Page 21 of Sugar and Skulls

“Hey, listen to me. I can see that you protected yourself. It doesn’t matter what they did. You fought. You fought hard but sometimes you have to stop to live to fight another day. You did what you had to do.”

She blinks at me a few times as my words begin to sink in.

“You’re not giving up are you?” I ask, still gripping her hair tightly in my fist.

“No.” She pauses, and I see a fire ignite in her eyes. “I’m going to kill them.”

I give her a wicked smile. “No,weare going to kill them.”

I release my grip on her hair and she drops her forehead to my chest. I hold her until her trembling subsides. “You want to tell me whotheyare?” She rolls her head back and forth.

She pulls away from me and tries to cover herself with her arms. “I’m…I’m good,” she stutters.

Quickly I take a step back. “Yeah, shit. I’ll wait for you out there. We should be getting back to Dan’s.”

She nods in agreement not taking her eyes off the shower floor.

Chapter Ten

Jesse

???

What the hell am I thinking breaking down in front of this man. When the door closes behind him I quickly get out of the shower and dress. Fuck, what have I done? Now that my head has cleared a little I realize I’ve gotten myself into yet another sticky situation. Dan is friends with scary tattoo man and my dad. Great, simply great.

I take a deep breath and head out to face things head on…well sort of. He turns when he hears me. He is dripping wet. “There’s a clothes dryer in the kitchen.” He looks down at his wet apparel. His t-shirt is sticking to his muscular chest. A dark, wet dream if I ever did see one. Damn.

“Yeah, maybe I should dry them otherwise your dad is going to ask questions,” he laughs awkwardly.

For some reason I think awkward is new to him. Good. I toss him a towel and point to the kitchen. When he leaves the room, I go over my options. I could go with tattoo man to see Dan, Raffe and my dad. Um, I think I’ll take a hard pass on that. I plop my aching body down on the couch.

My original plan was to hop on a bus but, I’ve never run from anything in my life. No, I’ve either set it on fire or stabbed it. However, now I find myself caught between two dangerous clubs.

Just as a plan formulates in my head a dark shadow moves past me drawing my eyes upward. Jesus.

Jesuuuus.

I can’t help myself. I rise from the couch and stand in front of him. I’ve only seen his face and hands. But, with only a towel I see this canvas is almost completely covered. My eyes devour his naked torso. He should be listed as one of the greatest pieces of dark art. He is an exquisite blend of black ink and man. I reach out and let a finger trail over the sugar skull that is etched into his skin over his rib cage. It’s done so well that it appears as if she’s caged inside of him. Peering out between the bones she speaks to me. My eyes roam up the ink, climbing up his neck until landing on his mood ring eyes.

The electric current that hums between us, gives me new life. A renewed sense of strength washes over me. My hand roams back down to the edge of towel sitting ever so delightfully at his hips. In one swift motion I rip it off and take a step back, keeping the towel in my grip. My eyes run down his dark thighs. My mind is already filling in the blank spots on his body.

Yeah, those are now mine. I’ll be etching myself there soon.

“What are you doing?” he asks with a mildly interested smirk on his face.

“Leveling the playing field.”

“I guess now that we have seen each other in our birthday suits perhaps we should properly introduce ourselves.” He reaches out for the towel, but I pull it back just out of reach.

“You already know who I am.”

“True, Jesse, I do know who you are and who your dad is so, can you please give me that towel before he barges in and so kindly removes my favorite body part.”

“Hmm, I thought he was waiting for me at Dan’s?”

He huffs and I see his muscles tense. He wants to make a dodge for the towel but is worried he will scare me after what I’ve just been through. What he doesn’t know is that I don’t scare easily. Fear does nothing but warn you danger is near. He is dangerous no doubt, but not to me. “Well, are you going to tell me your name?” I ask.

“I thought I was scary tattoo man,” he smirks, still holding his hand out for the towel.

---