Page 101 of Tears of Ink

“It’s not a suitable career, I told you.”

“Yet, you’ve convinced your family to open up the house to art all summer. So it’s not exactly dead is it?”

“I had to fight hard for that.”

“And it got you out of your engagement.” There’s a beat of silence that chills my stomach. “Did you ever love her, the girl you said you’d marry?”

His lips kiss my forehead again and then the tip of my nose. “Love is a luxury I’ve never been allowed. When Dad left, it all went with him.”

“And you’re that worried about Tabitha?” I know this is it. It’s her he’s staying for, like the true and honest big brother he is.

“Yes. I don’t want them to just marry her off.”

“But she’s only eighteen.”

“So? That means nothing when it comes to society and the success of the Fairclough name.”

“All this for a name?”

He nods, his lips straight.

“Yikes, it makes growing up in the shop seem like a dream.”

He offers me a small sigh.

“Do you ever hear from your dad?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No. He made his choice and left.”

I nod. We both have parents who made choices and who hurt us with them. It’s another tangled thread that binds us together.

“I’ve been thinking.” He smiles, and it warms my tummy.

“Dangerous.”

I chuckle as he pounces on me, kissing along my tickling throat, holding my hands above my head.

“What have you been thinking?” I prompt, when I can catch a breath.

“I want you to ink me.”

The blues are dead serious.

“But you don’t have any tattoos?” He doesn’t. His perfect smooth and golden skin is flawless.

“And I want you to give me my first.”

I hesitate. I don’t do that anymore, I left it behind. “Eli, I’m not sure. You will be stuck forever with something by me on your skin that you won’t ever be able to remove.”

He kisses me, deep and hard. “And that’s exactly why I want it.”

His words slice me deep, because I know that we made an agreement, and I know our time will end. But I also know that we are both encountering emotions we’ve never experienced before. But it means nothing. Nothing at all.

C H A P T E R T H I R T Y

The sun is high in the sky when I sit back and admire my work. “You’ve been remarkably brave.”

He winces as he sits up from lying face down on the bed in Al’s shop. We let ourselves into Al’s home at three, not long after he asked me, borrowed his keys and let ourselves into the shop.