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Chapter 22
The “earth” without “art” is just “eh”.
Ink
Ink ran his hand down the smooth skin of Jade’s back, marveling at how her skin almost glowed copper in the dim light of the room. Last night had been a revelation in so many ways. His emotions had run through the entire spectrum, from terror over her safety to ecstasy in her arms. She belonged between Hannibal and him. Even when he had been angry at her for climbing up the side of the Clubhouse, never once did he wish she wasn’t theirs.
She had taken everything she had seen at the party in stride, and even seemed to enjoy the game that they played over the pool table. She had ridden them almost to exhaustion in one of the bedrooms upstairs at the Clubhouse and then caved in to their demands that she come back with them to their house. Where they started all over again and she kept up with them when they woke her at least three times during the night to satisfy their needs.
Waking up the last time to her mouth wrapped around his cock while Hannibal fucked her from behind had been unreal. For the first time since he was a teenager, he had barely lasted long enough for her to get her own pleasure. Her talented mouth pulled him straight out of dreams and into orgasm.
It was tempting to wake her up once again. But both she and Hannibal lay in the exhausted sprawl of people who needed sleep. So he slid out of the bed and decided to finish up his work on the art for her back. For the last couple of days, they had spent every spare moment working on the image they wanted to put on her back.
Hannibal had finished up his portion yesterday before they’d left for the Clubhouse, and he was almost done. He slid on a pair of black joggers and headed out to the drawing table they had in the back room. The sunroom was the perfect place for both Hannibal and him when they wanted to do their artwork.
He wanted this to be something that captured her essence. He pictured her joy as she scrambled up the building and remembered the sound of her laughter as she teased with the Old Ladies. Ink drew swirling bright pastel colors across the page. Her joy that could barely be confined within the tight black lines of wings.
His fantasy stylized butterflies danced and ducked in an arching pattern, weaving their way in between Hannibal’s hyper-realistic ones. Co-creating artwork was a very specific talent. The elements needed to meld together to create a unique whole.
Hannibal and he had worked together before and found that creating an overlay of Hannibal’s finished work was the best way to complete the design. They printed it out on a clear sheet of plastic which Ink could periodically place down over his own work to make sure that everything fit and flowed seamlessly together.
Once the piece was completely done, they would size it to her back and create the stencils that they would use for placement. They would photograph the original and use it for the final piece as a reference as they inked it onto her skin.
It’d been a long time since he had lost himself in work like this. He let the emotions and the stories flow into the beautiful picture that she had inspired. Time lost meaning for him as he worked the colors to create the perfect balance. He used his thumb to smudge the last bit of color in place and took the overlay and placed it on top of his own drawing with a smile.
“My God, that’s beautiful. I don’t know what to say.” Jade’s voice startled him and he wanted to curse his own inattention.
Only here in their house, with the high-tech alarm system and all the security measures they had put into place, did he ever let his attention slip. Even then, not usually when anyone but he and Hannibal were in the house. How, in less than a week, had he come to trust this woman so much that he let his guard down so far that she could sneak up on him?
He shook off his dark thoughts. “Do you like it?”
“Love isn’t even a strong enough word. I adore it.”
Hannibal strode into the room behind Jade and leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek. His dark skin a beautiful contrast against the golden light of hers. Ink stood and claimed his own kiss from her soft lips. She was wearing one of their t-shirts. The neck gaped open, giving him a tempting view down her shirt.
“I can’t wait to get started. In my mind I couldn’t have pictured something that amazing.”
Ink gave her a playful slap on her ass. “We’ve still got a lot more work to do to get the stencil created. Your gym is closed on Monday. If you come in, then we should be able to get started.”
She cocked her head. “I thought you guys were closed on Monday too.”
“We are, but that’s the beauty of being the owner. We can open the shop up whenever we want,” Hannibal teased. “All right, I’m gonna start breakfast for us.”
Ink looked over at the clock. “Don’t you mean lunch?”
“Nope. Because I wouldn’t know what to make for lunch. But I can do a mean breakfast.”
That was nothing but the truth. Hannibal was usually the one that cooked both breakfast and dinner if they weren’t in the mood to order out. The man’s mama taught him how to cook, and Ink never complained when he was willing to do the cooking. It was an interestingly domestic scene as they all puttered around the kitchen, gathering together things and setting up plates on the breakfast bar.
Ink studied Jade as she sat laughing with Hannibal, eating the hearty breakfast that he had laid out for them. Her smile was addictive. She brought joy wherever she went. If there was a way to make sure she remained happy, he would burn down the world to make sure she stayed that way.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a way to make that a reality. Ink hadn’t had any good examples of what a healthy relationship looked like when he was young. His father had been a drunken, abusive asshole. And his mother, an abrasive woman who stepped out on his father more times than he could count. The heartless woman hadn’t cared one bit that her son knew what she was doing.
Sometimes he missed Texas. The warm weather and people who were satisfied with a simpler life. But he never missed his family. Jade leaned over and rubbed her thumb between his eyebrows.
“What are you thinking about that makes you all frowny?”
He chuckled, completely shocked that he could be falling for a woman who used a word like frowny. Ink shook his head in amazement. “I’m thinking about my family.”
