Page 34 of Devilish Ink

I felt a hand on my cheek, Lee’s hand, and looked up to find his green eyes all-encompassing my vision.

“Hey,” he said softly, “are you okay?”

His concern made my lungs shudder with a loosened breath.

“I just thought I saw…”

My nightmare.

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

His eyebrows drew together but he didn’t push me.

“Oh my God, I cut you again,” I cried out when I saw the blood dripping down his back.

I cleaned up the blood with a wad of tissues, swearing between repeated apologies, fussing over Lee because I couldn’t bear to look back through the window.

I only stopped when his fingers encircled my wrist. Nothing constricting. Nothing binding. Just steady, strong and calming.

“I’m fine,” Lee said, smiling. “You’re fine.”

I finished Lee’s tattoo quickly.

There was only so long I would be able to keep the tremble from my fingers. The panic was coming for me. I needed to get somewhere alone to fall apart. To shake as if with fear till morning.

I was grateful when Lee walked in front of the mirror himself.

The door I tattooed on him had a red slash across it. Biblical.Like he was marked. I couldn’t remember if that meant he was spared. Or doomed.

“It’s cracked,” Lee said.

I winced. “Once that heals, I can fix it.”

Lee shook his head.

“The shadowing along the edge,” he clarified. “The door’s cracked open.”

I looked at it as if I hadn’t been the one to tattoo it onto his skin.

It was the door of my childhood home. I hadn’t meant for it to be open. Not open at all.

I didn’t give Lee a response. I feared it like I feared the cracked door: once open, there was no closing it.

At the cash register I offered Lee a weary sigh.

He came to stand close once more. Too close. Torturously close.

“I really don’t know what’s gotten into me,” I said, dragging my fingers through my hair.

Lee smiled through the wince as he dragged back on his coat.

“I think you just really want to buy me a drink,” he said.

God, how I wanted to.

I shook my head.

“Then how about you let me buy you a drink instead?” he said, grinning devilishly.

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