Inked on Paper

by Nicole Edwards

  “What about the others? The ones who think you’re to blame?”

  “I don’t give a fuck what they think.” Her forehead knitted. “Sure, it hurts that they’d immediately blame me, but that’s on them. Not me. I was given a reputation a long time ago of being the rebel, not conforming. I argued with my parents more than most kids, defied them every chance that I got. But I never cheated, never did something that would intentionally hurt another person. That doesn’t mean I can change the way they see me. Nor does it mean that I want to.”

  Okay, so that hadn’t played out quite the way I’d anticipated, but I definitely liked it. Kora was much stronger than I’d initially given her credit for, and I’d known all along that she was strong.

  Donovan continued to stare at her. He realized that she had been bottling up her emotions, but she hadn’t simply brushed it all under the rug. Kora Madison was confident and smart, and above all else, she knew who she was.

  And that was a fucking trait that most people didn’t have.

  “You’re stronger than they realize,” he told her.

  “Yes, I am. And I’m not broken, no matter what you might think.”

  “Oh, love, I definitely don’t think you’re broken,” he told her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “I think you’re smart and sexy as fuck. I think you know what you want and you go after it. Same as I do.”

  Kora moved and Donovan let her go, but she didn’t go far.

  No, Kora surprised him when she turned to face him, straddling his legs, grinding against his aching dick.

  “And what do you want, Mr. Brashwood?”

  He didn’t even have to think on that one. “You.”

  “What if I don’t want you?”

  Donovan smiled. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t.”

  He knew she couldn’t do it.

  Cupping her face, he brushed his thumb over her cheek. “One night won’t be enough for me, Kora.”

  “What if that’s all I’m willing to give?”

  He did have to consider that for a moment, but he wasn’t going to tell her what she wanted to hear, he was sure of that.

  “I’m not looking for more,” Kora said, her eyes searching his.

  “Then we’ll just have to figure out a way to compromise, now won’t we?”

  Hmm. Compromise. Interesting.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Jake

  Tuesday night

  “Wow, I’m surprised you made it.”

  I ignored the sarcastic greeting from my sister because I knew Paige was as excited to be at my mother’s as I was. Although our dinners were generally once a month on Thursday, it appeared my mother was switching things up a bit. Part of me was curious as to why; the other part didn’t want to know.

  “If I recall, you’re the one who left me hanging last month,” I mumbled as I took off my coat and nodded to Alan, who was sitting in his man cave, watching us closely.

  “I had a good excuse,” she said, smiling.

  “There’s never a good excuse,” I told her. “Where’s Abby?”

  “A date,” Paige stated, her nose scrunching as she said it.

  Wait. What? “A date, huh? Since when did she start dating? Where’re they going? Did you meet him?”

  Paige looked at me, grinning. I knew I’d just sounded like a terrified parent, but what the fuck? When had my niece started dating?

  “Yes, I met him.”

  “That’s the question you chose to answer?” I rolled my eyes at her. “And…” I chuckled, placing my arm around Paige’s shoulders and steering her toward the kitchen.

  “And nothing. It’s a date.”

  “What about the kid? Is he nice? Does he have a rap sheet? Any visible tattoos?”

  Paige smacked me in the chest. “He’s a nice young man.”

  “It won’t last,” I told her, laughing. “No girl wants a nice boy.”

  “You don’t know how true that is,” Paige snapped. “And that’s the problem.”

  Before I could interrogate her more about Abby’s date, we had made it into the overly bright kitchen, where Deborah was in the process of pouring something from a container into a large metal pot.

  “What’d you make?” I inquired, watching her carefully.

  As usual, my mother jumped, nearly sending the thick brown liquid all over the floor. Luckily, my cat reflexes chose that moment to kick in, and I managed to secure it before that happened.

  “Stew,” Deborah remarked softly, and I knew instantly that something was wrong, but I had no idea whether or not I wanted to know what it was.

  “Smells fantastic, Mom,” Paige inserted, saving me from having to ask.

  “Thanks.”

  I glanced at Paige, but my sister merely shrugged.

  “So, Abs tells me you went away for the weekend,” Paige prompted.

  “That kid’s got a big mouth.” I maneuvered around the counter and took a seat at the bar beside her.

  “Yes, well. She’s fifteen, what’d you expect?”

  “A little discretion would’ve been nice.”

  “Who’d you go away with?” my mother asked.

  “A friend,” I said quickly. Both women stopped suddenly and stared at me. “What?” I didn’t understand why they were looking at me as though that were a crime.

  “A woman friend?” Paige inquired.

  “Yes. A woman friend. Are you happy now?”

  “No,” she retorted. “And I won’t be until you tell me who she is and when you’re gonna put a ring on her finger.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I didn’t look my sister in the eye when I said that because she knew me all too well. I didn’t talk about women. Ever. And generally, if she mentioned marriage in any way, shape, or form, I sneered at her.

  I hadn’t sneered.

  In fact, for the first time in my life, the thought of marriage didn’t terrify me. I’d finally accepted that Presley was different than all the other women I’d met, and I was ready to figure out where this was going.

  Not that I would share that detail with my sister or my mother. Or anyone, for that matter.

  “She’s the one Josie was talking about. Cute and covered in tattoos.”

  I didn’t comment.

  “So, is it serious?”

  It was for me, but I didn’t comment on that, either.

  Paige’s eyes widened, but before she could contribute her two cents, my mother tossed a metal spoon into the pan—the clang making my ears ring—then snatched it up and carried it to the kitchen table before I had a chance to get up and help her. Once again I looked at my sister, trying to see if she had a read on what my mother’s issue was. It was something, I knew that for a fact, but again, I wasn’t sure I wanted the details.

  “Alan, get your ass in here to eat!” Deborah yelled, not bothering to look down the hall.

  Well, okay then. It appeared that my mother’s issue had to do with husband number nine. Didn’t surprise me.

  I stood beside Paige, waiting for Alan to appear.

  He didn’t.

  Aww, hell.

  It looked like there was trouble in paradise. The honeymoon phase was over, and this could possibly be a record for my mother. They were ten months into the marriage, and she no longer seemed infatuated with the guy. The last marriage of hers that had lasted that long had been with Paige’s father, and my mother had always insisted he was simply wild and untamable.

  There wasn’t a damn thing wild about Alan, so I wasn’t holding out hope for their happy ever after.

  “Sit,” my mother ordered, nodding toward the table.

  I followed Paige around to the far side, slowly sliding into the chair, trying to gauge what was going to happen. A storm was brewing, I could tell.

  “So, how’s the book?” Paige asked, her words spoken louder than necessary, but I understood what she was doing. Providing a topic was probably the only way to salvage the evening.

&n
bsp; “It’s almost finished.”

  “Yeah?” Her eyes lit up. “That’s a good thing, right? This girl must’ve done something right.”

  Presley had done everything right, but I didn’t say as much. “Let’s just say I’ve been inspired.”

  “Too bad real life’s not like fiction,” Deborah mumbled under her breath before flopping down into the chair.

  I noticed that Alan hadn’t joined us, and since this was the second month in a row that I’d come for dinner where he didn’t participate, I knew he was about to be kicked to the curb.

  I briefly wondered whether or not they would even make it to Valentine’s Day next week.

  “Well, we all know it’s definitely not like fiction,” Paige noted, spooning stew into the bowl in front of her.

  I’d grown up with two women, and I knew when not to contribute to the conversation. These two were in a mood tonight, and the last thing I wanted was to have their ire directed at me.

  I’d much rather let Alan deal with that.

  After all, since he still didn’t have a job, he was bound to have more free time on his hands than I did.

  Chapter Sixty

  Presley

  When I’d suggested that Blaze and Gavin meet me at Lucky Lounge tonight, I hadn’t expected either of them to agree, but I couldn’t deny that I was glad they had.

  Or I had been right up until the two of them took a seat at the table I’d secured.

  Something was going on between them and I knew this wasn’t good.

  “How was your weekend?” I asked Blaze, trying to spark conversation since I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her at all since Jake and I had gotten back from the cabin. I had been coming into the shop at the same time she’d been leaving yesterday, and then today, she’d taken a personal day for some reason.

  I was beginning to think that reason was sporting a man bun and a scraggly goatee.

  “Fine,” she said, sipping her beer and glancing around the nearly empty bar.

  “And you?” I asked Gavin.

  “Same.”

  Okay, definitely something going on. Was I supposed to pry it out of them? Or leave it alone? I opted for the latter.

  “Well, my weekend was perfect,” I said, inserting an annoying amount of saccharine in my tone.

  Both of their heads snapped toward me, as I’d expected.

  “Kidding!” I laughed, lifting my beer bottle to my lips. Only I wasn’t really kidding. The weekend had been perfect. Too perfect.

  “Oh, my God. You’re not kidding.” Leave it to Blaze to call me to the carpet.

  “It was good, sure,” I told her, now wishing I’d kept my mouth shut.

  “Good as in multiple orgasm good?”

  “Maybe.” I felt my face heat as I glanced between the two of them. “Okay, spit it out. What the fuck is going on with you two?”

  “Nothing,” Blaze said, her tone full of innocence.

  “Liar.” I glanced at Gavin. “Was there an orgy at the condo?”

  “No,” he said gruffly, sounding somewhat disappointed.

  “So, what the hell’s going on?”

  Neither of them said anything and that’s when I realized what had happened. It made perfect sense, the way they were acting strange, not at all like the fun-loving people I knew them to be.

  “Oh, shit,” I muttered.

  “Oh, shit, what?” Gavin frowned.

  “Y’all had sex.”

  “Uh…” Blaze nearly denied it, but I knew she didn’t have it in her. She was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them. The smile that curved the corner of her mouth told me I was right.

  I took a swig of my beer, then gently set it on the table. “So, you had sex and what? Realized it was a mistake?”

  Gavin’s dark blue eyes lifted to meet mine. “Actually, no.”

  “No, you didn’t have sex? Or no, it wasn’t a mistake?”

  “The second one,” Blaze said, her gaze avoiding me at all costs.

  “And that’s a bad thing?” I asked, suddenly incredibly confused. If they’d had sex and enjoyed it, why the hell did they look so glum?

  “Isn’t it?” Gavin asked, planting his elbows on the table, his blue eyes pinning me in place.

  “Why would it be?”

  “Shit if I know,” he grumbled.

  “For fuck’s sake.” These two were something else. They’d been doing this dance for a long time, and now they didn’t want to cop to having feelings for one another. “If this was a good thing,” I began, “and you’re both happy about it, then why does there have to be an issue?”

  “Isn’t that the way it works?” Blaze snorted. “No matter what, there’s always an excuse? A reason things can’t work out?”

  I was about to add my two cents, but then I thought about Jake. No matter how I felt about him, I was still trying to put distance between us. Despite the fact I wanted to see him because I hadn’t seen him since we’d gotten back to town on Sunday, I hadn’t bothered to call or text him. I was withdrawing, and I knew it was shitty to do, yet I couldn’t seem to help myself. Jake scared me in so many ways.

  Except I did have an excuse. A legitimate one. He had all but admitted that he’d been pursuing me because his editor had told him to. Since I inspired his ability to write, I was merely a means to an end.

  The thought made my chest tighten.

  Instead of being a hypocrite, I kept my mouth shut and took a long pull on my beer, glancing around the room, adding to the awkwardness that had settled at our table.

  “So how was the weekend really?” Gavin asked, circling back to the original subject.

  “It was good.”

  “Get any drawing done?”

  “A little.”

  “So, Jake does provide you inspiration, huh?”

  The safe answer to that would be yes, but I didn’t want that to be the case. When it really dawned on me that the last time I’d been inspired was when Adrian and I had dated, I definitely didn’t want to think that I’d come to rely on a guy like that.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what he provides me.”

  Realizing I’d spoken those words aloud, I looked up to see my two closest friends staring back at me.

  “You’re serious about this guy,” Blaze accused.

  “What?” I grimaced. “No way. We had a good time. I hardly know him.”

  “Hardly know him?” Blaze gave Gavin a look that said I was off my rocker, then she turned her attention back to me. “You’ve been seeing him for what? A month?”

  Not quite, but it wasn’t like I was counting, either.

  Blaze shook her head. “You know him better than you think you do.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Because you trust him,” she announced. “And we all know that you don’t come by that easily. He’s the first guy you’ve trusted in a long time, Pres.”

  True. He was. And it was true; I did trust him. More than I wanted to admit. I still had my doubts, but I didn’t think he had any malicious intent. We liked each other, the sex was phenomenal, of that I was certain.

  “But they’re all the same,” I told her. “He’s rock star famous, which means it won’t last. We all know what happened the last time I lost my mind and went that route.”

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Gavin said sadly.

  I started to argue, but I realized Gavin wasn’t simply making conversation. He was stating a fact.

  I studied him, waiting to see if he would elaborate.

  Oh, my God. He knew.

  Blaze’s head turned from side to side as she looked from one of us to the other. I didn’t know what to say to that, didn’t know if I should explain myself or not. Gavin made it simple for me when he placed his hand over mine across the table.

  “Adrian’s my brother and I love him, but he’s a pig, Presley. The worst kind, at that.”

  “You know what he did?” I asked, keeping my voice low but unable to contain the anger. />
  Gavin nodded.

  “How?”

  His eyes lifted slowly, coming to rest on mine before he said the words that nearly ripped me to pieces.

  “I sent you over there so you’d catch him in the act.”

  My jaw nearly scraped the table as I stared back at him. “You’ve let me go on this entire time taking the blame and you knew all along that he was fucking other women?”

  “No one made you take the blame for that,” he said defensively.

  “No, maybe not,” I countered. “But I care enough about you that I wasn’t going to let that asshole come between us.”

  “Why would you think he would?” Gavin shouted, his eyes blazing. It was almost as though I’d offended him.

  “Because he’s your brother.”

  Blaze reached across the table and placed one hand on my arm, the other on Gavin’s shoulder. “Guys…”

  “No, fuck you,” I snapped, still staring at Gavin. “You could’ve told me the truth.”

  “Yeah? Well, you could’ve told me the truth, too. It’s a two-way street, Presley. And trust goes both ways.”

  I tried to come up with something to say to that but couldn’t find the words. Instead, I pushed my seat back and shot to my feet, glaring at Gavin for a long second before I turned and stormed out of the building.

  I didn’t stop until I got to my condo, but when I reached my floor, it wasn’t my door I headed for.

  No, the last thing I wanted was to be alone.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Jake

  I was sitting on the couch, rereading the first few chapters of my book, when there was a soft knock on the door. Tossing the notebook to the table, I got to my feet, sidestepped Cat, who was lying right in the way, as usual, and headed for the door. I checked the security hole and noticed Presley standing in the hall, her head down.

  I pulled open the door, ready to greet her by pulling her into my arms and admitting how much I’d missed her, but then her eyes lifted to mine, and I noticed she’d been crying. That primal part of me took over.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, reaching for her hand and tugging her inside my condo before closing the door behind her. I stared down at her. “What happened, Presley?”