Inked on Paper (35 page)

Chapter Seventy-Two

Presley

As I read the final piece of Kora and Donovan’s love story, I couldn’t hold back the tears. Not only because the story gripped me and I was happy with the way things worked out, but also because I saw so much of me in this book, so much of Jake.

I’d never considered the fact that when an author wrote a book, he relied on experiences that had shaped his world to do so. For the most part, I understood that it was fiction, but for the first time in my life, I realized just how much of Jake’s heart went into his writing.

As I turned the page, I saw that there was something written after
The End
, so I kept reading.

I saw you in this coffee shop a month ago, and since that moment, I’ve been inspired. Not necessarily to write, although you definitely were the inspiration behind that, as well. I once told you that I started writing when I was a teenager, coming up with stories that depicted my life with an alternate ending. I never could’ve come up with a story such as this. Not even fiction could be this incredible.

Hopefully when you read Kora and Donovan, you saw what I’d envisioned. Two people who meet and know from that very first moment that this … was different, that the world wasn’t as cold and dreary as they’d once thought, that they could find themselves when the other was present, be who they were meant to be. You did that for me, Presley. You made me want to be someone different, someone worthy of you.

Unlike Donovan, though, I do know the true depth of my feelings at this very moment. I know what I want, where I want my life to go. I told you that when I’m with you, I feel as though I can do anything. That’s still true. And you asked me where we were to go from there.

“Anywhere we want,” I mumbled, remembering that conversation in the kitchen of my dad’s cabin.

Anywhere we want. And I still believe that.

Do you?

I looked up at Jake to find him staring at me, watching me intently. I glanced down at the notebook and saw that he’d read my note as well.

“Looks like we were on the same page,” I said, unable to keep the tears from sliding down my cheeks.

He didn’t respond, but I could see a wealth of emotion in his eyes.

“So where
do
we go from here?” I asked, moving my sketchbook toward him.

“Don’t know,” he said softly. “That all depends on you.”

I glanced down at my sketchbook, then opened it. I smiled over at him. “I wrote one more thing that I want to show you.”

I turned the book around so that it was open to the page I’d intended.

Jake leaned over.

My heart pounded hard in my chest as I watched him, hoping he understood me as well as I thought he did.

On the page, I had the words
once upon a time …
along with a snapshot taped over the original drawing I’d started of him. Below that, three words I’d never said to a man before.

I love you.

Jake’s eyes snapped up to meet mine, but before I could ask him what he thought, he reached for me, pulling me right out of my chair and into his lap. His hands cupped my face, his fingers dipping underneath the hood, his thumbs sliding over my lips.

At that point, words weren’t necessary. I could see everything he was feeling right there in those exquisite emerald-green eyes, and I knew he could see the same in mine.

“Anywhere we want,” I told him. “That’s where I want us to go. You and me.”

Jake nodded and I saw his throat work slowly as he swallowed. I was pretty sure he was as choked up as I was.

When he didn’t move, I whispered, “I love you.”

His lips curled up at the corners. “I love you, too, Presley.”

We stared at one another for a minute before I finally said, “Are you gonna kiss me?”

“Oh, yeah. For a long, long time.”

And that kiss … right there in the coffee shop where we’d met … was the greatest moment of my life.

At least up to that point.

Chapter Seventy-Three

Jake

Friday afternoon

“You can’t move,” Presley insisted, taking my hand and shifting it so that it was where she wanted it to be.

I nodded, but then my phone rang. She lifted her eyes to meet mine and quirked an eyebrow.

“Sorry,” I muttered, then hit the talk button and put the phone to my ear, keeping as still as I could. “Hey, Liz,” I said into the phone.

The sound of Presley’s tattoo gun came to life, and I stared down at my hand while trying to focus on not moving.

“Jacob Wild! Have I told you how much I love you?”

“Not lately you haven’t, no,” I said, watching as Presley started working on my tattoo.

“Well, it’s official. I do. And thank you, by the way, for finishing the book. It’s fantastic.”

“You think so?”

“Of course. And I think people are gonna love it. It’s a little shorter than I’d hoped it would be, but maybe I can get you to write an epilogue.”

I sighed. “Seriously?”

“Well, that or we’ll make it into a serial and you can do two more books.”

“Nope, an epilogue works,” I said quickly. “People don’t like cliffhangers.”

“That’s what I thought.” She paused for a moment. “What’s that noise?”

“Tattoo gun,” I explained. “The woman I plan to make my wife one day is tattooing me. Hot, right?”

Liz laughed at the same time Presley pulled the needle back from my skin, her head lifting and her eyes meeting mine. I smiled. Couldn’t help it.

“So when do you think you can get me that epilogue? I need to get this over to the copyeditor.”

“I’ll have it to you by Monday,” I assured her.

“Perfect. All right, I’ve got a million things to do. I’ll talk to you Monday.”

I hit the button to end the call and set the phone on my leg, watching as Presley resumed working on me. The bell on the front door dinged, but I didn’t dare move, so I kept watching her.

“Hey, bitch! You sleepin’ over there or what?”

I didn’t have to turn around to know that was Blaze. She and I hadn’t met until yesterday after Presley and I had gone back to her place once we left the coffee shop, but it was safe to say, that was a woman most people would never forget.

“Hey,” Presley greeted, pausing momentarily to look up. Her smile widened, and I glanced in the mirror to see that Gavin was standing next to Blaze.

“Oh, hey,” Gavin said, his gaze sliding to me as he pulled something from his pocket. “That thing you mentioned was delivered.”

“Yeah?”

Gavin was looking down at his phone when Presley looked up at him.

“I put it up like you asked,” he said, “and took a picture.”

Gavin held out his phone, and I noticed Presley’s eyes go wide when she saw it.

“Is that…?” Her mouth fell open.

“It is.” I’d bought her drawing from the art gallery and had asked Gavin to put it above the mantel if I wasn’t home when it arrived.

Presley’s eyes met mine, a sheen of moisture covering them. A smile formed on her mouth. “I hope you know I’m also putting the one of you up, too.”

“Just not above my bed,” I told her. “It’ll be creepy to look at myself when I’m—”

Blaze cleared her throat, interrupting me and making me laugh. “Y’all almost done here, or what? We’ve got some celebrating to do.”

“A few more minutes,” Presley said, then turned her attention back to my hand. She wiped more ointment on my skin, then went back to work.

“Where’re we going?” I asked.

“Wherever they have booze,” Gavin answered.

“You seen Blue?” Blaze questioned.

“He ran out to get food,” Presley mumbled, not looking up.

The bell above the door clanged, and once again, I didn’t budge.

“Just the guy I was looking for,” Blaze said cheerfully. “You going out with us tonight? Remember that girl I was telling you about? She’ll be there.”

I couldn’t see Blue, but I could hear the excitement in his voice when he agreed that he would be there.

“That explains why he was following her around like a puppy. She was gonna set him up,” Presley mumbled to herself.

I wondered if she always did that when she tattooed someone, but I didn’t ask, not wanting to interrupt.

Blaze and Gavin moved closer to check out the ink as Presley was finishing up. I held up my other hand so they could see the first one she’d done.

I looked up at them as they read the two words in decorative scroll on the outside of my left hand.

“I assume there’s a story there,” Blaze said, nodding at my hand.

Presley lifted her head and my eyes met hers. We both laughed.

There was definitely a story there.

A good one, too, if Liz could be trusted.

“All set,” Presley stated.

I glanced down at my right hand and smiled. The tattoos had been her idea, but I liked them. Now, every time I went to write, I would see them and think of her because right there on my left hand were the words:

And on my right:

Epilogue

Jake

Six months later…

I sat at the table, scribbling my name in a book, when the next person in line arrived. For the first time ever, being at a book signing didn’t make me incredibly anxious. Probably because I had Presley seated next to me, keeping me calm.

She had an incredible knack with people, and she’d engaged in conversation while I signed book after book. I found it amusing that most of the people wanted to talk to her, wanted to know more about the woman who had inspired my last book. I had dedicated the book to Presley, thanking her for being my inspiration. I hadn’t mentioned the book specifically, people just assumed, and I was okay with that.

It had been Josie’s idea to leak that little tidbit to the world, and it had been a brilliant plan. Presley now had her own fan page, which she found a little intimidating, but she was dealing with it well. She said the hardest part was having to continuously explain to people that she wasn’t Kora and the things that had happened did not happen between her and me.

I looked up in time to see Abby and Paige walking toward the table, both of them grinning from ear to ear.

“So, this is what you do on a Saturday afternoon,” Abby said.

“Sometimes.”

When Abby came around the table, I gave her a hug, and when she whispered, “I’m proud of you,” in my ear, I nearly faltered.

Glancing down at her, I smiled. “You’re the coolest kid ever, you know that?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Okay, we’re holding up the line here,” Paige announced. “Let’s get our copy and move on.”

“You’re not gonna read that one, are you?” Presley asked Abby.

“Not yet,” Abby replied. “But one day I will. And then, when I have cousins, I’ll tell them all about their mom and dad’s romance.”

“You do know that’s fiction, right?” I questioned.

“Or so you say,” she teased.

Oh, hell.

Presley laughed as Paige ushered Abby away with a quick wave.

“You can make that one out to the hottest bitch on the planet.”

I looked over to see Blaze and Gavin standing at the table, grinning back at me.

“As long as your man doesn’t threaten to castrate me for it.” I looked at Gavin, who was rolling his eyes.

As I scribbled those words on the first page, Presley got up and hugged them both.

“So, you ready for your next tattoo?” Blaze asked me.

I glanced down at my hands and the words
Chapter One
tattooed on my left hand and
The End
tattooed on my right. “I’m thinking about another one,” I told her.

Though it didn’t bother me at all, Blaze continued to give me shit about the tattoos, insisting I needed something bigger, since they were so small. She had insisted I was a pussy—it had been said with love, she’d assured me—and that I should’ve had it tattooed across my chest. Presley had disagreed, wanting me to see the words every time I was working, just so I would think of her.

According to Presley, the words were there, on the outsides of each of my hands to show where the story comes from—whether it was inked on paper or typed on the computer, it comes from me, from somewhere deep inside and was delivered by my hands.

I didn’t need the tattoos to think of her. She was a part of my life, the first thing I thought about when I woke up every morning and the last thing I thought about before I went to sleep. She was the love of my life, and with or without the tattoos, I would never stop thinking about her.

“So, we still on for dinner tonight?” Gavin asked when I passed the book back.

“Dinner works,” I told him.

“Cool.”

“Hey, you two, move it along,” Josie called out. “You’re holding up the line.”

“You wouldn’t be giving the orders if Gil was here,” Blaze countered, grinning from ear to ear.

“Aww, she’s cute when she blushes,” Presley noted, making Josie’s cheeks redden more.

We were all still wondering how that was going to play out, but I had asked Gil to come by and help move some furniture one day, and Josie had been there. From the moment the two of them had spotted each other, it had been … strange. One of those moments that were written in romance novels but weren’t seen by the naked eye.

That was four months ago, and none of us had figured out what her secret was or how she’d converted Gil Garner the Man Whore into something that resembled normal, but she had. And they were spending a lot of time together.

“Am I gonna get a break anytime soon?” I asked Josie. “I have someone … er … some
thing
I need to take care of.”

Presley elbowed me in the side.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered in her ear. “I’ll give you just what you need. You just have to be patient.”

Presley rolled her eyes. “You’re insatiable,” she muttered under her breath.

“When it comes to you … definitely.”

And I didn’t see that changing anytime in the near future.

Presley

“Someone could come looking for you any minute,” I whispered in Jake’s ear as he wrapped his arms tightly around me.

“I know that, baby,” he whispered softly. “That’s why you need to be quiet.”

His raspy chuckle made my pussy clench with need. I’d been looking forward to this all day.

We’d been at the book signing for almost three hours, me sitting at his table while Jake interacted with readers and signed books, smiling and laughing. A time or two, some of the readers would engage me in conversation as well, curious as to how I’d played a role in Kora and Donovan’s romance.

It was surreal, quite frankly. All of the people who loved Jake, who doted on him and wanted to spend a few minutes with him. I saw tears in some of their eyes, heard their stories of how Jake’s books had helped them in some way. I probably wouldn’t have understood what that meant without seeing it with my own two eyes.

But finally, Jake had managed to get a short break. The second Josie had motioned for him to go, he had snagged my hand and made a beeline down the hall. That was when I realized he’d found a storage closet where we could have a little privacy. Only I wasn’t sure how long that was going to last.

“What if someone realizes where we are?”

“We better hurry then, huh?” Jake glanced down at me, his blue-green eyes glittering with heat. “Good thing you wore a skirt.”

I laughed. “I did that on purpose.”

“I know.” He sounded so cocky and it turned me on even more.

Knowing that someone would eventually come looking for us, I pulled his head down so that my lips met his. We stumbled backward until I was up against the wall, hands roaming, tongues colliding. I probably wanted him more now than I’d ever wanted him before.

And that was saying something.

It had been six months since we had fixed this thing between us, and though we still lived next door to one another, we were making plans to change that. But we had agreed to take things slowly. And by slowly, that meant I spent most of my time at his place and I was okay with that.

“Jake,” I moaned softly against his mouth, my hands reaching for the button on his jeans, tugging roughly until I freed it. I needed to feel him inside me, and I didn’t want to wait any longer.

Jake groaned when I wrapped my hands around his steely length, stroking him slowly but firmly.

“Inside me,” I urged.

He shifted our positions, lifting my leg and sliding my panties to the side before he guided himself home. I inhaled sharply, loving the way he filled me. We both paused for a moment, my body adjusting to the intrusion. The yellow glow from the bulb overhead gave just enough light for me to see his face. What I saw there stole my breath.

“Fuck me,” I whispered.

“Oh, I plan to, baby. I plan to make you scream my name.”

“Might not … be a … good idea,” I managed between the powerful thrust of his hips. “Someone … might hear … us.”

“Fuck,” Jake growled, lifting my leg higher as he fucked into me deeper.

I tipped my head back, lost in the sensation as Jake slammed into me, careful not to slam me into the wall, but still giving us both what we needed.

It wasn’t long before I felt my orgasm cresting, knew I couldn’t hold back any longer. The fact that we could be found at any second ratcheted up my adrenaline, fueling the flames until I was at my breaking point.

“Jake!”
God, I hoped that hadn’t been as loud as it sounded in here.

“Aww, fuck, baby … coming.” Jake’s hips stilled, and I felt him pulse inside me as he came.

I dropped my head to his shoulder, taking deep breaths, trying to slow my heart.

A knock sounded on the door and I jumped, lifting my head and looking at Jake.

“Presley. Jake. We know you’re in there.”

I laughed when I recognized Blaze’s voice.

“Your two minutes are up,” she said, her voice low, as though she was close to the door. “It’s our turn, bitch. So get your happy ass on out here.”

Jake cradled my head and smiled down at me. “Have I mentioned how much I love you?”

“You have,” I reassured him. “And that was a nice way to show me, as well.”

“Well, you just wait until I get you home.”

“There’s more?” I teased.

“Oh, yeah.” His grin widened. “A lot more.”