Inked on Paper - Nicole Edwards Page 0,1

before him.

“Pound her ass, Adrian! Make her beg for more.”

My head swiveled to see a naked brunette with enormous tits kneeling over the other chick’s head, holding the bitch’s ankles with one hand and pinching her nipples with the other.

“Fuck, yeah! Lovin’ that ass, baby,” Adrian roared, continuing to plow the woman hard and fast.

As though he sensed they had company—more company, obviously—Adrian’s eyes slid toward me, and a cocky smile formed on his face. We made eye contact briefly, and the first thing I noticed was there wasn’t an ounce of remorse in his ocean-blue gaze. The second thing that stood out was how he never stopped fucking the woman now squealing for him to “hit it harder.”

I had the sudden urge to vomit. Right after I beat the shit out of him.

But I couldn’t do that. One, I had no desire to spend the night in jail. And two, Adrian really wasn’t worth the time or effort.

While the threesome continued, I finally broke out of my stupor and forced my feet to move. Pivoting back toward the door, I didn’t stop until I was down the stairs and out on the sidewalk. Despite the anger and hatred that swelled in my chest, tears blurred my vision. I tried blaming it on the brutally cold wind that pummeled me as I made my way over one block to my apartment, but unfortunately, I knew that wasn’t the reason for the tears.

What the hell was I going to tell Gavin? That I’d found his brother fucking two chicks tonight? That it was evident Adrian didn’t give two shits about me? That I’d been a fucking idiot?

No.

Right then and there, I paused on the sidewalk, taking deep ice-filled breaths, trying to calm down.

I couldn’t tell Gavin any of that. Not if I wanted to protect my relationship with him. Gavin loved his brother despite what a douchebag Adrian was. And since Gavin had warned me away from Adrian in the first place…

Shit.

Gavin’s words echoed in my head.

Rock stars can’t be tamed, Pres. And you … you’re too good for him, anyway.

Yeah, well, looked like Gavin was right.

Only I had no intention of telling him as much.

Jake

Manhattan, New York

Untangling myself from the warm body curled around me in my bed, I groaned at the ringing of my cell phone from somewhere on the floor. A soft feminine moan sounded from beside me, and I glanced over, remembering that I had an overnight guest, but unable to recall her name.

“Shit.”

Rolling over, I squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the time on the alarm clock. The bright red numbers causing electrical needles to stab into my brain showed 3:37.

I dropped my head onto the pillow, willing my headache to ease up.

No good came from a phone call at that time of the night … morning … whatever.

The question was, who was calling me and what bad news were they about to relay?

I was tempted to not answer. Shit, I was tempted to not bother looking at the phone at all, but I knew I had to.

Leaning over the edge of the bed, I fumbled around on the floor until I found my jeans, then managed to extract my cell phone from the pocket before peering at the screen. Upon seeing my sister’s name, I crawled out of bed, snatched my boxers up off the floor, and slipped out of the room before hitting the talk button.

While yanking on my underwear, I answered groggily, my voice gruffer than I’d expected, my head throbbing from too much alcohol the night before. “Paige? What’s wrong?”

A choked sob sounded on the other end and I was instantly alert.

“Paige? Talk to me.”

“Jake…” My sister’s voice was trembling, as though getting the word out was a chore in itself.

“I’m here.”

“Oh, God. I need you to come home.”

I made my way into the kitchen, leaving the lights off and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “What happened, Paige?”

“It’s Abby.”

With the water forgotten halfway to my mouth, I leaned against the counter, my heart slamming hard against my ribs at the mention of my niece’s name. Everything Paige and I had talked about over the course of the last couple of weeks rushed through my mind, and I knew what she was about to tell me, and I wished in that moment she wouldn’t say another word. I wanted to wake up, to realize that this was a dream, that it couldn’t possibly be real.

“What happened to Abby,