Sated in Ink
Page 1
Sated in Ink
A Montgomery Ink: Boulder Novel
Carrie Ann Ryan
Contents
Acknowledgments
Sated in Ink
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
A Note from Carrie Ann Ryan
About the Author
Also from Carrie Ann Ryan
Sated in Ink
A Montgomery Ink: Colorado Boulder Novel
* * *
By
Carrie Ann Ryan
Sated in Ink
A Montgomery Ink: Boulder Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
© 2019 Carrie Ann Ryan
ISBN: 978-1-947007-78-9
* * *
Cover Art by Charity Hendry
Photograph by Wander Photography
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This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan
“Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT
“Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner
"With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend
“Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon
Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn
"Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte
Dedication
To those who need that push to take a chance.
Acknowledgments
Writing is never easy and while my day is usually filled with alone time, I’m never truly alone while writing.
This book took more than a single team, it took a family.
Thank you Chelle for breaking this book down for me when we lost the limbs and perhaps a soul or two. Writing menages are always fun, but sometimes it takes a special editor to make sure I did it right. You’re more than special.
Thank you Jenn and your makeup artist. The words sunburn will never be uttered again!
Thank you Charity and Staci for this amazing cover! Ethan is a homebody. A scientist. And a sexy Montgomery. Y’all did this book justice!
Thank you Jessica, Kyla, Meghan, Beth, and Chelle B. for pushing me on this book. I swear I’m never moving across country again! Thank you for helping me focus.
And thank you dear readers. Seriously. I LOVE writing the Montgomerys. Thank you for still loving them and wanting more and more. These guys are my second family and I feel like I’m an honorary Montgomery.
Happy reading, everyone!
~Carrie Ann
Sated in Ink
The Montgomery Ink saga continues in a seductive romance where a runaway bride and two best friends might just take the chance of a lifetime.
Ethan Montgomery thought he had his life figured out until the moment he and his best friend met a woman in a wedding dress drinking wine out of a paper bag. He might work too many hours and always seems to put his family and friends first. Still, when he finally opens up to Holland and Lincoln, he may just get everything he’s ever wanted.
Holland Yeaton made a horrible mistake, and running out on her wedding seemed like the only thing to do at the time. Taking the next step of her life on her own won’t be easy, but now she has two sexy and bearded strangers to help her figure out exactly what she desires.
Lincoln McClard has loved his best friend for as long as he can remember. Only he’s never dared to do anything about it. Instead, he puts all of his sexual frustration into his art. As soon as he meets Holland, he realizes exactly why he waited for Ethan and what has been missing all along.
However, it’s not only the three of them in this tangled and steamy relationship. And if they aren’t careful, it won’t only be their feelings that get hurt…and broken.
Prologue
Holland
* * *
The breeze slid through my hair, and I tried to let it calm me, tried to let it through the shell I’d wrapped around myself the moment I walked into the storage room of the church. My fingers crinkled around the paper bag in my hand, and I looked down at what I carried as if I’d forgotten about it.
But I couldn’t. No, I couldn’t.
Not when it was a reminder of what I’d lost. What I’d walked out on.
I had cheap wine in a paper bag in my left hand. The diamond ring on my fourth finger mocking me with its sparkle. The puffy, white dress that held me like a straitjacket rustled in the breeze.
My heart ached as if something wrapped around it with spindly fingers and squeezed until it robbed me of breath, of sanity, of life.
My fiancé wasn’t my fiancé anymore.
The man I loved, or thought I loved, didn’t love me the way I thought he did.
Instead, he loved himself. And maybe even loved my sister. How else could I have walked in on him getting a blowjob from my sister as if it hadn’t been the first time? And likely wouldn’t be the last. I let out a rough chuckle, then looked down at the wine, wondering if I should drink it.
Would that make the ache go away? Would that make anything go away? In the end, however, it didn’t matter.
The man I loved wasn’t the man I thought he was.
Apparently, I wasn’t the woman I thought I was either. Because if I were…maybe I would have seen it long before this. I wouldn’t have run out on my wedding day.
I wouldn’t have become a runaway bride.
I slid into the bench in front of me and discreetly sipped at my wine.
I just wanted to breathe. To be alone.
I never wanted to talk to anyone ever again.
As I looked down at my dress, I knew I didn’t want to be this Holland.
And I truly, truly never wanted to speak to or like or love a man again.
Ever.
Chapter
1
“I’m not that bad at Mario Kart.” Ethan Montgomery panted as they turned the corner on their jog.
Lincoln shook his head. “You’re pretty bad. I mean, it’s a family joke for a reason.”
Ethan just sighed at his friend’s words, kind of hurt. And…mostly not. After all, he was really bad at Mario Kart. He had no idea why. It should be easy.
“And there you are, telling yourself in your head that it should be easy because you have degrees and you work with computers for a living. That you program things. You could literally save the world with your research. Yet you can’t figure out how to hit a single little Miss Peach with a green shell.”
Lincoln didn’t sound out of breath at all, and Ethan wanted to shake his best friend. Just a little. How was it that even though he and Lincoln jogged together three times a week on this path, Lincoln was always in better shape?
Okay, it was probably because while Lincoln’s job could be sedentary, he did his best to work out and stand while he did it, as well. Ethan, not so much. After all, being a computational chemist meant you had to be at a computer. And he didn’t really like using a standing desk. It hurt his feet. He sat. A lot. He wasn’t out of shape, not really, but it sure as hell sounded like it when he was standing next to his best friend.
His very hot best friend.
Yes, he had noticed. He had noticed a lot. Ever since that first time he had seen him without a shirt, when they had been fourteen or so, Ethan Montgomery had had a crush on his best friend Lincoln. But there was no way he was ever going to tell him that. There were rules about that sort of thing. You never fell for the best friend, especially when Lincoln was practically a Montgomery. He was family. And messing that up with crushes and hormones and hard dicks really wasn’t worth the pain. He would rather have Lincoln as his best friend than know what Lincoln’s dick felt like in his hands.
He held back a groan as his own cock started to harden behind the fabric of his jogging shorts, and he kind of wished he had worn tighter underwear. Now, the rest of his jog would hurt even more than it already did.
“Are you even listening to me?” Lincoln asked seriously, still not out of breath. How did he do that?
“I’m listening to you. And I’ll have you know, I hit Peach last time with a green shell.”
“You were playing as Princess Peach, Ethan. It doesn’t count if you hit a wall and then hit yourself with your own goddamn shell.” He looked over at Lincoln, trying to act affronted. Instead, he burst out laughing right along with his best friend.
Of course, then he tripped over his own two feet and had to pause on the side of the walkway to rest his palms on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
“You are not this out of shape,” Lincoln said, shaking his head at Ethan. “What’s wrong?”
“I think I am. Must have been all those nachos I ate the night before last.” He rubbed his belly, and Lincoln’s eyes drifted there, narrowing.
“I’ve seen you without a shirt. You are just as ripped as the rest of the Montgomerys. I don’t understand how all of you guys can be so pretty. Even the cousins. It’s a little disconcerting.”
Ethan fluttered his eyelashes at him, and Lincoln pushed at his shoulder. “Aw, you think we’re pretty? You’re so sweet.”
“And you’re an asshole.”
“I am not. You’re the asshole.”
Ethan shoved at him, and then they both laughed again before heading off to finish their jog.
“How many more miles do we have?” Ethan asked. He wasn’t panting as badly as he had been before, but it still wasn’t great.
“We have a little bit to go. Don’t be a baby. You get like this at mile two every single time. Then, as soon as we get to mile three, you’re just fine.”
“You know me so well,” Ethan said, glancing over at Lincoln.
Lincoln just shrugged and continued on his jog. And he did know Ethan well. After all, they had been best friends since elementary school. They met in class and had been forced to sit together thanks to their last names. McClard and Montgomery in all its alphabetical glory meant the two of them had been paired early and often.
It was dumb luck that they had actually gotten along, considering all the forced proximity. But then they had shared their pudding cups and they’d been best friends ever since.
The fact that Ethan had had a crush on Lincoln since middle school was something that went unsaid. Lincoln didn’t have a clue about Ethan’s feelings. And for that, Ethan was grateful. It was just a little crush, probably because Ethan knew Lincoln so well. And the fact that the man was hot. Ethan couldn’t help it. He had always been attracted to any gender. Of course, it hadn’t been until he saw Lincoln shirtless that he really wondered why he’d stared at boys just as much as he had at girls.
Maybe Lincoln had been the catalyst for that, but he hadn’t really been the first man Ethan had noticed or found attractive.
Come on, Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall with that glorious mane of hair did wonders for many coming-outs.
And it wasn’t like Ethan had time to date anyway. He was working on two projects right now, both of which were stalled, meaning he was working so many hours, he had a feeling if he set up a cot in his office, no one would mind. It would simply mean more output.
And while he would have loved to be able to do all his work from home since he worked from the computer, one of the projects was for the Department of Defense, and that meant he had to be connected to a certain server. The other he could set up his run times at home, but having to log in from a proxy server wasn’t easy from his home all the time. It was just easier to go in, get his work done, and be able to talk out some of his frustrations and mathematical equations with his coworkers.
That meant that, sometimes, he didn’t see his family and Lincoln as much as he wanted to. But that was fine, they understood. They had to. Right?
“How much longer?” Ethan panted.
“We’re almost done. And then you can get your crawler like you want to and pretend that you’re not eating sugar and greasy carbs.”
“You always eat the other half, and then we go and get a sugary coffee. I don’t know why you’re judging me.”
“I would have better self-control if you weren’t involved,” Lincoln snapped and then blushed.
Ethan’s brows rose. Lincoln rarely blushed. He rarely showed any emotion. The man was an artist, but he went against the grain with what a stereotypical painter was thought to be like. Lincoln wasn’t flamboyant or broody or even moody. He got shit done. That blush was weird, and Ethan had no idea why it had even happened.
Lincoln was a talented painter, one who was already making waves in his circles, and people had started to recognize him at art shows.
People knew his name, his talents, and Ethan was just glad to be there. Because his best friend was one talented motherfucker, and he loved it.
He had Lincoln’s first-ever painting in his living room, after all. Lincoln constantly tried to steal it back—not because he wanted to sell it, but because he said it wasn’t good enough. That there were errors and flaws.
But Ethan didn’t see any of those. He just saw a gift from a friend, one that spoke of so much raw talent and potential that it sometimes brought Ethan to his knees.
He didn’t really get art, or what made things pretty or beautiful. He just knew what he liked, and he liked Lincoln’s work.
He just liked Lincoln.
And that was enough of that.
He needed to get his mind off Lincoln and away from that train of thought. Maybe he should get laid, actually go on a date with someone, and/or maybe even find a new vocation where he didn’t work so many hours—even if he loved his job.
Spending all of his free time with Lincoln probably wouldn’t help this whole getting-over-his-crush thing.
They ran for another mile, Ethan almost out of breath, and Lincoln finally panting by the end of it.
“We can cool down and head over
to the donut place,” Lincoln finally said, and Ethan cursed out loud.
“Did you not want to stop?” Lincoln asked, his hands on his hips as he cooled down.
“Oh, I was just cursing out of gratitude.”
“I didn’t sleep well enough last night, I don’t think,” Ethan said, running his hand over his face and looking down at it. “Seriously. It’s Boulder, it’s not supposed to be humid. Why am I sweating this much?”
“Well, we did take a week off from running, and you hate cardio. You’re much better at swimming and lifting.” Lincoln handed over the water bottle that he had strapped to his wrist and Ethan took it greedily. He hadn’t been lying when he said that he hadn’t slept well the night before. He had forgotten his water bottle today, and the little strap that went to his wrist that Lincoln had bought him the Christmas before so they would have water on their runs.
“Why don’t we swim?”
“Because the two public swimming pools that we could use in the mornings are now overrun with children. It’s that time of year. There’s a private one up in Westminster that I’ve been looking at. But the dues are astronomical.”
Ethan grinned, touched and not surprised at the fact that Lincoln had been looking into it for them. Ethan had put it on his list but had forgotten because he’d gotten so busy. And he hated that forgetting both small and important things because he was focused on his work had become the norm. But Lincoln always tried to make sure that he came first. So that meant Ethan was going to keep trying to do the same for him.