A Tattoo for Lex - 2. Chapter 2

Lex stepped over the the threshold and heard the chime announcing his entrance.

A female voice from the back shouted out, “Ian, can you get that?”

Lex heard the sexiest voice he had ever heard reply, “Sure Case.”

The next thing he knew he was looking at the most gorgeous specimen of male flesh he had ever seen. The guy looked to be close to his own age, maybe a few years older, it was hard to tell. He was a couple of inches taller than his own 6’ 1”, with short, light brown hair that held a hint of color that reminded him of cinnamon sticks. His shoulders were broad with well defined muscular arms attached. Not bulging, but definitely drool worthy. His chest tapered down to a lean waist. Faded jeans clung to narrow hips, held up by just enough ass to make Lex's mouth water. A black t-shirt completed the ensemble.

To Lex’s disappointment there was an ink splattered apron tied around his waist hiding what Lex could only hope was an impressive package. Immediately he felt his cock twitch and in the span of no more than a second he realized two things. One, he was definitely getting a tattoo. Two, he couldn’t see this guy’s aura. That had never happened to him before. Never. Ever. That scared him and should have sent him running out the door, but as he looked into the bluest eyes he had ever seen he just couldn’t move.

As he stood there staring the gorgeous hunk asked, “Can I help you?”

Lex froze like a deer caught in the headlights. After a couple of awkward seconds he finally managed to stammer out, “Um, yeah, uh, I’m uh, thinking about getting a tattoo?” He mentally kicked himself and told himself to get his shit together.

The guy chuckled. “Are you asking me or telling me? I’m Ian by the way.”

Lex slowly blinked his eyes and replied, “I’m telling you. Sorry, it’s been a long day. I saw the work you did on a young guy. Forearm tat, fireworks covering up his scar. It’s incredible. Do you do scar cover up often?”

Ian looked as if he was contemplating something. A few heartbeats later he answered, “I do scar work when I feel that it will benefit the person getting it. Ben’s scar was affecting him mentally. Now he has something to be admired for. He’s a good kid. What about you? Are you looking to get a scar covered?”

Once again Lex took a deep shaky breath and keeping his eyes downcast he said quietly, almost whispering, “Yes”.

Ian looked at the beautiful man in front of him. The moment he saw him as he stood by the front door he was captivated. The pure physical reaction he had was unreal. Never had he gotten so hard so fast. Thank God the apron he had on hid the front of his pants. Ian could barely hear his quiet answer when he asked him if he wanted a scar covered up. He could sense the other man’s discomfort. To ease the situation Ian asked him what his name was.

“Lex.”

“Well Lex, what kind of scar and where is it?” He figured it was either in an embarrassing place or he was embarrassed of how he got it.

Lex pulled himself together and said, “It’ll probably be easier to show you.”

Ian looked at him with those gorgeous blue eyes and told him to follow him. Ian opened the door to a small room, similar in size to an exam room in a doctor’s office. It was set up with all the tools a tattoo artist needed. There was a large mirror with three panels like those in a dressing room positioned so that you could see behind you. Lex stood directly in front of the mirror and caught Ian’s gaze in the reflection. As their eyes locked Lex grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and lifted it over his head. He looked into the mirror and with more than a little trepidation, waited for Ian’s reaction.

Ian stared at the expanse of skin before him. He sucked in his breath and exhaled slowly. “Amazing” was the only word capable of falling from his lips.

By this time, Lex was shaking and he shivered as the cool air hit his back. Ian looked over the crisscross of scars covering Lex’s back. In addition to the jagged stripes there were small, raised circles of scar tissue scattered across his upper back. The jagged lines made cross trails all over and disappeared beneath the waist of his jeans.

Ian looked up at Lex. “How far down do they go”?

Lex answered by unbuckling his belt and slid his jeans down over his ass, stopping mid-thigh exposing one long, thick keloid of scar tissue blazing its way across both butt cheeks, tapering off and stopping just below the crease where his ass met his thigh. Somehow Lex managed to pull himself together, pull up his jeans, and buckling his belt he looked up at Ian. To his amazement instead of the look of pity he was expecting he saw a look of pure longing. For what, he wasn’t sure.

It was Ian’s turn to draw in a shaky breath, still awed by the glimpse of that perfect ass. He cleared his throat and said to him “I see skin as a canvas. You just showed me the most beautiful canvas I could ever hope to come across. Thank you. I have a feeling it wasn’t easy for you.”

He cleared his throat again and continued “So, a couple of things before we go any further. First, did you have anything specific in mind for a design? Second, how old are those scars and how sensitive are they?”

Lex took a slow deep breath to recenter himself. “I don’t have anything specific in mind. I got the scars 12 years ago. Most of them don’t bother me much. The larger ones make my skin pull tight when I move certain ways. The ones along the top are actually kinda numb. It’s the large one across my ass that’s the most sensitive.” he said, blushing.

He could almost see the wheels spinning in Ian’s mind. Before the question could be asked Lex looked at Ian with a sad smile.

“I was 14 and it was a steel tipped bull whip and cigarettes.”

Without another word he pulled his shirt back on and his shutters slammed into place once more, pushing down the the emotions that threatened to surface.

Ian knew instinctively that no more information would be forthcoming. He merely nodded and opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

Coming out from a room across the hall was a petite redhead. Ian smiled and made the introductions. “Casey, this is Lex. We’ll be in my office consulting on a tattoo. Can you close up for me? Room two is almost done. I just have to finish my set up for my appointment in the morning. Other than that everything else is cleaned and set for tomorrow.”

The cute little redhead looked at Lex, smiled and assured him, “Sure thing boss, it’ll only take me a few minutes to finish cleaning up room three. I’ll open in the morning if you want. The last belly piercing made an appointment for her twin sister but she can only come in early before she goes to work.”

Ian smiled, thanked her, and turned back to Lex. “Come on in my office and we can start to hammer out some details.”

Ian’s office turned out to be what could only be classified as an organized mess. There was a desk that was almost buried under neat stacks of paperwork and drawings. A couple of chairs and a small table, also covered with assorted papers and artwork completed the arrangement of furniture. A large easel was standing in the corner with an unfinished sketch of an eagle with its wings spread wide and sharp talons extending down towards the surface of a lake as if it were about to snatch a fish from just underneath the smooth water. Lex slid into one of the chairs at the table as Ian cleared off a space and grabbed a notebook and pen off of the pile on his desk and took a seat in the other chair.

Lex looked over and inquired, “So what’s next?”

Ian smiled at him, making his heart skip a beat. “It depends on what you’re looking for."

Lex swore to himself. Damn he could cum just from listening to that voice, a deep baritone that rumbled through him straight to his groin. Looking directly into someone’s eyes was not something he often did, but as he stared into that sharp blue depth the only thing that flowed out his mouth was “Do you have any suggestions?”

He had a suggestion alright. It took everything Ian had in him not to leap across the table and fuck the gorgeous man staring at him into next week.

Somehow he held it together and without missing a beat said “I have a few ideas. I can have a few preliminary sketches done by the end of the week and if you like any of them we can work out the finer details. How much did you want to cover?”

Still looking into that never ending blue gaze Lex told him, “The whole thing.”

Ian could have sworn he had died and gone to heaven. Before getting his hopes up he returned the intense stare and stated, “That’s going to take a lot of hours and it won’t be cheap.”

“I have the time and the money. Tell me this, when you saw my back did you see what should be done?”

Ian could still see the image of the finished product burned into his mind.

“Yes."

“Let’s do it. I don’t need to see any sketches. I can tell by the look in your eyes you know exactly what needs to go there. I don’t want to see any of it until it’s completed."

Right before he broke the hold that those fathomless blue eyes held over him he uttered three words that he never thought he would say to anyone; “I trust you.”

Ian was stunned. He had never been given free rein before. His mind spun rapidly and he stuttered, “O-OK then, I’d like to try a new technique for my sketch. I’ll need to cast a mold of your back so I sketch directly on that. With all the contours and ridges just drawing out the design on a flat surface and then trying to get it into place properly isn’t feasible. I need to see how the drawing will actually work with the lines of the scars. Otherwise I won’t be able to produce the proper effect I’m thinking of. I’ll need Casey to help me with the mold. Are you alright if she sees your back?”

Lex was moved that Ian was taking his feelings into consideration. Ian was the first person to see his back since he was discharged from the doctor’s care almost eleven years ago. Hell, he didn’t even try to look at it. The one time he looked in a mirror was enough. The sight was burned into his mind forever. No matter how hard he tried to bury the memories of how he got the scars they were always there, haunting the edges of his mind. What the hell. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Yeah, as long as you think she can handle it and she keeps it to herself it’s OK.”

Ian simply nodded, stood up and walked over to the computer on his desk. Giving it a minute to wake up he tapped the keyboard and looking up said “Is tomorrow around 3:00 good for you? It should take a couple of hours and we both have a block of time then.”

Lex let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Sure, that will work.”

Ian typed something in and then asked Lex for his phone number. He grabbed a card off his desk and wrote something on it and handed it to Lex. “That’s my cell in case you need it. I’m not sure of how long the timeline on this will be or even the cost. I’ll know more after the cast is done and I can better gauge how much detail will need to go into it. My best guess based on my experience is 40-50 hours for what I have in mind.”

Lex smiled and once again uttered those three foreign words “I trust you,” and with that he locked his gaze onto those amazing blue orbs once more and promised, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”