Saugatuck Summer (Saugatuck, #1)(63)

I set the packet on the counter and went back to disinfecting every surface. “I guess I just don’t know what I want to have done,” I mumbled, not meeting their eyes.

Jace bit his thumbnail and stared at me.

“Yeah, you do.”

“Huh?” I snapped around to look at him.

“You know perfectly f*cking well what you want to have done. You just can’t make yourself say it, for some reason.”

“Okay, that’s just creepy.” Heat flooded my skin, and my stomach twisted nervously. Holy Christ, how did he see into me like that? I was embarrassed by my own transparency, and it was annoying to realize how easily he read me. Though, admittedly, I was somewhat turned on, as well. See also: scared.

Backed into a corner, I did what I always did and went on the offensive. I narrowed my eyes almost defiantly.

“Fine. My nipples. I want to have my nipples done.” I threw the statement down like a gauntlet.

Geoff’s eyebrows crept up, but he stayed out of the conversation. Jace just shrugged.

“Okay then. So have them done.”

“What, now?” My voice didn’t squeak at all there, nope, nu-uh. All macho-manly stoicism here.

He shrugged again. “If you’re ready. If not, whenever. Or never. No one’s saying you have to, but if you want to do it, do it.”

I stared at him, completely forgetting what I was in the middle of doing, only vaguely aware of the sounds of Geoff working the autoclave.

Then I had a mental picture of f*cking Jace that night with my nipples still aching, the new barbells in them shining. It was so powerful and erotic, my knees nearly buckled with it.

“Okay,” I rasped.



By the time I was standing shirtless beside the chair at Geoff’s workstation, my lips were swollen and bruised from the kiss Jace had given me after I’d announced my decision, and my entire body was hard, aching with arousal. I’d never been so f*cking aware of the nearly invisible hairs on my skin as when Geoff’s gloved hands swabbed cool antiseptic over and around my nipples. I clutched Jace’s hand like a lifeline, crushing his fingers from fear alone.

“Relax, angel,” he murmured right next to my ear. “I’m here with you, and I’ll take care of you when it’s all done.”

“Not on your life.” I gritted my teeth at him in an approximation of a tight smile. “If I’m butch enough to still be conscious when this is over, we’re going back to your room and I’m gonna f*ck you into the mattress.”

“Ooh, that works, too.”

Geoff chuckled softly as he marked my nipples on either side with a pen and then clamped a forceps on one before I sat down. I waffled between curiosity and dread, unsure of whether to close my eyes and wait for it to be over, or open them and watch it happen. Curiosity won, though I was on the verge of hyperventilating as I watched Geoff bring the hollow needle up and push it through the holes in the forceps. I almost didn’t feel it until it came out the other side—that’s when it got intense enough for me to grunt sharply. Then he inserted a titanium bar into the needle and guided it through, screwing the bead onto the other side with practiced ease. Small traces of blood welled on either side, hardly enough to notice.

Panting, sweat beading on my brow, I tipped my head back and stared at the ceiling until I got my bearings. The initial surge of pain as the needle had pushed out of my nipple was gone, but it’d been replaced by a constant, throbbing, red-hot ache.

Jace moaned softly. “Damn, that looks good. How you holding up?”

“I’m okay,” I whispered, though I knew I was shaking.

“Still good for the other one, or do you want to stop there?” Geoff asked briskly. We might have been laying the foundations of a solid friendship, but he was one hundred percent business right now.

I drew a deep breath and blew it out, acclimating to that burning, pulsating pain enough to feel capable of moving on.

“Still good,” I said, and watched as he clamped the forceps on the other side.

I don’t know why the second one hurt worse, but f*cking hell, did it ever. I groaned as the needle went in and shouted, “Fuck!” when it seemed to take forever punching through the other side. If there had been other clients in the shop, I would have been humiliated to show myself as such a wuss, but only Jace and Geoff were there to see it. I screwed my eyes shut and endured the tugging as he threaded the bar through.

Afterward I sat there trembling, waiting for the pain to recede to something manageable.

“Sorry,” I gasped after a moment of trying to remember how to breathe.

“For what?” Jace stroked my hair soothingly.

“Screaming like that. Guess I’m not as butch as I thought.”

Geoff laughed at me. “Topher, I’ve had three-hundred-pound leather daddies burst into tears having that done. Trust me, you did just fine.”

Well, gee. That made me feel good. I grinned, stupidly proud of myself.

“Oh. Okay. Here, let me get up and I’ll finish helping you clean.”

He flapped a dismissive hand at me. “Don’t bother. We’re almost done anyway. Take it easy, or take Jace, or whatever you have planned. Don’t forget the cleanser, the Tegaderm patches when you swim, and the saline soak. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I nodded, gathering up the supplies he’d laid out for me before we’d started, when he’d gone over all the details of the aftercare. Jace didn’t even offer me my shirt, just draped it over his arm while I waited to see if my legs would work.