Page 95 of The Through Duet
Dalton was currently taping up my arm, and I could admit that the sting was beginning to finally set in now that the buzzing had stopped numbing me.I also appreciated how he hadn’t opted to start a whole new piece after explaining to him that I was still trying to get used to the one that I’d just gotten.It had made the experience feel a little less overwhelming.
Once he was finished with my bandage, I sat quietly as Dalton began putting things away, getting ready to wipe his workstation down.Dutifully, I hopped off his table, then took a seat in the corner to get out of his way.
The best thing about it all was the comfortable silence in which he worked.I no longer felt nervous around him, feeling the need to make idle chitchat just to fill the void.I no longer worried that he was judging me, nor was I worried that a nasty exchange was about to happen.Being around him felt peaceful now, and it helped settle the turmoil that my mother kept wreaking.
Still, after a few moments of watching him clean up, I asked, “Do you need any help?”
“Nah, baby,” he answered easily.“Just sit there and relax.”
“I feel useless watching you clean up,” I informed him.“I still have one good arm.”
He’d been wiping down his table when I’d said that, but then he stopped to look back at me.Grinning, he said, “If you’re not careful, you’ll be helping me do something else with this table.”
My eyes widened at that.“You wouldn’t.”
“Like fuck I wouldn’t,” he replied, throwing me a wink.“You don’t know how many times I’ve fantasized about you on my table.”
“Doesn’t Ricki have cameras in here?”I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Not over the workstations,” he answered.“Too many people request privacy tattoos, and filming that isn’t appropriate, even if it’s for security reasons.”
My brows furrowed a bit at that.“But...but I think that’d be the exact reason why you’d have cameras.You know, in case someone made a false accusation or something like that.’
“The shop only does privacy tattoos or piercings during the day, and there has to be other staff present during the appointment,” he explained.“Plus, we do our best to make sure it’s a same-sex appointment.If it’s not, trust me, we take every precaution short of violating their privacy on camera.”
I didn’t want to ask, but the girl in me needed to know.Though it was stupid, and I was very aware that Dalton had a life before me, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d done this before.Of course, nothing good would come out of me knowing that information, but for whatever reason, women liked to torment themselves with pointless shit like that.
“Have...have you done this before?”I asked, hoping that I hadn’t sounded as insecure and stupid as I felt.“I mean, does Ricki approve of this kind of stuff?”
Dalton leaned back against his table, and the look in his dark gaze said it all.“Tell me what I’m missing, Leandra.”
“What...what do you mean?”
“If anything, what have I done in these past few days to make you think that you’re like all the others?”he asked.“Tell me what I’m doing wrong, so that I can fix it.”
The pressure behind my eyes was immediate.“Nothing,” I quickly rushed out.“It’s...that’s not what I meant.I didn’t mean it that way, I swear.”
“Okay, but there’s still a reason behind why you’d ask me such a thing,” he pointed out, not letting it go, and I liked that about him.Dalton was never going to let a simple misunderstanding fester into something more.We were never going to go to bed angry with each other.
“Old ghost?”I hedged.
“Baby, c’mon...”
I let out a sigh before coming clean.“I just...I mean, look at you, Dalton.You can’t tell me that your clients don’t hit on you all the time.Hell, I see the way women look at you whenever we’ve been out together.It’s hard not to...to compare sometimes.’
“You say that like the same thing doesn’t happen to you wherever you go,” he countered.
“I’m being stupid,” I sighed.“Just forget about it.”
“No, I’m not going to forget about it,” he said before walking over to me, leaning down to grab me by my hips, then effortlessly lifting me up to go place me back on his table, and I obediently opened my legs to make room for him.“I’m not okay with you thinking that my experiences with you are like all the others that I’ve had before.You’re not a substitute, Leandra.You’re not interchangeable in my life.You are everything that I’ve never done before because I’ve never felt like this before.”
Another swoon.
“I might just still need a little time to get used to this,” I confessed.“It’s only been a few days, Dalton.”
He gave me a terse nod as he said, “I’ll give you that.However, moving forward, we don’t brush things aside, Leandra.We are going to navigate this thing together, and that includes the little pockets of insecurities that we’re both going to have every now and again.’
It was so insane how he always knew the right thing to say, and I was so appreciative of how the weight of my mother’s threats were no longer hanging over my head from just being with him.I had come here to escape my jumbled emotions, and Dalton had provided a safe haven without even realizing it, and he’d done it so easily.
