by Jo Raven
Audrey’s red curls and Tessa’s platinum tresses catch the light. Then I see Dylan, standing like a pillar behind her, and Ash, then Tyler with his arms around Erin.
Zane isn’t with them. I don’t expect him to. I wave, and bow, and then turn around to get my stuff from the back.
A dark silhouette leans against the wall, arms folded over his broad chest, the crest of his hair casting a shadow over his face. He’s at his usual place, and I smile. He has my back. He’s always there to catch me.
And then his lips turn up in a wicked grin. He pushes off the wall and lets his gaze rake my body from head to toe. Shivers wrack me when he grabs my hand and tugs me through a door into…
“What’s this place?” It’s a small room with a couch and armchairs. Cozy.
“Private room. Kenneth said I could use it.”
“You know the bar owner?”
“Who do you think inked him?” Zane winks and closes the door, latching it. Then he turns toward me.
Holy crap… He’s dressed in low-slung gray jeans and a black T-shirt that molds to the hard planes of his chest, leaving his tattooed arms bare. He looks… delicious. And dangerous. In a good way.
His eyes burn through me. He stalks toward me, and I take a step back, my heart hammering. My back bumps into the wall, and I gasp.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He’s still walking toward me, and the swagger in his step… Holy shit.
My whole body is tight with want. My breasts tingle, and I’m wet just from watching him move.
He leans over me, bracing one hand on the wall beside me. “Hey, babe.”
I swallow thickly. “Hey.”
He touches my chin, then trails his hand down my neck, grips my waist and pulls me against him. Another gasp escapes me at the feel of his hard cock pressing into me.
I push my hands under his T-shirt, skimming his firm abs. My mouth waters at the thought of getting him naked here, in this borrowed room, touching him everywhere, tasting him…
His gaze smolders. “What am I gonna do with you?” he breathes.
“Anything,” I whisper back.
“I have a few rules,” he says as he lowers his face, and his lips brush over mine.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I don’t take girls home. I don’t kiss them. I don’t look into their eyes when I fuck them.”
I shudder.
“But you…” He nips at my mouth, making me moan with need, and grins. “I don’t know. For you I could make an exception.”
I laugh and throw my arms around his neck to kiss him properly. There’s that tiny flinch like every time I touch his scars, but he’s working on it, and he relaxes again.
I open my mouth to ask if he’s okay, and his tongue thrusts into my mouth. It strokes and licks at me, until I have to close my eyes and surrender to his kiss.
When I finally resurface for air some time later, he’s breathless like me, his cheekbones flushed, and his hard-on hot where it’s trapped between us.
“I want you,” I gasp. “I want you right here.”
“Naughty,” he pants, grinning again. It’s beautiful. He’s beautiful. And oh so sexy. “I wanna do it my way.”
I smile. “You just get off looking at my new tattoo, don’t you?”
“Hell yeah.” He grabs the hem of my blouse and pulls it up, over my head, and I lift my arms to aid him. His eyes darken when my bra is revealed, a black triangle bikini top. He growls softly and puts his hands over my breasts, then nips at my mouth again as his thumbs flick over my stiffening nipples over the soft cloth.
A second later he’s undoing my pants and pushing them down my legs, along with my black panties. I toe off my sandals, and I’m left only in my bra, squirming under his hot scrutiny.
“So pretty,” he breathes and pulls me to him, his hands smoothing down my sides, down the back to grip my ass. “Smoking hot.”
I don’t fight it when he turns me around in his arms to face the wall. I splay my hands on its surface willingly, bending over slightly. I glance at him over my shoulder. “Like this?”
“Yeah. Oh fuck…” His hands stroke my upper back where his tattoo now spreads, having my deathmoth as a centerpiece. “My girl.”
“Yours,” I whisper and shudder when his hands travel down my back to my ass and then lower, spreading me. “God, Zane…”
“Just Zane is fine,” he says, predictably, and then buries his fingers in me, making my back bow and drawing moans from my throat. “So wet. Oh Christ…You’re ready for me.”
I am, more than ready. I’ve been waiting for his touch all day. “Please, Zane.”
I hear his zipper, and then he’s nudging my entrance, slowly slipping into me. He grips my hips as he slides in deeper, and I shake with the pleasure of it. Nothing compares to Zane’s cock inside me, the feel of him.
His voice, hoarse with arousal, saying my name.
The pleasure spreads like liquid fire, licking my spine, rising up to my breasts, and I come with a cry, rocking on his hard-on. His hand slams on the wall by my head, his colorful tats swirling in my hazy vision.
I’m vaguely aware that he’s drawing out of me, still fully hard. His hands turn me around and tug me in, so that I’m flush against him, pressed to the front of his body.
“I’ve seen enough of your tattoo,” he growls. “Now I want to see your face. Your way.” He kisses me, long and deep. “I love all your ways.”
He pulls me to the sofa and sits, dragging me onto his lap. When he enters me again, it’s even more intense than before, his cock stroking me deep. He unties my bikini top and throws it off me, then bends to suck on my breasts. I’m already clenching again around him, squeezing him so hard he gasps. He licks my nipples, and I clench again, moving, riding his cock.
“Oh fuck.” His head falls back. He leans into the cushions, his hips thrusting upward. His face is flushed, his eyes closed, dark lashes shadowing his cheekbones, his beautiful lips parted. Breathtaking.
My orgasm takes me by surprise, slamming into me, forcing a keening moan from my lips. My eyes are closing, but I manage to keep them open, to see him as he comes.
His head falls back all the way, his neck arching, and he pulses inside me. “Dakota,” he whispers, and I’m lost, riding on the wave of pleasure that shakes my body. I crash on his chest, and we hold on to each other as the final tremors fade.
“I love you,” he says. “God, I…”
His eyes widen, and I look over my shoulder to see what he’s seeing.
There’s a full-length mirror on the wall behind me, and in it I see the tattoo Zane inked on my back, in its full glory.
Two dark wings, folding so they brush the small of my back, each feather perfectly drawn and inked into my skin. Between my shoulder blades is a charm, a spider web, and the deathmoth is caught in it. A fear-catcher, Zane called it when he first showed me the drawing.
I’ll give you wings, so you can fly.
And he did. As I twist to see better, the wings seem to shiver and move, ready to unfold. They’re magnificent. And of course, below the spider web…
“You had to sign it, didn’t you?” His name is there in big letters between the wings, artfully woven in the design. I turn back to Zane and give him a mock glare.
“Of course. The world needs to know you’re mine.”
I smack his arm, but I have to laugh. “I love you, Zane Madden.”
He smiles warmly, then glances again at the tattoo and looks smug. It’s so funny. Smug and aroused, which isn’t funny at all.
No, not funny, I think as his cock swells again inside me, and he groans, shifting underneath me.
So I grab his face and kiss his mouth to stop from smiling, even as my heart soars.
Table of Contents
Part I
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Part II
Chapter Five
Chap
ter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Part III
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
A month later
Acknowledgments
My first heartfelt thanks goes to my readers. Your messages, emails and Facebook posts telling me how much you like my stories motivate me, keep me writing and put a smile on my face. You are all amazing and I love you all.
Huge thanks to all the bloggers and reviewers who sent me messages asking to feature my books and spread the word. I owe you.
I want to thank my wonderful editor. Any remaining errors in the text are my fault as I tend to change things last minute.
Huge thanks to Nathalie Aynié for the constant help and support, and for the brainstorming sessions. She rocks bears in tutus!
Also huge thanks to Kia Zi Shiru for her support and help, and for the great formatting.
I also want to thank my author friends who have beta read and/or helped me with their suggestions and advice for Zane: J.A. Beard, Jean Davis and Harlow Fallon.
Finally I want to send out an enormous thank you to my amazing Street Team for their enthusiasm and support. In particular I want to thank Lucii Grubb, Beth M. Diaz, Louise Bailey, Raj Billa, Lisa Walker, Maria Poli, Myra Espino, Rhiannon Matthias, Sabrina Malbrough, and Momo Xiong.
I hope you have enjoyed ZANE (Inked Brotherhood 3). Coming next in the Inked Brotherhood series:
DYLAN (Inked Brotherhood 4)
Inked Brotherhood Series
Five boys brought together by fate. Five young men trying to overcome their troubled pasts. Five tattoos marking them as a brotherhood built on tragedy. Will they find understanding and rise above the pain?
Five girls tied by friendship. Five young women fighting their own demons. Five lives laced with sorrow. Will they be strong enough to save the men they love and make them happy?
The series composes of five interconnected, stand-alone novels: Asher, Tyler, Zane, Dylan and Rafe.
The journey starts with:
ASHER (Inked Brotherhood #1)
Almost three years ago, a car crash took Audrey’s dad and scarred her for life. Now eighteen, she returns to her hometown for the first time after the accident.
She’s here to start again. Go to college and have fun. Make new friends. Get over the past.
But the past won’t let go.
Asher is here—her first kiss, her first heartbreak. More handsome and distant than ever, he’s still the boy who used to be her best friend. That was before he changed into someone she hardly knows anymore—the boy who started getting into fights and gave her the cold shoulder for years.
Asher isn’t what she needs. In fact, she hates him and should try her best to keep away from him.
Yet her body doesn’t seem to care about how she feels, and maybe, just maybe this time her body got it right. Not that she has much of a choice. Asher draws her like a bright flame, and if she isn’t careful, she’ll burn.
And that may not be such a bad thing after all...
TYLER (Inked Brotherhood #2)
Four years have passed since I left home, my parents, and my brother Asher behind – since I shut out my past.
And Erin. Four years since I last saw her, since I heard her voice and held her in my arms. I’ve spent my time forging a path from woman to woman, from bed to bed, trying to find an answer. But I think I’ve lost my way. There’s no light at the end of the dark.
No big surprise. I carry the dark inside me. I’m a bastard – branded as such from the start. I never give my phone number and address. I take my pleasure, and don’t come back for seconds. No commitments, no promises and no happy endings. Yeah, I’m a bastard down to the bone and I don’t give a damn.
But now I’m back in my birth town, the town I fled at eighteen – back to make amends to the brother I abandoned and watch from afar the only girl I’ve ever wanted. Hope isn’t a currency I can afford. I learned that lesson long ago.
Yet when she looks at me and says my name, I can’t help but hope.
A prequel to the series (an Asher and Audrey short story) is free:
Kiss me Goodbye
At fourteen, Audrey has the perfect life: great parents, great buddies, and her best friend, Asher. Only lately Asher has begun to change. He seems distant and standoffish, ignoring Audrey.
Not all of the changes are bad. He’s growing from a pretty boy into a handsome man, and Audrey is all too aware of that. But if they cross the line from friends to something more, will things stay the same or will she lose her best friend forever?
Curious about who the boys working at Damage Control?
If you haven’t met the Damage Boyz, they are MICAH (upcoming Dec 2014), JESSE, SETH, SHANE and OCEAN.
Find all links to Jo Raven’s books here
About the Author
Jo Raven writes New Adult erotic romance. She loves sexy bad boys and strong-willed heroines, and divides her time between writing and reading. When not cooking up plots, she putters in her cluttered kitchen and dreams of traveling to India and Japan.
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Website: http://joraven.com/blog/
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