Discovering Dalton(39)

“I have a good eye for body shapes.” Dalton paused, a cute blush running over his cheeks. “I mean, I didn’t mean it that way. I was just… I notice more than facial features, that’s all.” He looked everywhere but at him and Troy chuckled. “It’s very good. The ink work, I mean. Like art.” Dalton turned back to look at Troy’s naked body artistically positioned so you couldn’t see anything, just the parts of his body with his ink. “Beautiful,” Dalton said quietly.

“Thanks. I'm proud of it. I designed it myself. Inked some of it too.” Troy sat on one of the bar stools by the glass display cabinet which housed all Sian’s piercings, looking up and down Dalton slowly. He was slightly bigger than him, great thighs, tiny waist, full chest, arms nice and firm. Troy tried to not let his gaze rest on his arse like last time, but if possible, the guy was even hotter than he remembered. “So…” He cleared his throat, all too aware of the hint of gruffness in it. “You're obviously looking for some ink on yourself, or is it a piercing you want?”

Dalton dragged his gaze off Troy’s poster and nodded. “It’s a tattoo I want. I’ve been thinking about it for years, but never really got around to doing it.”

“I like the thinking part. Shows you're serious about it. Any idea what you want?” Troy crossed his fingers behind his back. Please don’t say horrible black tribal stuff or anything.

“I like the colours you have. I don’t think I want anything like this.” He pointed out a tribal design in black and Troy grinned.

“You just made my day. I love colours.”

Dalton grinned back. “I can tell.”

“What’s made you come today after years of thinking about it?”

“Well…” Dalton paused, looking out of the window, a sad look passing over him. “I lost my dad recently. A few days ago actually. I was going to have something to mark his life, not his death, that’s too sad. He lived a long life, and I wanted to celebrate it in some way. When he passed, it made me see if you put things off for too long, you end up running out of time.” He glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. “I've been putting things off all my life, and I didn’t want to keep pushing this down the line anymore.”

“I'm sorry about your dad.” Troy offered a small smile, never too sure how people react when you say sorry or talk about their loved ones passing, but it felt too soon to offer up his own personal details about death. “It’s a good way of thinking. I can design something for just you and him if you give me a few ideas. Like his hobbies, memories, places you visited. There’s nothing I can't do given enough time.”

“I was just going to pick out a design.”

“You can do that if you really want, but if you see something you like, I can always modify it for you.”

“Is it okay if I take a look through some of these and get some ideas?”

“Sure.” Troy jumped off the stool and pulled out a few of his most recent works which he’d taken pictures of. “These are more colourful, but any of the others I can add colour to. Don’t think you have to have the entire work copied onto you. Like I said, I can modify anything. I draw most of these especially for the individual so they’re unique. You see anything you like, then point them out and I can come up with something new just for you.”

Dalton sat on the sofa and flicked through a few of the books while Troy busied himself in the room, packing away for the night and counting up the cash before placing it in the safe in the back room. When he returned, he found Dalton had three of the books open and was concentrating hard on the photographs in them. “You see anything which catches your eye?” Troy leaned on the glass cabinet and took another long look up and down Dalton.

“Loads, but I have to admit it’s this which really catches my eye.” Dalton shook his head back toward the big picture behind him of Troy and he grinned. “I mean, who wouldn’t like looking at it, right?”

Troy tried to keep his smile from being too broad, and he just nodded, looking at the ink work captured on his own body displayed behind Dalton. That felt like a come on, but he wasn’t sure. The guy had to be gay, he was on Canal Street and had some blond twink all over him the last Troy saw him. He’d left for the bar not long after that, unnaturally pissed off the only bloke he’d fancied was already taken.

“What do you like about it?”

Dalton shrugged, and Troy tried really hard to not let on he noticed the blond running his gaze up and down his body. “I guess the colours, or the way it flows so naturally over your body, like it was meant to be there.”

That’s what Troy liked the most about his ink work. It looked like he was born with it. It flowed so perfectly along his natural curves and muscles. “Where you thinking of having yours?”

Dalton shrugged, standing up and carrying over one of the large, leather bound books, placing it on the cabinet and leaning on it like Troy. “I was thinking here.” He touched his shoulder, running it down to his elbow. “I wasn’t planning on anything too big, but looking at you and these in here, I think it will be better to have one, or a few which work together, in a bigger piece.”

“I like bigger.”

Dalton tried to hide his smirk, but Troy caught it.

“I meant…” Troy cleared his throat. Something about this guy threw him off centre and he felt like he was struggling to catch up all the time. “If you're planning on a few in the same place, then it’s good to plan them all together. That way they don’t look disjointed and randomly thrown together.”

“So, if I wanted something like this—” Dalton pointed out an orchid in sunny yellows and oranges. “Then have something like this mixed in—” He pointed to Koi carp, very Japanese in design and full of bright colours ranging from orange to purple. “Then they would work together?”

“Oh, God, yeah. They would look awesome. They’re both Japanese, and they would look great on your arm. I have some other flowers though which may work better.” Troy flicked through a book until he found what he was looking for. “These are lotus flowers and they’re more water based, so they would go with the Koi. You could have both though. I could mix them in, use a ton of different colours and bring them all together with a bit of shading and waves. Can you take this jacket off so I can get a better look at you? I mean, your skin, and size, that’s all.” Troy turned away and shook himself. Stop it, Troy.

“Here?” Dalton looked at the glass door and windows beside them, then back to Troy.

“Ha! No, sorry. Of course not. It’s been… a long day. Let me just get this.” Troy locked the door and slid the closed sign across the window.

“Am I keeping you?”

“No-no. I close in a few minutes, but no worries. Come back here. It’s more private and this is where all the magic happens.” Troy grinned as he showed Dalton through to the private room which housed all his little paint pots and equipment.

There were a few different seating options, one being a black leather chair which had arm and leg supports. The second being a long black leather padded bench, like the sort you’d find in massage parlours. Some of the work Troy did took hours and it helped if the client was comfy.

“Take a seat.” Troy pointed to the chair and watched Dalton settle. “Slip this off and let me take a look at what I've got to work with.”

Dalton pulled his t-shirt off, laying it on his thighs. Troy rolled his stool over to him, sitting with one of his legs in between Dalton’s opened thighs and feeling a little overheated because of it. He couldn’t blame the lack of air con because the room was now comfortably cool with the new unit. Troy attempted to get his mind back on the job in hand and turned Dalton's arm around, feeling his skin, and looking for any blemishes like scars or moles he would have to work around, but the guy was perfect.

He had muscles to be proud of, but not heavy or overly big, just very natural. He had hardly any fatty tissue, which would mean he would feel the needle more.

“This is gonna hurt, you know.”

“I'm aware of that.” Dalton laughed and Troy smirked back at him.

“You’ve never had one before. People either come in here thinking it won't hurt or assume it will be torture. It’s not either, it’s somewhere in between. It’s actually quite repetitive after a while and your skin goes numb. It’s just you have good muscle definition and people who have feel it a bit more.”

“I should’ve come here three months ago then. I had a lot less muscle and more fat to work with.”

Troy shook his head. “Either way, mate, it’s not going to be painless. I'm good though, and I know how to read someone’s reactions well. If it gets too much, then we take a break. It’s not a race. I don’t have to do it all in one go, and those two designs, they’ll take a good few sessions. Especially the Koi. Those tiny scales take some inking. The outline…” Troy grabbed a picture from behind him which he’d drawn out for another guy earlier, pointing out what he meant, following the lines around the design. “These are all what I’d do first. Get the actual design onto your skin and let it settle. It will take around four hours for the Koi you liked.”