Free Drawn Together by Lauren Dane

enough yet to say I’m a control freak. Though you’re right. There are areas I’m willing to cede to you. How the tattoo evolves is one of them. I’ve seen enough of your work to know you have a great aesthetic and one I click with.”
    “Hm.”
    She settled in behind him, touching him matter-of-factly for several moments before rolling back and putting a mirror in his hand. “Go look to be sure it’s where you want it.”
    He did, liking where she’d put it.
    “Good.”
    “It’ll dominate your back, but in a good way.”
    He smiled her way and liked her startled response. Liked shaking her up for some reason. He felt like a predator around her.
    “Sit down so I can get started.”
    He got back into position and so did she. He watched in the corner of his vision as she got her ink and stuff set up on a low table next to her stool. It wasn’t long before the buzz of the needle machine filled the air and she got closer and began the outline.
    Tattooing was a ritual for her. Some people lit candles or prayed. She loved the hum of the needle. Loved the feel of the skin under her hands and the beginning of a new design.
    He was muscled. Not in a bodybuilder sense, but he was fit and he had wide shoulders and a strong back. The tat would look sexy on him and he was certainly bold enough to carry off a full back piece.
    “Why did you decide to do tattoos?”
    “It was a way to get away from sweeping up hair and doing shitty perms at the salon I worked at when I came out to L.A.”
    “Did you apprentice or go to school for it?”
    “I got a job at a tattoo shop, cleaning up after hours. So I scrubbed toilets, and oh my god, let me say that was enough to get up the nerve to ask the owner if I could do ink work instead. He was a good guy and around my scrubbing and sweeping, he started to train me.”
    He’d been good to her. It had been hard for a good year not to suspect that he would use that kindness to get her into bed. But he never betrayed her that way. It had been the first real positive in years. A step into her new life. Where she was in control.
    “The money was decent. I had benefits. The better I got and the better my reputation, the easier it was for me to move around and work here and there. Did you always want to be a lawyer?”
    He lifted his shoulders. “It’s the family business. My dad and his brother took over the firm their father started.”
    “Don’t shrug.”
    “Sorry. You’re bossy.”
    “I am about my ink.”
    “I have to say the pain and the hum of the needle sort of puts me in a trance. Having your hands on me isn’t bad either.”
    “I’m the same way when I’m getting work done. I think it’s fairly common. As for having my hands on you—it’s not like you have to get a tattoo for that to happen.”
    “True.”
    “Back to the subject of the law. Do you like it? Or do you do it because you were expected to?”
    “Do you just say whatever pops into your head?”
    “Sometimes. If that was rude though, you’ll have to explain why, because I can’t see it.”
    “Not rude. Just . . . blunt, I guess. Most people don’t say stuff like, ‘Do you like your job or do you do it because your parents told you to?’”
    “Well, one, I’m not most people, and two, I didn’t say exactly that. Lots of people do things because they’re expected to do them. Very few people do things because they love to do them.”
    She leaned around him to grab some tissues and that’s when he saw the glasses she had to wear when she worked.
    “You wear glasses?”
    “When I’m doing close-up work, yes.”
    “I like them.”
    “Hm.”
    “I went to college because it was expected. I never had any intention of doing anything else. I’m the oldest, it’s my duty. But I don’t resent that. My family values education and it’s absolutely true that my education has served me well, presented me with opportunities I’d never have had otherwise. As for law school? For a while I