Page 52 of Tessa

“That will be seventy dollars and it’s gonna be a fifteen-minute wait. That gonna work or is it just enough time for you to change your mind?”

Dax gulped. He should chicken out. He should run out of this shop and in the other direction as fast as he could. Beau would not be happy. But he wanted this. He really wanted it, and he was a grown-ass man. A business partner and a Daddy. If he decided to get a tattoo on his own body, that was his business… wasn’t it?

Right. You just keep telling yourself that.

Taking a deep breath, he steeled his shoulders, and looked biker dude dead in the eyes. “That will work.”

“I’ll have the same.” Beside him, Tessa stepped up and ordered her tattoo as casually as if it were a Big Mac from the golden arches.

Dax swung his head around to ogle her and she just shrugged. “What? Like I’m gonna let you have this adventure alone? Psssh.”

The biker looked between them, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “All right. Take a seat over there. It will be twenty to thirty minutes for two of you.”

Dax

“You two are together, I take it?” The tough-looking tattoo artist asked when he called them back.

“Yep.” Dax nodded proudly. “I’m Dax and this is Tessa.” He answered for her since she had gone weirdly mute since ordering her tattoo.

“I’m Axel. Nice to meet you. Now, before we get too far in, I’ve got one more question for you.”

“Shoot. What is it?”

A slow smile spread across the gruff-but-handsome-looking man’s face and Dax was surprised to notice he actually had a very sexy smile, with gorgeous teeth that sparkled in the sun that streamed through the blinds. Dax was sure that if he turned toward the sun at just the right time, he’d create a rainbow with his teeth that would light up the entire city. “Who’s Daddy?” Axel asked, with a glint of mischief in his eye. “And why isn’t he here?”

Dax shifted uncomfortably, trying hard to come up with a good lie.

Meanwhile Tessa finally broke her silence. “He doesn’t know we are getting them! We’re being bad!”

Dax rubbed the bridge of his nose and rested his face in his palm. So much for a good story.

Axel sucked through his teeth, and smirked. “Is that so? Well, boys and girls aren’t bad, but sometimes they make bad decisions and that makes them just a little bit naughty, doesn’t it?”

Wide-eyed, Tessa nodded.

“What does your Daddy do if you’re naughty?”

Dax frowned at the question. Normally, outside of a kink environment, the way this dude was talking to them would set off warning bells in his head. Somehow though, it seemed to fit, and deep down he had the feeling that Axel knew exactly what Daddies did to naughty boys and girls.

As if he were reading Dax’s mind and wanted to reassure him, Axel continued, “If my Little one came home with a tattoo on their naughty little bottom, I’d make sure she felt more pain from my belt than she ever would from a tattoo gun.” He winked as he snapped a pair of latex gloves onto his oversized hands.

The casual way he described exactly how Beau would react as if it were a foregone conclusion sent a shiver down Dax’s spine, and made his cock quicken.

Beside him, Tessa was shaking. Her face had suddenly gone white. Dax frowned. From what he knew of Tessa, she wasn’t one to be scared of a spanking.

He nudged her with his elbow, until she looked at him.

“Psst. You good? You wanna chicken out?” The guy hadn’t started drawing the design yet and if she said yes, Dax would happily run with her.

“W-what’s a tattoo gun?” she stammered.

Before Dax could answer, Axel did.

“It’s not a real gun… it’s more like… a tool. Have you ever heard of a screw gun or a nail gun?”

Tessa nodded.

“Well, it’s kind of like that. Except it’s smaller and it holds the needle in place. And I know it sounds scary but a tattoo gun actually helps the tattoo hurt less because it makes the process go a heck of a lot quicker. You want to see what it looks like?”