Inked Destiny

PRAISE FOR

Inked Magic

“Overflowing with sensuality, an intriguing story, and a great heroine, this is a book you won’t be able to put down.”

—
RT Book Reviews

“
Intense, original and extremely sexy!
That’s what you can expect to find in Jory Strong’s new novel,
Inked Magic
. It captured my interest from the beginning and held it throughout the entire book.”

—
Under the Covers

“I will definitely pick up the sequel.”

—
Fiction Vixen

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF JORY STRONG

“The world is gorgeous, the characters are fantastic, and the plots will draw you in!”

—
Errant Dreams Reviews

“Intriguing from the start and deliciously erotic.”

—
Darque Reviews

“Jory Strong will leave you hooked and hoping for more of this dark world.”

—
Romance Junkies

“Jory Strong writes an enthralling story which will quickly immerse readers in a futuristic fantasy.”

—
Romance Reviews Today

“A beautiful, passionate story…Tender, loving, erotic, and consuming.”

—Joyfully Reviewed

“Strong’s terrific tale should win her many new fans. Really good stuff!”

—
RT Book Reviews

Titles by Jory Strong

GHOSTLAND

SPIDER-TOUCHED

HEALER’S CHOICE

INKED MAGIC

INKED DESTINY

Anthologies

PRIMAL

(with Lora Leigh, Michelle Rowen, and Ava Gray)

Inked Destiny

J
ORY
S
TRONG

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

Copyright © 2013 by Valerie Christensen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

HEAT and the HEAT design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

ePub ISBN: 978-1-101-62457-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Strong, Jory.

Inked Destiny / Jory Strong. — Heat trade paperback edition.

pages   cm

ISBN: 978-0-425-25361-8

1. Elves—Fiction.   2. Women tattoo artists—Fiction.   3. Psychic ability—Fiction.   
4. Fantasy fiction.   5. Erotic fiction.   I. Title.

PS3619.T777I49   2013

813’.6—dc23

2012046050

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley trade paperback edition / July 2013

Cover art direction by Rita Frangie.

Cover design by Sarah Oberrender.

Cover photograph by Tony Mauro.

Text design by Tiffany Estreicher

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For my cousin, Jamie. May you find a Quinn of your own.
And for my cousin, Venesa, who is also a fan. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

Also by Jory Strong

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-one

Twenty-two

Twenty-three

Twenty-four

Twenty-five

Twenty-six

Twenty-seven

Twenty-eight

Twenty-nine

Epilogue

About the Author

One

E
taín stood naked in the shower, hot water and the heat of the men on either side of her eradicating most of the chill that lingered following her rescue from the Harlequin Rapist. “I could get used to this,” she said, eyes closed to savor the sensation of masculine hands gliding over slick flesh.

The truth of their feelings was a hum against her senses. They might have ensnared her equally but their call differed. With Cathal it was raw sensuality and fierce imperative, while Eamon was the attraction of like to like.

Had she once truly believed she was okay with casual sex and lack of permanence? Before Cathal and Eamon had come into her life, true intimacy had been impossible.

Skin didn’t lie to her. It was her gift, her curse, to be able to touch the eyes inked into her palms to skin and not only see another’s memories, but take them. She shivered, because now that gift was changing and her control of it failing.

Cathal and Eamon were safe where others weren’t. She shivered again, harder, at thinking about how close she’d come to having to use her gift on the Harlequin Rapist to save herself.

“It’s over,” Eamon murmured, his hard cock pressed to her ass and lower back while Cathal’s was a heated announcement of need against her belly.

“Thanks to the two of you.”

If not for the tattoos—infused with Eamon’s magic—that she’d put on Cathal’s arms, creating a bond that allowed them to find her, even now her existence would be marked by cycles of torture and rape.

“Parker won’t be able to put off taking a report.” They were lucky no one of superior rank had been among the first responders. As an FBI taskforce member, her brother’s permission to leave had allowed them to escape.

“We’ll find a safe truth when the time comes,” Eamon said.

She opened her eyes, taking in Cathal’s good looks, short dark hair and the ever-present stubble that came with being Black Irish. Opposite to Eamon’s long blond hair and smooth chest.

Until they’d come into her life, sex had been a safety valve, a way to release some hidden buildup of pressure from too much touch, too many bodies inked. And now…

It was so much more. Looking back, she was torn between amusement, for thinking it would be easy to enjoy them and walk away afterward, and fear when it came to what the future held.

Because of Cathal she’d been made an accessory to four murders. There would be a fifth when his father and his uncle caught up with the last boy who’d been involved in the drugging and rape of two sixteen-year-old girls. This wasn’t behind them. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

She slid her hands down Cathal’s naked back, pressed kisses along his throat. His eyes remained closed and she knew the cause. He didn’t want to see Eamon on the other side of her.

I’m not a man to share when I’m serious about a woman.

Then don’t get serious about me.

She’d warned him, but still a fist formed around her heart, squeezing at the threat he might come to regret his involvement with her, that in the end, he might walk away, unable to handle sharing her.

Her hand brushed over his hip on its way to curl around his hardened length. “I want you. I want you both. Let’s go to bed.”

They left the shower.

Cathal took the towel from her, sliding it over her body, lingering over breasts capped with dark pink nipples. Within days of meeting her she’d become the beat of his heart, the relentless, molten pour of lust pumped directly into his bloodstream so that time away from her had become the crawl of eons.

Her lips curved with knowing. “Like what you see?” she asked, echoing the question he’d issued when first joining her in the shower.

“Definitely.” He’d like it even more when sight was accompanied by taste and scent and the touch of skin to skin.