Page 48 of Reed

I look over my stencils again and choose his name. “I want this right here.” I point to the top of my hand right under my wrist and his mouth slightly twitches.

“Alright. What do you want to do first?”

I bite my bottom lip with a smile, “It won’t take you long to do mine, so let’s do yours first.”

He teaches me how to prep for the tattoo. After disinfecting the work area, I put on my gloves and shave gently over the area he wants tattooed, then place the stencil.

He taps his lap, “Straddle me.”

I squint at him, “If I do that, no funny business. I’ll have a needle next to your throat and would hate to fuck it up.”

He lifts his hands in surrender with a smirk, “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

I shake my head and laugh, “Right.”

I place the foot pedal on the floor and straddle his lap. He leans back in the chair and rests his hands on my thighs.

Taking my time, I keep asking if he’s okay and if I’m hurting him.

“I promise I’m okay, Honeybee.” He says with his eyes closed. I keep looking at his face to make sure he’s not in pain, but he doesn’t ever flinch.

I finally finish and wipe it like he tells me to.

We get up and he goes to the mirror to look at it, “Damn, baby. Not bad for your first one.”

“You think so?” I ask nervously beside him.

He turns towards me and places a kiss on my nose. “Yeah, I love it.”

I pull my gloves off and throw them in the trash. “Okay, my turn!”

It doesn’t take long before he’s finished with mine. I watch as he admires his name on my hand. He gently rubs his thumb over it then locks eyes with me, “I love you, Honeybee.”

I grab his face with both hands and say, “I love you too.” Before crawling in his lap and kissing him.

EPILOGUE TWO

REED

One Week later

“Alright, man, see you next weekend," Conner says as he locks the door to the tattoo shop and I mount my bike. I flick two fingers into the air, acknowledging him but not looking in his direction.

I take another drag of my cigarette before dropping it to the ground and snubbing it out, and check my tracker app.

Looks like my little Honeybee is waiting for me at home.

About ten minutes later I enter our apartment. The lights are off, and a soft glow of the TV shines from our bedroom.

I kick my socks and shoes off by the front entry and head towards my woman.

I feel so much better now that she’s moved in with me. It didn’t take much convincing, thank fuck. Now I get to go to sleep and wake up next to her every day.

Her blonde strands are sprawled out on her pillow and she’s curled up in the fetal position under the blanket.

“Honeybee,” I call out to her as I sit on the bed next to her.

“Hmm?” She whines.