INKED 8: A Tattoo Shop Reverse Harem

“He really is,” I admit.

“I’m really proud of him,” he says softly before he walks away to join his brother.

We all sing the happy birthday song, and Ryan grins widely as he gets to blow out sixteen candles. I offer to take photos of everyone, and they pose around the cake, with the boxing gym providing a strange backdrop, but nobody cares about anything other than throwing their arms over each other's shoulders and joking as I try to get a good shot.

Ryan is lucky to have such an awesome place to come, with friends and mentors who really care.

And I’m lucky to have found a place to work with genuinely nice people with genuinely good hearts.

It doesn’t hurt that they’re all sexy as hell.

For the first time in a long time, I find myself looking forward to tomorrow and another day of work.

7

KYLA

It’s the end of the last day of my second week, and Carl insists I leave before the rest of them. My plan was to meet Dawn for some after-work drinks, but I’m a little early, so I perch on a bench seat and pull out my phone.

“Hey,” I say when she picks up. “I’m already done. Can you meet earlier?”

“No can do, sweet cheeks,” she says, exhaling a long theatrical sigh. “But I’m worth waiting for, I promise.”

“I know you are, you idiot,” I say.

“But stay on the phone. My boss might own the time I physically clock my ass out, but my attention and where I direct it is my own. Tell me…how was your day?”

“Awesome,” I say, breathing my own long sigh of relief. “I’m so happy that I never have to go back to that coffee shop. I could kiss you.”

“Forget kissing me. What about those sexy inked gods you work for?”

“It’s all above board,” I say, shaking my head even though she can’t see me. “It’s a workplace. Strictly professional and all that jazz.”

“Professional shmefessional,” Dawn huffs. “Over a fifth of married couples meet at work, and those odds definitely go up if you’re the only woman in a team of nine.”

“Can we stop having this same conversation over and over? Luna keeps trying to convince me that I need a poly relationship like hers, and you keep telling me I should be more focused on dick than I am on my work. In the end, I’m just too vanilla for any of them.”

“Vanilla can be a great flavor when you slather it with chocolate sauce and sprinkles,” Dawn says. “And anyway, you need to get out there if you’re ever going to experience anything new.”

“Experiencing new things in the bedroom isn’t something I’d even know how to ask for,” I say. “At least at the ice cream shop, you can ask for a taste before you buy. With sex, you just have to take whatever flavor is on offer. I just don’t know what flavor I want or how to find out.”

Dawn snorts. “You have to try a lot of flavors before you die,” she says. “Fuck the patriarchy’s idea that a woman has to stay chaste before marriage. We don’t get used up or stretched out, or whatever other fucking misogynistic fiction men have touted around to control us. We get more experienced and more comfortable with our bodies. We gain confidence to ask for what we need. How is that not better than suppressing all our desires and wants?”

“It isn’t better,” I say, but inside, I’m still tied up with the idea that too many lovers are a bad idea. More lovers equal more heartache.

“You don’t sound convinced,” Dawn says. “And maybe I won’t be able to convince you. Maybe having some experience will show you.”

“You think I need to try out having sex with lots of men to see if having sex with lots of men is a good idea. Isn’t that like eating a whole burger to decide if you like the taste of meat?”

“Not at all. Each bite of that burger will taste the same. Fucking eight different men will be like tasting eight different burgers. Some will have relish, and others will have bacon or pickle or extra cheese…”

“I hope we’re still talking about the burgers here because cheese and men are two things that definitely shouldn’t go together in the same sentence.”

There’s a fumbling sound on the end of the line, as though Dawn dropped something, and all I can hear is muted laughter. “Shit. I dropped my phone. You can’t be saying things like that without warning, Kyla. There’s only so much suppressed laughter a girl can manage while she’s supposed to be working.”

“Sorry that my pathetic sex life is causing you so much amusement.” I bite my lip, my mind drifting back to Carl’s inked forearms and Noah’s unbelievably sexy lip ring. Before I have a chance to think about the six other sexy Ink Factor men, Dawn interrupts with a muffled chuckle.