“I’ll have it to you by Monday,” I assured her.
“Perfect. All right, I’ve got a million things to do. I’ll talk to you Monday.”
I hit the button to end the call and set the phone on my leg, watching as Presley resumed working on me. The bell on the front door dinged, but I didn’t dare move, so I kept watching her.
“Hey, bitch! You sleepin’ over there or what?”
I didn’t have to turn around to know that was Blaze. She and I hadn’t met until yesterday after Presley and I had gone back to her place once we left the coffee shop, but it was safe to say, that was a woman most people would never forget.
“Hey,” Presley greeted, pausing momentarily to look up. Her smile widened, and I glanced in the mirror to see that Gavin was standing next to Blaze.
“Oh, hey,” Gavin said, his gaze sliding to me as he pulled something from his pocket. “That thing you mentioned was delivered.”
“Yeah?”
Gavin was looking down at his phone when Presley looked up at him.
“I put it up like you asked,” he said, “and took a picture.”
Gavin held out his phone, and I noticed Presley’s eyes go wide when she saw it.
“Is that…?” Her mouth fell open.
“It is.” I’d bought her drawing from the art gallery and had asked Gavin to put it above the mantel if I wasn’t home when it arrived.
Presley’s eyes met mine, a sheen of moisture covering them. A smile formed on her mouth. “I hope you know I’m also putting the one of you up, too.”
“Just not above my bed,” I told her. “It’ll be creepy to look at myself when I’m—”
Blaze cleared her throat, interrupting me and making me laugh. “Y’all almost done here, or what? We’ve got some celebrating to do.”
“A few more minutes,” Presley said, then turned her attention back to my hand. She wiped more ointment on my skin, then went back to work.
“Where’re we going?” I asked.
“Wherever they have booze,” Gavin answered.
“You seen Blue?” Blaze questioned.
“He ran out to get food,” Presley mumbled, not looking up.
The bell above the door clanged, and once again, I didn’t budge.
“Just the guy I was looking for,” Blaze said cheerfully. “You going out with us tonight? Remember that girl I was telling you about? She’ll be there.”
I couldn’t see Blue, but I could hear the excitement in his voice when he agreed that he would be there.
“That explains why he was following her around like a puppy. She was gonna set him up,” Presley mumbled to herself.
I wondered if she always did that when she tattooed someone, but I didn’t ask, not wanting to interrupt.
Blaze and Gavin moved closer to check out the ink as Presley was finishing up. I held up my other hand so they could see the first one she’d done.
I looked up at them as they read the two words in decorative scroll on the outside of my left hand.
“I assume there’s a story there,” Blaze said, nodding at my hand.
Presley lifted her head and my eyes met hers. We both laughed.
There was definitely a story there.
A good one, too, if Liz could be trusted.
“All set,” Presley stated.
I glanced down at my right hand and smiled. The tattoos had been her idea, but I liked them. Now, every time I went to write, I would see them and think of her because right there on my left hand were the words:
And on my right:
Epilogue
Jake
Six months later…
I sat at the table, scribbling my name in a book, when the next person in line arrived. For the first time ever, being at a book signing didn’t make me incredibly anxious. Probably because I had Presley seated next to me, keeping me calm.
She had an incredible knack with people, and she’d engaged in conversation while I signed book after book. I found it amusing that most of the people wanted to talk to her, wanted to know more about the woman who had inspired my last book. I had dedicated the book to Presley, thanking her for being my inspiration. I hadn’t mentioned the book specifically, people just assumed, and I was okay with that.
It had been Josie’s idea to leak that little tidbit to the world, and it had been a brilliant plan. Presley now had her own fan page, which she found a little intimidating, but she was dealing with it well. She said the hardest part was having to continuously explain to people that she wasn’t Kora and the things that had happened did not happen between her and me.
I looked up in time to see Abby and Paige walking toward the table, both of them grinning from ear to ear.
“So, this is what you do on a Saturday afternoon,” Abby said.
“Sometimes.”
When Abby came around the table, I gave her a hug, and when she whispered, “I’m proud of you,” in my ear, I nearly faltered.
Glancing down at her, I smiled. “You’re the coolest kid ever, you know that?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Okay, we’re holding up the line here,” Paige announced. “Let’s get our copy and move on.”
“You’re not gonna read that one, are you?” Presley asked Abby.
“Not yet,” Abby replied. “But one day I will. And then, when I have cousins, I’ll tell them all about their mom and dad’s romance.”
“You do know that’s fiction, right?” I questioned.
“Or so you say,” she teased.
Oh, hell.
Presley laughed as Paige ushered Abby away with a quick wave.
“You can make that one out to the hottest bitch on the planet.”
I looked over to see Blaze and Gavin standing at the table, grinning back at me.
“As long as your man doesn’t threaten to castrate me for it.” I looked at Gavin, who was rolling his eyes.
As I scribbled those words on the first page, Presley got up and hugged them both.
“So, you ready for your next tattoo?” Blaze asked me.
I glanced down at my hands and the words Chapter One tattooed on my left hand and The End tattooed on my right. “I’m thinking about another one,” I told her.
Though it didn’t bother me at all, Blaze continued to give me shit about the tattoos, insisting I needed something bigger, since they were so small. She had insisted I was a pussy—it had been said with love, she’d assured me—and that I should’ve had it tattooed across my chest. Presley had disagreed, wanting me to see the words every time I was working, just so I would think of her.
According to Presley, the words were there, on the outsides of each of my hands to show where the story comes from—whether it was inked on paper or typed on the computer, it comes from me, from somewhere deep inside and was delivered by my hands.
I didn’t need the tattoos to think of her. She was a part of my life, the first thing I thought about when I woke up every morning and the last thing I thought about before I went to sleep. She was the love of my life, and with or without the tattoos, I would never stop thinking about her.
“So, we still on for dinner tonight?” Gavin asked when I passed the book back.
“Dinner works,” I told him.
“Cool.”
“Hey, you two, move it along,” Josie called out. “You’re holding up the line.”
“You wouldn’t be giving the orders if Gil was here,” Blaze countered, grinning from ear to ear.
“Aww, she’s cute when she blushes,” Presley noted, making Josie’s cheeks redden more.
We were all still wondering how that was going to play out, but I had asked Gil to come by and help move some furniture one day, and Josie had been there. From the moment the two of them had spotted each other, it had been … strange. One of those moments that were written in romance novels but weren’t seen by the naked eye.
That was four months ago, and none of us had figured out what her secret was or how she’d converted Gil Garner
the Man Whore into something that resembled normal, but she had. And they were spending a lot of time together.
“Am I gonna get a break anytime soon?” I asked Josie. “I have someone … er … something I need to take care of.”
Presley elbowed me in the side.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered in her ear. “I’ll give you just what you need. You just have to be patient.”
Presley rolled her eyes. “You’re insatiable,” she muttered under her breath.
“When it comes to you … definitely.”
And I didn’t see that changing anytime in the near future.
Presley
“Someone could come looking for you any minute,” I whispered in Jake’s ear as he wrapped his arms tightly around me.
“I know that, baby,” he whispered softly. “That’s why you need to be quiet.”
His raspy chuckle made my pussy clench with need. I’d been looking forward to this all day.
We’d been at the book signing for almost three hours, me sitting at his table while Jake interacted with readers and signed books, smiling and laughing. A time or two, some of the readers would engage me in conversation as well, curious as to how I’d played a role in Kora and Donovan’s romance.
It was surreal, quite frankly. All of the people who loved Jake, who doted on him and wanted to spend a few minutes with him. I saw tears in some of their eyes, heard their stories of how Jake’s books had helped them in some way. I probably wouldn’t have understood what that meant without seeing it with my own two eyes.
But finally, Jake had managed to get a short break. The second Josie had motioned for him to go, he had snagged my hand and made a beeline down the hall. That was when I realized he’d found a storage closet where we could have a little privacy. Only I wasn’t sure how long that was going to last.
“What if someone realizes where we are?”
“We better hurry then, huh?” Jake glanced down at me, his blue-green eyes glittering with heat. “Good thing you wore a skirt.”
I laughed. “I did that on purpose.”
“I know.” He sounded so cocky and it turned me on even more.
Knowing that someone would eventually come looking for us, I pulled his head down so that my lips met his. We stumbled backward until I was up against the wall, hands roaming, tongues colliding. I probably wanted him more now than I’d ever wanted him before.
And that was saying something.
It had been six months since we had fixed this thing between us, and though we still lived next door to one another, we were making plans to change that. But we had agreed to take things slowly. And by slowly, that meant I spent most of my time at his place and I was okay with that.
“Jake,” I moaned softly against his mouth, my hands reaching for the button on his jeans, tugging roughly until I freed it. I needed to feel him inside me, and I didn’t want to wait any longer.
Jake groaned when I wrapped my hands around his steely length, stroking him slowly but firmly.
“Inside me,” I urged.
He shifted our positions, lifting my leg and sliding my panties to the side before he guided himself home. I inhaled sharply, loving the way he filled me. We both paused for a moment, my body adjusting to the intrusion. The yellow glow from the bulb overhead gave just enough light for me to see his face. What I saw there stole my breath.
“Fuck me,” I whispered.
“Oh, I plan to, baby. I plan to make you scream my name.”
“Might not … be a … good idea,” I managed between the powerful thrust of his hips. “Someone … might hear … us.”
“Fuck,” Jake growled, lifting my leg higher as he fucked into me deeper.
I tipped my head back, lost in the sensation as Jake slammed into me, careful not to slam me into the wall, but still giving us both what we needed.
It wasn’t long before I felt my orgasm cresting, knew I couldn’t hold back any longer. The fact that we could be found at any second ratcheted up my adrenaline, fueling the flames until I was at my breaking point.
“Jake!” God, I hoped that hadn’t been as loud as it sounded in here.
“Aww, fuck, baby … coming.” Jake’s hips stilled, and I felt him pulse inside me as he came.
I dropped my head to his shoulder, taking deep breaths, trying to slow my heart.
A knock sounded on the door and I jumped, lifting my head and looking at Jake.
“Presley. Jake. We know you’re in there.”
I laughed when I recognized Blaze’s voice.
“Your two minutes are up,” she said, her voice low, as though she was close to the door. “It’s our turn, bitch. So get your happy ass on out here.”
Jake cradled my head and smiled down at me. “Have I mentioned how much I love you?”
“You have,” I reassured him. “And that was a nice way to show me, as well.”
“Well, you just wait until I get you home.”
“There’s more?” I teased.
“Oh, yeah.” His grin widened. “A lot more.”
One
ONCE UPON A TIME…
Oh, who the fuck was she kidding?
Once upon a time only happened in fairy tales, and Kora Madison’s day-to-day was anything but. Sure, perhaps her life bore an eerie resemblance to Cinderella’s, but not in the sense of Prince Charming coming in to save the day.
If that were the case, Kora would be getting hot and sweaty in her Honda Civic with a sexy guy wearing leather and smelling like sin. Riding him hard and fast, making him gasp and moan, the same way he would be making her gasp and moan. All while they rocked the wheels of her tiny car on their way to oblivion.
That clearly wasn’t happening.
The only part Kora resembled was the hot and sweaty, but it had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with her nerves. Last she’d checked, she was the only one in her car in the middle of a crowded restaurant parking lot. So, it looked as though intensely satisfying public sex was out of the question.
For now, anyway.
Okay, and no, she didn’t have a stepmother, either, wicked or otherwise, but she did have a sister. And well … wicked was one way to describe the woman who’d purposely slept with Kora’s longtime boyfriend, the man Kora had mistakenly believed one day she would marry. Granted, Sam Brashwood wasn’t innocent in all of this, either—nor was his dick. In fact, the guy was a prick, a prick who had—behind Kora’s back—been banging Kora’s sister for months.
The mere thought made Kora’s stomach churn, making her feel nauseous. She briefly wondered if that feeling would ever go away. If she would ever be able to look at Trina and Sam and not want to vomit on their shoes.
Ick.
But Kora didn’t have time to dwell on that shit. She had more important things to focus on. Much more important. Like, how she was going to get past all the scathing glares when she walked into the restaurant where her sister’s baby shower was being held.
Had she mentioned that not only was her sister wicked, she was also pregnant?
Yep, she was.
With Sam the Prick’s child.
Kora sighed and reached for the door handle.
One breath at a time, she managed to push open the door, step out into the cool evening breeze, adjust her skirt, then force her legs to carry her away from her car.
You can do this, the little voice in her head muttered.
God, she hoped that was the case.
Taking another deep breath, she continued to put one foot in front of the other.
It was a little cold for the outfit she’d chosen, with January temperatures hovering just above the freezing mark this week, but Kora had a purpose, and at this point, the outfit offered a much needed confidence boost.
She straightened, tilting her head up, pretending the Nazi butterflies weren’t invading her stomach.
It would be so easy to hop back in her car, pull out of the lot, and never look back, but unfortunately, she had to go in. Everyone
would think she was the devil incarnate if she didn’t. Since she was already half an hour late, she was sure they’d come up with a million reasons as to why, none of which would paint her in a flattering light. After all, her family and friends already believed she’d been the one to break up with Sam the Prick, the one who had all but pushed him into her sister’s arms.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
No, she wasn’t at fault, but for some godforsaken reason, Kora had taken the wrath of her family and friends, allowed them to believe the lie because it had been easier than the truth. In their eyes, she was the one who couldn’t be tamed. Wild and uncontrollable was how most people described her. Oh, and unfaithful. That one had been added to the short list, though Kora had never cheated. Not on a test, not on a diet, and certainly not on the only man she’d ever been in a relationship with.
However, the consensus was that Kora couldn’t stay committed to one man.
Truth was, she’d been gutted by their accusations, and during the days when the misery had seemed never ending, Kora had decided that she didn’t give a fuck. Not about Sam, or Trina, or even what the people who supposedly loved her thought.
No matter what she did, Kora couldn’t outrun her past, couldn’t get away from the reputation she’d been given, and now, it seemed she was being punished all the more.
What she wouldn’t give to have a handsome prince and a fairy godmother, someone to swoop in and offer a distraction because this … walking into the baby shower and facing the disappointment of her past … this was going to be a fucking nightmare.
DONOVAN BRASHWOOD NEVER THOUGHT he’d see the day he was attending a baby shower. Willingly, at that. But it appeared that day had come.
Weren’t these things supposed to be for women? Since when had it become appropriate to wrangle the men into it as well? If that wasn’t protocol, it should be. Guys didn’t belong. At least in his opinion.
And based on what he was looking at now, he’d already made a mental note to come up with an excuse if he were ever invited to another. At thirty-two, Donovan had been lucky thus far, somehow managing to avoid events like this.
Inked on Paper Page 35
