“I thought we would both start small,” I told her, suddenly worried she might not want to do this after all. She’d always told me she wanted a tattoo one day. When we were younger, the idea of her marking her skin had always made me uneasy. But I knew it was something she truly wanted. And knowing my name was going to be on her body had eased any lingering doubts about allowing it to happen.

“Lyric is setting everything up right now,” Mila said. “Ryan, if you just want to go back and approve the design, he can print them both off and start on yours first.”

“I want to see them too,” Nova muttered, grabbing my hand when I took a step in the direction Mila indicated.

I lifted her hand to my lips, kissing her knuckles before following the sound of Lyric humming along to the background music. When we reached the door to his workstation, I knocked with my free hand. The big man’s head lifted, a smile breaking across his face when he spotted us. “Just in time.”

Standing, he waved us over. “This was probably the easiest piece I’ve ever done, seeing as I only had to trace Nova’s signature.”

Nova’s signature was just as beautiful as she was, the tiny letters in perfect cursive from a note she’d left hidden under my pillow after she’d stayed with me the night of New Year’s Eve. I’d scanned and cropped the note, emailing only her name to Mila for Lyric to turn into my first tattoo. It was going around the ring finger on my left hand, marking me as Nova’s for eternity.

“Nova, I was waiting to measure your finger so I could get the letter size right for yours,” Lyric told her as he pulled out a thin tape measure.

“My finger?” she murmured, sounding dazed. “But…what if I want it bigger?”

“Ryan said ring fingers,” he said. “But this is your skin, honey. You tell me what you want and where.”

“I want his name here.” She held out her left wrist. “My fingers are too small to do the ink justice. No one will see it. And I know Ryan. He’s going to want everyone to see it.”

She wasn’t wrong, but I hadn’t wanted to push her into something larger. Having never gotten ink before, I wasn’t sure how uncomfortable it would be, and I didn’t want her to be in pain even if it was to brand my name onto her body. But if that was what she wanted, she would get it.

I hugged her from behind, kissing her neck. “Whatever you want, my heart, it is yours.”

“It’s your signature?” she asked, glancing up at me over her shoulder.

“Yes. Just as my tattoo is yours.”

She melted against me. “I love this. It’s perfect.”

“You’re perfect,” I breathed, lowering my head to kiss her long and deep.

“Give me a few minutes to get this printed, and we can get started.” Lyric pulled our attention back to him, reminding me that we weren’t alone. Slowly, I lifted my head and looked at him. “Ryan, you’re first?”