Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(59)

Turning the corner into her room, I stopped when I saw her standing in front of the mirror in a pale pink lace bra and panties set. Tabitha’s beauty at any time would leave you struggling to breathe, wearing pink she’d become an everlasting memory, and just smiling she’d take your breath away and leave you on your knees at her feet. But seeing her as she was now, her hair swept over one shoulder leaving one side visible as the locks curled around her breast on the other side, wearing nothing but pink lace with her tattoos on display? It was otherworldly, leaving you struggling to breathe, unable to think, and beyond grateful that she let you call her yours. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t thank all and sundry for bringing her to me. There also wasn’t a day that went by when all the above didn’t apply to her, regardless of what she was doing and wearing.

When she didn’t see me standing there, I called and got her attention, my eyes still skimming up and down the sight in front of me. “Baby, I’m back.”

Jumping slightly, she turned around and got out a quick, “Hey!” before she ran and took a running jump at me, her legs wrapping around my waist and her arms around my neck. “You’re late,” she whispered, giving me a soft kiss that contradicted her previous move.

“Sorry, I got caught up,” I mumbled against her lips as I kissed her back. Feeling a tug on my side, I remembered what she’d had done today. “Lemme see your new tattoo.”

Not needing any encouragement at all, she hopped down, turned sideways and held her arm up. There, in a font I’d never seen before, I saw three dates. If it hadn’t been for some quick thinking, I wouldn’t have had a clue what they meant, but seeing the years associated with them it was obvious that she’d had her mom, Jose, and Olivia’s birthdays tattooed on her ribs. The emotions that hit me were bitter sweet. I loved the sentimentality of it and what it gave her to have them there, but a part of me was hurt that I wasn’t included even though I knew it was maybe a little early to have something like that done.

The sting left me though when I saw the words written underneath, recognizing their origin immediately. She’d had a verse from Aerosmith’s song Pink inked directly under the dates…

Which was fucking ironic because I’d had the chorus from it inked on the ribs with nothing on them just over an hour ago, every last one of them being as honest as you could get. Pink did get me high as a kite, it had been love at first sight even though I hadn’t been able to admit it when Dad and Hurst asked me, and everything was going to be all right because I was going to make sure of it.

“Do you like it?” she asked nervously when I didn’t say anything.

Lifting my eyes from the ink to meet hers, I started to unbutton my shirt, pulling it off and then my undershirt without looking away. When they were lying on the floor, I turned to my side and lifted my arm up to show her what I’d just had put on me for life.

“When did you…wait, that’s Pink. I had that tattooed on me as well,” she pointed out unnecessarily.

“Yup.”

“Oh my God, it comes before and after the verse I had done too.”

“That’s because it’s the chorus.” Leave it to Tabby to say something as outrageously obvious as that.

“Yeah,” she whispered, her voice shaking.

She’d told me last week that she’d initially been reluctant to go out on a date with me because she thought we’d be incompatible. Initially, I’d thought it was an obvious thing to want to have, but then she’d used her parents as the example and I realized what she meant. Her parents had been suited to each other in some ways, but in the deeper ways that strengthened the relationship and took it to an everlasting level? They had been completely wrong for one another. Opposites did attract, but they still had to be compatible or it wouldn’t work.

This tattoo, the fact that we hadn’t discussed it, that Ellis hadn’t let slip what the other was having, that it wasn’t a song we’d sat and listened to together, and that we’d chosen it as a way to have each other on our sides without actually getting names done? It was the final piece of proof that I needed to prove that we were meant for each other, no doubt about it.

Pivoting, I picked her up and walked us over to the bed, laying her down gently so I didn’t knock the raw skin on her side. Not waiting a second longer, I started kissing down her chest, making my way toward one of the nipples poking out behind the lace of the bra. When I got to it, I didn’t move the fabric out of the way, instead I just sucked it into my mouth through the lace.

Pink bra, pink hair, pink song, pink nipples…pink was the best color in the world.

Releasing the now wet nub, I kissed my way over to the other one murmuring, “I love that we got the same song put on us.”

Her hand moved into my hair, grabbing a fistful as I reached the other nipple and gave it the same attention. “Yeah.” It was one word that might have seemed empty or a standard response, but the emotion she used when she said it proved that it meant a lot more than that.

Reaching behind her, I didn’t release her nipple again until I’d unhooked her bra. Leaning up on an arm, I pulled it away from her chest and off her arms. “I love what we’ve got together, Tab.”

Her eyes went soft as I said it, and then she lifted a hand and curled it around my jaw, sweeping her thumb through my beard. “I love what we’ve got too. It’s so much more than I ever expected.”