Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
It was supposed to be a beautiful white lily, but the big grumpy tattoo artist had something else in mind.
Only, he didn’t freaking tell me before he got started.
When it’s time for the big reveal, I don’t see a pretty flower.
I see his name.
Tattooed across the back of my shoulder.
He says I’m his.
That I’m his mate.
My friends tell him to go to hell.
That we’re suing.
But this grouchy beast isn’t shaken.
He doesn’t care one bit.
He keeps saying that he’s marked me, so I belong to him now.
The worst thing is, I think he may be right.
This can’t be happening.
Fate can’t be so cruel as to bind me to a jerk like him.
I can’t be mated to this big grumpy bear shifter, can I?
CAN I???
Welcome to Heat & Ink where hot possessive tattoo artists leave their mark in more ways than one.
The Heat & Ink series mixes Contemporary, Sci Fi Romance, and Paranormal in three standalone stories by best-selling STEAMY authors, Hope Ford, Michele Mills, and Olivia T. Turner
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
Julian
It’s hard to tattoo when you’re irritated. Your muscles tense up. Your pulse quickens. The tightness in your jaw makes it hard to focus.
And right now, this couple is really testing my limits.
I’m getting all twitchy as my inner grizzly bear paces around in a fury. I can feel him moving in the deep, dark depths of me, getting madder by the minute.
I trace the faded black line on my client’s skin, tattooing the head of a Kodiak bear onto her ribs. It’s the Kodiak bear that her prick boyfriend has lurking inside him.
They’re newlymates. And they’re fucking annoying about it.
The possessive fucker actually asked me if I could do his mate’s tattoo without touching her. I told him yeah, if you want the bear to look like a donkey.
He finally agreed to let me touch her if I had gloves on and he still keeps watching me like a hawk.
She whimpers as I do the shading on the bear’s nose.
“You’re hurting her,” the brute growls, glaring at me.
I glare back at him. “It’s a tattoo,” I snap. “It’s supposed to fucking hurt.”
“You’re going to be hurting if you don’t be more gentle,” he warns.
I bite my tongue and focus on the lines even though I’d like to take this prick outside and unleash some of my aggression onto his face.
“It’s okay, babe,” she says, whimpering again as she takes his hand.
“I just hate to see you in pain,” he whispers, gently kissing her temple. “It kills me to see it.”
“As long as you’re beside me,” she whispers back, staring up at him with her big doey eyes, “I can endure anything.”
Gross. I want to be sick.
It’s always hard being around newlymates. My bear gets so agitated. He can smell the newly imprinted mark on her neck and it makes him ache with longing for our mate.
We’ve been waiting for her our entire life, but it’s been much harder lately. It’s been physically painful.
“It’s so sweet,” my younger sister Victoria says, smiling at them. “When did you two lovebears find each other?”
Why is she encouraging them?
She should know better. I shoot her a look where she’s sitting at the front desk, but she ignores me. Victoria has always been a romantic. She loves to hear everyone’s story about how they met their fated mates. It’s so annoying.
“Don’t you have a tattoo to prepare?” I ask, interrupting her.
She shakes her head and grins at me. “I’m all done. I have nothing but free time until my customer arrives.”
“Wonderful,” I growl as I get back to work, tracing the bear’s nostril.
It can be hard working with family. Believe me, I know.
I work with both of my siblings at our tattoo shop, Heat & Ink. My older brother Magnus thinks he’s the boss since he found the location and put in the most money to get us started. Then, there’s my younger sister, Victoria. She’s a talented artist, but she never stops yapping. It drives me crazy.
We’re all tattoo artists and we’re all grizzly bear shifters, but that’s where the similarities end. Besides that, we couldn’t possibly be any less alike.
“I was parked at a red light,” the lady says as I stretch her skin out, shading the inner nostril, “when then this man pulled up in his pickup truck beside me. I felt this intense feeling coming over me.”
“I was immediately taken,” the bear shifter says. “I knew I needed to have her.”
“Awwww,” Victoria says, clasping her hands together with a dreamy look in her jade-green eyes. I know she’s been waiting for her own mate to come along. Somehow the wait doesn’t bother her bear like it bothers mine. Her bear doesn’t keep her up all night, pacing and growling and snarling in her ear. Her bear doesn’t demand that she go out and search for her mate every waking second. Her bear isn’t making her life a living hell.
I try to tune them out as I continue working on the tattoo. This is going to be a two-day job. Minimum. Luckily, my time with these lovebears is almost up. Next week me will have to figure out a way to deal with them.
“I’m so in love with him,” the girl says, looking up at her mate with hearts in her eyes. She keeps moving and I have to pull the tattoo gun away. “I never thought I’d ever be this lucky. It feels like my soul is complete.”
“Stop talking,” I snarl. It comes out a little more aggressive than I had planned.
And of course, since my luck is pure dog shit today, it’s right as Magnus comes in from the back.
“Don’t fucking talk to her like that,” her beast of a mate snarls back. His body flexes as he sits up, hands squeezing into fists.
My grizzly bear growls inside, urging me to let him out. There’s nothing he’d like more than to get into a fight right now.