So much has changed over the last month that it’s been a little hard to adjust to everything. I spend most of my days running Jack’s construction business and Lyric splits her days between the tattoo parlor and the studio. Dragging her out of there for dinner earlier was good for her. She works harder than anyone I know.

Every day I see her passion for photography and art grow just a little more as she slowly lets her guard down. She’s even drawn a few tattoos up for Bailey and some random clients at the shop. The look on her face when she watches Alex permanently mark someone with her creativity is fucking priceless. I can see the pride glowing in her eyes and nothing makes me happier.

Lyric still lives next door, but she’s downstairs asleep in my bed right now. All of her stuff is at her place, but she knows where she belongs. She belongs next to me, in my arms, and in my bed. I don’t even want to imagine her anywhere else. I love that woman more and more each day and there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to show her that.

My fingers slowly strum away at the strings of my guitar, but my eyes find their way to the doorway where Lyric is wrapped up in a blanket, watching me with a smile.

She’s so damn beautiful that it creates a void not having her in my arms. Setting my guitar down, I reach out for her arm and pull her into my lap, before pressing my lips to the top of her head.

“Can’t sleep?” I softly speak next to her ear.

She shakes her head and tilts her head back to look at me. “I can’t stop thinking,” she whispers.

I brush my lips over her cheek, then down her neck before kissing it. “About what?”

She doesn’t hesitate before speaking. “You.” She reaches back and tangles her fingers in my hair before tugging me closer. “And how happy I am to have you in my life. Tonight was perfect.” She sniffs my neck and then smiles. “And about how damn sexy you smell. I could stay awake breathing you in all night.”

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I jerk her to the side so that I can press my lips against hers. Having her in my arms, here on this back porch, is almost enough to make everything seem so damn perfect.

“Play for me.” Lyric reaches down beside us and grabs my guitar, handing it back to me. “It helps me fall asleep.”

Smiling, I grab the guitar and place it on her lap, reaching my arms around her so that I can play.

We stay like this for a while, maybe even hours, just the two of us listening to the melody of my guitar. Something about the way I feel right now almost makes it feel as if I’ve known Lyric my whole life, as if she was meant to be right here in my arms. She blew into my world, knocking me on my fucking ass, and now all I want is for her to stay.

Now that she’s mine, I’m not letting her go . . .

The End

TEMPTING, INKED AND HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. Alex is all that and more . . .

I’ve made a lot of mistakes—ones I’m not proud of, and definitely ones that have left their marks both mentally and physically.

Things got lonely; I got lost in my own fucked up mind and in the end it left me fucked out of my mind and unable to fight—or at least win. That life’s over for me and I’ve moved on.

Six months into tattooing at Ravage and already I’m the most wanted and sought out tattooist. My biggest clientele consists of women.

They come into the shop, end up in my bed and we both come out happy. It’s been my release since I’ve stopped fighting. It’s become part of the “new” me.

But Tripp is back in my life and I can’t deny the fact that I would do anything for that girl.

So when she asks me to move in with her and her ‘boyfriend’—our other childhood friend—I never expected for things to get so fucked up and twisted that I would find myself only more attracted to her by each passing second or wanting to protect her from everything that isn’t me.

I have worked so hard over the years to suppress my feelings for her but when I find out that her and Lucas have been having an open relationship, I have the strong urge to rip his heart straight from his chest—to destroy the very thing that keeps him breathing.

What I didn’t expect was for Lucas to ask what he did. For him to ask me to do the one thing I have secretly longed for since I was old enough to know what the need was. The second thing I never expected was the look of need that I saw in Tripp’s eyes when he asked.

One night of free passion could change our lives forever.

I never said that was a good thing either . . .