Dark Ink Tattoo Episode 5

  This episode of Dark Ink Tattoo delves deep into Angela’s troubled past. How did a good girl like her get involved with a werewolf biker gang? How did she ever meet Gray? How did she become a were herself?

  Have you ever had that one really hot and sexy but wayyyyy bad idea boyfriend? Or…maybe girlfriend?

  Dark Ink is a hot hot hot urban fantasy series, which will be comprised of ten 15,000 word pieces each, like a very sexy paranormal Dexter or Sons of Anarchy.

  Dark Ink Tattoo

  Cassie Alexander

  Episode 5

  Dark Ink Tattoo - Episode 5

  Cassie Alexander

  Copyright © 2016 by Erin Cashier. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email cassiealexanderassistant@gmail.com

  www.cassiealexander.com

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Cover Art by Kellie Dennis at Book Cover by Design www.bookcoverbydesign.co.uk

  Chapter 1

  “Come on, Angie – I just need you to come with me tonight.”

  I loved Willa Heartwood to death, but it was already that clear this would be the worst decision she’d ever talked me into.

  We were in my bedroom upstairs, just a week before school was starting. Willa was going to Luna community college to figure out what she wanted to be, whereas I was going to UNLV as an art major. High school’d made it abundantly clear that painting and drawing were the only things I was good at – but I was really, really good at them.

  “You won’t even have to stay long,” she wheedled. “Just be my wing-woman. Help me get in the door.”

  “Who is this guy? Have I met him?”

  “No. Remember a week ago when you ditched me?”

  “Because my parents wanted me to hang out with them.” Code words for: ‘You’re spending too much time with Willa again, and we don’t want her crazy to stick.’

  “Well I went to that club downtown and hung out out back, trying to meet the band. There were these guys there and – oh my God, you should’ve seen him.” Willa’s eyes were intent on mine. “He was beautiful. He was amazing.”

  “And…you talked to him?”

  “No. He was so pretty I didn’t have the guts. But after he rode off – on a motorcycle,” she emphasized, as though that were the important part, “this older chick came over and told me about him. Said his girlfriend’d just broken up with him and where he’d be tonight.”

  “And why isn’t she humping him herself, if he’s so hot?”

  “Because she was with another guy there.” Willa leaned in. “I think they’re like in a gang.”

  “Willa!” I stared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I absolutely am not. I wouldn’t ask you if it weren’t important to me, Angie, but I’ve spent the entire last week thinking about him.” She threw herself across my bed, arms wide. “You would understand, if you’d been there.”

  I flopped down on the bed beside her. “Probably.”

  Willa and I had been best friends since elementary. In Las Vegas, where people moved in and out like a perpetual tide, this was an accomplishment. There was nothing about me she didn’t know – what boy bands members I’d had crushes on and in what order, which boys in high school I’d liked. She’d been the one to hand me a pad under the stall when my period’d begun, and had been the person I’d hung out and watched Netflix with when we skipped proms – both of them.

  And I, in turn, knew everything about her. Why she hung out at my house so much – to hide out from her angry dad – and helped her cheat on algebra in 8th grade enough to pass. I remembered the first time she’d smoked pot and the first time she’d gotten me some. And I’d been the one she called half an hour after she’d lost her virginity, more interested in telling me about it than hanging out with the boy.

  She was the wild-one, I was straight-laced. I kept her safe and she kept things fun. We’d spent practically our whole lives together, joined at the hip, just like we were now on my bed. But school was looming and we’d be going to vastly different places. We’d been talking a big game about moving out of our parent’s houses and moving in together, but we hadn’t gotten our acts together yet. Maybe it wouldn’t happen at all. Maybe this was the beginning of the end.

  She bounced up on an elbow, her thoughts running opposite of mine. “You still haven’t answered, Ang.”

  Her dark curls fanned out around her face as she grinned, hopeful I’d come along on one last adventure. And if she was there – how could I not? “Sure. Fine,” I grinned back at her.

  “Yes!” She leapt off my bed and ran for my closet.

  * * *

  I let her dress me up in short shorts and a tank, and we raced out of the house together before my parents could see. Then she drove us out to a strip mall in the middle of nowhere, where a dive bar faced a line of bikes. We got out of the car, but when she started walking toward them I stopped. “This is where we’re going?”

  “I know,” she said, apologizing. “I drove by earlier this week and didn’t have the guts to go in. I couldn’t be doing this without you.”

  “We shouldn’t be doing this at all,” I complained.

  “We just go inside, and see if he’s there. If he’s not then we wait a little bit and we leave, okay? That’s it. Nothing major.”

  “Willa –“

  “Please. One last time.” She wove her fingers through my own and tugged me toward the door.

  That was the problem with my relationship with Willa. I had a hard time telling her no. “All right,” I said, dragging my feet as she pulled me in to the bar.

  Masculinity was in the air here – there weren’t all that many other girls, just a lot of men, drinking hard, playing pool, and having heavy conversations.

  The bartender – Davis, from the patch on his jacket -- gave us both a wise look. “You girls don’t belong here.”

  “I’ve been here before,” Willa said, a bold-faced lie.

  He gave her a once-over. “Maybe, maybe not. But her?” he said, looking at me. “I’d remember.”

  I hid behind my blonde hair, feeling both naked and gawky, wishing I was wearing a lot more clothes.

  “Well she’s with me,” she said, looping her arm through mine. “We’re staying. And we’re both twenty-two.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “And what’re you drinking?’

  “Beer?” I hazarded.

  “Whiskey,” Willa said, more sure of herself.

  Davis worked the taps and handed us glasses bubbling with carbonation. “Diet Coke.”

  I looked to Willa, in case she’d gotten a better fake ID and was willing to push things. Instead though, she pulled out a ten and handed it over. “Thanks.” He took it and did not offer change.

  It was completely unlike Willa to let such rudeness slide. “You must really like this guy,” I said, as we slunk off to the bar’s far side.

  “Trust me. He’s worth it,” she said, taking a sip from her cup.

  “What if he’s not here today? Maybe he has better things to do.”

  “I saw his bike out front.”

&
nbsp; A door pushed open from the back to pass a beer through and I could hear the sounds of laughter, men and more women’s voices, and scent bbq’d meat and cigars from a patio outside.

  “And what if he’s back there?” I wondered.

  “Let’s go see –“ she said, hopping off her stool.

  I looked around the bar again, at the worrisomely huge guys keeping an eye on us. “Willa, no,” I said, and meant it.

  She opened her mouth to argue then came to her senses with a nod. “You’re right.” She got back on her barstool. “Let’s just wait. If he comes in, it was meant to be.”

  “Yeah.” I sipped on my Coke, wondering if I should hope to see him or not. Willa kept her eyes on the door, while I kept my eyes on her. I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t want to practically be her. Being with her was the next best thing.

  And then the door swung open behind her, framing him in daylight. He was Nordic, clearly, maybe Scandinavian. His shoulders were almost as wide as the doorway and he was at least 6’4”. And with his long hair and leather jacket, he looked like he’d come off the cover of a romance novel, the dirty kind we’d hid from our moms when we were fifteen. I felt my heart stop and an inconvenient throb from between my thighs.

  Willa turned to face me as he went down the hall. “That was him. You see what I mean now?”

  “Yeah,” I breathed. But – I looked down the hall he’d walked down – to the bathrooms. We didn’t have much time. “What’s your amazing plan?”

  She held up a hand and counted fingers down. As I heard a distant door squeak open, over the country on the jukebox, she reached one, and leaned in. “This,” she whispered, her dark curls brushing my cheek, right before she kissed me.

  I had only kissed three boys. Once in fifth grade, behind the jungle-gym, a bad idea all around. The second in seventh, at the bus-stop, on his last day at school before moving, the culmination of a year-long crush. And the third in tenth grade, outside the science hall, after which he’d written me a note explaining that he was in love with someone else. So my track record wasn’t great, but I could’ve tried harder, there were boys who liked me, and I liked them – but I’d always been scared of what I’d do next. My mom always wanted me to be good, without ever quite defining what that was. All I ever knew was that if I ever let myself be with a boy, after the books I’d read and dreams I’d had, good was the precise opposite of what I’d be. It seemed safer to keep that part of me corked, like a genie in a bottle, somewhere deep inside.

  But then Willa was kissing me – and none of my books or dreams could’ve prepared me for that.

  Her lips were soft and it felt natural to tilt my head to fit hers completely. Her tongue asked my lips for entrance, and I let it in, slowly opening up to this new experience. And then her hands were in my hair and I was leaning forward, using my tongue back and –

  “Well what do we have here?” said a sonorous voice from beside us. Willa pulled back, staring at me, breathing hard – the same way I was breathing too. Then she looked up at him.

  “We’re just friends. Close friends,” she said, and her hand slid up on my thigh. “I came here once before – I know Nikki – she said this was a fun place.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” he said. “I know Nikki too.”

  Willa dared a smile. “So, maybe we can go back to the real party with you?”

  He looked from one to the other of us again and it was like his gaze was hot, making anywhere it touched me flush. I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Sure,” he said, and Willa was off her barstool in a heartbeat, hand finding mine to drag off on our next stage of this adventure. “Unless you two want to party with me, alone.”

  I dared to look up and saw him staring directly at me. Challenging me. If we went with him, I knew we couldn’t turn back. But I wouldn’t have to worry about frightening him with how secretly hungry I was, either.

  “Ang?” Willa asked softly. I looked to her and saw her nod, then I was nodding too.

  A wicked smile crept across his face. “Follow me,” he said, and took us around the bar.

  Chapter 2

  There was a room in back – his room I gathered, paneled in wood with a large bed and desk. We stood, nervously holding hands as he set the latch of the door – more for privacy than imprisonment, I hoped. The sounds of the bar outside were muted to a dull roar.

  “You get used to that,” he said, dismissing it. “I’m Gray. And you are?”

  “Angela,” I said.

  “Willa,” Willa responded, adding, “And she’s a virgin.”

  I glared at her. “Thanks for ratting me out.”

  “I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

  Gray stood and walked over to loom. “Are you really?” he asked, as I went red again.

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod.

  “And you?” he asked Willa.

  “Not so much anymore.” I knew all about Willa’s escapades with Boromir – his parents were huge Tolkien fans – in the back of ‘Boringmir’s’ car, until they’d broken up because he was too dull to stand.

  “Well,” he said, giving us both an amused look. “Usually these things are more natural, and more liquor fueled, but I’ll take the honesty of youth any day. Come here, my slightly wiser Willa,” he said, leaning down.

  He caught her head in his hands and I was forced to watch as he was kissing her mouth, the mouth I’d just tasted. Then he pulled up and looked at me. “How does that make you feel? Be honest.”

  And for the first time in my life I admitted there was a dark drive inside me. “Hungry.”

  He looked pleased at that. “For?”

  I couldn’t explain it. All I knew was that all my life I’d felt left out, in the pursuit of some hollow perfection, trying to be the person my mother, my teachers, my pastor wanted me to be, instead of what I wanted. “Everything,” I answered truthfully.

  “Good,” he said, his voice low, and went back to kissing her.

  Willa made small appreciative noises and wrapped her hands around his neck, stroking them up into his hair. He pulled her body nearer, bending over, practically picking her up to make her fit him and she let him, curving her body against his like a snake. Watching them together, all the lonely parts of my body ached, wondering when we would get touched, when would we get to let go. I reached up and pulled off my tank-top, throwing it aside, standing in my bra and shorts, hoping to draw him near.

  My actions did not go unnoticed. Gray pulled up from her mouth and looked over at me, making a thoughtful sound and reached out for me as Willa made room. I stepped over, hesitantly. Willa wrapped an arm around my waist as I reached for hers – I was safe with her, as long as she was here, she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me – or at least any bad things would happen to us together.

  “Don’t be frightened,” Gray said, the corner of his lips lifting into a smirk. One of his hands went up into my hair and pulled my head back a little bit. He leaned forward and kissed, not my mouth, but my neck, from chin to earlobe – just like I could hear Willa doing to him on the other side.

  I let go of her and ran my hands up his shoulders for balance, fingers finding the leather of his vest slippery and cool. One of his hands ran roughly down my side, stopping at my hips, finding purchase in the waistband of my shorts to pull me near. I tilted my head, trying to find his mouth with mine – but he was kissing Willa instead – so I went for his neck, lips brushing against his golden stubble. He twisted his head back to meet mine and finally found my mouth with his. He was taller, stronger, and he knew what he wanted – his tongue pressed in, his lips spread mine, and it felt like I was being engulfed. His tongue painted the inside of my mouth, kissing me deeply, stroking in and out, mirroring what I so wanted to happen later – my imagination went into overdrive, and when he rose up, I swooned. He chuckled, easily holding me.

  “Ditch these,” he said, shaking my shorts. “And you –“ he looked to Willa, who was already shucking off all her clo
thes.

  I’d seen her in shared dressing rooms in the mall a thousand-thousand times. But I’d never seen her like this – thought of her like this – before. She was a little taller than I was, and intellectually I knew she was curvy and been appropriately jealous, but until now I’d never realized just how beautiful her curves could be. I reached out for her and she walked forward, letting me put a fluttering hand on the belly of her breast and to stroke her nipple with my thumb.

  Gray made a low satisfied sound in his throat and turned toward her, going down almost to a kneel, to kiss her other breast. She gasped as his lips met her skin and then moaned, looking over his head at me with dark eyes, as I stepped in to kiss her over him.

  One of her hands rose up to hold me to her mouth, the other to pull him in, and I caught her next moan and felt it thrill through me, as his hair stroked against my stomach. I felt a hand reach up behind me and set my bra free and him turn, shoving the fabric out of the way to kiss at my breast the way he had hers, and then the moans were mine. The stubble of his chin grazed my ribs, his tongue rolled over my nipple, and everything I’d ever done to it in the dark, in secret, could not compare. That, plus Willa’s mouth, her soft lips pulling and pressing against my own, as our tongues matched one another – the low heat in my hips caught fire and started to burn. I reached for the waistband of my shorts and undid all buttons quickly – and felt Gray’s hand helping me from the back to tug them off, and then cup my ass.

  He rose between us suddenly, setting us apart, and began taking off layers of leather. His vest he put on the back of his desk chair, and Willa’s hand found mine to hold, both of us content to watch him. His shirt came off next – and we could see the muscles in his arms and back bunch and fold as he tugged the t-shirt he was wearing underneath overhead, arcane tattoos across his back, then he turned toward us. His chest was wide and hips narrow, and looking at the both of us, he hitched his thumbs into his belt.

  I could see the outline of his hard-on through his jeans. Penises were mysterious things I’d only seen online. I knew what they were used for – and I wanted him to use me – but –