Doubt: Absolutely not.
“Next topic.” I shut that conversation down.
“Oh. Um. How’s your mom?”
I just stared at him.
“How ‘bout I just set up, and you watch?” He offered.
“Excellent.”
With a nod, he got back to it.
Our parents were not the best, so the topic rubbed us both the wrong way, but at least we both knew when to leave the subject alone and not push it further.
Deciding that him setting up was worth getting on camera, I pulled out the camcorder. He peeked at it but didn’t say anything. I powered it up and started recording.
Fuck. Just watching his hands open packages and seeing his tattooed bicep flex as he wrapped tape around his gun made me feral.
“This is kinda sexy, y’know.”
Theo looked up, surprised. “Sexy?”
“Yeah. This whole mysterious artist thing is kinda turning me on.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.
Okay, it was definitely doing it for me.
I hesitated for a second, then sat down in the chair, setting the camcorder on the table to face us.
“Gimme a tattoo,” I said.
Theo blinked. “What, seriously?”
“Dead serious.”
He dropped into the rolling stool in front of me, searching my face. “Okay… what do you want?”
I paused, then smiled. “A teddy bear holding a heart.”
He blinked. “Like… a literal teddy bear?”
“Mhmm.”
His mouth twitched like he was trying not to laugh. “Why?”
I looked at him pointedly. “‘Cause you’re my Teddy. And you hold my heart.”
Doubt: Corny.
His expression softened. “That’s… actually really fucking cute.”
“I know.”
“And where do you want it?”
I hiked the hem of my dress just enough to reveal the outer edge of my thigh, tapping the spot. “Right here.”
