Page 17 of Knot That Serious

What a mistake that was.

Jack practically glowed under the soft lighting in his silk, pale pink shirt.

“That’s lovely,” Beckett said.

Jack averted his gaze. “Thanks.”

Beckett laid his arm across the mostly empty table, wiggling his fingers for Jack to do the same. Hesitantly, as if unsure of Beckett’s motives, Jack laid his hand atop Beckett’s.

The touch was electric, and Beckett watched Jack swallow before turning his attention to their hands. He curled his fingers beneath Jack’s wrist to feel the texture of the shirt. It slid between his thumb and index finger like butter.

Just beneath the sleeve, the ink of Jack’s tattoos peeked out.

“How many tattoos do you have?” Beckett asked the obvious.

Jack shrugged and pulled his hand back. Beckett suppressed the disappointment for a split second before he realized Jack was undoing the cuff buttons, and rolling the sleeve up.

Beckett’s mouth went dry.

“They all go together, kinda. You can see some of them,” he said, and laid his arm back out.

Florals were painted on the canvas of his skin, roses and tulips and carnations and some he wasn’t sure the name of. Petals full and thick and lush decorated his skin, but at the center of each flower was something… else.

“Is that a cinnamon roll?” Beckett asked, pointing to the one on his forearm.

Jack rolled his wrist over. “Yeah, so I didn’t get these done all at the same time, or even by the same person.”

Beckett chuckled and brushed his thumb across the silly looking motorcycle at the bend of his arm. This one had shaky lines and skips in the ink. It was faded with age.

“I can tell.”

Jack snickered softly. “My brother did that. He wasn’t the best artist, to be fair.”

“Is he a tattoo artist?”

“Oh, god, no. He does something in IT, don’t ask me.”

Beckett arched a brow, curious. “Going to elaborate? How did your IT brother end up giving you a tattoo?”

“Why does any alpha do anything out of the ordinary?”

Amusement fluttered through him. “An omega?”

“Yeah. His college sweetheart. She was so out of his league. They didn’t even run around with the same friends, but he wanted to impress her. I was sixteen, a very impressionable age, as I’m sure you know,” Jack drawled. “To me, he was the coolest guy ever, so of course I let him practice on me.”

Beckett smothered his laugh and studied the ink on his arm again. “You got a tattoo at sixteen so your brother could impress the omega he wanted to date?”

“That’s the story,” Jack said.

“How did your parents handle this?” His mother would’ve… well, he’d rather not go there.

“As well as you’d expect. Grounded for life,” Jack said with a somber expression.

Beckett grinned. “So kind of them to let you out tonight.”

“Yeah, the rules are pretty relaxed these days.”

“No curfew?”

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