Title: Inked on Paper Author: Nicole Edwards
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: January 12, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance
More Info: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon US
Purchase: Barnes & Noble
Purchase: Kobo
Chapter One...
What happens when you don’t know what comes next?
Jacob Wild has had a lucrative writing career, but somewhere along the way he misplaced his muse. Now, unable to put anything on paper, he’s resorted to hanging out in the neighborhood coffee shop with a pen and paper, trying to find something to spark his creativity again.
That’s when he meets her.
Presley Abrams.
The coral-haired, tattooed beauty with the piercing gray eyes and sweet smile draws his attention in a way no woman before her ever has. Jake soon learns that when he’s around her his world is set to rights once more. Presley sparks something inside him and not just his ability to put words on paper.
But, Presley’s not the easiest woman to get close to and Jake finds himself trying to answer the burning question:
Does happily ever after only exist in fiction?
Book: Inked on Paper
Author: Nicole Edwards
Release date: January 12, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Excerpt
Eight minutes after I stepped off the elevator, thirty seconds faster than the last time—because, you know, my life had become so fucking routine that I’d started timing that shit—after enduring the record-breaking, twenty-seven-degree low—hey, this was Texas—I stepped into the coffee shop around the corner from my condominium building, inhaling the scent of homemade blueberry scones and freshly brewed coffee.
“Mornin’, Jake,” the young woman behind the counter greeted as I approached, her smile friendly, her gaze inquisitive.
“Morning, Kim.”
“The usual?” she asked, looking up at me, one hand cocked on her hip.
Staring into the glass display case, I perused the items momentarily as though I might actually choose something different than the usual. For the past six months, I’d been coming to the coffee shop at least once every two or three days, ordering a blueberry scone and a strong, black coffee—not exactly the thing that would help my bad boy image. Then again, I was kind of a simple guy. Perhaps I kept my order uncomplicated because the rest of my life was chaotic enough. Whatever the reason, I didn’t see change in my near future.
Looking back at Kim, I smiled. “Yeah. The usual.”
As Kim rang me up, her dark eyes darted down to the notebook in my hand. “That’s new. What happened to the laptop?”
I followed her gaze down to the leather-bound book. “Thought I’d try something different today.”
Kim laughed. “But you still ordered a blueberry scone and black coffee.” It wasn’t a question. She cocked her head. “Sounds about right.”
Passing her my credit card, I shrugged. “Can’t step too far outta the box. Wouldn’t wanna get hurt.”
Kim gifted me with another laugh, handed back my card, and went to work on getting my order ready. While I waited, I glanced around, looking for an empty table. There was only one left—in the far corner near the window, which would be perfect provided I could get to it before anyone else did.
“Here you go,” Kim called out. “Go wild.”
Everyone loved to do the play on my last name. Rarely did I ever hear anyone come up with something unique, but I’d learned to play along. “Funny.”
“I try.” Kim waved me off with her fingers. “Now go write something. We’re all waiting for the next masterpiece.”
Yeah, so was I.
I secured the notebook under my arm, grabbed the scone, a napkin, and my coffee, then weaved my way through the people scattered about. Careful not to run into anyone, I was about to give myself a mental pat on the back for making it all the way through without any mishaps, right up until…
Shit. “Sorry,” I muttered when I bumped the arm of a woman who’d been hunched over one of the round tables. At least I thought it was a woman. Too small to be a man, but thanks to the hood covering their head, I couldn’t be sure.
Turning, I slid into the chair at the table in the corner, dropping my load before lifting my gaze to see who I’d bumped and if they were ready to burn me alive with a scathing glare.
Definitely a woman. But she wasn’t scowling back at me. In fact, she wasn’t looking at me at all. Instead…
My eyes dropped to the notebook in front of her. “Are you … playing tic-tac-toe?” I found myself blurting before I could think better of it.
The woman’s gaze lifted, and I was then staring into eyes the color of storm clouds, such a mesmerizing shade that I was momentarily stunned, my hangover all but forgotten.
Damn, she was pretty.
And I’d never been more grateful that I’d stopped to take a shower than I was right then.
A lock of hair peeked out from beneath the thin white hoodie she wore, and my attention drifted down to her shoulder as I tried to decipher the color. Pink? Orange? I know, being an author, I should’ve said something along the lines of magenta or salmon, but seriously. Being a guy, I didn’t give colors fancy names. Regardless, I wasn’t quite sure what the color was, but I was fairly certain that it wasn’t natural.
“Yeah,” she said softly, the labret piercing beneath her lip twinkling briefly before she returned her attention to her game.
“Who usually wins?” I asked, dropping my eyes back to the paper, then up again as I pushed the hood off my head, secretly hoping she’d do the same.
She didn’t.
Those gray eyes raised to meet mine once more, and this time one of her eyebrows lifted, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the corner of her lip curled slightly. Interesting. Her lips… I tried not to stare, but it wasn’t easy. Not only did she have a piercing beneath her lip, she had a ring that circled her plump bottom lip twice (or appeared to) on the right side, as well as a diamond stud in her nose and a barbell in her left eyebrow. Even with those distracting me, I couldn’t help but notice her glossy mouth matched the color of her hair.
As did her eyebrows. Did women actually do that now? Color their eyebrows?
“I normally do,” she said, and I assumed she was referring to winning the games, not coloring her eyebrows. Unless of course she was a mind reader, then … well, if that were the case, then I probably needed to censor my thoughts, because yes, more than once since my ass had hit the chair, I’d pictured her naked.
Small, curvy … fucking naked.
Another smile flirted with the corner of her coral-pink lips. (Yep, I went there—coral. My new favorite color.)
Visit Nicole’s Website for the Inked on Paper #NEInked Photo Scavenger Hunt and put your name in the hat for one awesome prize! Submissions are due by 1/22/2016!
Be sure to join the Nicole & Colt Edwards Group on FB today for the release day party for fun times and giveaways!
About Nicole Edwards
New York Times bestselling author Nicole Edwards launched her professional writing career in July of 2012. Having been an avid reader all of her life and a huge fan of creative writing, it seemed the likely path for her to take. Since then, she has released more than sixty books and has no plans to stop. As her full-time career/hobby, Nicole writes steamy contemporary and erotic romances.
Nicole is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who was born and raised in Texas. Married with three kids and two dogs she has plenty of interaction to keep her imagination brewing. Her books have been featured in USA Today’s Happy Ever After segment as well as Indie Reader’s best seller list. She has forged her way as an independent author.
Although she has a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, she prefers to be hiding out in her writing cave, talking to the fictional characters that have built up in her head over the years. When she isn’t writing or plotting her next book (sometimes translated to “playing on Facebook”), Nicole loves to read and spend time with her family and her dogs.
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