Page 167 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

He laughed and pulled the bandana off his head. Half his head was shaved, and the other half was covered in long blond hair down to his shoulders. There was a scar on the shaved side of his head.

“Oh yeah, Helmet!”

“How the fuck do you know Helmet, Sprite?” Simon asked.

“I just told you. I’m a slut, remember? I took a ride on his...motorcycle.”

Helmet smirked. Simon rolled his eyes and returned to his work. Reuben pinched the back of my arm and I yelped.

“I told you to be good.”

“Um, Helmet can tell you. I wasvery good.” I squirmed away from him before he could pinch me again and rubbed at the spot on the back of my arm.Damn that hurt.He dug his fingernails into my skin when he pinched.

“You’re just begging to have your ass beat today, aren’t you?”

“Mayyyyybe.”

“Aren’t you sore from yesterday?”

“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want more. Plus, I don’t have any marks!” He hadn’t flogged me hard enough or long enough to really get any good strikes in.

Reuben pointed at me and looked at Simon. “Is this normal for her?”

Simon nodded, completely serious.

I explored the photography of Simon’s work while he finished up with the biker and his buddy. When he was done and they left the shop, he leaned forward in his chair and gave me a small smile.

“Hey there, Sprite.”

I skipped over to him and gave him a big hug, and he chuckled quietly. Eventually he pulled away from me and whispered, “He’s going to kill me if I hug you much longer than that.”

Looking back over my shoulder, I saw the glare on Reuben’s face.

“Oh, that’s nothing. You should have seen his face when I was talking about your dick.”

Reuben’s glare intensified. Simon cleared his throat and stood up, putting some distance between us.

Simon lifted his face and spoke louder, addressing Reuben. “Weston.”

“Pierce. I want to talk about that unfinished design. What were you planning?”

Simon retrieved his notebook, flipping back through until he found whatever he had started on my right hip, and handed it over, passing it over my head so I couldn’t see. Reuben saw it, smirked, and nodded. Handing it back, he said, “finish it. Just the way it is.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a–”

“It’s a surprise, apparently.” Reuben interrupted.

I grumbled but hopped up onto the table to let Simon do his thing, pulling my new leather mini skirt up and out of the way and pushing my fishnets down.

“And Alice?” Reuben said, sitting beside me.

“Sir?”

“No more ‘mystery’ tattoos. You want more ink, you clear it with me.” He flicked my thigh once. “This is mine now. You don’t get to make changes to it without my permission. You want mystery tattoos, fine, but Simon and I will discuss it before you make any decisions.”

I was about to argue the fuck out of that, becauseexcuse me sir,but this was my body, and I’d owned it a hell of a lot longer than he had, but here and now was probably the wrong place.

---