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Ross 02 Rock Me(2)

By:Cherrie Lynn


Plenty of times. She’d felt horribly guilty about every single one. But now Michelle was out of the picture, and in a happy relationship. Besides, it didn’t hurt to simply admire the scenery, did it?

Tonight, from head to toe, Brian looked quite subdued. For him, anyway. She was tempted to ask him what was going on. His hair was its natural lustrous black—she’d seen it every vivid color in the rainbow—

worn a little long so that it fell into his face. Not shaggy or messy like she so hated to see on guys, but silky and gorgeous and touchable… Okay, down, girl, stop right there. Even his eyebrow rings were MIA. Normally he had two side-by-side in his right eyebrow. Something was definitely up in his world.

Maybe he had a date later. Some ultra-gorgeous conservative type he desperately wanted to impress. Maybe she wouldn’t appreciate his body art. The very thought, speculative as it was, made Candace seethe. Brian was Brian. If he had to change for someone, anyone, he didn’t need them. She cleared her throat, trying to chase the images away. “I do want a tattoo. It’s my birthday and I’m feeling rebellious.”

His perfect lips quirked at one corner. “You want me to do it, don’t you?”

She nodded and tried her best not to pout. “But they said you weren’t seeing clients tonight.”

He tugged up one shirtsleeve and checked his watch. She caught a flash of his vibrant skin and felt her heart plummet to her toes. “I have an hour or so.” So he does have some place to be. “I can get it done unless you want something massive.”

Candace laughed and held up her hands. “Oh, no. Nothing like that.” Now, where she wanted it was another matter.

“What did you have in mind?”



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“I have an idea, but can I look through some of your designs?” She tilted her head toward the poster displays.

“Yeah. There’s plenty of flash here, too, especially smaller stuff like you’re probably looking for.” He leaned down behind the counter and produced a couple of black, bursting-at-the-seams photo albums, sliding them toward her. “But don’t just settle for anything. If you don’t see something here that grabs you, I can draw up anything you want. You might not be able to get it tonight, since I don’t have a lot of time, but it would be worth it in the end.”

“Now you’re making me feel I’m being way too hasty,” she said, flipping open one of the books. To her amazement, Macy leaned over to study the pictures, as well. Some of them were color drawings, but others were live shots of fresh tattoos, the bearer’s skin still reddened. Candace’s stomach flipped over on itself. Please God, don’t let me faint when this all goes down.

“Some people are too hasty about it,” Brian said, and she could practically feel the warmth of his scrutiny on the top of her head, like some freakish kind of osmosis. Or maybe she was imagining it. Her thoughts tended to run rampant when she was near him, all sorts of crazy images flashing through her head.

“I can’t see wanting something that bad,” Macy interjected. “On my body. Forever.” Candace fought the urge to elbow her in the ribs.

“No?” Brian asked.

“Absolutely not.”

Candace glanced up as he moved away from them and pushed open the half-door at the end of the counter. “Come here and let me show you what I’ve been working on. It’ll just take a second.”

He led them through the door he’d exited earlier, down a short hallway and into a sparse room with ample lighting and little else except a slanted drawing board. She found it hard to pull her gaze away from his dark-clad figure in front of her, the way the breadth of his shoulders stretched the fabric of his shirt, the way his black cargo pants hugged the curves of his butt. It was one she could imagine sinking her fingernails into. No question about it, he was magnificent eye candy. Why was she surprised to be so vividly reminded of that fact?

“Check this out,” he said, and her gaze followed his to the drawing he’d been laboring over. Next to it was tacked a picture of a beautiful little girl, dark-haired and smiling with her chin resting on her small fists. He’d transferred it to paper perfectly, only he’d managed to make her look somehow ethereal, like an angel. On a banner beneath her likeness, in beautiful, flowing script, were the words “Too Beautiful for Earth”.

“Oh,” Candace breathed. There was nothing else to say—and she feared she would burst into tears if she tried to conjure words.

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Rock Me

“Doing this on a guy’s back next week. Starting it, anyway. It’ll take several sessions. She’s his fiveyear-old daughter who died in a car accident.” Brian’s eyes were intense as he scrutinized his work. “I think it’s coming along pretty well. I hope he likes how I’ve done it.”

“It’s…amazing,” Macy said softly. Candace cut a glance at her and saw her friend was transfixed by the graceful lines and angelic beauty of the drawing. She couldn’t suppress a grin. Brian’s talent could astound the most hardened critic.

“Thanks.” He actually looked sheepish, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I just wanted to show you how it’s possible to want something on your body forever. How could he ever regret this, even when he’s eighty years old?”

“That’s the big argument, isn’t it?” Macy asked. “People always say ‘You’ll be sorry you did that when you’re old and wrinkled and it looks like crap’.”

“I hear it all the time. But I’d rather look back and regret something I did when I was young and crazy, than look back and regret something I never had the courage to do, and realize it’s too late.”

“Excellent point,” Candace murmured, and if her mind hadn’t been completely made up before, it was now. She wanted to get started. “But I don’t want to make you late, Brian. Are you sure we have time?”

“Absolutely.” He reached over and rumpled her hair, and she wanted to groan. It was such a you’relike-my-kid-sister thing to do. “Let’s go find you something.”

The books were still out on the counter and there were more people in the waiting area when they emerged from the back. Candace resumed her search for the perfect tattoo as Brian surveyed the shop, which had every chair filled. “We’ll have to go in one of the back rooms,” he said.

“I was going to ask if we could, anyway.” She tried to keep her voice even and nonchalant as she said it, but she saw his gaze dart toward her out of the corner of her eye. Her heart kicked up to a frantic pace. It was finally out there.

“Yeah? Why?”

“Because of, um…where I want it.”

She sensed his grin rather than saw it. “Where is that?”

“I’ll show you when we get there.”

“I could have one of the girls do it if you’d rather—”

“No. You.” She struggled to keep her hands steady as she flipped a page. Macy, thumbing through the other book, took that moment to let out a startled yelp. Candace looked over to see that she’d stumbled upon the pictures of body piercings. Of the genital variety, to be more exact. Oh, hell. Macy was flushing crimson to her hair roots. On the page beneath her stricken face was the male genital piercing section. Candace choked on an embarrassed laugh, feeling her own blood pool hotly in her cheeks. Brian snickered.



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“Okay, I can’t deal with that,” Macy was babbling. “That’s too much for me. Why anyone would want to—”

“It enhances sex,” he said, as if the answer should be obvious.

“The sex I’ve had was just fine; I don’t see the need to torture oneself to make it better.”

“That sounds like a problem,” Brian told her, and Candace felt like she was watching a tennis match as the two went back and forth.

Macy’s eyebrows were in her hair. “What problem?”

“The sex you’ve had was just ‘fine’. Sounds like a problem to me.” He sent Candace a slow wink that turned her knees to mush.

“What, are you saying you’ve got a…doohickey like that in your…?”

Brian’s smile was long suffering. “That ‘doohickey’ is a Prince Albert. I only started out with one of those. Eventually I went to an apadravya. Gotta think of the ladies.” He tapped the page, his grin as wicked as sin on Sunday. “In fact, you never know, one of them might be me.”

Macy pushed away from the counter, having reached the limits of mortification she was willing to endure. Candace tried not to glance down at any of the pictures in question but couldn’t help herself. She had to sneak a peek. Some of them were…well, really impressive, and she wondered if—

“So are we gonna do this, honey?” he asked, and she looked up into his eyes. They were a beautiful, mysterious shade of dark blue she didn’t think she’d ever seen before. He must wear contacts. Her breath seared through her lungs.

“I’ve decided. Let’s do it.”

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Chapter Two

“I have to apologize for my friend.” Candace settled herself on the padded table in one of the small back rooms. “I love her dearly, but not the giant stick up her ass.”