Dark Ink Tattoo: Ep 3 by Cassie Alexander Read Free Book Online

bag off the pole and rolled it like a tube of toothpaste, pushing the last of the contents inside me. I felt much, much better now – looking down, I could see the holes on my shirt where the lead’d gone in, but only smooth skin behind. Eventually I’d cough up the buckshot or shit them out – being a vampire was odd. And where my ribs had been rubbing, they were solid now, I gave them a poke. Fran chased the last bit up blood into me, then pulled out the IV, wheeling the whole contraption into the back, hiding it behind a shelf.
    “You can get up now, Sarah.”
    “Thank you, Mistress,” she said, rising as smooth as any geisha. She didn’t move like I’d have moved, stretching out kinks. The only thing she had to betray she’d ever been uncomfortably sitting for so long were red spots on her knees, clearly visible beneath her short-short skirt.
    “And you may take off your blindfold and leave.”
    “Thank you, Mistress.”
    Sarah did as she was told. She looked at me, and gave me a satisfied smile – Sarah was a service sub, through and through. The men of Vegas’s tourism had little use for her, as most of them longed to be dominated themselves, but when she performed for the right dom, she was spectacular.
    “Till next time, Jack,” she said, lunging in for a kiss, before racing for the door.
    She was also a little bit of a brat.
    Francesca turned back to me, and gave me a look. “You don’t call, you don’t write – and then you show up, looking like that?”
    “I’m sorry Fran. I’ve been busy and –“ Telling her everything would feel good. I wanted to understand what the hell had happened – why that strange biker hadn’t died. But her eyes squinted at me and her red lips curled into an appeasing grin. “…What?”
    “You know how you’re always saying you owe me?”
    I suddenly wondered if I’d made the right choice, not chasing Murphy into the desert. “Yeah?”
    “Time to pay up. And then I’ll hear all about whatever the hell happened to you later tonight. I’m interested, darling, I am, but you coming here is something of a god send.”
    And knowing what went on inside these walls -- “How so?”
    “I’ve got a couple. They’re new to me – but they both claim to want a cuckold.”
    “Awwww – Franny –“
    “No. It’s perfect. You’re scary enough that she won’t say yes unless she’s really into it. And behind one way glass, he can beat off confidently, knowing that a mom of three isn’t going to leave him for you. You being who you are, of course.” She waved a hand to indicate my intricate tattoos.
    It was ironic, considering the woman I’d lusted after longest without success was also a mother. But what would Angela think of me, if she knew what I was?
    “Plus you’re all I’ve got. They rolled in late, no appointments. Rude, but with a lot of cash. Soooooo,” she said, grabbing my arm and propelling me down the hall. “Take a shower and then get in there, slugger.”
    * * *
    Francesca had thought of everything – the showers were just as nice as the rest of the rooms here, except for the rooms that were disgusting on purpose of course. I thought they might be for employees, then realized it was possible people wanted to enact assorted shower-scenes like they’d watched in porn. I opened a fresh bar of soap and scrubbed up.
    I’d read somewhere once that ‘Mood’s a thing for cattle,’ meaning that one ought to always be in control of one’s self. Self-aware adults don’t always get the luxury of feeling out of sorts – or headachy, as the case may be. And tonight, neither did I. I turned the water off, and reached for a towel.
    Franny had put out a blood-free outfit for me to wear, much like the one I’d lost – jeans, T-shirt, white this time, and another black leather jacket. The shirt and jeans didn’t really fit, too small and too big in turns, but the jacket – I ran a hand over the smooth leather after I put it on.
    “Exceptional.