Live Ink

By Clare London

When beauty brings not pleasure, but poison
Russ is an apprentice tattoo artist with big dreams but few opportunities. He's a good, steady employee, he cares about the tattoo studio's clients, and he has plenty of imagination invested in his own designs. But he never seems to catch a break.
Not like celebrity tattooist Leo Andersson, famous for his good looks, professional success, and artistic flair—and the subject of Russ’ hopeless crush.
Yet, maybe not so hopeless. When Leo asks Russ on a date, he also offers him a chance to have his amateur art brought to everyone’s notice. If only Russ had the courage and belief in himself to take it.
Then a disgruntled client secretly offers Russ a weird and disgusting talisman that’s supposed to grant wishes—and will make Russ’ talent fly. Desperate to be Leo's artistic equal, Russ finds himself at a moral crossroads.
If you were offered a magical chance to let inspiration flow freely through you, to bring you rapid fame and fortune—and the admiration of the man you're falling in love with—wouldn’t you be tempted to take it?
Without ever considering the price to be paid....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clare London
• Release date: Oct 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215611111

Clare London

Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!Join up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/2WpHlyK and receive a free short story!Clare also writes as Stella Shaw and launched her Love at the Haven series of rent boy romances in 2021.Website + blog: http://www.clarelondon.com / stellashawauthor.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarelondonTwitter: https://twitter.com/clare_londonGoodreads: http://bit.ly/2lNSfC2Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondonBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/clare-londonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarelondon11/Quids&Quills: http://www.quidsandquills.com (accountancy for UK authors)

Book preview

LIVE INK

CLARE LONDON

Copyright ©2023 Clare London

Published by Jocular Press 2023

Smashwords edition

This title has been written in UK English.

All Rights Reserved

This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Blurb

When beauty brings not pleasure, but poison

Russ is an apprentice tattoo artist with big dreams but few opportunities. He's a good, steady employee, he cares about the tattoo studio's clients, and he has plenty of imagination invested in his own designs. But he never seems to catch a break.

Not like celebrity tattooist Leo Andersson, famous for his good looks, professional success, and artistic flair—and the subject of Russ’ hopeless crush.

Yet, maybe not so hopeless. When Leo asks Russ on a date, he also offers him a chance to have his amateur art brought to everyone’s notice. If only Russ had the courage and belief in himself to take it.

Then a disgruntled client secretly offers Russ a weird and disgusting talisman that’s supposed to grant wishes—and will make Russ’ talent fly. Desperate to be Leo's artistic equal, Russ finds himself at a moral crossroads.

If you were offered a magical chance to let inspiration flow freely through you, to bring you rapid fame and fortune—and the admiration of the man you're falling in love with—wouldn’t you be tempted to take it?

Without ever considering the price to be paid….

INDEX

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

More by Clare London

About Clare London

CHAPTER 1

I was still tidying the Inkorporated studio an hour after the last client had left: it had been another long working day. But I wasn’t one to complain—well, only a little, and just for show and laughs—despite the grunt work I had to do. It was all part of my apprenticeship, as I saw it, and I was treated pretty well considering.

The shop had been really busy recently with a new influx of clients. One of our top tattooists, Steve, was a whizz on social media and he’d worked up a great new advertising campaign. Live through your Ink, it said, and people were really responding to the sentiment. When we opened a year ago, there’d been people who said this part of London wasn’t busy enough to support more than one studio, but we were proving them wrong. Hearts of Ink, on the other side of the shopping centre, was a larger, more established, and higher-class business, but we were giving them a run for their money. I may not have been one of Inkorporated’s trailblazing artists myself, at least, not yet. But I was a proud part of the team, and I was just as invested in its success. And so a busy day was always a good one.

See you tomorrow, Russ! Lindi called from the front door, having packed up her workstation for the day, and keen to get back to her girlfriend at home. Lindi was one of the best artists in all of London, and kind enough to do my own tats at a discount. You locking up tonight?

I nodded. Aaron, the owner of Inkorporated, often asked me to stick around at the end of the day, especially when he was away. I had the least distance to travel home, compared to the artists, and I was pleased he trusted me to cash out and shut the shop. Maybe he’d also picked up on how reluctant I was to dash back to the chilly, cramped couple of rooms that made up my bedsit in a very narrow, almost forgotten alley around the back of Soho’s Gerrard Street. I hoped not; I didn’t want to come across as a lonely, pathetic soul. Even if I was, sometimes.

Thanks for helping earlier, kid. That was Steve, following Lindi out, but pausing to slap me on the shoulder. That gal had a bad case of the shakes.

I shrugged, my cheeks heating with embarrassment. Steve was very gruff most of the time; he didn’t often give praise. I think I was probably more than a bit scared of him. Usually, Lindi dealt with any nervous clients, but today, a young girl had come in while Lindi was out at lunch, asking specifically for Steve’s work. Even while they were skimming through the design books, I could see her turning pale. I couldn’t see if she had any other tattoos—unlike me, covered in them—so maybe this was her first time. She was adult, and she was determined to make a booking, there was no problem there. But getting tattooed could be overwhelming. I remembered my own first ink, when I was only just old enough, and had been saving for weeks to get it. Even then—and even though I’d followed that up with many more—I recalled shaking like a bloody leaf with anticipation. Lucky the lines weren’t all blurred when it was done!

So, when I saw her struggling, I didn’t overthink it—I just sidled up to Steve’s workstation and started chatting with her. About stupid stuff: the weather, her cool jeans, what crap I’d seen on TV, who was touring at the O2 this month, where was the best place in Soho for a good Chinese buffet. Just stuff to distract her, calm her down. By the time Steve had identified what tattoo would suit, she was laughing at one of my dad jokes, and I reckoned the shake in her hand was from excitement, not fear.

Okay, I’ll get out of your way now, I’d said, cheerily. Plenty of work to be done by us minions. But, any time you want me to sit with you? Just call for me. I’m usually over at the desk.

Thanks, she’d said breathlessly, but her attention was back on the design books, and her expression was happy again. Though I noticed that Steve had shifted away from the more intricate work, and was suggesting simpler designs. It would still look gorgeous, but she’d have less time in the chair. Less time to get frightened again, or to lose her courage. I’d seen that happen to a client before, and sometimes they didn’t come back to get the work finished.

Steve had met my eyes over her head and winked.

Tonight, he squeezed my shoulder a last