Both of his entire arms-from his knuckles and wrists to his shoulders-were covered in tattoos but his torso didn’t appear to have any, or so she thought. Sighting a smidgen of black ink somewhere below his left breast, Emerald squinted her eyes so she could see better.
There was a tattoo on his torso after all, but unlike the rest of his markings which were all drawings, this particular tattoo was different. It was in writing, maybe a name, but Emerald couldn’t see it clearly due to their position with Jordan on top of her, holding her hands and restraining her movements.
She looked up at him to find him still staring at her but the desire he had been battling with was nowhere to be seen again and Emerald could feel that he wasn’t tensed anymore. His chocolate orbs were blank as they stared at her and Emerald could only regard his expression with one of confusion before realization struck her.
He had seen her looking at his chest tattoo, but why did it seem to affect him so much?
“May I?” Emerald whispered softly, making a gesture at the inked writing. She wondered why she hadn’t taken notice of it while taking care of him months ago when he had been shot.
Jordan hesitated for a few seconds before slowly lifting himself off her. He sat on the edge of the bed before carefully pulling her into a sitting position close to him.
Emerald only stared at him, not making any moves as she conversed with him with her eyes, putatively seeking permission from him. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by prying, since it seemed like whatever was written there was a touchy subject for him.
With a tiny smile, Jordan gave a nod as he held her hand and brought it to his chest, just on the inked writing. Emerald slowly dragged her eyes away from Jordan’s before looking at the little yet assumably, important marking.
Her fingers tenderly glided over the area, her touch almost non-existent as she took in what was written there. It was a name drawn in a little butterfly.
‘Yvonne,’ it read.
Jordan stared at Emerald’s concentrated face, watching as she tentatively ran her fingers over the name. Truthfully, when he had placed Emerald’s hand over his chest, he had expected to feel the usual pain he always felt whenever he touched or looked at the tattoo.
It was an emotional pain that made his heart throb and ache physically and the pain only seemed to grow to fill his entire chest and consume him the more he approached the date of her death, which unfortunately happened to be the day of his seventeenth birthday. The same pain had struck him the day before, when Emerald had asked him when his birthday was.
The birthdays of most humans in this world was always a day of joy and happiness, but his own birthday was the total opposite. His own birthday was the day his life took such a drastic turn. A turn that led him towards hell and made him the devil he was today, but it was probably also the day that weaved his fate with Emerald’s.
When Emerald had touched it, however, he had felt immense relief, instead of pain and it had seemed as though a huge burden had been lifted off his chest. She filled his entire lungs and soul with breaths of fresh air and he felt like he could breathe well once again.
His heart thudded erratically in his chest, but no longer from the pains of his past, yet rather from the immense love he had for the woman entirely focused on the marking on his chest. Jordan grinned besides himself, loving the slight look of jealousy that appeared momentarily on her face. Her lips were slightly formed in a pout and she suddenly withdrew her hand, almost as if she had just come to a conclusion about something.
She blinked and looked up at him, trying to mask her obvious jealousy but failing so woefully. Jordan kept his amusement at bay, preparing himself for the very predictable question that was about to come.
He didn’t have to wait for long.
“Who is she?” Even her voice was coated in the jealousy she felt, but she wasn’t done yet. “A past lover?” she stared Jordan in the eyes, daring him to lie or look away from her.
Jordan pursed his lips, struggling to hold in his impending laughter. Her expression was classic. But Emerald seemed to take his silence the wrong way.
She looked away from him and grumbled, “Fine, you don’t have to tell me about her. I just thought that since we’re now a cou-” she gave him a side glance before correcting herself, “since we’re now dating, you’d be more open to me, but seems like I was wrong.”
Jordan noticed her slip up but now wasn’t the time to address their relationship status. He panicked a bit when he saw her make a move to leave the bed and he hurriedly held on to her wrist before blurting out the answer to her question.
“My mother. That was my mother’s name.” Returning to the topic of his mother, Jordan sobered up a bit to notice Emerald’s frozen body and wide-eyed expression. His amusement returned mildly when his eyes moved to her slightly parted lips.
She suddenly gasped, snapping out of her trance. “I’m so sorry, Jordan. I-I shouldn’t have coerced you into blurting that out. Ugh, I’m so stupid,” she ranted, hitting herself on the head.
“Hey, hey,” Jordan chuckled, grabbing her hands and stopping her from hitting herself. Her entire face was clouded by remorse as she looked at him. “Gem, you didn’t coerce me into saying anything. I was the one teasing you and honestly, I enjoyed seeing you look so jealous,” he smirked at her, passing her a wink.
Emerald blinked repeatedly before looking away, her cheeks were already turning pink. “J-jealous?” she stuttered with a scoff. “You must have been hallucinating. I wasn’t jealous.”
“Mhmm,” Jordan hummed, moving closer to kiss her cheeks, “let’s say I believe you,” he teased.
Emerald gave him a light hit on his arm before looking at the tattoo of his mother’s name again. “She had a beautiful name,” she murmured, passing Jordan a weary look.
A tiny smile graced his face as he looked down at his chest. “Yeah, she did. A name as beautiful as she was.”
Emerald sighed before moving back on the bed to rest her back against the headboard. Jordan silently watched her adjust herself so she could settle in a comfortable position before gesturing for him to come closer.
Jordan obliged and a few seconds later, he found himself with his head resting on her full bosoms, her arms were wrapped around him but not fully going round his broad body. He wrapped his own arms around her in return and snuggled against her, reveling in the warmth she provided, alongside her soothing and hypnotic scent.
She kept one arm around him while the other ventured into his hair, giving him a head massage. In complete bliss, Jordan’s eyes fell shut and they remained in silence before he heard Emerald’s small voice mutter, “Mind telling me about her?”