skin.

I was in a bathing suit that Liam had secretly packed (and apparently saved along with my old clothes). My nerves were soheightened, my skin so buzzing with electricity that I could hardly feel where Rian was tattooing me.

But Liam had asked me to trust them.

That was all. And that was enough.

Even if the stress of it made me want to cry. Even if I clung to Liam’s hand the whole time like it was a lifeline. Even if I felt myself drenched in sweat.

I would trust Rian. I would trust Liam. Icouldtrust them.

I was exhausted by the time the gun finally turned off. The muscles around my eyes ached, the leather of the chair beneath my body was slick with my sweat.

I didn’t open my eyes when Liam and Rian took my arm on either side and helped me up. My legs felt shaky as they walked me to the corner of the parlour where I knew was the full-length mirror.

When we came to a stop I was quivering like a leaf, my hand in both of theirs. Rian squeezed my fingers reassuringly.

“Ry, baby,” Liam said softly, somewhere near my ear. “You can open your eyes now.”

For a moment I wasn’t able to. I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling: nervous, hopeful, afraid.

I recognised Liam’s rough calluses as he brushed some hair from my forehead. I always marvelled at how delicately he could tuck it back behind my ear.

He asked me to trust him.

I trust him.

With one last steadying inhale, I opened my eyes.

And saw my reflection in the mirror.

A wave of emotion swept over me with such force that I nearly stumbled back. My fingers tightened instinctively on Rian and Liam’s hands. It took everything inside of me not to curl in on myself, away from the intensity of all that I was feeling.

Rian had tattooed along every jagged scar with gold.

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