by LS Anders
Table of Contents
About the Book
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From the Author
Copyright © 2017 by LS Anders
All rights reserved
Please respect the work of this author. No part of this eBook/book publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Use your own judgement to determine if the content of this novel is appropriate for you.
This romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locals are entirely coincidental.
Cover design and formatting: LS Anders
Font: Vigilante Type
[email protected]
Proofreading and Edits: Jenny Wootton, Judy Halloran, and Rebecca Norman
Photograph copyrights: _italo_,misterelements, irinakrivoruchko, and kasto @ www.Fotolia.com
In Memory Of
Sarah
Happy Birthday, Mom!
August 09, 1948 – October 27, 2012
Special Thanks To
Jenny Wootton, Judy Halloran, and Rebecca Norman for finding all my stupid mistakes. You girls are the greatest!
To all the readers, writers, bloggers, and my social media peeps, for supporting all my crazy book writing endeavors.
Contents
About The Book
From the Author
About the Book
Jaded, cynical, and emotionless…
Tegan Steele had no idea his Achilles heel would come in the form of a demure blonde. The last thing he wants is another relationship, but Rayna Nichols reawakens a part of him he thought was long buried and proves to be more then he can handle.
Kindhearted, shy, and soft-spoken…
Rayna Nichols can’t seem to keep her eyes or hands to herself after meeting fellow tattoo artist, Tegan Steele. Aside from being sinfully sexy, she discovers there’s more to this hardened bad boy than meets the eye.
What was it about this man that made her heart race and her vag ache? He didn't even have to be paying her any attention. As a matter of fact, he currently had his back turned towards her as he was tattooing a shoulder piece on his client, concentrating solely on the design he was making into permanent art on his living, breathing canvas.
Rayna had only a partial view of his muscular back and long, lustrous ebony hair, but that wasn't going to deter her from drinking in as much of him as she could see. And what a view he was. Every time he stretched out a sinewy arm to dip his tattoo gun into an ink cup, the dark gray cotton of his shirt would stretch with him, outlining the muscles as they bunched and bulged beneath the fabric.
Exotic Ink Tattoo Studio was one of those rare shops where each artist was given a room for their own personal workspace. Hers sat across the hall and catty-corner from the object of her intense infatuation… Tegan Steele.
He was literally tall, dark, and sinful. A scrumptious morsel of a man that she wanted nothing more than to know the feel of his perfectly groomed goateed face buried between her thighs, which was a highly inappropriate thought to be having for a new widow.
For the love... she should be mourning her dead spouse not eye fucking one of her co-workers.
They had kissed once.... well twice, but the second kiss didn't count because she was thanking him for intervening on her friend and co-worker, Callie’s, behalf. It had been nothing more than an impulsive pop kiss that had been executed in the most pathetically shy way possible, catching him completely off-guard.
She had risen up on her tip-toes, as he was quite a bit taller than her, and had crashed her lips into his. It was a sad little kiss that left her feeling awkward and had left Tegan with his black as a raven’s wing eyebrows raised in shocked surprise. It was a moment she would be cringing over for many years to come but was well worth the discomfort to show her appreciation for helping her friend.
Tegan’s best friend and roommate, Vehn Mathieu, was being a hardheaded pain in the ass about forgiving Callie over a misunderstanding that should have never happened. Those two had fallen hard in love and anyone with eyes in their head could see it, but instead of talking to each other and sorting out their issues, they’d made everyone else around them miserable by moping around like two lost, love-sick puppies.
Thanksgiving had come and gone with still no resolution in sight between the two. Finally, Tegan had had enough of their bullshit and managed to trick the pair into a meeting, locking them in together until they kissed and made up. Well, it had worked and just a few weeks later, Vehn had dropped to one knee and proclaimed his undying love for Callie and practically begged her to marry him.
Rayna was immensely happy for the couple and was glad that her friend had found her true love, nonetheless, their happiness ignited feelings of extreme jealousy every time she saw the two together, making her feel like a crappy friend and a complete failure as a woman.
As a matter of fact, she was surrounded by happy couples. The shop was plagued with them, with the exception of Evana, the owner of Exotic Ink, who had also lost her husband, Kyle. He had been a good bit older than her but was still way too young to have died.
Evana had been devastated when he’d suddenly collapsed from a blockage in his left anterior descending coronary artery and was dead within moments. He had died in Evana’s arms on the third floor of the building that the tattoo studio was nestled beneath. Kyle, now Evana owned the entire building. Located in the SoHo area of Manhattan, albeit an older not very ornate structure, it was still considered some serious real estate to be had in the city.
It would be going on four years this summer since his death and if she concentrated hard enough, she could still hear the rumble of his voice rolling down the studios narrow hallway. Kyle Grey was a legend in the tattoo industry, and she had been lucky enough to have apprenticed under him. He had been a master in the art of tattooing and could design and execute anything onto human skin with expert precision. He had taught her all styles but had ferreted out and developed her specialties, which were fine line and Japanese design, making her one of the best in the city.
Rayna missed Kyle, the loss akin to losing a sibling. As for her husband, Brent? She strangely no longer missed him, and he had only been gone a mere six months. There had been no intensity in her mourning for him, not like Evana had for Kyle. What did that say about her? Those slippery feelings of loss were impossible for her to cling to when all she could focus on was wondering why her husband of eight years found her so unlovable…, but she did know the reason.
She wanted so badly to believe he wasn’t deserving of her grief, given the way he had died. Tried every day to convince herself of that to appease her guilty conscience for not properly mourning him.
Brent hadn’t died in her
arms like Kyle had Evana’s. No. Brent had died in the arms of another woman… with his dick jammed all up in her vagina, and she couldn’t stop herself from feeling solely responsible for driving him into the beds of other women.
Cale, the studios piercing artist momentarily blocked her delicious view as he sauntered by with his client. He was explaining how to care for his client’s new belly ring, which abruptly jerked Rayna back to the present and out of her lustful yearnings and melancholy meanderings.
Yep. There he went, the other half of yet another happy couple. Cale was the fiancé of the studios loveable pixie-like receptionist, Avie. They were on their way to the altar in less a week. A spectacular spring wedding that had been planned within an inch of its life.
Rayna, along with Evana, Callie, and Callie’s BFF, Dylan, were all bridesmaids. Arin, Avie’s best friend, would be leading the pack holding the title of maid of honor. She was flattered to have been included in the ceremony but again was awash with jealousy over the couple’s happily ever after.
Tegan appeared to be finishing up with his client as he was smoothing antiseptic ointment over the fresh design.
Turning her back before he caught her ogling him like a love-sick school girl, she glanced at her watch. Shit. She didn’t have much time before her next client was due. Instead of drooling on her shoes, she should have been readying her work table for Elisa.
Quickly setting up and hating that stressed feeling of being rushed, she gathered the inks she was planning to use on her client’s design. Carefully squeezing the right amount of pigment into each ink cup, she didn’t notice Tegan watching her from the doorway.
“Hey T, you’re gonna join all of us out for dinner tonight. Vehn was able to get us a private room at the Burger and Barrel.” Callie’s exuberance drew Rayna’s head around. “You’re going too, Barbie girl. It’s gonna be Vehn-tastic. I’ve been craving one of their homemade root beers, and they have all that microbrewed shit you love so much, T.”
“Pfft. Ever heard of asking?” Tegan grumbled.
“Nope. Don’t need to ‘cause you’re both goin’,” Callie answered, doing a little dance around him as she made her way to the front of the shop.
Crossing his arms over his thick chest, Tegan continued to glare at Callie before turning his icy blue gaze on Rayna, blazing a hot trail straight to the center of her being. That stare of his always managed to reduce her to nothing more than a concentrated throbbing clitoris.
“They do have really good burgers,” Rayna offered, beginning to fidget under his intense examination.
She could never decide what was going on inside his head, forever uncertain of what he thought of her. Wielding the ultimate poker face, he always sported the same stoic expression. She knew at one point he was attracted to her, but she wasn’t so sure anymore. Maybe he was as disgusted with her as she was at herself for not properly mourning her husband.
Tegan’s eyes made a slow methodical sweep over her entire body, touching her in a way she longed for his hands to do, sending another rush of heat to the juncture of her thighs, quickening her pulse. Then that glacial blue melted, and the corner of his sculpted lips turned up hinting at a smile as if he knew the effect he had on her. Swaying towards him, she would have dropped her panties right then had he requested it of her.
Watching intently as he wet his lips, she shamelessly took a step towards him— only to be blocked by Avie’s bubble gum pink head as it popped around the corner of her doorway breaking her trance and announcing her client’s arrival.
Dazed, she merely blinked, trying to make sense out of the receptionist’s words and losing herself in a different set of peepers. Avie’s large whiskey colored eyes always made her think of sages of old. That she somehow held wisdom beyond her years when actually, the girl was barely going to be able to toast with champagne at her own wedding.
“Um… ok. Send her on back. Thanks, Avie,” she answered absently.
That unearthly aura that always seemed to surround the girl’s small stature remained in the doorway even after she’d returned to the lobby. There was something ethereal about her. Rayna couldn’t put her finger on what it was exactly that made her such an enigma. No one could for that matter. Avie had this uncanny ability to know what others needed before they even realized it themselves or, she would verbalize something that hadn’t yet happened and voilà… fiction became reality.
“Guess we better get back to work,” Tegan said. His eyes lingered on her lips a bit longer, running the tip of his tongue along his full bottom one before turning to go back across the hall.
“Hi, Rayna. Oh, I love your dress, the color is so becoming on you.” Always upbeat, Elisa came bouncing through her door, pausing only long enough to give her a quick hug before continuing on to the changing room at the back of Rayna’s room to slip out of her slacks.
Still hypnotized from the tip of Tegan’s tongue and recalling thoughts of what that particular part of his anatomy had made her feel, she had to shake herself in order to get with the program.
Everyone in the studio thought they were having some sort of secret affair when it was anything but. For the love… she wished she was having as much fun as everyone thought.
Rayna allowed Elisa to get settled on her client chair before she examined her partially completed tattoo. It was a rather large, intricate floral design, mainly done in black with splashes of deep purple and blues. The piece already covered her client’s calf and would end on the top of her foot. There were plans to do the other leg, which was going to be more difficult since it would have to match exactly, a mirror image when she stood with her legs together, but that was fine with Rayna. She adored challenging designs, and the more complex the better she liked them. That seemed to be the case with men as well. Tegan was about as complicated as they came.
“Alright, Elisa, we should be able to finish this leg today, but the top of the foot is going to hurt, so if you need a break or want to stop, just let me know,” Rayna reassured her client.
“Alright, thanks sweetie.” Elisa returned her smile and reached for the headset that would pump Sirius radio of her choosing into her ears. “But, I think I’ll find some spa-ish tunes and try to block out the pain.”
“Of course.”
Once the girl had the headphones in place and her eyes closed, Rayna placed a gloved hand on her client’s foot letting her know it was time to begin. Touching her toe to the pedal that would bring her tattoo gun to life, her brain focused on the intricacies of the design while her libido wandered off towards more lustful meanderings.
Bumping aside embarrassing thoughts of that second kiss, she flipped back through her memories bringing forth the first kiss, that scorching moment in time that she had masturbated to on many nights. Those few erotic minutes that had taken place in the storage room where they had nearly been caught by Evana…
Searching for the latest shipment of ink bottles, they weren’t in their usual spot on the shelf. Apparently, Avie had decided to do some rearranging.
Wearing her usual attire, which was never pants, the hem of her dress had risen to just below her butt cheeks as she had completely bent over in her search when Tegan opened the door.
Accustomed to working with mostly females, she was shocked to her toes when the answer she’d received to her question came back in the form of a deep male voice. Straightening abruptly, his eyes had burned a trail from where they had been resting on her ass to pausing on her lips, but once his eyes met hers, she knew she was done for.
Hell, the first time she’d met him, she knew she was a goner. The man was a distraction beyond measure. A wet dream come to living, breathing, vivid life, and she wanted nothing more than to live out any one of the many fantasies she’d had of him after that initial meeting.
She had felt immeasurably vulnerable as he reached behind himself to quietly shut them in together. As Tegan stalked towards her, she took a tentative step forward on shaky legs. Before she realized it, he had lifted
her up by the waist and set her down on top of the clothes dryer and stepped between her parting knees.
Placing one hand on the outside of her thigh while the other cupped the back of her head, he had leaned forward brushing the silkiness of his goatee over her skin, tickling her throat and jaw before lazily sweeping across her slightly parted lips. The feel of his masculine features had made her toes curl up tight.
Hovering above her as if seeking her permission, she had granted it by closing the hair’s breadth distance making contact with surprisingly soft lips. The kiss began as a gentle quest, learning the feel of her mouth, then his tongue reached out to taste her before venturing inside to meet hers.
They had barely even started and already she had been clinging to him for dear life, her hips rocked towards him as she wanted to get closer to his warmth and relieve the building pressure in her clit. As if he knew what she wanted, he moved the hand resting on her outer thigh to cup her bottom to drag her forward to the edge of the dryer. Her legs spread wide to accommodate him, rolling her hips when she felt her hot center make contact with his zipper and the hard ridge beneath, moaning into his mouth from the contact.
Breaking the kiss, he had stared hard down into her face and slipped his hand between their bodies. Cupping her wet panties, he began a gentle massage of her heated flesh. Pushing her panties aside, he never broke eye contact when he slipped one long finger inside her sultry heat and began a gentle exploration. His thumb had joined in, making little circles around her clit.
How did he know what would set her on fire? He had her so close to cuming in less than a minute.
Reaching up to run her fingers over his goatee, she wanted to taste his lips again, feel the silkiness of his facial hair touching her skin while his finger danced inside her, but he was having none of that. As she tried to pull him towards her, he had turned his head, capturing her finger between his teeth, wrapping his sculpted lips around her appendage and sucking in time with his lazy thrusts. Odd that he wouldn’t kiss her, but she had been too worked up to care. His touch had been so fucking good.
