...As Rae began, Jesse kept his gaze fixed on his arm, like he didn’t want to miss a single second of the work. His shoulders were stiff, his brow furrowed. Gradually, he relaxed, and his attention drifted from the figures taking shape on his arm. He looked up, his gaze locking with Gideon’s, and for a moment, the strain and tension of the previous six months was simply gone, and Jesse looked like his old self. His pupils were blown, his lips parted slightly, the pulse hammering in his neck. And he smelled so good. There was no escaping the force of Jesse’s arousal in the small room. It was only amplified through Emma, until their combined excitement was almost a physical force around him.

He had never seen Rae falter. She was a pro, just as her mother had been a pro. Gideon had watched Sencia work when she had first arrived from the Phillipines, and she had taught her daughter everything she knew. With her unusual beauty—the tawny skin and exotic bone structure from her mother, wide green eyes and auburn hair from her father—Rae could have done just about anything. But she had picked up Sencia’s tools and never looked back. In the thirty years Gideon had known her, Rae was unflappable.

But not now.

As the desire in the room swelled, beads of perspiration popped out on Rae’s brow. She had her hair pulled back and tucked up, keeping it out of her eyes and off her neck. She didn’t talk while she worked, didn’t smile. It wasn’t until sweat dripped into her eye that she straightened, grabbing a towel that sat nearby and wiping her forehead with it. When she glanced at Gideon, her eyes glittered, but she picked up her ink and resumed her work anyway.

In the silence of the room, Gideon heard the three hearts thundering away, Emma’s quick breath. He kept expecting somebody to break it—to say something—because it wasn’t natural to be this silent. Somebody other than him, because he would no sooner speak than he would walk out.

Ultimately, it was Rae who uttered the first word. And it was more of a sigh than anything. “Done.”

It shattered the stasis that seemed to wrap around them. Emma reached for her shirt, while Gideon strode forward and started turning off the added lights. Jesse didn’t rise from his chair, but the way he kept making a fist, turning his arm this way and that, made Gideon smile. The tattoos had been excellent idea. Even if the air hadn’t been ripe with their lust, seeing the fascinated light in Jesse’s eye was more than worth it.

“You can just…send me a check,” Rae said. She retreated for the doorway, her tongue constantly licking her lips. “And bring the lights by the shop tonight. I’m not going to have any more clients today anyway.”

Gideon didn’t argue as she practically ran from the room. The sooner he had these two to himself, the happier they were all going to be.

“Do I really have to put my shirt back on?” Emma said.

“No. I’d just tear it getting it off you again.” He looked at Jesse, who was still sitting in his chair. “Do you like it?”

The look in Jesse’s eyes made anything he could have said redundant. “It’s…I love it.”

Gideon crouched in front of him, grasping him lightly by the wrist. Letting his fingertips graze over the tattoo, he only glanced up briefly at Jesse before bending forward and skimming his tongue over the hot skin.

Jesse sharply sucked in his breath, and he stiffened. Gideon knew each of Jesse’s reactions, and he knew Jesse didn’t want him to stop, didn’t want Gideon to move away from him. He whispered Gideon’s name, his voice strained and full of longing.