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"What are you all doing in here?" I asked.
"Julian brought something for us," Tyson answered as he lifted his hand to reach out to me. His hand paused in the air and a look of pain crossed his face.
Tyson clearly was still upset about what the conversation we'd had the other day while the hunters were running amok.
I, however, had no such qualms.
I swatted his hand out of the air and moved right into him, pressing my front up tightly to his side and wrapping my arms around his middle. I didn't look at him, but I could feel his beautiful brown eyes aimed down on me. I hoped this set things straight between the two of us.
I squeezed his middle and melted into him when his arms came up, circling my shoulders. He pressed his lips into the top of my head in a kiss and I knew it was his way of letting me know we were okay and everything was going to be just fine between the two of us.
I was thankful for it, because he was my best friend in the whole world and it would hurt my heart in ways it had never hurt before if he was truly upset with me.
"Love you, Ty," I murmured quietly, as I rubbed my cheek against the front of his shirt.
Tyson's arms held me even tighter, almost to the point of pain. I didn't complain, though, because I knew it was done out of what he was feeling at hearing my words.
The noise around the room stopped and I looked around the island, taking everyone in. They were all staring at me in Tyson's arms. Some of them had soft looks on their faces. Quinton, oddly enough, being one of them. Others had blank faces. That being Damien and Rain. The rest of them looked at me with heat and tenderness in their eyes.
This is what it felt like to be loved, even those blank faces weren't fooling me.
"What's going on here?" I asked in a timid voice.
"Apparently you and Julian here have been busy behind the rest of our backs," Quinton said. There was no anger or upset in his voice, it had been stated as fact.
My eyes moved to him as a small smile tugged at my lips.
"I want a tattoo," I told him. "A magic infused tattoo. Julian has been helping me and by helping me I mean he's been doing all the work."
I turned to Julian and smiled brightly at him. "Isn't that right, slugger?"
Julian smirked at me. "You know I prefer it when you call me Jules as opposed to slugger, right?"
I did, but slugger had a nice ring to it, and only I knew why I called him that. I had my own private nickname and I wasn't sure I was willing to give it up.
I shrugged noncommittally because I had no intention of stopping calling him that. He smirked at me, not seeming to be bothered in the least.
"You want a tattoo?" Rain inquired quietly.
I jerked my head in his direction and his face was no longer carefully blank. There was pain and hurt in there now and I didn't understand why.
"Yeah," I said before asking, "Why does that seem like a problem for you?"
"Because," he ground out in that guttural voice of his, "if you wanted a tattoo infused with magic you should have come to me and I would have given it to you."
My mouth popped open as I stared at my father. I couldn't believe that he'd be so upset about this when it wasn't something we'd ever really talked about before. Up until the other day, he'd been completely closed off from me when it came to his tattoos. Heck, I hadn't even seen the ones on his arms until the other day and he'd been in my life formonthsnow.
"How was I supposed to know this, Rain?" I challenged in an accusatory voice. "You're so tight lipped when it comes to these things that I never would have even thought to go to you about it. You give me so much, but you've held back on that."
"What do you want to know?" he asked quietly, and I shook my head. It didn't work like that. I didn't want him to tell me these things because I had to force it out of him.
"Just forget about it," I grumbled angrily. "We can argue about it later if you want, but right now we have more important things to discuss."
"If you're getting a tattoo then I'm going to be the one to give it to you," Rain remarked stubbornly.
"Okay," I agreed easily, and his eyes widened in surprise. Really, now, I wasn'tthatdifficult to deal with. "But we're not doing that right now so I don't want to talk about it anymore."
I gestured rudely toward the small vials on the island. There was some pretty colored purple concoction swirling around in them. I'd seen this before.
