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She said it as a joke. Really.
The question was innocent enough. Tommy was leaning back in his chair with her settled in his lap. One hand smoothed over her thigh, the other holding a cigarette, his blue eyes pulled away from the loose papers spread out across the desk to gaze at her.
She knew he’d been wanting to get a tattoo of her name–or at least something to represent her–for ages. He’d mentioned it more than once in passing.
“Where do you think I should get it?” he asked, bringing the cigarette to his lips. Lily leaned her head back against his chest, staring up at him.
“I don’t know…” her voice trailed off, his finger circling along her inner thigh. And then the thought came to her, and it was far too funny not to vocalize. She bit her lip to keep from giggling. “How about on your ass?”
His eyebrow raised, cheeks twitching in that way she knew meant he was trying not to laugh. She could physically see it as the joke processed in his mind.
And when he started to actually think about it.
His eyes were still warm and amused, but there was a calculated spark to them. It was the same look he got when he was scheming up some sort of new strategy. Her back went ramrod straight.
“No, no, no, no, no. I was joking–”
“Now hang on a second,” he said, expression turning impish, “I think it’s an interesting idea…”
“Tommy, I swear to God–”
“You did say you were worried about people accidentally seeing it…”
“Thomas, if you get my name tattooed onto your ass, I will leave you.”
“Now, that would be rude, wouldn’t it?” he laughed, adjusting her in his lap so that she was straddling his thighs, facing him with his hands on her hips. “I try to do something romantic by getting your name stitched into my skin, and you leave me over it?” His eyes widened with mock hurt that was greatly undercut by the amused sparkle they were sporting.
She rolled her eyes and kissed him. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You really don’t want to brand me?” he asked with a tempting smile. She leaned back, hands resting on his shoulders while she looked at him. Tommy blinked up at her innocently.
“Hm…well, when you put it like that…”
He laughed, pulling her deeper into his arms, squeezing her into his chest while he kissed the top of her head. Lily smiled, snuggling closer and repositioning herself so she was sitting across his thighs again, allowing her to more comfortably tuck herself in against him.
“No on my ass, then,” he conceded, fingers carding lazily through her hair. “I’d rather have it somewhere I could easily see, anyway.”
“It’s going on your body. It’s up to you where you want to put it.” She chewed on her lower lip. “So long as it’s not somewhere super noticeable.”
He chuckled deeply. “Still worried about that, eh?”
“It’s gonna be a little hard to explain to anyone who might see it why you have your assistant’s name tattooed on your body.”
“I could always lie. Say it was for some other girl named Lily who I met in France. That it’s just a coincidence that you two have the same names.”
“And how many people do you think will actually buy that?”
He pressed his smile into her hair. “Fair,” his hand had taken back up absentmindedly stroking her thigh. “It’ll be fine. I wear long sleeves and layers year round, love. The most likely person to see it who might think anything of it other than you is my physician.”
She hummed in quiet agreement. “So where do you want to get it?”
“I have a couple ideas. My ankle. Wrist. Ribs. It’s too bad I already have the sun rays on my chest, or I’d have liked to put it there.”
She swallowed hard, it not being lost on her that getting the tattoo there would have put it right above his heart.
“You said you wanted to be able to see it, right?” At his nod, she looked him over, eyes searching out a place on his body that would work. Of the ones he’d mentioned, his wrist would probably be the best candidate, though any time he rolled his sleeves up, he would risk someone spotting it. Her fingers trailed delicately along his left wrist, then started to trace up his arm. “What about a little further up from your wrist? More on your forearm. Here,” her fingers settled on the space of his inner left forearm, just below the bend of his elbow. “You could see it, but it would be easily covered by sleeves. Even if you rolled them up.”
Tommy’s hand moved to settle a top hers, staring down at his forearm with a small smile. “Yes,” he said softly, thumb running atop her knuckles, “I think that could work.”
* * *
“Did it hurt?” she asked, peering curiously at his arm from where she was laying on his chest. Tommy shifted against the pillows, watching her with tender bemusement.
“Not really. It was just like getting pinched over and over again. The one on my chest hurt a lot more.”
She lifted her head from where it had been laying against the tattoo in question, turning her head to press a few kisses to the sunrays encircling his peck. Enjoying the way his breath caught slightly at the movement.
Her gaze returned to the still slightly reddened, tender skin of his inner arm, where her name was now stitched in simple, thick, dark lines into his skin. The curves of the lines of the L and the tail of the Y had been stylized to wrap around the rest of the letters in the shape of a heart.
“It looks good,” she said, swallowing down her emotion. It really was an incredibly sweet, butterflies-in-the-stomach inducing gesture. She knew he’d gotten it just as much for himself as for her, but it still made her feel all tingly. The possessive part of her purred in approval at having her name on him.
“Mm, thanks,” he was lazily stroking her hair. “I think so too.”
“I feel bad for being too chicken to get one.”
He huffed out a small laugh. “Don’t be,” he tilted her chin up to look at him, kissing her nose. “I mean it. Don’t feel like you have to. I don’t expect you to get one just because I did.”
Lily smiled at him softly, pecking his lips. “Thank you.”
Her eyes dropped back to the tattoo, drawn to it like a magnet, both curious and still incredibly touched at his devotion to her now being permanently emblazoned upon his skin.
She wasn’t supposed to touch it for a little while, not until it had healed some, but she longed for the day–hopefully soon–when she could trace her fingertips along the dark lines.
“You were right.”
“Hm?”
She peered up at him. “It is very romantic.”
He smiled at her softly, eyes warm and tender as he encircled both arms around her waist, pulling her up his body so he could kiss her.
“I love you,” she whispered against his mouth.
“I love you too,” he murmured, pulling her closer to him.