Inked Ever After (15 page)

“Yes,” she confessed on a low breath. “Every time the chain
pulls at my nipples, I feel it down in my clit.” Actually she felt it all over.
Her breasts, her womb. It was like molten lava racing through her body.

“When your tattoo is healed, I’ll take you from behind,
hard, my chest on your back, my arms wrapped around you, my hand working your
clit. In front of a mirror so I don’t miss a second of the show,” he said, his
tone hard as he continued to power into her. “With every thrust, the chain will
shoot forward, yank at your nipples, while I go so deep inside you I will feel
your heartbeat in my cock.”

She tightened around him. “James. This is killing me. I need
to come.”

“I know, princess. I’ll get you there.” He pumped her harder
and faster, slamming against her clit after every plunge, and building her
pleasure until she couldn’t stand it any longer. As she teetered on the edge,
he reached for the chain and tugged it. Hard.

She went off like a rocket, trembling uncontrollably, her
pussy quaking, pulling at his cock in savage contractions as she fought for
breath and her world all but imploded.

“Fuck, baby.”

He rode it out, and before she could regain her bearings, he
encircled her waist and released the clamps, immediately lapping at one nipple
with his tongue, soothing the area as the blood started flowing again. He did
the same with the other nipple, but with his fingers.

At the sharp sensation, Tate screamed, peaking again hard
and fast, her whole body disintegrating into tiny pieces, while James kept her
locked in his arms, and with a roar came deep inside her.

It took a while to float back to earth after one of the strongest
orgasms she’d ever experienced. And taking into consideration the way James
always fucked her senseless and how much pleasure he gave her, it was saying
something.

“Well?” he asked as he fisted her hair and gently pulled
back.

She looked at him. “The truth?”

His grip on her hair intensified. “Always.”

She smirked against his lips. “I looove accessorizing.”

He chuckled and kissed her at the same time.

“Glad you approve.” He lowered his gaze to her extremely red
and swollen nipples. “Was I too rough? Did I hurt you?”

Hurt her? Ha. She’d discovered a kinky side to herself she
hadn’t known she had.

“No, James. You didn’t hurt me. You’re never too
rough—you’re perfect. And I loved the nipple clamps. My breasts are still
tingling. My pussy too.”

“Good. They worked for me like you wouldn’t believe,
princess,” he said the wickedest smile on his face. “Fucking sexy.”

“Next we could get you a cock piercing,” Tate suggested,
which earned her a loud snort.

“Baby, you have a better chance of getting me to wear a ball
gag, which is frigging never, than getting a hole through my cock. I’ve been
acquainted with my junk for thirty-four years. What you see is what you get.
Not about to start tuning it now.”

She pondered his words for a moment. “Probably for the best.
Too much metal on the same area is bound to get entangled, and then…ouch.”

“Yeah, ouch is right. Fucking huge ouch.”

He leaned back on the bed, bringing her down with him. As
her nipples made contact with his chest, they pulsed, and her pussy gently
spasmed.

He tightened his embrace. “Greedy pussy,” he whispered,
amused.

No denying that.

“James?” she asked against his throat.

“Mmm?”

“I understand you mark pivotal moments in your life with
tattoos. I get that, and I’m okay with it. You already have one for me and one
marking the wedding. I assume you’ll get one for every kid we have, and I’m
also down with that, but I want you to know that this, my tattoo, is a onetime
deal. Whatever crucial moments we’ll have from now on, all of them will go into
this one tattoo. Our fiftieth wedding anniversary? In this. Our son gets the
Nobel Prize? In this. I hope you’re getting my meaning because no way on God’s
earth I am getting another one. This is it.”

“I know, babe, and I’m perfectly cool with that.”

Suddenly he chuckled softly. She looked up. “What?”

“Just thinking, princess. Do you realize you’re now one of
my kind? You’ll be in your eighties dragging your blurred, sagging tattoo all
over the place. You ready for it?”

Tate closed her eyes, embarrassed, and grimaced. “How on
earth do you remember that?” She’d said those same words to him in the Eternal
Sun resort, the first day they met. Talk about being judgmental.

James traced her lips with his thumb. “I do have selective
deafness, but there is nothing wrong with my memory.”

Tate looked at him. “I was wrong, baby, and I’m very proud
to be your kind,” she said, cupping his face. “I was making a point with the
ink.”

“A point I would have gotten even if you’d got a tiny
tattoo.”

She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Fantastic, now he tells
me, after my two-day, eighteen-hour ordeal.”

He tensed. “Eighteen hours?”

“Of course. Probably the same that it took you to get your
sleeve.”

“That was different. That was me under Kai’s tattoo machine,
not the woman I love. I’m tough. I can take it.”

“I’m tough too,” she retorted.

“I know. Still, it was good I wasn’t with you; I would have
ended up attacking Kai.” Yeah, Kai had actually said something about having a
no-boyfriends-holding-their-women’s-hands policy. Then something seemed to dawn
on him, and he narrowed his eyes on her. “By the way, how did you know it was
Kai?” It took him only a couple of seconds to figure it out. He shook his head,
amused. “Sneaky, Mrs. James Bowen. Getting Paige to con it out of me under
false pretenses. Why didn’t you flat-out ask?”

“It’s Mrs. Tate Cooper. And I didn’t want you to get
suspicious.”

He let out an amused sound. “Suspicious? You kidding me? Not
in a million years would I have imagined you’d do something like this. Hell, I
would have rather believed you and Kai are bowling partners than this.”

She caressed his face. “I know, but I wanted to. James, I
meant every single word I said before you went barbarian and fucked the hell
out of me. I’m very glad you never gave up on me. I was in complete darkness,
and then you came, your light shining so bright it blinded me. Totally. I was
so used to the dark, you terrified me. That’s why I pushed you away. You know,
sometimes I wake up with my heart in my mouth, scared shitless. I shake with
just the thought of how much poorer my life would be if you’d given up on me
and let me drive you away.” Not to mention the fact that she’d probably be
dead. Then again, the way her life had been going before James came along, dead
would have only been a small step down.

He kissed her, soft and sweet, brushing her cheek with his
rough fingers. “That wouldn’t have happened. I had a plan B in case you didn’t
come around to my charms.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I was going to keep you barefoot and pregnant up in my
cave for as long as it took to make you see reason.”

She laughed softly. “I’m sort of attached to my shoes, thank
you very much.”

“Okay, let me rephrase: I would have kept you naked and in
fuck-me high heels,” he corrected, the cockiest smirk on his face. “You see? I
can make concessions. Never be said your barbarian isn’t reasonable.”

Yes, her barbarian was very reasonable. Sure.

“So, tell me how things have been going around here without
me? What have you been doing? You know, besides getting my ink all over your
back. And giving me spectacular video-chat sex.”

She tried not to blush at the comment, but didn’t succeed.
“That was your idea.”

“Sure it was. You can’t have a motherfucking glass dildo and
not expect me to get curious.”

She was ready to admit it had been a poor idea to tell him
how the pleasure party consultant explained those glass dildos were great for
G-spot orgasms. He, of course, had laughed and wiggled his index and middle
fingers at her. “Don’t need that to find your G-spot. Or make you squirt,
baby.”

And then he’d proceeded to demonstrate, the smug bastard.
The state of the sheets by the time he was through with her was still a source
of embarrassment to her.

“Loved seeing you come around that glass cock. Would have
loved to be there to suck your clit at the same time.”

She would have too, but there had been no need. His husky
voice through the computer and the sight of him, muscles bulging, working his
hard-on while eating her with his eyes, had done the trick; she hadn’t even
touched her clit, but the damn thing had vibrated like a frigging violin.

She cleared her throat and went for a change in subject.
“Anyways, nothing much happened around here. The library’s reopening is in
couple of days, and Cole’s still in love. I don’t know what happened between
him and Christy at the bachelorette party, but whatever was their problem
before that, now it’s gone. You aunt is ecstatic.”

“I bet she is. I’m glad he’s stopped fighting it. About time
too.”

“Ah, and we had the annual bachelors auction to raise
funds.” In which she and Christy had gotten the evil eye from almost all the
females in town.

“And?”

“We auction Max a couple of times, and we can buy ourselves
the Empire State Building.”

Heading for domestic arrivals and dragging James along, Tate
navigated the rivers of people in Logan, which, due to some delays, was packed.

As she almost tripped over a daredevil trolley that crossed
her path, James tightened his hold and, pulling on her hand, brought her to his
side. “Calm down, princess. We are on time.”

“I’m nervous, James,” she admitted. Tate had talked to her
mom quite often, but she hadn’t seen her in four months since their last visit
to Florida.

It was ten days until the wedding, and although her mom and James’s
aunt seemed to have everything under control, they felt compelled to run all
the details by her, so “calm down” wasn’t a state of mind or body she could
produce in any way, form, or shape at this stage. Thank God for James. In his
quest to help her cope—and get her pregnant, she was sure—he’d been fucking the
living daylights out of her as often as possible, which actually did great
things for relaxing her. Since that very first stay in Cape John, every time
she felt like retreating, she’d remind herself to go to him. Now she didn’t
have to; not only did it come automatically, but she needed the ritual.

They made it to the domestic arrivals waiting area, and
James stood behind her while she went on her tiptoes and tried peeking around
the other people to the sliding doors where the passengers were coming from.

“Do you see anything? Is she out yet?” she asked.

“No.”

According to the monitors, the plane had landed, and
passengers had been cleared to claim their luggage, so she shouldn’t take long.

Tate didn’t hear her phone, but she felt it buzzing on her
ass.

James laughed. “Not complaining, baby. Not by a long shot,
but we already have two iPhones drying in rice. Haven’t we learned to keep the
cell somewhere else?”

She reached for the phone. “I think it’s a conspiracy
between the jeans and the cell manufacturers. That, or it’s a huge design flaw
in pants that whenever one needs to put them down to pee, what’s in the back
pocket will fly out.” And into the toilet.

Noticing it was her sister, she touched the answer icon.

“Hi, Elle, we’re at the airport. You working?”

Elle’s voice reached her patchy and distorted. “Yes. Listen,
I saw Mom. I was in the same terminal. They kept delaying my plane’s takeoff,
so I left for a sec and sneaked to see her.”

Elle said something, but Tate didn’t catch it. Passengers
had started coming out, and the commotion had increased.

“Elle, I can’t hear you.”

“I just wanted to talk to you. I think—”

Some group walked out, and the people standing on Tate’s
side began screaming and waving. Tate could barely hear her sister’s voice, let
alone her words.

“I got to go. Can’t hear a thing. Let’s talk later, all
right?”

Elle said something, but Tate couldn’t understand, so she
hung up.

“Your sister is working today?” James asked.

“Yes, apparently there’s something going on in her plane, so
she had the time to sneak to meet Mom.”

James cringed. “How they let her within ten feet of the
airplanes at Logan is beyond me.”

“I know. Scary, right?”

Elle was a flight dispatcher. She not only coordinated land
services such as refueling, but she took care of takeoff procedures, including
starting engines with the captain and getting the plane to the assigned runway.

“Totally fucking scary,” James added. “I’ve never been too
keen on flying, but since I know Elle is here, I’m fucking shitting in my pants
every time I board an airplane.”

Tate laughed. “Don’t exaggerate. She’s great at what she
does.” Probably because she could wrap just about anyone around her little
finger. From the snottiest captain to the greasiest baggage handler, all
succumbed to her charms.

James didn’t seem so convinced of her professional skills.
“Princess, your sister played chicken with a 747.”

“It’s just a rumor. There was never official confirmation.”
Her gaze strayed to the cell, and she changed the subject. “You know, I’d hoped
it was Cole on the phone. Did you hear from him? I’m sick and tired of leaving
him messages.” As a matter of fact, she hadn’t been able to leave any more
because his inbox was full.

“He doesn’t answer my calls either, but I spoke with Mike;
Cole is coming tomorrow from Canada.”

“Thank God. Your aunt is very worried.” With Cole missing in
action and Christy in LA, they were two people short from their bridal party,
and Aunt Maggie was threatening bodily harm if Max and James didn’t get their
older brother back in time for the wedding.