2 Chapter Two

I watched him as he hesitated, but I just kept my smile on my face and went about what I was doing. I gathered up my sketchbook and sat down on my rolling stool. I didn't stare at him, though it was damn hard, he was a good-looking man. He shrugged off his leather vest and handed it to his brother. He even went the extra mile and pulled up his hair into a messy looking bun on top of his head to get it out of the way. He didn't seem to have much ink on him, just a couple on his arms. Once his shirt was pulled over his head, I could start to see some of the scars. His chest had some scarring, they looked like stab wounds if I am being honest, but he was still facing me. From his body language, it looked like he was focusing on keeping his front to me, though his brother was behind him and from the pained expression on his face it was his back that was going to need the most love.

I kept my face serene, no sign of impatience or that his scars bothered me at all. It was easy because I wasn't impatient, and I knew his scars couldn't possibly bother me. Darrin looked over his shoulder at his brother for a moment and they seemed to be having a silent conversation. I looked down, sketching out his torso and marking where the scars were. I looked back up about the time that Liam nodded at his brother. I watched as Darrin turned around and I couldn't help the wince. Across his entire upper back were words carved into the skin, they were well healed though they looked rough.

'Traitor', the word clearly legible, and thankfully the skin looked mostly flat. The lines weren't straight, so he had struggled while they were doing it. This led me to believe it was either done in prison or in some sort of gang issue. I sketched out his back and marked the placement of where they were.

"So, Darrin, I was wondering if it would be okay if I touched your back. I just need to feel the tissue a bit and see what I'm working with." I said it all with nonchalance like either way it would be fine. I heard Liam muttering to him, though it was too low for me to hear. I kept my eyes down on the paper, granting them as much privacy as I could. He may or may not be comfortable with it, I imagine the scarring on his back would make him nervous about someone being at his back.

"Yeah, yeah it's fine." Darrin finally answered and I looked up to give him a smile. I stood up slowly, taking the time to kind of stretch out a little. Darrin was watching me over his shoulder, and I looked over at the mirror I had in there, it ran from ceiling to floor, so the clients could easily see the placement of a tattoo, not to mention the finished product. I motioned him to turn a bit and had him facing the door, but he could also look over into the mirror and see me clearly. I tried to be subtle about what I had done but from the relief on his face, I could see he was okay with this turn of events. I looked over the scars first, they weren't too bad up close, the skin was damaged and there would be a couple of places that might be harder to cover than others, but overall as far as scars go it was the perfect kind to cover. The scarring was smooth and mostly flat, small miracles. I met his eyes in the mirror and raised my hand slowly, he nodded, and I turned to look at the skin. I very carefully touched the skin around it. He was warm under my cold fingers. He flinched at the contact.

"Sorry, I have shit circulation, so my fingers are always cold." I was pretty sure my cold fingers had nothing to do with the flinch, but he seemed thankful that was what I thought.

"Ugh, man, let me tell you any of the work she has done on me, I feel like I need to get her some fucking mittens or something, she freezes me out every time." Liam chimed in. I laughed.

"That would be quite a sight, doing a tat in mittens," I commented, trying to move my exam along as quickly as I could without moving too fast. His skin was smooth and the muscles in his back were toned. I was supposed to just be looking at the scars, but I couldn't help that my eyes wandered down the lines of his back, following the muscles to his…. My eyes jerked up. Nope. Don't check out the client's ass Thorn, don't do it. I moved out from behind him, watching as the muscles in his shoulders seem to deflate as I did. I moved around to his front and looked over the ones across his chest. I didn't need to touch those, but for the sake of being thorough, I repeated the process from his back, looking to him for permission. He didn't seem to have as much of a reaction to the ones on his chest.

"Okay, so, the good news is that you have some seriously great skin. Cover-up would be pretty easy overall, the damage to the tissue itself is minimal, surprisingly. I have an idea for your back already, but do you want to cover these too?" I asked him, motioning to his chest.

"Well, the one on my back is the biggest I want to cover, but I want to cover my chest too. Actually, I am pretty content with just covering my whole body at this point. I am way behind on getting ink." Darrin commented. I heard the rough undertones of his voice, showing his stress, but he was a trooper, he was pushing through it. I was nodding.

"What do you want?" I asked him "I mean as far as theme goes?" I was pretty sure I had guessed right but I wanted to be sure. I tucked my sketchbook against my chest and cast a look to Liam, who looks confused for a moment but then grins.

"I was thinking something Norse Mythology, something like that for my back. Design wise, I mean you have- what are you grinning about?" He asks me and I lean closer to Liam and tilt my sketchbook back to show him the doodles as well as the words written next to the sketch of his torso.

"Damn," Liam mutters and pulls out his wallet. "It shouldn't count for my brother." He is muttering as he pulls out a 20. I grin wider and pluck it from his fingers before I tuck it into my pocket.

"So, your brother and I have a long-term bet going on. If I can guess what the customer wants before they tell me I get 20 bucks." I tell Darrin "It's been going on for years. Anyway, I had a feeling…." I tilted my sketchbook at him, and I show him the idea that I had. "Wings themselves are horribly overdone, but I like the idea of having Odin's Raven on your back, using the wings themselves to cover up the scarring because the lines will go the way they need to." Darrin is just sort of looking at me strangely and I look up at him confused "What?"

"You already knew what I wanted? You don't think that's a big deal to guess like that? I mean you don't know anything about me, I could have wanted fucking Mickey Mouse." He laughs a little and I shake my head.

"Nah, I would have guessed that. I think a lot of it is that I grew up in my grandad's shop. I saw all kinds of people. I started working in other shops when I turned sixteen and have just sort of been around enough different kinds of people to put two and two together." I shrugged and pointed back down to my book. "So, here's the idea I came up with for your back and here's the one I was thinking for your chest, though the chest one can be pretty much anything else because the placement isn't as big of a deal." I look up and he's looking at me, not the book. Those eyes, man it's so easy to get sucked into eyes like those. I start to ask him what he's looking at, but the words stick in my throat but thankfully he looks down at the book instead. "I can have it drawn up and sketched out tonight, but I think we're better off booking your appointment for a day when I'm not already pretty much dead on my feet," I tell him honestly and he nods, looking at Liam for a moment.

"Yeah, just text Liam the design as you go, and we can book an appointment when it's done," Darrin tells me, moving back from me. "I'm giving you creative freedom within reason, cause, I don't want a hello kitty on my ass or anything." His comment makes me smile and I shake my head.

"Hello Kitty is reserved for those who anger me. Stay in my good graces and it's all good." I tell him with a smile. He, sadly, starts to redress. I mean, let's be honest, I was able to keep things professional but scars or not the man is still a fucking god. I never really had a thing for Thor but… Darrin Masters could easily change my mind.