More Ink, Sweat, and Tears by Sage Marlowe

Author:Sage Marlowe [Marlowe, Sage]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: erotic MM, Romance MM
Published: 2012-09-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Caelan looked up from the tattoo—and the client—he was working on. When he recognised Dean, his expression lit up, and the frown of total absorption that always seemed to sneak onto his face when he was working disappeared.

“Hey, love!” he greeted cheerfully and blew Dean a kiss across the room. “What a lovely surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to show up just yet. Did you take an early lunch break?”

“Hi.” Dean didn’t need to say more than the one syllable for Caelan to catch up with his mood. The smile on Caelan’s face froze and faltered, and then the frown was back on, deeper now, and born of concern, not concentration.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in a tone that had his customer, an attractive, voluptuous brunette of around forty, starting and looking up in bewilderment.

“Nothing.”

“Uh-huh. Try telling that someone who doesn’t know you better than that. Do you want me to take a break?”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Dean said, trying to sound carefree. He didn’t even know why he had come to see Caelan. Well, of course it had been the obvious thing to do. Talk to Caelan and tell him what had happened. He needed to know, and after all, it concerned him as well.

But now that Dean was standing there, looking at his partner and reading apprehension written all over that beautiful face, he suddenly wanted to be as far away from him as possible. Maybe that way he could still save him from the disappointment.

“Tara, I’ll be back with you in a few minutes, okay?” Caelan told the brunette as he put the tattoo gun away and slipped off his gloves without further consideration. He winced a bit as he got up from his chair, and his movement wasn’t quite as fluent as it should have been. His back had been causing him trouble once again for quite some time now. Just as well. If it turned out that he was no longer able to do his job, they could be sitting around at home killing time together.

Caelan’s hand tightened around Dean’s elbow, making him realise that he had apparently forgotten that he was supposed to follow Caelan out of the room. Maybe that would be the solution. Refuse to go somewhere with Caelan where he would have to talk and confess to the whole, fucked-up truth.

Apparently that wasn’t an option, though. Caelan’s fingers dug into Dean’s flesh, making him wince, and his voice was sharp in Dean’s ear as he whispered, “For fuck’s sake, Dee! Stop being a baby and just move. And then tell me what happened, will you? You’re giving me the creeps!”

Half pulling, half frog-marching Dean, Caelan walked him out of the room and across the short aisle that separated the individual sections in the back area of his tattoo studio. Predictably, he took him into his small office, the only room which was equipped with a door, and made him sit on a chair.

“Talk,” he ordered, surprisingly sternly given his natural sweet-temperedness.

One word. Just one syllable, and its meaning was simple enough.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.