Page 141 of Jump on Three
“I’m fine,” I soothed. “Breathe.”
“I don’t like seeing you in pain, angel. It hurts me too.”
My sweet, sweet Ivan. He’d only gotten better over the years. The love that began when we were eighteen had matured and multiplied now that we were twenty-three. If this pattern continued, by the time we were ninety, we would share one massive heart, forever attached.
My artist informed him she was almost done. Ivan muttered Russian curses and squeezed my hand until I lost circulation. Fortunately, he had to let go so I could sit up and look at my finished piece.
It was strange to see ink on my skin. It took my brain a long moment to compute that I was looking at my own wrist. But it was perfect. I had researched artists and studied their work to find exactly what I wanted, and I had gotten it.
“I love this very much,” I stated. “It’s better than I expected.”
“Can I see?” Ivan asked.
I shook my head. “When we get home.”
He grumbled but chose not to fight me. He wouldn’t win. I wanted to show him my surprise in private, where he could react how he wanted without worrying who was watching.
“Then let’s go home.”
Ivan and I lived in a small beach town between Savage River and LA. Once we graduated high school, we bought a house with my trust fund, only two blocks away from Rhys and Delilah. Some days, those two blocks were too far, but most days, they were just right.
Aside from our proximity to my sister and brother-in-law, the location worked for us since Ivan and Marco ran multiple clubs in LA and Savage River while I attended graduate school at Savage U.
As soon as we were parked, Ivan circled the car, opened my door, and lifted me into his arms. He carried me into the house, which had become a habit of his. I wasn’t delicate, but I didn’t mind being treated like I was.
His lips were next to my ear, kissing me softly. “I’m not able to wait any longer, Evelyn. Don’t make me.”
“I’m not going to make you wait.”
Inside, he carried me to our bathroom and sat me on the cool marble counter. I squeaked at the chill on the backs of my thighs, but Ivan was too determined to remove my bandage to notice.
A line formed between his brows as he peeled back the gauze.
“This is so cute. It looks perfect on you.”
“Look closer,” I said. “At the heart.”
He raised my wrist and squinted, examining it thoroughly. “Is that…is there an I in the heart?”
I nodded. “It’s a love heart. I had to have my love in it.”
His head dropped forward, and a heavy breath heaved out of him. “Evelyn…”
“I know they say getting your boyfriend’s name tattooed on you is the kiss of death for a relationship, but I am not superstitious. As I have no intention of ever letting you leave me, it makes sense to have your initial on my body. You own me, after all.”
Besides, during our first year of college, Ivan had come home with a Cyrillic word inked beside the tip of the swallow’s wing. “Angel.” While that wasn’t my name, to him, it might as well have been. Considering our relationship had only grown since, I’d say the superstition didn’t apply to us.
He raised his head and blinked wet eyes at me. “Will you wait here?”
“For how long?”
“Less than one minute.”
I nodded. “Yes. I can do that.”
I didn’t like surprises, and something told me Ivan was about to give me one. But this was Ivan. He knew me better than everyone. He would only give me what he knew I would want.
He returned with disheveled hair and reddened eyes.