Page 23 of Knight
“And onions?” I asked with a hopeful tone that he had remembered.
“Of course.”
I melted inside. As much as he made me feel like he’d forgotten everything about me, this one simple thing was proof that he hadn’t. The smile that overtook my mouth was huge. There was no way I could hold back the elation I was feeling right then. And as his eyes dropped to look at my lips, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell he was thinking at that moment. But I knew he’d never tell me. He wouldn’t even give any sort of indication. Or maybe it was simply that he wasn’t thinking anything. For all I knew, I was being a pathetically hopeful girl.
“Yeah,” he said with a tiny shake of his head. “Want me to make yours?”
“Please. Thanks.” I said with a little nod. I knew that he would make them just the way I wanted them.
“Alright.” He took a step back and it seemed like he had to force himself to turn around and walk back into the kitchen.
I let out a rush of air once he was far enough away that his scent wasn’t so powerful in my nose. I self-consciously looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed the tense encounter, and sure enough, there was Mouse looking at me through the open space of the kitchen. He winked at me, a knowing smirk plastered on his face.
I chose to be the bigger person and not flip him off. Though I was really itching to do just that. Instead, I shook off my dizzying feelings and moved to clean off the coffee table.
Not long after that, we were all seated around the living room with plates of custom nachos in front of our faces. Tara sat next to me but I could tell that she was relaxing a little. She actually interjected herself into a few of the conversations, which was good.
Things were light for the most part and I could tell that the guys were avoiding bringing up pretty much anything about the club. Not that I didn’t think Tara picked up on the fact that every single one of them was wearing their Steel Paragons cut.
“So, how’s work Sketch? Do any crazy tats lately?” I asked.
He usually had at least one new interesting story to tell. It seemed that the shop brought in some people with strange requests. I knew that Sketch was professional and so he would do his best with each one. I’d seen some of his work and it was amazing. Some of it even seemed so lifelike that I thought it was going to jump right off the person’s skin.
Sketch was known for his realistic ink. Brand was the one you went to for the classic, sailor style and anything that had to do with script. He was also good with the use of colors, especially bright ones. His work was also amazing. And Blade was good at, well, so far Sketch had only shown me three that Blade had done. It seemed that they liked to give him the butterfly tattoos. Sketch told me that he and Brand flat out refused to do butterflies and dragonflies. And that they didn’t want to deal with the ‘trendy, dumb as fuck sorority bitches.’ Sketch’s words, not mine. All I could do was shake my head at the guy. He was always asking me when I was coming down so he could ‘do something’ on me and I had contemplated more than once on telling him he could ink me but only if it was a butterfly. One day I would actually make that joke. It wasn’t like I really wanted a stupid butterfly on me, no way in hell. I wasn’t a butterfly kinda girl, at all.
“Oh shit!” Sketch said surprisingly as he dropped his half-eaten plate on the coffee table. I knew whatever story he was about to tell was going to be great. He had the attention of the entire room as he started.
“So, this bitch.” He paused and looked at Tara with a half-apologetic grimace. I wanted to laugh but I held it back. I was used to the language and terms, it wasn’t like the guys really meant them they way they sounded. But Tara was new here and I could appreciate his awareness and respect. “I mean thisgirlcame in and had some sob story about how her boyfriend of five years cheated on her, right? Well, she rambled on like crazy about it and I did my best to half listen to that shit. Since I was the only one in the shop at the time, I couldn’t even hand her off to Blade.”
He paused and took a swig of his beer.
“I was expecting her to tell me she wanted some like woman power tattoo, ya know? But no. After her story, she looked at me and says ‘I want her name tattooed on my lower back so that every time he fucks me from behind he sees his betrayal.’ I was so shocked I didn’t even know what the fuck to say.”
“That sounds like bullshit,” Mouse said as he tossed his beer cap at Sketch.
“No, dude, I can’t make this shit up,” he said and his eyes got really big. “I had two choices. Give her what she wanted or try to talk her out of the really bad idea. One I knew she’d later regret. But then I thought to myself that if she’s still with the guy, then maybe she deserved the bad ink.”
“Did you do it?” I asked with a huge trace of shock in my tone.
“Well I wasn’t going to, but then she said she’d suck my—” He cut himself off and his eyes fluttered over to Tara for a second. She seemed to be really into the story and I wondered what she was thinking about the whole thing. “She said she’d give me a really good tip.”
“That was a really bad cover, man,” Knight mumbled from across the room. I held his eyes as a big laugh slipped from my throat.
Tara seemed to catch on as she looked around the room. Although, Knight had been completely right, Sketch’s attempt at covering the truth of what he was going to say was horrible. Then the next words out of her mouth shocked the shit out of me, and by the way the room went silent for a whole minute, I wasn’t the only one.
“So you did it? Did she really suck you off?” Tara asked like she couldn’t quite believe it.
Mouse choked on his beer. Everyone else seemed to be stuck in a frozen state, me included.
“Well, yeah.” Sketch said after a pause of recovery. “Who would turn down a free blowjob, really?” He gave his shoulders a quick shrug and tried to hide his smile behind his swig of beer.
To me, Tara seemed like the quiet, reserved type. We hadn’t talked about anything over the line of basic things, really. We hadn’t even gone anywhere near any kind of topic involving sex. Which I was totally alright with. I mean, she was fun and easy to talk to, but she also had this almost innocent and naïve quality to her. Then again, maybe I just didn’t know her well enough yet.
“Was it any good?” she asked, her body leaning a little closer to Sketch’s as she waited for his answer.
“The blowjob or the tattoo?” he asked with a chuckle. He knew what she meant but he was just goading her.
“The blowjob?” Tara asked.
“I mean, it was alright. Got the job done.”
The room erupted with laughter and I reached behind me and grabbed the pillow I’d brought out earlier to help prop up my book on my lap. I tossed it as his head but his reflex were quick and he deflected with ease.
The next couple of hours seemed to fly by with all of us swapping fun stories. Tara even told a few, though it seemed that her life had been a little tamer than most of ours. But no one made fun of her and all of them seemed to listen when she talked. I could tell that she was warming up to Knight. As the night went on she spared him more glances and actually looked at him when he was speaking. Though his eyes were usually on me. I didn’t miss that and I was sure that no one else did either. But I didn’t care. I’d take as much of Knight as I could get. And the fact that his guard was slipping while there were people around made me smile and do a happy dance internally.
It got late, and though I seemed to be the only one having trouble keeping my eyes open, I had to say goodnight and usher Tara out as gracefully as possible. Luckily, she got the hint quick enough and told everyone bye without lingering. Sketch offered to walk her out and I was grateful because I wasn’t even sure I would be able to make it to my bed. I had an idea that the three beers I’d consumed weren’t helping my sleepy state either. I wasn’t a big drinker, so they hit me pretty hard. I told the guys to carry on and not worry about keeping it down, knowing I was going to be out like a light once my head hit the pillow. And sure enough, not even five minutes later, I was passed out.
