by Adele Niles
Three Little Words
No Regrets Ink Series
Book 3
Copyright
First Edition, July 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Adele Niles
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and situations are the product of the author's imagination.
All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written consent from the author.
License
This book is available exclusively on Amazon.com. If you found this book for free or from a site other than an Amazon.com country specific website it means the author was not compensated for this book and you have likely obtained this book through an unapproved distribution channel.
Table of Contents
Three Little Words
Copyright
About This Book
No Regrets
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Wrecked
One
Also by Adele Niles
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About This Book
Three Little Words
He was my friend, my mentor, my lover.
Benny may have been my first love.
Tall, tattooed, dark. Sexy as hell.
I fell for him and broke all of my rules.
Those three little words destroyed us.
So I did what any girl would do. I left.
Now, my ex-lover is my enemy and the only one that can save me.
But I want more than just his help,
I want every single inch of his tall, tattooed thick body to make me feel safe again.
I hate you. I Love you.
Three little words that can change everything.
Love hot, tattooed alphas? You’ll love the men of No Regrets Ink. All Alpha, All tattoos, all bad-ass. This is book 2 of the series, and they can be read in any order. All of the books in the No Regrets Ink series have a HEA with no cheating and over the top alpha men.
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Chapter One
Bryn
Five Years Ago
The stink of cheap alcohol and weed announced Bryan’s arrival before he even hit the door.
I sighed and put down my pencil.
The key slid into the lock, and I watched as the door opened and my idiot younger brother walked in. He looked like a taller, male version of me—sandy brown hair, dark brown eyes, light skin. He wasn’t terribly tall, either, but at five-ten, he practically towered over my five-foot, two-inch frame.
He was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt as yesterday.
And he smelled fucking terrible.
“Welcome home.” I frowned at him as he opened the door.
“Bryn, hey, what—what are you doing up?” He smiled, wavering where he stood.
“It’s, like, ten a.m. A normal hour for people to be up.”
“Oh, right. Right.”
He crossed the room and flopped down on the other end of the couch.
I was supposed to be looking after him, and he was making it real fucking hard.
Taking care of Bryan had always been my job, as far back as I could remember. Mom always had to work hard to provide for the two of us, and as soon as I was old enough to know how to microwave a frozen dinner, I’d been babysitting my little brother.
That hadn’t changed as we got older. I spent a lot of high school with Bryan tagging along, until people just stopped inviting me places. It was, according to many of them, lame to have a freshman hanging around when we were seniors.
But I loved him. Even when he did stupid shit like get mixed up with a motorcycle gang.
I turned on the couch, looking at him. “You’re still drunk. You haven’t even hit the hangover yet.”
“It’s fine.” He chuckled, waving one hand dismissively.
It was not fine.
“Bryan.”
“Bryn.”
I hated when he did that. Just a reminder that our parents hadn’t been creative enough to give us unique names. No, Mom had always thought it was cute that we had matching names.
I hated it.
I felt my jaw clench and took a deep breath. “Look. You have to get your shit together.”
“My shit is together. God, get off my ass for a minute.”
“Bryan, I’m trying to look out for you.”
“I don’t need you to look out for me.”
He shrugged, folding his arms.
I sighed heavily and looked away from him.
“C’mon, Bryan. It’s what we’re supposed to do. Mom wanted us to stick together, and—”
“Don’t talk to me about Mom.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Uh… no, you need to hear about Mom. Sorry. You know she wanted us to stay close and look after each other, Bryan.”
“Yeah, well, if that’s what she wanted, she shouldn’t have died.”
My jaw dropped.
It wasn’t like our mom had chosen to have a heart attack.
I wanted to slap him, as hard as I could.
God, but Mom would have hated that.
“You shut your mouth, Bryan.” I shook my head, rising. “You don’t talk about our mom like that!”
“Oh my god, Bryn, calm down! It’s true, though!”
He rose as well, unsteady on his feet.
Asshole.
I shook my head, tilted up to look at him. “Mom didn’t just decide to die on us, Bryan! I’m pretty confident that she would rather be alive than dead!”
“Yeah, well, she’s gone. She’s fucking gone.”
“And she wanted me to make sure you didn’t do stupid shit like join a motorcycle gang!”
“It’s not—it’s not a gang! And you’re not suddenly my mom just because she died!”
It was definitely a gang. The King’s Devils were notorious around here, and I wasn’t going to let Bryan think anything else.
“They kill people. They kill people! And they deal drugs, and get into fights with other gangs, and—”
“So what? It’s what I want!”
“You want to kill people?”
&
nbsp; “No—” Bryan threw his hands up, groaning. “I want to have friends!”
“These people aren’t going to be your friends.”
“Oh my god, Bryn, will you just—just shut up already?”
“No. Because you’re going to get yourself killed if you fall in with them!”
“You don’t know that. If you would just give them a chance, Bryn—”
“I don’t want to give them a chance!”
Silence fell between us.
It felt like it lasted for hours.
Finally, Bryan shook his head. He turned away from me.
“Fuck you, Bryn,” he said, storming down the hall.
The door to his bedroom slammed shut.
“God dammit, Bryan.” I sank back down on the couch, head in my hands.
He’d been like this since Mom died—angry, argumentative, reckless.
I didn’t want to have to bury my little brother, too.
I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath.
I had to do something, just to get myself out of this funk Bryan always got me in.
Maybe it was time to do something I’d been wanting to do for a while.
I shifted forward on the couch, opening my sketchbook again and rifling through the pages. Drawing was my one outlet, my one way of venting and relieving stress. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with friends since I was working two jobs; days off like this were incredibly rare.
But I had been saving for a little while to do this, and now it was time.
I was going to get a tattoo.
And I knew exactly what I wanted.
I found the page, running my fingers over the design.
It was perfect.
I tore the page out of the sketchbook and rose. I was already dressed, at least, and knew where my purse and shoes were.
I wouldn’t have to walk past Bryan’s bedroom.
I rolled the drawing up carefully and put it in my purse before slinging my bag over my shoulder.
I didn’t bother to tell Bryan I was leaving. He probably wouldn’t have cared, anyway. Shaking my head, I closed and locked the apartment door.
I was going to come back later with new ink, and hopefully a clearer head, so I could talk to my brother a little more calmly.
I just wanted him to understand that I was angry because I loved him.
And that I was fucking scared of losing the last person I had.
Chapter Two
Benny
Five Years Ago
It was a slow afternoon.
Slow afternoons still made me nervous. Bradley and I had only owned the shop for a year; we were still in the make-or-break era.
We usually did pretty good, but I couldn’t help getting nervous when the shop was empty.
At least everyone was on board to clean when the shop was quiet. I wanted it to look professional all the time. Neatly organized and stocked shelves, artwork displayed in frames, surfaces clean enough to eat off of.
I wasn’t going to let us get a bad review for cleanliness, that was for sure.
I was taking my turn at the front counter, wiping it down and making sure the display cases of piercing jewelry were tidy; we didn’t have a piercer on staff yet, but the jewelry still sold well.
Bradley was in the middle of sweeping the floor, even though there wasn’t much dust to get up. We were cousins, but didn’t look much like each other; Bradley was a little shorter than me, blond and blue-eyed (the only trait we really shared.) He dressed in all black, his jeans always tight. It was kinda funny to watch him sweeping, hunched over the cheap dollar-store broom we’d bought.
Ryker and Logan were in the back of the shop, where the cabinets of inks were. Organizing them was a never-ending process. We were slowly buying up little bins to sort the colors in to, but they were expensive and it was going to take time. I could hear the two of them laughing, even though I wasn’t sure what was being said. Ryker had his head tilted back, with his long blond hair hanging down his back.
Beside him, Logan was hunched forward, leaning on a shelf in the cabinet. One tan hand was clutching the cabinet door, the other undoubtedly pressed to his stomach as he laughed.
It was good to see everybody having some fun, even if we were still busy working.
I couldn’t help but smile as I polished the counter again. Ryker was new, but settling in well, and he was a hell of an artist. All of us were damn good at what we did.
We just needed to keep the business going strong.
I heard the door open and my head snapped up.
The girl who walked in was stunning—a petite brunette with dark eyes. She was dressed casually, a small messenger bag thrown over her shoulder.
“Hey.” She sounded confident.
It was hot.
“Hey. Welcome to No Regrets.” I smiled. “What can we do for you?”
She opened her purse, pulling out a wallet and a rolled-up sheet of paper. She rifled through the wallet first.
“I have a hundred and fifty dollars and a design.” She placed the rolled-up paper on the counter. “And I’d love to walk out of here with that tattooed on my ribs.”
I nodded. “We can do that. Just gotta ask some questions first. Can I check out the design, see who’s going to be the best for it?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
I unrolled the paper and looked at it.
Well within my abilities.
I smiled. “I’ll do it. I’m Benny. Co-owner of the shop.” I held my hand out to shake hers.
“Bryn. Tattoo newbie.”
“Really?”
With designs this good, I figured she’d gotten ink before, or maybe even wanted to learn how to do it herself.
She nodded. “Yeah. So, what info do you need?”
I checked her ID and had her fill out our questionnaire. She filled out the paper on the clipboard, then handed it back to me when she was done.
“So where do you want it?” I asked.
Bryn grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it up, revealing bare, untouched skin.
“On my ribs. Right side.”
Damn.
She smiled. “You sure you’re good? I want this to look great.”
I snorted. “I’m the best around.”
Bradley looked up, grinning. “You really wanna lie to a pretty girl like that?”
“Shut up, man. I taught you half of what you know. My dad taught you the other half.”
Bradley grinned, catching Bryn’s eye. “He’s pretty good, but I’m better.”
“Don’t listen to him,” I said. “He’s full of crap.”
Bryn laughed at that. “I’m gonna trust Benny when he says he’s good.”
I gave Bradley the finger behind her head.
Bradley shrugged and went back to sweeping, still grinning.
I led Bryn back to my station. “So…that sketch. Did you do that?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I did. I spend a lot of time drawing. I mean, if you have to clean it up or anything, it’s cool, but I’d like to stay pretty close to the original.”
“We can do the original exactly how it is. It’s a great sketch. Do you have any more?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I don’t have my book with me, but I can show you some on my phone.”
“I’d love to see.”
She smiled and pulled a beat-up iPhone from her back pocket. She opened her photos and started to scroll through, showing me different drawings. She was especially good at flowers, using clean lines and simple shapes.
They were made to be tattoos, really.
I smiled at her. “Nice. These looks fantastic. I like the one you picked for today, though.”
“Thanks. It’s one of my favorites.”
I nodded. “Well, I’ll go get the screen. Keep you a little covered up, since you’ll have to be topless for the tattoo to happen.”
“Topless?” Ryker had turned and was watching as I spoke to Bryn. He had a smile on his face that I could really only
describe as lecherous.
“Yes, topless, perv.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m doing a tattoo on her ribs.”
“Nice.”
“And I’m putting up the screen.”
He huffed, rolling his eyes. “All right, fine. Have fun.”
I looked back to Bryn, who was watching me with her eyebrows raised.
“Ryker’s harmless,” I said. “Don’t worry. He’s all bark, no bite.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” I smiled. “I’ll be back. We’ll get you situated once the screen’s up.”
“Cool.” I watched as she sat down in my chair, relaxed. Nowhere near as nervous as most first-timers.
I liked her already.
Chapter Three
Bryn
Five Years Ago
Benny came back and set up the screen, then turned his chair so my back would be to the majority of the shop.
It felt private. Kind of hot.
I liked the shop, though. The guys were all friendly, and were all hot.
Really hot.
I definitely needed this.
Once the screen was set up, I pulled my t-shirt off and laid it with my purse.
I could feel Benny watching me.
I liked how it felt.
Out of all of the guys, he was the hottest, by far. Those blue eyes were stunning, almost enough to take my breath away.
I didn’t get weak in the knees over men often, but this guy was different.
I turned to face him as I reached behind my back and unhooked my bra.
He was definitely watching.
I slid my bra straps down my shoulders and laid my bra on top of my shirt.
Benny cleared his throat.
His cheeks were red.
“You, uh. Won’t want to put that back on after. You’ll be pretty sore.”
“Okay. I’ll put it in my purse later.”
“Okay.”
I sat back down in the chair, shifting to my side.
Benny sat down on a rolling stool. He placed the tattoo, then held up a mirror for me to look.
I liked what I saw. I looked hot like this, tits out, his hands on me.
And the tattoo was exactly where I wanted it.
“Perfect,” I said.
