Evanescent Ink (Copperline Book 4)
Page 21
She took the few steps closer to me, the warm candlelight intensifying the contrast of pale skin and dark shadows. Her perfume infiltrated the air around me as she gently pushed the coat from my shoulders and began to undress me.
Her breath became just the slightest bit shaky while she loosened the buttons of my shirt, erotic as every exhale brushed against my newly exposed skin. When she tugged at the buttons of my fly, I couldn’t hold back any longer. Clasping her face in my hands, I urged her lips up to mine and kissed her deeply.
She felt so fine in my arms, soft and elegant in her satin and lace, small and curvaceous, pressed against my bare chest. Every kiss drew her closer, more firmly against me. She flicked my nipple piercings, sending a jolt of intense need through my system, and I picked her up and carried her to the bed. Settling on top of her and cradled between her pale thighs, I gathered her close and devoured her kiss as she melted into me.
The party raged on downstairs. The gritty sound of violins enmeshed with guitars. Laughter and the occasional shout.
Somehow it fed the passion between us. It brought back the fervent secrecy of the last time we’d been in this room. Raven scraped her nails down my abs to my waistband, releasing my cock into her small, warm grip. I kicked off my pants and boxers, positioning myself against her, and slowly pushed inside.
And she arched so beautifully against me as I filled her, something she did often, as though the sheer sensation of it overwhelmed her senses.
“You’re mine,” I groaned against her neck. “You’re really mine. My wife.”
Her legs slid up to wrap around me, holding me tightly inside her. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’m yours. And you’re mine.”
We lay on the bed, naked in the satin sheets. Wrapped in each other’s arms. Silken luxury all around me, but none as fine as her smooth, bare skin under my fingertips.
The reception below us hadn’t mellowed, and the muffled sounds filtered up, strangely adding to the sense of peace I felt.
“I gotta say,” I softly said, “having you here the first time was hot as hell, but this—holding you in this room and knowing the rest of the world can just fuck off for now—this is heavenly.”
She pressed her lips against the ink on my chest and laid her cheek back against it.
In a quiet, dreamy voice she whispered my favorite words. Words that had come to mean everything to me, no matter how many times a day she looked into my eyes and said them.
“I love you, Drew.”
And I held my wife—my beautiful, unique Raven—just a little bit tighter as we drifted off to sleep.
The End
Look for Justin’s book
Scheduled for release in the Spring of 2016
● Afraid ~ The Neighborhood
● Careless ~ Royal Blood
● Best Of You ~ Foo Fighters
● I Don’t Love You ~ My Chemical Romance
● The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden ~ Concrete Blonde
● Runaway ~ Linkin’ Park
● Bad Seamstress Blues ~ Cinderella
● Here For You ~ Kygo
● Get Better ~ Frank Turner
● Back In Black ~ ACDC
● Walking in London ~ Concrete Blonde
● Another Round ~ Foo Fighters
● You Can Be So Cruel ~ Royal Blood
● Ghost Town ~ Adam Lambert
● Just Feel Better ~ Santana W/Steven Tyler
● Rescue ~ ZZ Ward
● Thunderstruck ~ ACDC
● Eruption ~ Van Halen
● Up in the Air ~ Thirty Seconds to Mars
● Little Wing ~ Concrete Blonde
● Centuries ~ Fall Out Boy
● Money For Nothing ~ Dire Straits
● Everlong ~ Foo Fighters
● Breathing Underwater ~ Metric
● Paralyzer ~ Finger Eleven
● Emergency ~ Icona Pop
● Come And Get It - Selena Gomez
● Burn Your House Down ~ The Peculiar Pretzelmen
● Building Steam ~ Abney Park
● People Are Strange ~ Johnny Hollow
● The Last Steampunk Waltz ~ Ghostfire
● Dark Carnivale ~ Frenchy and the Punk
● Evil Night Together ~ Jill Tracy
● Hold the Line ~ The Clockwork Dolls
● Glittered Ripples From the Depths ~ The Synthetic Dream Foundation
● Dollhouse ~ Melanie Martinez
● Cherry Bomb ~ The Runaways
● The Kids Aren’t Alright ~ Fall Out Boy
● Say It Right ~ Nelly Furtado
● Until We Go Down ~ Ruelle
● Tighten Up ~ The Black Keys
● The Future ~ Mystery Skulls
● Aviation High ~ Semi Precious Weapons
● Everlong (Acoustic) ~ Foo Fighters
● Arizona ~ Kings of Leon
● Flashlight ~ Jessie J
● Promise ~ Ben Howard
● Appreciated ~ Rixton
● Hellbent ~ The Mystery Skulls
● Shattered ~ OAR
● Don’t you wait ~ Cloves
● Monkey Wrench ~ Foo Fighters
● Out Of The Black ~ Royal Blood
● Doesn’t Mean Anything - Alicia Keys
● Haunted ~ Maty Noyes
● Sad ~ Maroon 5
● Alibi ~ Thirty Seconds to Mars
● Fear ~ Blue October
● Over You – Ingrid Michaelson
● Photograph ~ Ed Sheeran
● Not Broken Anymore ~ Blue October
● Unbreakable ~ Jamie Scott
● F**kin’ Perfect ~ P!nk
● XO ~ John Mayer
● Misery Business ~ Paramore
● Hands ~ Gareth Emery, Alastor, London Thor
● We Found Love ~ Calvin Harris
● Steampunk Revolution ~ Abney Park
● Do Or Die ~ Thirty Seconds To Mars
Blah blah blah… (just kidding, Shell).
Seriously, though, there are always so many people to thank in these suckers. I’m always sure I’m going to leave some out because, by the time I hit this point, my brain is F-R-I-E-D, but here goes.
First of all, thank you to the fans out there for finding some value in what I do. I never really know how to truly express what it means to me when someone sends me a quick little message to tell me they loved something I wrote. Or when someone comes up to me at a signing and tells me how excited they are to meet me (i.e., Amy Donnelly in the OC – MWAH!). I usually end up saying something completely dorky in response, but you guys give me the most awesome warm fuzzies. My work may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s so nice to know there are people out there who get me.
Thanks to all the author and blogger friends I’ve gotten to know over the last couple years. You all help me feel sane(ish) when I whine about being depressed after a signing or the downward spiral that always seems to sneak in after publishing. You really are a fun bunch, so don’t let me sleep through any more signing after parties.
To Jami Watts and Lance Jones for being absolutely perfect as Raven and Drew. Not only have you been incredibly nice and welcoming, you two personified the images I had in my head. I hope you don’t mind that so many of those images were really, really dirty. Thanks as well to Dave Kelley for providing the amazing photography for the cover and teasers. You’ve got quite the eye, and I truly look forward to working with you many, many times in the future.
To one of my idols in book world, Olivia Cunning, for being gracious enough to allow me to mention her Sinners. I’m a bit awkward and pretty sure I made a total ass out of myself to you and Cynthia in Edinburgh, but thank you for not holding that against me. I never really intended to write about rockstars when I wrote the first book in this series, mostly because I could never do it justice the way you have. The Bangin’ Mofos in Post Breakup Sex were only supposed to be that… side characters. Yet when they took on a life of their own, I coul
dn’t think of anyone, real or fictional, Drew would look up to more than the Sinners. So, even though my Mofos remain small-town guys, I hope I made you proud… or at least that you don’t hate it.
Thank you to Danielle Piccin. You are one of the bravest and most inspiring people I know. You can laugh in the face of some truly awful events, even when your body doesn’t agree with you and wants to do things like O.o. I hope to be half as good of a person as you and I cannot wait to take you to Yellowstone. Word of warning, a lot of it is really stinky. In fact, my first memory of Yellowstone is getting out of the pickup at Mammoth Hot Springs and promptly throwing up in the parking lot. (Sorry about that Park Service people.)
Thank you to all the ladies in Siby’s Flannel Squad—Adriane Leigh, Alexis Nicole, Amanda Metteer-Herrera, Amy Donnelly, Amy Rachiele, Angela Osborne, Arabella Brai, Ashley Sutton, Beth Ashworth, Brandy Freeman, Carrie Osborne, Catarina Swartz, Catherine Ashley, Chantel Cervantes, Cherry Hurtado, Chris Finizio (hope you like your boy!), Christina Concus, Clare Flack, Danni Oxtoby, Dawn Edwards, Diane Buckner, Ecaterina Moldoveanu, Elle Ellerton, Erica Duvall, Jane Barron, Janina Steves, Jen O’grady, Jen Sully, Jennifer Gaudet Lubow, Jill Patten, Joan Pleasant, Kimberly Anne, KM Golland, Laura Scranage, Leigh Ann Panorelli, Lily Maverick Wallis, Lisa Angel Miller, Lisa Walker, Liz Rafferty, Lynn Booth, Nancy Boyle Bristol, Nicola Higginson, Nicole Baylor, Nikki Edgar, Pamela Patrick McGuire, Rachael Fick, Rhian Jones, Rhonda Wolfe, Sada Walker Maciel, Sammy Lomax, Shell Andrews, Stacy Wilkerson, Stella Bella, Tammy McGowan, Teri Maxwell, Terri Thomas, Tina Haynes, Marshall, Tonya Allen, and Tracy McKay. I flove you fuckers. One of the things I want more than anything in the world is to meet each of you face-to-face and squish our boobies together.
Thank you to my exceptional alpha readers, Michelle and Beth. You can see the diamond in the rough when I am all “what about this?” and you’re like “yeah, nah… that’s total cheese.” So I tweak it and you read it and I tweak it some more and you read it again. And on and on and on until it’s almost a story.
Thanks to my beta readers—Erica, Heather, Lorena, Michelle, Pam, Sarah, Tammy, Tara, Terri, and Tina. You pick up from where Shell and Beth leave off with a rough story that needs a hell of a lot of polish. You help me figure out where the holes are and what needs expanded upon. You tell me when something is crap and needs to go away. What you do is so incredibly important to this process. Thank you for your honesty because that is what helps me make my almost-story into something worth reading.
Also, thanks to Nicole and Diane who proofread for me. Some of the mistakes are hilarious (does “hadonstant reminder once” ring a bell, Nicole?), but I’m sure my readers appreciate that they are missing from the final version. I know I sure appreciate what you do for me.
Thank you to Emily and Nina. I met you long ago on Goodreads where we lusted after Professor Emerson. Mmm… Gabriel. Thank you for everything you and all the ladies at The Literary Gossip do for me and so many other authors. Blog tours, cover reveals, release blitzes, reviews, #FF tweets, Facebook shout-outs… seriously. You. Are. Awesome. I know it is incredibly time-consuming and I’m sure we drive you crazy sometimes, but we really truly appreciate it sooooo much!
Thank you to Mike for understanding just how weird this woman you married is, but loving her anyway. Twenty years and counting, babe, and you still make me laugh every day. And to my kids… at thirteen and seventeen, you are turning into a couple awesome adults. You have such incredibly kind hearts and brilliant minds. I love you so much, and I’ll miss you terribly when you grow up and move out of the basement in another twenty years or so (hopefully).
And finally, to Shell. I told you a while ago that I don’t think I could do this without you, and I never, ever could. Not in a million fucking years. Whether our adventures are in person or iMessage or Skype or Snapchat, you are a part of my every day. You’re a part of my family. My #jinxsnapbuddy. You put up with me even when I’m sharing my mouse knowledge with you in the middle of the night after Bob scared the bajeezus out of you. Je veux visiter le Canada. ***fist bump***
Conversations
Little Conversations
Littler Conversations
Snowcreek
In the Firelight
Bitterroot
Because of Kian
Always Conall
Copperline
Post Breakup Sex
Wild Irish Envy
Easy Little Lick
Evanescent Ink
Hot Dirty Love (coming Spring 2016)
Sibylla Matilde grew up in the mountain valleys of Southwest Montana, and grew up exploring the alfalfa fields on the back of a horse. She attended a two-room schoolhouse 1st through 6th grade where she had same teacher the whole time. Beginning at about age 12, Sibylla discovered historical romance, feeding off of work of Jude Devereaux, Lisa Kleypas, and Karen Robards. She loves a book that can make the reader run the gamut of emotions, from the sweet glow of new love to gut-wrenching heartache. She always has stories floating around in her head, living in some fantasyland until she writes them down to free them. She is a true romantic, a bit of a Pollyanna, and a deeply emotional soul.
Music is her emotional trigger. Growing up with a Wagnarian-opera-loving mother, Sibylla grew up with music that digs deep into her soul and pulls out emotion. The soundtrack to her life includes different genres and generations. She looooooooves Thirty Seconds to Mars (rather obsessively, actually) with a little Kings of Leon to mix things up, and pimps them out regularly to all her friends through Spotify. She also enjoys watching Met Opera HD broadcasts at her local movie theater, and hopes (listening Met?) to someday see Diana Damrau reprise her role as Mozart’s Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte—The Magic Flute.
Sibylla lives with her husband, Mike, a man who she firmly believes saved her from her self-destructive, hot mess self. He makes her laugh every day, even when things seem to be falling apart around them, and has proved to her that love really can heal a shattered soul. In almost 21 years, they have never had a fight, but argue regularly with their two teenage kids who have, unfortunately, inherited their father’s quick wit (unfortunate as it is a quick wit that Sibylla, herself, definitely does not possess—there is a reason she is a writer and not a stand-up comedian), and live a quiet life with their two weird little rescued Chiweenies. Wait… teenagers and little yap-dogs? Okay, maybe not so quiet. :)
She kinda likes it. And, if you enjoyed Evanescent Ink, be sure to let others know. Reviews mean the world to indie authors!
Website:
www.SibyllaMatilde.com
Email:
Siby@SibyllaMatilde.com
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16