Helena Hunting - Inked Armour

A hand shot out and dragged her back through the doorway by her waist. I stepped out of view and flattened myself against the wall. The giggling stopped abruptly, followed by a whisper of voices. I held my breath and waited. Another titter filtered down the hall, cut off by the soft click of a door’s closing.

I stayed where I was for several minutes before I peeked out again; then I crept down the hall to Professor Calder’s office. A muffled moan came from the other side of the door. It was followed by the sounds of furniture dragging across wood, and then a rhythmic slapping started. The rumors were true.

I slipped my phone out of my back pocket, went to the video-camera feature, and hit the record button as the woman began moaning in earnest. I held the phone up to Professor Calder’s nameplate. There was a loud smack, like a palm hitting skin, and low tones of admonishment. Then the banging started, loud and hard. I hoped my phone picked up the muffled sound of the woman calling out his name. When I was at risk of gagging, I pocketed my phone. Quietly, I slipped the title page free from my draft and scrawled a message. Returning it to the folder, I dropped the package into the box beside his door.

Even though it let me out on the wrong side of the building, I left through the stairwell beside his office. The door closed with an echoing slam, which was the point. I wanted to incite paranoia. As I stepped out into the frosty December afternoon, I decided I’d learned one good thing from Trey: blackmail could be an effective tool for self-preservation.

People were annoying the hell out of me today. Lisa and Chris, to be precise. They kept looking at me, obviously waiting for something. Maybe they thought I was going to flip my shit or sit down and have a little love-in to share my feelings about Tenley’s being back, which wasn’t going to happen. And not just because I hated the sharing bullshit. My feelings were all over the place, and I was still sorting them out.

It was just past two in the afternoon. Tenley had gone to run some errands and all I could think about was when she’d be back. I pulled the folder for my client this afternoon, as well as Nate’s designs. He was supposed to stop by later in the evening to take a look at them. I figured his impromptu drop-in had more to do with what had happened at dinner on Sunday than the actual tattoo, but I didn’t mind either way. Nate’s intentions were good, even if he was looking to get all up in my head.

I left his design at my workstation and took the other one to the private room. The tattoo would span from midrib to upper thigh, down the right side of my client’s body. It was a cool design and Amy was a cool chick. I’d done a few smaller pieces for her in the past, but this was her first foray into a multisession tattoo. I was pretty damn excited to be working on another substantial piece.

I left the door open and started setting up. We were only going for a two-hour session because ribs hurt like an SOB and I didn’t want to push it. That should be enough to tackle the outline, provided we didn’t take too many breaks. Amy was realistic about her pain tolerance, which was a nice change from some of the douche nozzles who scheduled four hours of my time, then pussied out halfway through.

“Hey.” Lisa was in the doorway, leaning against the jamb.

“Is Amy here already?” I checked the time. It was only ten past. While she was prompt, she didn’t usually show up this early for a session.

“Not yet.” Lisa came inside and shut the door.

“What’s up?” I knew damn well why she was barricading me in here. Lisa had been waiting for the chance to grill me ever since I’d walked through the door with Tenley.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Just fine?”

I smoothed out the stencil. “You don’t need to pussyfoot around the issue. Ask what you want to ask.”

“What’s going on with you and Tenley?”

I would have thought the way I’d kissed her before I sent her off answered the question. Apparently not. “We’re working things out.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

I frowned. “It means what it means. Or are you looking for a play-by-play of our conversation so you can give me your unbiased opinion on what you think I should do?”

“Sarah called me this morning. Apparently she had an interesting conversation with Candy late last night.”

Shit. Bad news traveled fast. I hadn’t even seen Candy at The Dollhouse, but my focus had been elsewhere. I got real busy checking to make sure I had the right ink. “Yeah? What’d she have to say?”

“That Sienna got into it with someone whose description fits Tenley’s, and Sienna’s nose ended up broken. Candy also might have mentioned to Sarah that you stopped by The Dollhouse. She said Sienna was all in a rage after you left. Do you want to fill in the missing details?”

“Tenley left her keys with Sarah when she went back to Arden Hills. She stopped at The Dollhouse thinking Sarah would be there and had a run-in with Sienna instead. Things got heated. I picked her up.”

“Tenley called you?”

About twenty times. I’d ignored them all. “No. Jay did.”

I could tell there was a lot Lisa wanted to ask, but she chose her questions carefully. She started with the most telling one. “Did Tenley stay at your place last night?”

“Yeah. She was pretty shaken up after The Dollhouse bullshit. Sienna pushed her around a bit before Tenley fought back. She couldn’t manage the stairs to her apartment because of her hip. Besides, TK was at my place and Tenley wanted to see her.”

I was rationalizing the hell out of my actions, but I didn’t need Lisa’s judgment. I’d spent enough time without Tenley. Now that she was back, I wasn’t inclined to play it cool and take all sorts of space. Even if the smarter course of action was to dip a toe in and check the temperature before diving headlong into a boiling pot of water. I was a diver, not a dipper.

“Did you have sex with her?”

“Seriously? I don’t get all up in your personal business and ask if you’re putting out for Jamie on the regular,” I snapped.

“Jamie and I have sex daily. Usually in the morning, because that’s when Jamie has the best longevity and it puts me in a good mood. There. Now I’ve shared. Your turn.”

I cringed at the mental image. “Why, Lisa? Why would you tell me that? I don’t need those details.”

“Oh? And here I thought that’s what this was about. The only time you’ve been reticent about your previous sexual escapades is when you were with Sienna, and when you broke your own stupid rule with Tenley. Based on how dodgy you’re being, I’m pretty sure I know the answer to the question anyway.”

“And your point is?”

Lisa arched a brow. “I’m just checking to see where you’re at. She’s been gone for weeks and you’ve been a mess. She comes back, and the first thing you do is fall into bed with her? After everything that’s happened, do you think that’s a good decision?”

“We talked first.”

“And everything’s better? After one conversation?”

“There were two conversations. One last night and one this morning.”

“And when did you get it on, in between the two?”

“After the one this morning.” Because that made it so much better.

“Oh. Well, then. Two heartfelt chats later and you’re over her leaving with no explanation?” Lisa asked snidely.

“No, but it’s not like I can pull a do-over, can I?”

“I believe you’ve tried that before, with little success.”

I glared at her. “I don’t understand why you’re being like this. I figured you’d be glad we were sorting shit out.” Although, if I was honest, the sex with Tenley complicated the situation. All my anger, frustration, and fear had funneled right into the hard, fast, mind-blowing, multiple-orgasm bliss. While it had been a good form of stress relief, it unearthed a barrage of other crap I wasn’t ready to deal with. I kept that shit to myself.

“I’m happy she’s back, but you need to be careful, and not just for your sake. You two have a lot to sort through.”

“Like I said, we’re working it out. She gets that I’m angry with her for leaving, and I’m not telling her everything is fine now that she’s back.”

“That’s great. But there’s more to this than Tenley leaving, and the things you learned about her. You’ve got your own skeletons you’re not dealing with. You can’t keep them buried forever.”

There was a knock on the door and Jamie poked his head in. He looked from me to Lisa and back again. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said slowly. “Amy’s here.”

His timing couldn’t have been better. “Perfect. I’ll be right out.”

“Do you want a minute?” he asked.

“Nope. We’re good here.”

“I’ll let her know.” Jamie’s head disappeared and he left the door open.

When I tried to get around Lisa, she put a hand on my arm, a gentle request to hear her out.

“Remember that talk we had about things not always being black and white, back before you started the outline on Tenley?”

“What about it?”

“Maybe you need to find a middle ground, so this thing with Tenley isn’t all or nothing. She obviously wants to be with you, like you want to be with her. All I’m suggesting is this time you might want to slow down and get all the important stuff out of the way first.”

Lisa had a valid point. I wasn’t good at taking things slow and Tenley was no exception. I’d practically lived in her apartment as soon as I got into her pants. But it wasn’t just about the sex back then, and it wasn’t now. It made the whole issue difficult to navigate. I wanted her, and I wanted to be with her; separating the two needs was a challenge. They were entwined; one begot the other. But then, I’d never felt about anyone else the way I felt about Tenley.