I stood up, or attempted to stand up but the chair came with me pulling at the seat of my jeans.  I set down the chair, banging it on the floor then stood up again.  “That fucking bitch,” I muttered before yelling, “Devlin Shaye Taylor, get your fucking ass in here.”

I watched as Devi slowly opened the door and sauntered into the room and sat down on one of the guest chairs across the desk from me.

“You bellowed?” she asked so sweetly sugar wouldn’t have melted in her mouth.

“What. The. Fuck?” I growled, she didn’t even bat an eyelash.

She shrugged and looked me over.  “Thought you might need some help getting your head out of your ass.  Had lots of ideas on how to remedy that, but decided on gluing it to the chair, maybe when you get out of that your head will pop free.”

“You are fucking insane,” I seethed.

“That is a distinct possibility, but you, I know for a fact, are an idiot.”

I growled at her again and she just kept staring at me.

“You made her cry, Cris, and I will not fucking tolerate that,” she growled back.  “I put up with a lot of your shit, but I will not sit back and watch you fucking hurt her.”

“I didn’t.”

“You. Are. Not. Allowed. To Speak. Only Listen.”  She eyed me again.  “You hurt her and I swear to god I will shove your balls so far up your ass you’ll be tasting your own cum, do you understand me?”

I nodded, I knew better than to fuck with Devi when she was like this.

“What I don’t understand is why you’re acting like this?” she murmured. “You two are good together.  Hell, she puts up with your dumbass, you should be bowing at her feet.  I do know if you don’t start trusting her, and I mean out of your bedroom and away from the whips and chains, you’ll lose her.”

I rubbed my hand over my face.  “I don’t know why I can’t.”

She laughed at me.  “And Cris, stop lying to her, to me, and most of all to yourself.”

With that, she got up and walked out the door while my ass was still glued to the chair.  “Hey, you going to help me?” I called after her.

“Nope, I think you need a time out.” She shut the door behind her.

I ended up having to cut my jeans then rip them to get out of the fucking chair.  I am sure that crazy woman threatened my staff to keep them from helping me.  Though, that didn’t stop Max from coming in and laughing his ass off when he found me.  When I finally made my way into the shop for my first appointment, I was passed pissed off and was borderline homicidal.  I glared at Devi but kept my mouth shut out on the floor; I didn’t want to get into a fight with her in front of clients.  She just stuck her tongue out at me and continued working.

“You are lucky I keep extra clothes here,” I growled when I walked past her, she just laughed at me.  “How is it Seth hasn’t murdered you yet?”

“I give really good head,” she replied then ignored me.

I went to work on my only client of the day; it was a piece we had been working on for six months, and we were nearly finished with.  I lost myself in my work, filling in pieces of the sleeve I had designed.  When I was tapped on the shoulder by our new shop helper, I nearly jumped.

“Don’t do that,” I snapped at the girl.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

I took a deep breath trying to calm my still raging temper.  “What did you need?”

“Uhm, your appointment is here.”

I sighed.  I had forgotten I had an interview today.  “Tell them I’ll be there in a few.”

“Sway, you okay if we stop for the day?”

He nodded.  “Fine with me, we’ve been at it for six hours.”

I nodded and went to work cleaning him up then wrapping his arm.  “Any problems, call me,” I told him and left him with Jules at the front desk to take care of the rest.  Then I went in search of my interviewee.

I walked around the desk into the waiting room and found Devi sitting with one of the people we were considering for a position as a body modification expert.  I was still on the fence about even hiring someone for this, but we had been getting people calling the shop asking for it.  It was worth looking into, Haven was highly recommended so I would talk to her and see how it went.

“Ah Cris,” Devi said looking up smiling at me.

“Devi,” I said curtly, still pissed off at her.

“Stop being a baby,” she admonished.  “Haven, this is the shop owner, Crispin, Crispin, this is Haven.”  She stood up and patted me on the shoulder.  “Be nice,” she whispered to me then flounced off to the back room.

I stuck out my hand and Haven reached out, shaking hands I said, “Nice to meet you Haven.”

“You too, Cris.”

“You ready to do this?”

She nodded, reached down, and grabbed her portfolio then stood.  I led her back to my office shutting the door and hoping that nothing else went wrong today. 

Chapter 6

Ash

I walked into Pin’s Ink carrying Cait and keeping a tight grip of Jaks’s hand.  He had a tendency of running away when we walked into the shop, and a rambunctious five year old in a tattoo shop wasn’t the best idea.  I walked up to the desk where Jules and a new girl were standing.  I could tell Jules was frustrated about something, but then again she’d been off for months now.

“Jules!” Jaks screeched and tried to pull out of the death grip I had on his hand.

Jules smiled down at Jaks.  “Hey buddy.”

“Mommy and Daddy are taking us to see the big scary fucking mouse,” he proclaimed.  I turned my head into Cait and giggled, those were Seth’s exact words this morning when he whined about taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese.

I heard Jules strangle a choke and knew she was trying hard not to laugh.  “Really?” she finally managed.

“Yep,” Jaks said sounding solemn, “Daddy doesn’t want to go but Mommy told him if he didn’t she’d cut—”

“Okay,” I said interrupting Jaks, “let’s go find Mommy, huh?”

Jaks scrunched up his face at me.  “But I was—”

“Oh I’m sure Jules knows exactly what you were going to tell her, don’t you, Jules?” I asked giving her a pleading look.  I’d already had a delightful conversation with him earlier about what balls were, and why Mommy was going to cut Daddy’s off.

She took a deep breath trying to regain her composure.  “Yeah sweetie, now why don’t you go on back into the drawing room, that’s where Mommy is.”

“Thank you,” I mouthed and headed back to where the office and other rooms were located, while sneaking glances around.  I didn’t know if I wanted to see Cris or not at this point.  After this morning, I was unsure about where we stood.  I liked being with him, he was fun, caring, and sweet, at least to me.  Only I wouldn’t be lied to, and I was no one’s toy.  I’d already been there with an ex, and I wasn’t going back.  I liked to play like any other person, but what Cris and I had wasn’t a one night thing in some play room.  We were, I thought, building a relationship, and I would be treated as an equal.

“Mommy, Mommy,” Jaks screamed. “Let’s go see the big scary fucking mouse, come on.”

I walked around the corner trying to hide my amusement when I found Jaks tugging on Devi trying to get her out of the chair.  Also amusing was the look of exasperation on Devi’s face, probably because of the colorful language Jaks was using.  I’d tried to curb it, but when he hangs out with Seth, X, Cris, Drake, Devi, Mags, and many others it soon became a losing battle.  Luckily at this point, he hadn’t cursed at school yet, at least that we knew of.

“Jaks, hold on, we have to wait for Daddy,” Devi told him.

“Awww,” he whined and sat down in the chair pouting.

“Has he been like this all day?” Devi asked.

“Pretty much,” I said.  “He didn’t fare well in school today either.”

She nodded.  “He always gets like this when Seth’s about to leave,” she mused.

“Well at least this will be the last time for a while,” I said handing over Cait who wanted her mommy.