by Ranae Rose
“I’m willing to take that chance.” She kissed him again before he could argue. “I know you’re going through a hard time right now, but I’m no stranger to hard times. Don’t try to shelter me by pushing me away. I’m not some spoiled princess, and I deserve to make my own choices.”
“You’re so damn stubborn.” He sighed and turned her hand over, traced the lines on her palm. “Luckily for me.”
She couldn’t resist pressing her mouth against his, couldn’t fight the feeling that getting closer to him would ease the ache in her chest, at least a little.
He kissed her back with blistering intensity, but eventually pulled away.
“I can’t stay tonight,” he said.
She nodded. “I understand. But do you have to leave yet?”
“I’ve already stayed longer than I expected to. But no … I don’t have to go right now.”
She placed a hand on his chest and another on his thigh. He wasn’t hard, but when he kissed her again, slipping his tongue into her mouth and his hand into her hair, that changed.
Her heart beat faster, and she straddled him, settling so that she faced him as he sat against the back of the couch. It was easier to kiss him this way, easier to feel his heart beating against her chest as she leaned into him. It made her feel close to him, but not close enough.
His heart rate increased and his muscles tensed beneath her as he came to life, devouring her until she had to break off their kiss just to breathe.
He slipped his hands beneath her shirt and pushed it up over her breasts. Her nipples hardened as his fingertips skimmed over her cleavage, then he pulled her shirt over her head, unhooking her bra afterward and tossing it aside.
Pleasure flared hot and sharp inside her as he cupped her breasts, pressing his face against them. The heat of his breath made her shiver, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her fingers slide through his short hair, against the curve of his skull.
The jerk of her jeans being unbuttoned and unzipped rippled through her, making her heart speed. There was an urgency to his movements that made her tingle and ache all over, kept her breathless.
His cock was hard and obvious beneath his jeans, and her fingers brushed the head as she undid his jeans as carefully as she could, wanting to feel him inside her now, not later.
He groaned when she freed his dick and ran her hand up and down the shaft. The sound sent a shiver of anticipation racing down her spine, and her pussy drew up tight, shrinking around nothing and making her that much more eager.
She hadn’t lost him – she knew that, but her body hadn’t quite caught up with her mind, yet. The desire that pulsed through her was desperate and all-consuming.
She needed to feel like he was hers. Like she was his.
He was still dressed, but changing that would mean climbing off of him, putting distance between them, and she couldn’t bear to do that.
He raised his hips, and his bare shaft pressed against her pussy. She gasped, but the contact was only momentary. After pulling his wallet out of his back pocket, he settled back where he’d been.
He pulled out a condom and tossed the wallet aside. He moved quickly, tearing the package open and rolling the condom on like every second of waiting was agony. That made her feel more connected to him than anything else – she couldn’t wait, either.
Gripping her hips, he held her so that the head of his cock nudged against her pussy lips. With one long stroke, he thrust inside her.
It was sudden and deep, an invasion she’d craved. She pressed her face against his shoulder so the noises she made would be dulled – hopefully enough so that they wouldn’t echo down the hall to Emily’s room.
He shifted his hands to her ass and squeezed. “You feel so good, Crystal.” He pulled back and thrust into her again, slow and forceful this time. “Best feeling I know.”
He touched her clit and she bit down on his shoulder.
With him hard inside her and his thumb massaging her clit, she was on the verge of sensory overload. Days of worry and stress melted into nonexistence, driven away by his touch. It might only be temporary, but the pleasure was so intense she couldn’t think about anything else.
It didn’t take him long to work her desire into a fever pitch, to have her thighs trembling as she clung to him, her pussy tensing tighter and tighter around his dick.
The climax he pushed her to was just as intense as her desire had been. Pleasure swept through her in waves, and she cried out against his shoulder.
He remained steady and controlled, although she could feel him tensing beneath her and knew he was holding back.
“I love feeling you come,” he said, wrapping a hand in her hair and pulling gently back until she straightened and looked him in the eye. “I love everything about you. It’s not something I can turn on and off. I think about you every day; sometimes it feels like every damn second.”
She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, aching to kiss him. He wasn’t moving beneath her anymore, but he was hard inside her – hard and so deep that she was constantly aware of the way he was stretching her, always anticipating his next movement and the pleasure it would bring.
“I know it makes me selfish,” he said, “but I hope you stay stubborn. I hope you stay with me. Mostly, I hope I don’t fuck this up. I know if I do, I’ll spend the rest of my life thinking about this and wishing I could go back.”
Her speeding heart was stuck in her throat. She had to swallow before she could speak.
“You’re not selfish – you deserve to be happy. I want you to be happy with me. And I’m afraid of messing this up too. Afraid I won’t be enough for you when you need me.”
He groaned and leaned forward, his lips almost touching hers. “You’re enough. You’re more than I could ever ask for.”
She could practically taste him. Her mouth watered.
He crushed his lips against hers and rocked his hips, holding her against him with a hand in her hair and another on her hip. His words had melted her heart, and pleasure melted the rest of her as he fucked her deep and deliberately, ending the kiss to breathe when he came.
To breathe, and say her name, holding her tighter.
She kept her arms around his neck when he was still. She knew he couldn’t stay, but she didn’t want to let go just yet.
EPILOGUE
Three Months Later
“That half sleeve you wrapped up today was pretty badass,” James said as Dylan pulled into the street in front of Hot Ink.
“Yeah. Got some pictures of it – gonna put them online tomorrow.”
“We picking up your brother?”
The blue glow of Hot Ink’s neon sign faded into the early winter darkness.
“No, he’s meeting us there. So is Crystal.”
“Yeah, Arianna texted me a few minutes ago saying Crystal had dropped Emily off.”
Dylan nodded. “Yeah. Hey, thanks for coming.”
James shrugged. “Crystal said she doesn’t want Ben to feel like a third wheel. She thought a fourth person would even things out, and I figured there are worse ways to spend Friday night than eating steak.”
“Yeah, she’s smart. She and Ben get along, but it can be weird going out with a couple. I’m kind of surprised she asked you, though.”
“What, you don’t think I’m fun?” His serious expression cracked.
“It’s not the first word that comes to mind when I think of you, to be honest.” He grinned.
James snorted. “You’re not always the life of the party, either.”
“Yeah, but sometimes I am. It’s random, but it happens. That’s more than you can say.” He didn’t feel too weird joking about bipolar. James had known for months, but he’d been surprisingly non-judgmental about it.
Dylan had thought for sure that he’d try even harder to deter Crystal from dating him when he found out, but he hadn’t, and he hadn’t said anything to anyone else, either. At Hot Ink, only Jed and James knew.
In terms of personality, James was more like his sister than Dylan had realized, and he’d decided he didn’t mind having him for company.
“I might be able to give you a run for your money if there’s beer involved,” James said. “But your brother probably doesn’t drink either, does he?”
“He doesn’t.” Like Dylan, Ben could no longer drink because of the medications he was on. Dylan knew from experience that avoiding alcohol was for the best, anyway.
“Well, don’t expect too much from me then.”
“I’m not the one you have to answer to – that’s Crystal, and I’m pretty sure she knows what to expect from you.”
They rode in silence for a while, getting closer to the steak house where they’d be celebrating Ben’s twenty-fifth birthday. In a way, it was a double celebration – Ben had recently started a job at a garage in Pittsburgh.
He wasn’t going back to Newark, and Dylan was glad. Mostly because he couldn’t imagine handling the strain of Ben being on his own so far away. And after months of falling more in love with Crystal, going back to Newark was the last thing Dylan wanted.
“I used to think Crystal expected too much from people.” James broke the silence.
“Like me?” Dylan asked, knowing full well that James had expected him to disappoint Crystal by now.
“Like her friends back in Philly. Like Emily’s father. And yeah, you.”
“That’s a pretty shitty assortment of people to be grouped in with.”
“I said ‘used to’. I can see now that you’re not like them.”
The olive branch James extended was just a verbal manifestation of the acceptance Dylan had sensed for weeks. He still didn’t mind hearing it.
* * * * *
“Hey!” Crystal waved at Dylan and James, smiling. “We’re over here.”
She and Ben had gotten there around the same time, about ten minutes ago.
The restaurant was busy – no surprise, given that it was a Friday night. Dylan had reserved a table for Ben’s birthday a week ago. The steak house was popular, and the noise inside reflected that. Crystal liked it – it was lively and warm, in contrast to the December weather outside.
James zeroed in on the table, and Dylan followed.
“Happy birthday, man,” James said as he settled down next to Ben.
“Thanks.”
“We already put in an order for an appetizer tray we can all share,” Crystal said.
It wasn’t long before the waitress brought drinks and the food Crystal and Ben had ordered. It wasn’t long before everyone settled into conversation, either.
A feeling of satisfaction struck Crystal. It was so easy to relax around Dylan, James and Ben – a few months ago, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine that being the case. Hell, even a few weeks ago, it wouldn’t have been easy.
The appetizer tray included wings, and while James’ eyes watered in reaction to the hot sauce, Ben ate them without flinching. He also laughed as James wiped moisture from his eyes with the back of his hand.
Crystal grinned. Ben was doing so much better in Pittsburgh than in Newark. Over the past month, she’d finally started to feel like she was getting to know him.
He was a lot like Dylan in some ways, including his appearance. The resemblance was clear, although he was noticeably younger and not as heavily tattooed. His hair was darker, but they had the same eyes.
Now that he was stable, she could see the personality traits they shared too – resilience, kindness and the same sense of humor. He and Dylan were both laughing at James, now.
The change Ben had gone through since moving to Pittsburgh was dramatic, and she was relieved not only for his sake, but for Dylan’s. He’d struggled with the strain of being there for Ben at first, and the medication he’d been on hadn’t been enough to keep him from suffering through anxiety and some definite depressive moods.
She’d watched as those things had buried the Dylan she knew, crushing his spirit so that she’d had to look closely and intently to see glimmers of the man she knew.
And he’d been right – it’d been hard to watch him cycle through those things, struggling to stay on top of his work, Ben’s problems and his own health. And it’d been hard to feel like the connection they shared was temporarily dulled by forces outside of their control. He hadn’t treated her badly, but they’d spent less time together, at his request.
There’d been days when he’d refused to ‘drag her down’, as he’d put it. Days where he’d been too exhausted to do anything he didn’t absolutely have to. And those days had forced her to face the reality that she couldn’t fix what was bothering him, no matter how much she wished she could. She loved him, but love hadn’t changed the reality of what he’d experienced any more than it could’ve healed a broken leg, and that’d made her feel useless.
Still, she had to admire the way he’d handled it all. After a few rough weeks, he’d called his doctor and asked for an adjustment to his medication.
She knew how much he dreaded the potential side-effects of trying a new drug, and had watched on pins and needles as he’d bitten the bullet and done it anyway, starting a mood stabilizer – a measure he’d avoided for years. So far, he seemed to be handling it well.
He was definitely on more of an even keel. She could tell by the way he spoke, moved, and even looked at her. He devoted time to being there for Ben, but he made time for her, too. They’d finally gotten to go out on a few dates – without interruption – on their own, and they’d been just as good as their first had been, before its abrupt ending.
She fell more in love with him each day – even the bad ones. She couldn’t help it. The way he fought so hard to be healthy so he could be there for the people around him was unreal, if a little heartbreaking.
She knew what it was like to fight to be the person you wanted to be, and for that reason, she couldn’t look at Dylan’s weaknesses without seeing his strengths, too.
“Hey Crystal,” Ben said, motioning toward the food in the center of the table. “Try one of these wings – I want to see if the crying thing is genetic, or just James being weird.”
“Eyes watering and crying are not the same thing,” James said.
Crystal tried one, and her eyes watered too. She wasn’t sure if that made James feel better or worse.
“Guess it’s genetic,” she said.
“It’s normal,” James informed her. “Those wings are so hot, they’re not even food anymore. Who actually enjoys that?”
Ben did, apparently – he ate the rest.
“You don’t think he’ll make himself sick, do you?” Crystal asked Dylan, who’d refused anymore of the hot wings despite the stoicism he’d displayed while eating one minutes before. “James is right – those wings are ridiculous.”
Dylan shrugged. “It’s cheat day. He takes cheat day very seriously. I don’t think there’s any chance of stopping him from eating anything and everything.”
Dylan had developed a rigorous fitness routine for himself and Ben, which involved a very specific diet six days a week, hitting the gym five mornings a week and an insane amount of dedication. Dylan seemed to have enough of that for the both of them. Not that Crystal was complaining. The benefits of Dylan’s workouts were obvious, and she certainly enjoyed them.
“Well, I hope he’ll be up for dessert – I made him a cake.”
“We all heading to your place afterward?”
“As long as Ben is up for it. I don’t mean to brag, but my cake turned out surprisingly well. Or at least, it looks like it did.”
“I’m sure it did. And I’ll definitely be up for some – I can’t let Ben have all the cheat day fun. Is it chocolate?”
“Of course.”
Dylan leaned in close, his shoulder pressing against Crystal’s.
“I’m invited to stay at your place past the after party, right?”
A frisson zipped down her spine. She still couldn’t get enough of him. “Don’t you want to hang out with
Ben?”
“I don’t think he’ll give a damn about what I do tonight while he’s sleeping off his food coma.”
A slow smile crept up on her as he rubbed the small of her back.
“Stay the night, then, if you’re sure. You know I’m not going to say no.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his chest. “It still feels good to hear you say yes.”
Ink is forever. So is love.
Thank you for reading Alluring Ink.
Stay up to date with the entire Inked in the Steel City Series by visiting the Inked in the Steel City page at ranaerose.com anytime.
Other titles in the series…
Hot Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #1)
Innocent Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #2)
Dedicated Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #3)
Abiding Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #4)
Serious Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #5)
Irresistible Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #6)
(Click title to see in Kindle Store.)
Inked in the Steel City Book 8 coming soon!
What did you think of Dylan & Crystal’s story? Please consider sharing your thoughts via a review.
Read on for a sample of more hot, inked romance…
Love irresistible tattooed heroes? Try Battered Not Broken, a best-selling MMA romance by Ranae Rose, author of the Inked in the Steel City Series.
Battered Not Broken
War and violent crime cut deep – can love for another person run deeper than the scars left behind?
Ryan Moore forged his own path when he defied his wealthy family’s expectations by joining the United States Marine Corps as an enlisted man. After a period of service that’s cut short by an IED explosion, the lingering physical and mental effects of war result in an isolated struggle to exist in the civilian world. He throws himself into competitive MMA fighting – the one thing he’s still able to excel at, even if every match is a risk he can’t afford to take.
