Page 11 of Haze's Jewel
She doesn’t seem to care, since she probably only scheduled this appointment to get face time with me anyway. She decides she wants the little heart shaped tattoo on her chest right beneath her collar bones with a mock chain around each side to make it look like a necklace. I love slinging ink so much that I get lost in the artistry of creating it while she babbles on and on about how much she missing being at the clubhouse, how she’s appealing to Siege to overturn his ban, and how she misses sex with me most of all.
It takes me around an hour to finish her tattoo. I spend the time politely ignoring her ramblings. She couldn’t decide on the colors, so I just did the outlining. Unfortunately, that means another appointment to finish the design, but at least she’s outta my hair for today. She leaves happy, having gotten her Haze fix. Me? I just feel irritated, dirty, and wish I’d been more discriminate about who I stuck my dick in over the last couple of years. Club girls were either a blessing or a curse. Brittany definitely fell into the latter category.
Chapter 5
Annalese
Yesterday when I’d gotten discharged, I pretty much crashed the moment I fell into bed. Haze was working early, so he was up and out before I woke. However, there’s a sweet note for me on the kitchen table, telling me where to find everything I need for breakfast. Opening the cupboards and refrigerator, it looks like he’s stocked the kitchen especially, because I’m not sure a rough biker would be drinking freshly squeezed orange juice. There’s also a plate of what looks like homemade blueberry pancakes, and assorted syrups and spreads.
At the bottom of the note there are instructions to shout through to the shop if I can’t find anything or need help, and I’m touched by his thoughtfulness.
I’m struggling through my morning routine, and would dearly like help, but I’m a bit embarrassed to ask. I’d love to take a shower but since I had one before leaving rehab yesterday morning, I’m going to skip it. Showering is going to be difficult because I have a rubber sleeve I’ve got to work snugly over my cast. It’s hard to do with one hand, and it was painful because I kept accidentally pulling on my arm. I guess I’ll ask Haze to help me put it on tonight or tomorrow.
I end up wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt. It’s not the best look for me but I’m grateful the wives brought me several outfits while I was in the rehabilitation facility. Otherwise, I’d probably still be wearing the scrubs they gave me in the hospital when I complained about my backside hanging out of the hospital gown, they originally gave me. Haze only has a comb, so it takes me a while to get all the tangles out of my hair. It’s frustrating, but I plan to get myself a brush if at all humanly possible today.
Haze’s note said that he was working a half day, and in the afternoon, he had a surprise lined up for me. I wondered what that surprise was, to be honest just being out of the rehab facility was enough for me.
I eat breakfast, though given the time it’s more like an early lunch, then go back to my bedroom to finish getting dressed. Leaning over, I stare at myself in the mirror. I don’t yet have makeup to cover the slowly fading scar running along my hairline, so I pull my hair forward in an attempt to cover it. I slip my feet into a pair of black flats and walk out to the tiny space that serves as a living room.
Before I can sit down, Haze comes storming through the door. He looks irritated until he sees me. I watch as his face slowly lights up. “You’re looking particularly beautiful today, Anna. Are you ready to shop your pretty ass off?”
I can’t help but laugh at his turn of phrase. Haze has clearly been working hard all morning. I can tell because he normally pulls his hair back at the nape of his neck in a ponytail. Today, multiple strands have slipped out, making him look a bit like a sprouting bean.
He sees me looking at his hair and immediately begins smoothing it back. He pulls out the black band and gathers it up again. “Do I look pretty now?” he asks with a grin. “Can’t have you seen about town with man with bad hair, especially since you’re so well put together.”
“Messy hair just means you’ve been working hard. I doubt anyone would judge a drop-dead gorgeous biker for having a hair out of place. They would probably think imperfect hair went with the cut and tattoos to create a rough and rugged esthetic.”
His face lights up with a sexy smile as he practically stalks closer. “Wait, what? Go back to the part about me being drop dead gorgeous. I want to hear more about that.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t pretend like that’s some kind of news flash.” Gesturing towards his torso, I add, “You’ve got muscles sitting on top of muscles. I’ll bet you have women drooling all over you wherever you go.”
He moves closer. “Not as much as you would think. I was always the class clown and didn’t really come into my own until I joined the Savage Legion and started working out with my club brothers. My brother and I used to joke that the Savage part of their club’s name was because of relentlessly savage workouts they roped us all into.”
I squint up at him. “What are saying? That your club brothers forced you to work out in order to get patched into the club?”
He looks amused. “Hell no. They showed us the way, gave us all the tools we needed to take fitness to the next level. It was our own competitiveness that drove us to bulk up.”
“You didn’t take steroids, or anything did you?” The minute the words fly out of my mouth I realize how invasive that question was. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ask you such a personal question.”
His expression is now blank. He reaches out for my hand and loops it through his crooked arm, like in an old-fashioned movie. “Sweetheart, you can ask me anything. If I don’t want to answer, I’ll be upfront about it. Trust me, I’m not shy about speaking up for myself.”
I glance up at him as he guides me to the door. We step out onto the floor of the tattoo shop. I see his brother inking away and another older man in the third spot. Haze yells across the shop floor. “Hey Vapor, I’ve been thinking about hitting the roids to help me bulk up some more. What do you think?”
His brother stops tattooing long enough to shoot him a dirty look. “I will personally beat your ass if you put that shit into your body.”
“To be honest, I wasn’t married to the idea,” Haze tells him in a voice tinged with amusement.
The older man speaks up. “Calm the fuck down, Vapor. Your brother is yanking your chain. He ain’t quite stupid enough to hit the roids. That shit’ll make your balls shrink.”
His brother went back to tattooing the twenty-something woman he was working on. I could hear him grumbling, “Asshole thinks he’s a goddamn comedian.”
Haze glances down at me and shrugs. “Guess I’m not doing roids.”
I just shake my head. “You love to stir up some drama, don’t you?”
He reaches out with his free hand and pats mine. “Don’t worry, as long as you’re with me things will never get boring.”
“It must be nice to have such a tame life that you have to go out of your way to create drama.”