Page 17 of Obnoxious Bad Boy

My stomach is twisted into several knots just from talking to him. I shouldn’t be so intimidated. We’ve had sex, for fuck’s sake, but he has this effect on me. It’s as if I’m losing brain cells every time he speaks.

“I kinda… I have to go to the library. I’ll be studying until evening. Sorry.” Why am I apologizing? Christ. “M-maybe tomorrow? I could pick up my shoe.” And just that. No lunch dates, and definitely no lunch sex.

“You’d really rather sit with your nose in books than get a blowjob? I owe you one, remember?” Vex asks in the sultry tone that makes me shiver despite him not even being here. It feels as if his tongue is reaching out through the phone to lick my ear.

The vision of his face between my legs is too much to bear. I’m only human after all.

“‘Rather’ is not the way I’d put it. I have to. But maybe I could come once I’m done. It will be after eight though.” Which is evening. Again. Fuck. “But just to pick up the blowjob—I mean shoe!” Kill me now.

“Can’t wait to spread your legs again.”

I hang up in panic. I don’t know if we’ve actually arranged this meeting or not, but my whole body is throbbing. He wants me, and it’s making me so horny I have to stand with my back to the corridor and pretend I’m admiring the view of the old clock tower, because otherwise my boner would be clear to anyone passing.

I’ll see how the studying goes, and then I’ll decide whether to go see him. No, not ‘see him’, pick up my loafer. That’s all I’ll do. Get my shoe. Tell him I’m flattered by the attention. Gently reject him, so as to not bruise his ego. And then I’ll leave the tattoo studio with both shoes and my dignity intact.

Chapter 5

Vex

Finally! After three days of checking my phone every few minutes, I have Aaron’s number. I should have written it down when he was over at mine and too unguarded to overthink it all, but my thirst trap has certainly done the trick.

I close and open my hand as I consider how the conversation went, but there’s no point in calling him right now. If he disconnected without a goodbye, there’s no way he’d pick up. So what? Am I to rely on his possibly-maybe and just wait until evening to see whether he chickens out or not?

I don’t like being left hanging, and I can’t believe he’s trying to reject me by withdrawing. After the amazing fuck three days ago, I’m positive he finds me attractive, but for some reason he is set on rejecting me.

Why?

I’m desirable.

And nice.

And I have a tattoo studio.

People usually vie for my attention.

Why is this little colt resisting the inevitable?

He left my place well fucked, jelly-legged, and happy.

“You look cranky.” Sage laughs from his favorite armchair. He’s a big guy, a bit older than me. We don’t have all that much in common, but he’s a good employee, always at the studio on time, and has a good, if a bit generic, style of tattooing. It works well in a college town.

It’s a slow day, I’m waiting for a customer who’s coming a bit later, and Yasmin is almost done with a septum piercing, so I hang out with Sage in the lounge by the entrance. I’m well aware that my presence brings girls in, and I’m not afraid to use that to my advantage.

“Girl trouble,” I tell him with a shrug, because I don’t know him well enough to reveal my secrets. I do have talent, but so do plenty of people. What really put me on the map as a tattoo artist were my good looks and the lucky accident of my arrest. Everything seemed to happen in the right time, and the rest is history.

But money and fame are fleeting things, and I’m gonna milk them for as long as I can, saving for an uncertain future. It so happens that straight women are the majority of my fanbase, and for as long as they can project their attraction on me, as long as they feel they might just have a shot at hooking up, or even a relationship with me, they will keep coming. The fewer people know I’m gay the better.

“Need some advice? I know you’ve got a million followers and all that, but I’ve been in this game longer. You only need one girl at the end of the day.” He smiles and stretches, enjoying the last of today’s sun.

He has no experience with the kind of prey I’m pursuing.

Aaron is just my type. Cute, compact, a bit shy, but, as he proved to me, also eager to get down and dirty. I’ve had my eye on him for a while now, because he’s too damn adorable in those preppy clothes. He’s so… angular, and I love it. Slender, with big green eyes, and pale skin, he’s got that Victorian-boy-dying-of-consumption vibe and it fascinates me.

For the longest time, I wasn’t sure if he’s gay or not. He hangs out at Rainbowology a lot, but so do many straight students. I’ve never seen him with a boyfriend, and I’m not the best at working out who’s gay and who isn’t. I’m confident, I could shoot my shot and move on if he ended up being straight, but that’s not an option if I want to keep my sexuality a secret in Springton. I don’t even go on dating apps, because with my tats and face being so recognizable, I’d be on everyone’s tongues sooner or later.

So when I got a glimpse of that porny story on his computer, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. I finally understood that he wasn’t eying me with superiority.

He likes me.