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“Of course. The world needs to know you’re mine.”
I smack his arm, but I have to laugh. “I love you, Zane Madden.”
He smiles warmly, then glances again at the tattoo and looks smug. It’s so funny. Smug and aroused, which isn’t funny at all.
No, not funny, I think as his cock swells again inside me, and he groans, shifting underneath me.
So I grab his face and kiss his mouth to stop from smiling, even as my heart soars.
-=Do you want to read MORE Inked Brotherhood? You can find the rest of the series here: Inked Brotherhood=-
Micah
Damage Control 1
There’s me: Micah Owens. Tattoo artist at Damage Control. No parents or siblings. A past that still gives me nightmares.
And then there’s her: Evangeline, the girl who saved my life and haunts my more pleasant dreams. Only she doesn’t know who I really am, and telling her might well send her fleeing for the hills. She deserves better than a loser like me. She’s pretty. She’s clever. She’s goddamn sexy and has a heart of gold.
Which is why I can’t tell her. A smile from her and I’ll do all I can to make her mine – including pretending to be someone I’m not, someone worth having.
Isn’t love weird?
Chapter One
Micah
A flash of red and black catches my eye. A slim silhouette darts out of the donut shop right across the street, limping slightly, and I turn for a better look. She’s here. I pause, the tattoo gun buzzing in my hand, and curse inwardly. She’s late. Later than usual, that is, and my break is over, so I can’t wat
ch her like I’ve been doing for the past week.
And now I sound like a stalker… Shit.
“Are we done?” my sullen customer demands to know. He’s young—doesn’t look older than twenty—but his expensive clothes and haircut scream money, something that places him galaxies apart from me.
“Not yet.”
“Well, hurry up, will you? And keep your eyes on that damn thing you’re waving about. I don’t want you making any mistakes.”
I clench my jaw, grip the tattoo gun more tightly and force myself not to reply. I continue inking a bleeding heart on the guy’s flabby back. I’ve never once made a mistake. Inking people is my life’s passion, and I was taught by one of the best.
Zane Madden.
Focusing on work shouldn’t be an issue. My job, the tattoo shop, this is everything to me. Literally. It’s all I have and I know I’m goddamn lucky to have it. It’s all I need.
Or at least it was, until she started showing up every afternoon. The first time I saw her as I stretched my legs outside Damage Control, the tattoo shop where I work, I just about fell over. I think it’s her. Ev. I haven’t seen her in more than half a year, but I’d never forget her face. No way in hell.
I think. Though Ev’s hair had seemed darker... Is it her? I just wish I could see her from up close to make sure.
Frowning, I concentrate on putting the finishing touches on the bleeding heart and thorns that pierce it. It’s a simple design, easy to ink. As I add the colors and details, I lose myself in a trance, one I usually enter when I’m one hundred percent immersed in my craft, in the art of creating something beautiful.
It’s some time later when Zane passes by my booth and nods in greeting I realize the light outside has faded. I step back and take in the finished tattoo. Crimson and black intertwine, blood and pain.
“Good work, Micah,” Zane says, giving the tattoo an appraising look. He’s still here, his tall Mohawk a startling blue.
I nod, warmth spreading through me at his approval. I’m just out of my apprenticeship and Zane is my god. Everything I am now I owe to him. Although he’s younger than me by almost a year, he makes me feel good about myself, watched over, looked after. He’s like the older brother I never had.
I pull off my gloves and throw them into the trash, then wipe the new tattoo and apply a bandage. As I explain the basics of aftercare to my impatient customer, about when to remove the bandage and how to keep the tattoo clean and dry, I hear Seth talking in the next booth. Seth and I share an apartment not far from the tattoo shop. He’s barely turned eighteen and is an apprentice here, like I was before him.
