Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 7

bothered every time he heard the machine go off. But that was only because the sting of those needles on his skin was better than any other thing he'd experienced recently. It made his skin quiver and created a twisted smile on his face, one Chase had commented on once. He'd said he had now officially found a reason to keep tattooing though it sometimes killed his back and made his eyes burn. And Ty had asked what that reason was, and Chase had replied with a wicked grin, saying that it was the first time he'd seen anyone close to climaxing because of getting inked above the waistline.
    Ty hadn't pointed out how true that was.
    "Relax your shoulders," Chase said, his voice low and gruff, low enough to reach Ty's consciousness as a soft purr though there was nothing soft about it. Nothing soft about the man either. His eyes were dark enough to pierce through Ty every time he was foolish enough to look straight at them. Dark hair, almost black, and wild as if Chase had just walked in from a blizzard. Chase always wore long sleeved shirts but the back of his hands were covered in tattoos; thin lines and words written with such delicacy Ty couldn't make sense of any of them. But he'd seen them and seeing them made him wonder if there was a spot of skin on that body that wasn't covered with ink. Chase's neck was clean though, only one long strip of black ink building from his back, following the shape of his spine and reaching his hairline. But that was all Ty had seen. And he sure as hell had wanted to see a lot more.
    The sudden wave of warmth brushing against his back told Ty that Chase had just stepped closer. "Relax your shoulders." Nothing soft now. Ty closed his eyes and forced his breathing to remain calm though his insides were shaking hard enough to raise the stats on Richter's Scale. The warmth vanished, leaving Ty's skin cold and shivering. He heard Chase rustle around behind him, probably searching for a marker. "I don't like to repeat myself."
    "I'm sorry." How the hell did a common line of conversation manage to make Ty feel like someone had just licked the inside of his skin?
    "It's cool…we're all allowed to make some mistakes," Chase said, absently, before his hand brushed over Ty's shoulder. Tapping the left one, telling Ty to fix his posture. And in all honesty, Chase could be hitting him with a two-by-four and Ty would be just as heated. Ty argued over himself, thinking if he could get through this just once without walking back home with an aching hard-on, but he was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. Because as soon as he felt the first nothing but clinical touch placed on his shoulder blade, his eyes were closed already and he wanted to gasp.
    "Would this be okay?" Chase asked and plainly drew a few lines with his hand against Ty's skin. Nothing erotic there, absolutely nothing. And still Ty felt like he was leaking already.
    The area which Chase was displaying was as good as any other, because Ty trusted the guy enough to know he wouldn't go over-board with his art. No excess tattooing, no hasty handwork and no drunken customers. Three ground rules Chase had laid on the table the first time Ty had stepped inside that shop. "Yeah, that'll work."
    Ty heard the quiet 'snap' when Chase pulled off the cork from the marker, getting ready to draw the lines. He always went free-hand, had done so since the first time. He took forever to clean the skin, took even longer to draw the picture but Ty wasn't complaining, because the work was brilliant. Beautiful. Even the thickest black lines he now had covering his body were almost graceful and if that required Chase to drive Ty crazy with the anticipation, then so be it.
    Chase wiped Ty's skin with gauze wetted with an antiseptic liquid before he again tapped Ty's left shoulder. "Relax."
    Shit.
    "Sorry," Ty said and shook his shoulders, forcing the muscles to relax. Apparently his posture was straight enough, both shoulders on equal height, because the next touch he felt wasn't a tap but a firm grip on his left upper arm. "Now don't move."
    Oh God…why did that sound like something said in the darkness of a bedroom instead of a simple request to hold still since moving now would make the whole thing a little more impossible to follow through.
    The marker slid across Ty's skin without any hesitance. Chase drew one line after another, short pieces of one picture that was bound to be symmetrical. The hand holding Ty's arm was like a continuous echo of