Bone Deep by Bonnie Dee Page A

appearance . But that very strangeness drew her to him. Tom was an outsider, and lately, even when she was with friends, she felt like one too.
    “I’m glad,” she finally said. “I’m glad you dreamed of me and that you came to me.” She hugged him and kissed his chest.
    “ You don’t mind the way I look?”
    “I told you the other day you look good to me .” She propped herself up on one elbow and looked in the eyes. “You’re the gentlest person I’ve ever met. I think you’re beautiful.”
    She was rewarded by a slow, sweet smile that utterly convinced her she hadn’t made a mistake in bringing Tom into her bed and into her life. Making love to him was the best thing she’d done in a long, long time.
     
    Chapter Seven
    When Sarah woke the next morning, the sun pouring in the window blinded her. A dull ache throbbed behind her eyelids from the previous night’s vodka and he neck was stiff from lying for too long with her head on Tom’s chest .
    Tom . A smile crept over her face as she recalled everything they’d done the previous night, and she stretched the luxuriant stretch of a woman who’d been well satisfied. She felt Tom move on the other side of the bed and turned to see if he was still asleep.
    He lay sprawled on his back , eyes closed , one arm flung above his head, the other hand resting on his stomach . All the colors of his body shone in the sun light like a jewel box spilled across her rumpled sheets.
    Sarah’s gaze instantly went to his penis , which s he ’ d felt but never seen last night. She gasped when she saw Tom’s semi-rigid cock resting against his stomach. Not only was it circumcised , unlike her husband’s , but it was also tattooed. Wrapped around the shaft were graphically-rendered coils of barbed wire binding it from the base to the head. She thought of the hours of painful needling such a tattoo would have required and her horror at Reed’s torture grew. Whether Tom had been physically restrained or submitted in order to earn food, he had not chosen to have these things done to his body. These designs had been inflicted on him.
    So t his was why he hadn’t wanted her to see him last night. He was ashamed. She felt guilty, as if she was gawking at him in that sideshow tent all over again, ye t she couldn’t look away. On his thighs were rendered images of Adam and Eve. On the right, Eve reached to pluck the apple from the Tree of Knowledge . Its branches spread over his hip and groin. It was clear Eve was meant to be reaching for his genitals in a lewd parody of the Bible story. O n his left leg, Adam turned away in shame, one arm covering his eyes as he was cast out of the Eden . Reed might be evil incarnate but his artistic skill was undeniable.
    Tom shifted in his sleep, inhaling deeply. Sarah’s eyes shot to his face. The last thing she wanted was for him to wake up and catch her staring at what he wanted to keep private. Then Tom rolled over and again she couldn’t stop herself from looking at the tattoos which had been covered by his trousers. Below the ocean of fish on his back was a depiction of hell in which demons cavorted . Their actions—which carnival-goers would never see since they were hidden under a loincloth—depicted the rape and torture of screaming people. Bits of the green leaves of Eden wrapp ed around Tom’s hips from the front , but his buttocks and the back of his thighs were covered in flames of yellow, orange and black.
    As hamed of herself for staring so long , she covered Tom’s lower half with the sheet, kissed his shoulder, and got out of bed. Farm chores didn’t allow for a rare day of sleeping in. Both Edison and Millie must be fed.
    Sarah went through the familiar routine of pouring feed in the horse’s box, pitching hay and filling water troughs, but her mind was in turmoil . L ast night , under the spell of sexual heat and the influence of alcohol, she ’ d felt uninhibited and unashamed to fulfill her needs. But in the