Disclaimer: these girls are mine, they may look familiar and act familiar but they are all mine. Cause we know the world is chock full o’ fine looking chicks like these, right?
Language: Plenty of it and it’s not all good.
Sex: Of course there is sex, the hot and nasty kind. Depictions of consenting adults participating in same sex unions and bdsm scenarios, so if you are vanilla, be warned that this is dark chocolate, both bitter and sweet. If it ain’t your thang, then do not pass go. Do not collect $200, just hit the road now! Violence: Oh yeah, there is! ~Black Cherry, 2003

SKIN DEEP
Chapter One : WORLD COMING DOWN

“Yes! Mom…I sent the check. Yes I’m sure…Mom, you’re not listening to me!” Not that you ever do, Monica Truman thought to herself as she listened to her mother’s insanity on her cell phone for the hundredth time today.

“Mom, I gotta go—I’m in traffic. Love you, bye!” Monica clicked her phone closed and tossed it into the seat next to her and turned up the stereo to drown out the echo of her mother’s ranting voice in her head. This had been the most stressful week she had had in forever, and now her mother was nagging her for money to pay the mortgage again. Monica knew her mother and father had drunk away the mortgage money and fully expected her to support them out of her pocket. She didn’t understand why she continued to bail them out of trouble; in the end it only supported their addiction and compounded the problem.

But she couldn’t think about that now, she had to focus on rush hour traffic, and get to the bar. Her friends were waiting for her and tonight she needed to cut loose and have some fun with her old college friends. She hadn’t seen them since the summer after graduation and was eager to catch up and have a fun evening.

Finally after fighting her way through rush hour traffic she wheeled her Black Chevy Tahoe into the parking lot where the local pub was located. The lot was full; the only spaces available were in front of the Tattoo parlor. Monica chuckled to herself, imagining what kind of characters might be wondering in and out of there over the course of the evening.

Speaking of which, she thought to herself, as she pulled into the lot and spied a leather-clad figure walking a large pit bull on a chain. She looks like she is right out of the pulp fiction stories! She stepped out of her Tahoe and clicked the alarm and took a step in the direction of the pub when she heard a voice,

“Hey you can’t park there.”

“What?” she said as she turned to see the tall woman with the dog lighting up a cigarette.

“I said,” she said as she lit her smoke and pocketed her Zippo into her motorcycle jacket, “You can’t park there.”

“Why not?”

“You getting ink?” asked the tough looking woman…tough but beautiful, strikingly beautiful! Monica thought to herself. Tall, black hair, blue eyes, strong and imposing.

“Uh…ink?”

“You know. A tattoo. You getting a tattoo?”

“Well no…but..”

“Then you can’t park there, that space is for customers of SKIN DEEP only.”

Monica’s eyes narrowed, and she was beginning to get mad. She was late already and didn’t see the harm in her parking there, three spaces away from the pub door.

“What if I come back later and get one, I’m meeting some friends next door?” she asked, wanting to be on her way.

The woman clad in black leather began to laugh. This made Monica mad, why was she laughing?
”What’s so funny?” she asked angered.

“You! You’re funny. Little miss Vanilla. Gonna come back later for ink…you kill me!” She turned and walked into the tattoo shop.

Monica was mad and insulted, and turned to enter to pub in a huff. “Of all the nerve!” she muttered to herself as she looked for her friends. “Who does that woman think she is laughing at me? I can get a tattoo if I want one! I can!”

She saw her friends, her old roommate Sara and her boyfriend Tom and Tom’s cousin Kelley and headed for the table, momentarily forgetting the incident in the parking lot.

Inside the tattoo parlor Torrid Duncan chuckled to herself as she unhooked the lead chain from her dog’s collar.

“What’s funny?” asked Drew, she shop apprentice, noticing the strangely light humor of his boss.

“Awe nothing…some chick; she parked in front of the shop and I gave her shit over it. She got her hackles all up and said she’d be back for ink! Can you imagine? That vanilla chick getting ink?”

Drew shrugged grinning, “Well you’d be surprised. She good looking?”

“Oh yeah….why d’ya think I gave her shit?”, Torrid Chuckled. “She was a hottie, and I wouldn’t mind a piece of that vanilla angel cake, if I could turn it into devil’s food!”

Drew laughed along with his boss, enjoying to momentary lightheartedness. She had been a holy terror the past several weeks with her brother in town flipping her shit, and now that he was gone, the lighter side of his boss was showing through again.

“Hey, want I should take Lock Jaw home with me? It’s getting late.” He said, thoughtfully.

“No. Let him stay, he likes it here in the shop. He’s an attention whore, and he just barks and pisses off your neighbors. So what do we have tonight?”

Drew shook his head and went back to work coloring his flash, “not much, really. I was gonna finish this and then cut out early” He said, not looking up from his work.

“Good…I like the slow nights.”

Monica was on her third drink by the time the subject of David had come up. She had hoped it would not come up at all, but since it did, she decided there was no sense in hiding anything.

“I left him”, she said, looking down at her drink as the table went quiet. “I didn’t feel right about going through with the wedding—we just didn’t have chemistry.”

“Oh my god….Mon, hon…did you finally come out??” Asked Kelley excitedly.

“What??” exclaimed Monica.

“Oh please honey, we all knew you liked girls—it was just a matter of time before you knew it too!”
”Waitress!” Monica shouted. I need another drink! She thought to herself.

“Yes! A toast! To Monica, who at last has joined the rainbow tribe!” exclaimed Kelley.

Monica’s eyes widened shoot me now!

Torrid began to assemble the gun she had been cleaning, and arrange her workspace the way she liked it; neat and tidy, no sloppiness in her shop. Thursdays were slow, but occasionally some drunken fool with a credit card would wander in from the pub next door and try to impress his woman with a walk on the wild side so she picked up a quick ink job here and there. However, she really did not mind the slower nights because it allowed her to work on new flash designs in the down time, and clean and stock the shop for the busy weekend rush.

“What do you mean, you all knew?” asked Monica after her fourth kamikaze.

“Oh well, you were always giving puppy dog eyes to Kimberly Kelso. You know, the girl with the big knockers?” laughed Tom.

“Oh yeah…” Monica smiled, “But now what? I am totally in a depression over this breakup and the shit with my parents, what do I do with myself?”

“Oh that’s easy—you get a manicure!” Smiled Sara

“No! No! She’s all lesbo now…she has to do something butch!” Kelley giggled.

“Oh yeah?” Monica replied wryly, “Like what, Einstein?”

“I know! I know! You can get a tattoo!” exclaimed Sara.

Monica went white, recalling the incident with the smart assed woman in the parking lot. The really hot bad ass, leather clad smart assed woman in the parking lot, who wasn’t so smart assed, now that she had time to stop and think about how hot the woman was.

“Mon?” Sara said

“MON!”

“what? Oh….sorry…uh…Okay!” Mon said.

“Ok what?”

“Okay…I’ll get a tattoo!”

Torrid stretched and stood up from her chair and was on her way outside to smoke a cigarette when she noticed the Tahoe still parked in the space in front of her shop. A wicked smile crossed her face as she went behind the vehicle with a pad and pen to write down the plate number.

She chuckled to herself as she went back inside and began to call the towing company that she used frequently.

“Oh she’ll fuckin’ hate me!” she laughed out loud.

“Hello—yeah it’s Torrid, I gotta Tahoe parked in front of the shop I need towed. Uh…it’s black, late model License number BR 549, what? What year?—“
”It’s a 2003”, said a voice from the other side of the counter

“Thanks, it’s a—FUCK!” Torrid gasped as she turned to see Monica standing there with her arms crossed in front of her smirking.

“You were saying?” Monica said, quite pleased with herself.

“Uh…Nick, never mind, the owner just walked in. She’s getting a tattoo. Yeah, thanks.” Said Torrid into the phone, but turning her back to Monica, really embarrassed to have gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Alright little miss Vanilla Ice—what’s your pleasure?” Torrid asked in an icy tone.

Monica’s mind began to drift over exactly what her pleasure was: Oh I don’t know, you bending me over the counter and taking me like a savage…or tying me up and dragging me into the back, maybe? Stop it Monica, you’ve been reading too much erotica on the Internet!

She chastised herself, “Um…I’ll take a tattoo,” she beamed, for now.

The look of desire in Monica’s eyes was not lost on Torrid, and she wanted to play now, so she turned to Drew, “Yo Drew—blow.”

“But I’m not finished yet, and you said—“

“I said BLOW!” she shouted, motioning for him to get out right now, “And take Lock Jaw with you, I’ll get him tomorrow”. He closed his flash binder and headed out. He knew why he was being told to leave, the Boss wanted this one all to herself. “Come-on boy,” he said collecting the dog.

Torrid closed the door behind Drew as he left and turned off the open sign. She reached behind the counter and grabbed her book to show Monica flash art.

“Here, pick yourself a tattoo.”

While Monica thumbed through the pages silently, she watched Torrid out of the corner of her eye. Torrid removed her jacket and hung it on the back of her chair. Monica could see all of the tattoos covering Torrid’s arms like painted sleeves, and it fascinated her. She caught herself staring, but couldn’t look away.

It was more than just the ink; it was everything—the whole package. Torrid was exotic and tough looking, but very beautiful. Her eyes were sky blue, her hair was jet black, and her skin was a woven tapestry of her own creation. She was clad in leather like some black knight from a futuristic fantasy. Monica wondered what it would be like to be wrapped up in those arms. Boy do I have whack off material for tonight! She thought to herself amused, She is my bad girl fantasy come to life!

“See anything you like?” Torrid asked, noticing Monica’s eyes moving over her.

“Oh! Uh—“ Monica looked away shyly, “I uh…am still looking, thanks!”

Torrid grinned a wicked grin and walked up behind her, reaching around her to flip the pages for her, she pressed her body against Monica’s and felt the girl trembling.

“I bet I have something you’ll like,” she whispered into Monica’s ear in a commanding tone.

“what’s that?” Monica whispered shyly.

Torrid smiled wickedly and flipped the page in the book, she pointed to a small colorful design of a phoenix.

Monica looked at the image of a bird with flames for a tail and was appreciative of the art, but the design did not grab her, “Uh…it’s beautiful! But, what is it?”

She felt Torrid’s hands on her shoulders and her lips on her neck, and she stiffened but did not move.

“Why, it’s you..” said Torrid as she kissed the back of Monica’s neck. Monica trembled but made no attempt to move away from Torrid, she was torn, she wanted the touch, craved it, but the idea of a stranger, in a tattoo parlor….oh god! She thought, what am I doing?

“What do you mean it’s me?” she asked, trying to keep her cool.

“You’re the phoenix. You need to be consumed by fire and reborn from the ash. It’s the journey you are so desperate to take I can smell it on you.” Said Torrid. Monica moved away from her quickly and took three steps toward the door, but Torrid caught her wrist and pulled her back into a hard embrace.

“Where are you going?” she asked calmly.

“I uh…don’t know.” Monica said as she ducked her head to avoid those ice crystals this woman called eyes.

“You don’t know.” Said Torrid, “But I know. I can take you there, I can take you on that journey you need so bad. Break down all those walls and let those flames burn away all that holds you back. You want it. You need it. I know you do. I can help you…”

Monica broke down, she melted into Torrid’s embrace and Torrid held her close, stroking her hair and soothing her with her voice. After a few minutes she was calmed and surprised at the compassion of this woman whose name she did not even know.

When she stopped shaking and crying, Torrid touched her chin and guided her head upward to meet her eyes…she looked deep into Monica’s eyes and knew. Oh yes, you’re mine now.

“Come.” She said wickedly smiling, guiding Monica by the wrist to the back steps that went up to a loft above the tattoo parlor. “I’ll make you some tea.”

“Tea?” Monica asked, surprised, “really?”

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