Page 5 of Tattooed By Her Silver Fox

I wash her finger off, and even though it’s a simple design, I apply a stencil. She’s got my head all scrambled, and I don’t want to fuck up her ink.

“How long with this take?”

I’ve got my machine in my hand and ready to start when she asks the question, then pulls her lower lip into her mouth and bites it. She’s diverting her attention on purpose. I can do one even better. “About as long as it’d take me to make you mine.”

Vi turns to me, and I get the first few pricks of the needle under her skin before she realizes I’ve started and turns back to watch me work.

“You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?” she says, and I keep working while her attention is on me and not the pain.

“I’m sure I intimidate the hell out of you.”

“Not true,” she says and frowns. “I’m letting you poke needles into me. If that doesn’t say trust, I don’t know what does.”

I stop the machine after completing the rosebud. “Did you just say you trusted me?”

Her glance is sly and calculated. “If we’re being honest with each other, since the second I laid eyes on you, I wanted to trust you.”

My heart is thumping in my chest. By the way, her heated stare bore into me at the school I know she’s into me, but is it possible this goddess wants more than just a look? I’m twice her age, and even though I’ve kept in good shape and date mostly younger woman, I didn’t dream she could find me desirable enough to want anything more than to put me in my place about Bash.

“Why, Vi? Why do you need to trust me?”

She’s quiet for a second, and I’m about to start working again when she finally answers. “It’s not something I do easily, but with you, it just feels right.”

I focus on finishing her tattoo and not looking into her eyes. From start to finish, it takes fifteen minutes to brand her with one of my roses and another ten to clean it up after and wrap it so it won’t scab. Once everything is complete, I drop a kiss to her finger and tell her it’s all finished.

“Do you kiss all of your work?” she questions, and her eyes grow dark. Fuck. She smells of flowers and sunshine and fresh arousal, and the ache I’ve held off all night can’t be held back any longer. “Only yours.”

I pull her up from the chair and bring her over to settle into my lap. She pulls away, but I wrap my arms around her and hold her close. “You don’t want to kiss me, Sweetness?” I brush hair off her face where it’s slipped free from her ponytail and drop a kiss to the base of her neck.

Vi leans her head back and from deep in her throat I have my answer. She moans my name and arches her back to give me more of her. I grab her chin and turn her to face me and drop my mouth to hers, taking greedily, swallowing every sound Vi makes until she stops making them and wraps her arms around my neck. She tastes even better than she smells, and I’m addicted. All I want to ever eat again is Vi’s mouth.

When I finally pull away, she’s panting, and her eyes are closed. Her body shakes in my arms.

I have a feeling Vi has never done this with a man. She’s never given herself over freely, and I want to honor that. But, at the same time, I’m so hard and thick from lusting for her for the last hour, I know I can’t be gentle. Once I have her, I won’t be able to hold back. I’ll scare her, or hurt her, or worse, I’ll do both. I’m too fucking hard of a man for a girl as soft and moldable as her. She needs a delicate touch, and I lost that skill too many years ago.

She nuzzles into my neck, and I turn away from her. “You should be healed in about a week. Leave the wrap on for tonight and keep it clean.” I stand, forcing her onto her feet. I get her coat from the chair and lead Vi to the door. I know she thinks I’m a jerk for throwing her out, and maybe I am. But I’d rather be a hated jerk than ruin her fantasy of how tonight ends in her head because I’m sure what I have planned, she’s never thought of before.

“Good night, Vi,” I say and open the door for her to leave. Knowing, she’ll take my heart with her.

3

Vi

The next day I can’t get Fox off my mind.

I have no idea what happened last night. One minute we were kissing. Oh...Fox is a damn fine kisser. And the next, he’d all but kicking me out of his shop.

I just met the man. I shouldn’t feel his absences so keenly, but it’s like I left a part of me in his shop, and now miss him to the point of aching.

Bash is at school and his usual happy self. As I sit with the students for lunch, I find myself drawn to pick Bash as my lunch buddy. He looks so much like Fox now that I’ve met him. His big gray-silver eyes and a smile so sweet you instantly fall in love with him.

By the end of the day, I’m exhausted from keeping busy. I thought if I worked harder I could get Fox off my mind for long enough to forget him, but it only takes a glance down at my finger to remember last night. My assistant collects the students who are picked up in cars, and I take the rest of the buses. I’m just putting my final student on her bus when the secretary calls my name over the loudspeaker.

I ask Rosa, our secretary, what I’m needed for, and she points outside. “I can’t deal with that man. He’s asking for you, and no amount of telling him you’re busy will make him stop. He’s a testy one. Would you like me to call the principal to deal with him?”

I glance out the office window, wondering just which of my more difficult parents Rosa is referring too when I catch a glimpse of Fox standing by the door. He’s alone, and I’m hit with worry over what’s happened to Bash.

“Mr. Fox,” I say after opening the door and stepping out onto the sidewalk. “Where’s Bash? Is everything alright?”

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