“What do you think?” Dex asked a little too quickly.
I stuttered, entranced with the image on the screen. I should have been grateful I didn't reach up to stroke the screen, that would have been horrible. Not that staring was any better.
“Dex has one,” Slim spit out in a laugh.
My gaze stayed forward. “Pardon?” I coughed.
Slim shook his head, grinning wide. “Dex? Am I lying?”
My focus slid over to the man in question. The man in question who had his eyes locked on me, bleeding me out with the focus of his gaze. And it was with that same confidence, that complete concentration that he shook his head slow, slow, slowly. Grinning just like a man with no shame at all. “You ain’t lyin’.”
A volcano erupted on my face with his answer. I opened my mouth, unable to say anything. Whaaaat? So I did the only thing that could remotely save my honor.
I face-planted the desk.
And then started mumbling, “Way too much information.” They might have been laughing but I was too humiliated by the fact that I’d been ogling a stranger’s penis—and requesting one just like it from Santa—when the man behind me had what I was sitting there admiring. And the man behind me being Dex. If it would have been Blake, I might have grimaced but…
“C’mon, Iris, it’s cool,” Slim chuckled, gesturing toward the screen. “You'd be surprised how many guys get them."
He was full of shit and I knew it.
I didn’t bother looking up and settled for closing my eyes, but all I could do then was imagine that big, pierced cock on Dex’s body. Holy moly.
“I can't—I mean—that looks really painful.” I mumbled against the table in a strained whisper that sounded almost like a whine.
No one denied the fact that getting your genitals pierced was painful. Screw that.
"I hope they're worth it."
“You wanna find out?” Dex teased.
What in the hell?
Everything below my neck flushed at his question, but I steered away from it. There was no denying the hint of flirtation in his tone. Then again, I hadn't seen him with any other women since that morning at the auto shop. Though I doubted he was suffering from deprivation, you never know. Maybe he was.
But probably not.
“Babe, go choose a belly button ring,” Dex murmured at the same time fingertips brushed across the back of my neck.
Glancing back at the screen, my belly fluttered.
Friggin' hell, those pictures were going to be burned into the back of my eyelids forever. If I ever got desperate for Spank Bank material, penis piercings were the thing to search for.
“Come on, I hid some of the cool rings we got in the last shipment,” Slim urged.
I sighed, focusing on the gangly redhead instead of the beast on the computer screen. The picture with the monstrous thing. Gah! I needed to pull it together.
~ * ~ *
“If my belly button gets infected or the piercing is crooked, I'm going to give all your appointments to Blue from now on,” I failed epically at joking from the chair in one of the private rooms.
Slim had showed me some of the new navel rings they’d gotten right before I was hired. I settled on a white gold piece—my ears swelled up if I put anything in them that wasn’t gold or hypoallergenic—with a pretty, round, green crystal. To be honest, I was pretty excited to do it since I loved the jewelry.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured me, pulling out the sterilized equipment he’d need from the autoclave. A particularly large and thicker than normal needle made its way into his grip. Slim caught my eyes and grinned. "Needles freak you out?"
I snorted. Yeah right. "Not at all."
"Good."
He had already talked me through the procedure and all he needed to do by that point was wipe some orange stuff followed by marking two places where the needle needed to go through.
“Let's just get it over with. I'm getting anxious,” I groaned, leaning back so that I was face-up on the chair, rolling my head to the side where the door was to find Dex standing just outside of it, looking in.
“I’ll do it, Slim,” he said, taking a step forward.
Slim shrugged without bothering to turn around and look at our boss. “Go for it. Everything’s ready.”
I thought it was weird that Dex offered to do it for me because I hadn’t seen him do any piercings in the time I’d been there. "I don't mean to be rude, but do you know what you're doing?"
He turned to look at me over his shoulder and simply scowled. Slim snickered.
All right then.
There was the snapping and popping of gloves being put on, and the next thing I knew, Dex was rolling my shirt up over my chest. The fingers on one of his hands rested directly over my navel for a second before he swiped me with a cool towelette that stained my skin a dark orange.
He worked silently, making thoughtful faces as he leaned over with a marker in his hand dotting two spots. One directly on my belly and one out of view. He pulled a mirror off the counter to show me what he’d marked.
“Symmetrical, yeah?” he asked me like I could really tell if it was even or not when his big body loomed over mine with the apadravya piercing still so fresh in my mind.
My nod was slow. “Yeah.”
He flashed me a little grin, another rarity, before murmuring as he used surgical-type clamps to pinch together the skin, “I’m gonna to tell you when to hold your breath, and when to let it out, all right? It’s just a pinch.”
The transfer from needle to jewelry was so quick, if it wasn’t for the awkward burning sensation that happened after he pushed the needle through me and transferred the jewelry, I wouldn’t have winced or anything.
Dex took a step back, admiring his work with a watchful eye. “Perfect.”
I sat up on my elbows and looked down at my new piercing. It was pretty awesome. “Nice,” I whispered, sitting up completely. I touched the top of it gingerly with my index finger before pulling my shirt down and over it with a grin. “Thanks, guys.”
Slim nodded, his eyes focused in on Dex. "Dude, when was the last time you did a piercing? I can't remember."
~ * ~ *
“I need a drink.” Dex announced, setting the alarm at Pins. It wasn't even midnight but the shop was dead and we all agreed it was pointless to stay open. “I’m buyin'.”
Blake let out a howl of approval that was a perfect companion for Slim’s whistle.
The loud beeping drowned out the slight murmur of whatever Blue said but based on the nod she was sharing, I figured she was excited about free drinks too. It wasn’t until we were outside and I was trying to inch my way toward my car when Dex turned to look at me.
“You comin’?”
I hesitated.
“You’re comin’,” he said it as a statement instead of a question that time.
I blinked at him standing there with his arms at his sides. “I don’t really drink.” The same way I didn't eat fried foods, white bread, or meat. Plenty of people didn’t like alcohol. But plenty of people also liked to tease me about being a goody two shoes when that wasn’t the case at all.
"You don’t really drink?” He repeated it just like I had when he'd asked me about my visit to the library.
I shook my head.
“No beer?”
“I drank half of one a few weeks ago," I offered.
“Cute girly drink?”
I smiled but shook my head. “Hardly ever.”
Dex’s lips quirked up at the corners again. “Straight vodka, babe?”
I snorted. “The day you get your belly button pierced.”
And I waited. I waited for one of them to say some sort of smartass comment like the majority of people did when I told them. Most people made it seem like there was something wrong with me for not liking the taste of alcohol or beer and especially disliking the one and only time I got drunk. Going into an explanation why I didn't drink was unnecessary.