The Harder He Falls
Sidney Bristol
A woman who doesn’t have time for love…
A hot night full of hotel-destroying sex was all Kellie wanted from her client-turned-sex god. Between family and work, there isn’t room for love, just hot, sweaty lust. An arrangement for mutual gratification is exactly what Kellie wants, but every kiss, each mind-blowing orgasm twines her heart around a man she cannot have.
A man building a new life…
Quinton’s assumptions about the So Inked shop owner are turned on their head after one session under her tattoo machine. Kellie’s not the vandal he’s looking for, but she’s the woman he wants. In his bed, on the desk or under the stars, he’ll take her any way he can get her. But Quin has secrets and someone is out to destroy him. Someone who has their sights set on Kellie now.
Thanks
so much to Liz for hosting me on Fictional Candy today!
I’m Sidney and currently I’m touring the blogesphere to
celebrate the release of the latest So Inked book, The Harder He Falls. The
series is all about the So Inked tattoo shop and the four women who work there.
Yes, it’s an all female cast of tattoo artists and shop manager!
The Harder He Falls is the story of the shop’s co-owner,
Kellie, as she juggles life, tattooing and a new man in her life. The hero’s no
slouch, though! Quin is a mixed martial arts coach and former Marine. These two
are one explosive couple, and writing the book was a blast!
One
part of the series I enjoy the most is the continual research I’ve been doing
about tattoos. Since the series is based in a tattoo shop, I figured it was
pretty important I know a few things about the process and art. At a glance,
it’s pretty obvious I’ve been in a tattoo shop or two myself, but like any
subculture there’s a lot more depth there.
For example, did you know that there are different schools
of tattooing and art? Almost every culture has a tattoo history, and they’ve
evolved over time, meshing with other traditions. Most tattoo artists can do
just about any type of tattoo with a little study, but there’s generally one
style they gravitate toward more than any other. The heroine of The Harder He
Falls has a specialty of Asian tattoos, specifically the Japanese variety.
The Japanese tattoos are almost a language unto themselves.
Different elements or objects have a host of meaning and history behind then,
that can be changed or layered with other things woven into the design, change
the position or color. I’ve spent a lot of time researching the tattoos for the
books, but I have a feeling I’ve only scratched the surface.
Take the geisha tattoo for example.
At a glance, it clearly depicts a very familiar figure in
Japanese culture. The identifiers are easy to pick up on. Almost all geisha
tattoos involve a woman with black hair, a face painted white with red lips and
an ornate kimono. Those are things that are easy to pick up on. But the tattoo
can take on other meanings depending on the elements used. Including the cherry
blossom, for example, is a nod to the fragility of life.
It seems rather fitting that the geisha is a popular tattoo
figure for men and women since the original geisha women were artists
themselves. While here in the West, the geisha is an exotic beauty, with no
little sexual charm, in Japan the geisha translates literally to “art person,”
or art in human form.
It can never be said that Sidney Bristol has had a ‘normal’ life. She is a recovering roller derby queen, former missionary, and tattoo addict. She grew up in a motor-home on the US highways (with an occasional jaunt into Canada and Mexico), traveling the rodeo circuit with her parents. Sidney has lived abroad in both Russia and Thailand, working with children and teenagers. She now lives in Texas where she splits her time between a job she loves, writing, reading and belly dancing.
**EXCERPT**
Kellie shifted on the
wooden bench, still restless. The evening breeze was cooler than normal thanks
to a cold front blowing in. It was ridiculous that dropping into the nineties
was considered a cool spell, but in the height of Texas summer, you took what
you got. She swept her hair up into a knot and tipped her head back. The slight
dampness of her skin, courtesy of the ever-present humidity, was a small price
to pay for being able to sit outside. She’d shed the formfitting dress for
jeans and a tank top and felt more like herself for it.
“How hot does it get here?” Quin plunked down their dinner
and sat on his side of the picnic table. Behind him the food truck was starting
to pack up.
“Can’t handle the heat?” It was too much to ask that the man
be able to cope with everything. He’d sat through the tattoo yesterday without
complaint, being a heat weenie wasn’t terrible.
His brilliant blue eyes stood out in the dim illumination of
the parking lot light. “When you have A/C, why should you?”
“You do realize that it’s going to get at least ten degrees
hotter and stay there, don’t you?” She unwrapped the tacos and inhaled the
spicy aroma of peppers and onions mixed with tender beef.
Quin made a show of wiping his forehead with a napkin. “I’m
going to melt.”
“Why the hell are you still here then?”
He hefted his burrito and wrapped the tortilla tighter.
“Family.”
She nodded, understanding that reason above all others.
They descended into companionable silence while they ate.
The garbled sounds of a Tejano station melded with the distant sounds of
Highway 75 and the light street traffic up and down Greenville Avenue.
“What are you so wound up about, doll?”
Her head snapped around. Quin watched her with one brow
arched.
“What?” she asked.
“Your knees are bouncing and you keep looking around. Are
you expecting someone I don’t know about?”
He glanced over each shoulder.
The bubble of anger swelling in her breast burst. It wasn’t
Quin’s fault she was suffering from a case of bitchitis.
Instead of snapping at him, she put her taco down and
massaged her temples. “No, I’m just sitting on too much energy and not enough
time to expend it.”
“Ah.” He nodded as if he understood. “We used to call that
the fight or fuck stage.”
It was her turn to quirk a brow at him. She shivered despite
the heat. He had a point; one or the other would help. “Fight or fuck stage?
What did you used to do?”
“First I was in the Marines, then I used to fight MMA,
semipro.”
Her eyebrows crept upward. Mixed martial arts? She saw Quin
in a whole new light, and when she looked at him in this proverbial light, he
looked damn good. Fighters came with their own set of issues, but as an MMA
hobbyist herself, Kellie had to admit that her bad boy draw was sitting across
from her. Growing up around the gym meant she’d become more than competent in a
few martial art forms. As an adult, branching out into the grappling, wrestling
and more violent aspects had given her a much needed outlet.
Kellie grabbed her drink, the cup covered in condensation,
and gulped it down to get moisture back in her dry mouth.
“Why’d you stop?”
“I got hurt. Fractured a few vertebrae. Everyone was amazed
I could walk after that. Realized there was little to no chance of me coming
back from the injury, so I switched over to training. I like it.”
“Do you train around here?” An invisible fist clenched her
heart. There had been a time when she would have known the different gyms, who
trained where, which ones were worth going to and so forth.
Quin didn’t answer immediately. He chewed his food without
haste and took a drink before replying. “I’m transitioning locations. Parting
with someone. It’s a little messy.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Yeah, I’ve been there. I’m lucky to have
Mary as my co-owner. The guy I worked with before her was a man-child.”
He snorted. “Man-child?”
“Yeah, you know. Frat boy types.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. “That’s a good one,
doll. Man-child. I’ll have to remember that.”
The pet name slid over her nerves as if it were sandpaper.
“Do you have to call me that?”
“What?” He blinked as if he had no clue what she was talking
about.
“Lay off the doll crap already.”
He shrugged. “You look like a doll.”
Her scalp itched and her hand balled into a fist. “You think
I look like a whore?” she growled. Moments like these she felt as if she were a
passenger in her own body. The urge to do something, or even the man across
from her, had her muscles too tense and her nerves strung too tight.
Quin jerked his face away from his cup. “What? No. That’s
not what I meant. You’re attractive and exotic-looking. You look more like a
doll than a real person.”
Heat crawled up her neck and she was thankful the parking
light was their only illumination. It was the most convoluted compliment anyone
had ever paid her, and it turned her on even more. She folded her taco wrapper
into a neat square.
“You realize the term china doll is what men called Asian
prostitutes and war brides?”
“The fuck—no. No, that’s definitely not what I meant. Hey,
guys probably hit on you all the time. I figured I had to be a little
creative.”
She rolled her eyes. “At least you don’t talk to my boobs.”
His gaze dipped to her chest and her nipples perked up at
his inspection. She squeezed her thighs together.
This was ridiculous. She was
not an animal in heat ready to throw herself at some random guy.
“Well, in their defense, most guys probably only come up to
your chest, so it’s not entirely their fault.” One side of his mouth kicked up
in a roguish smile.
She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, blame it on me because
I’m tall.”
“It’s not your fault you’re tall. It’s their fault they’re
short.”
Her phone buzzed against her hip. Conversation forgotten,
Kellie dug it out of her pocket and unlocked the screen. The home-care provider
always texted her when Grandma finally went to bed. She breathed a sigh of
relief when nothing else was mentioned, which meant the day had passed without
incident. She had all night before she would need to go home and face those
troubles. For now she was her own woman.
“Everything okay?”
She glanced up from the phone. “Yeah.”
“Good.”
“So you moved here for family. Wife? Girlfriend?”
“None of the above.”
He was unattached and available. She went very still, the
possibilities running through her head.
Quin cleared his throat. “My schedule right now doesn’t lend
itself to dating.”
Even better. She laid her palms on the rough wooden surface
of the table. “Neither does mine.”
His stillness echoed hers. A predatory awareness came over
him, but she wasn’t prey. “That’s a shame.”
She looked him over, even as he did the same. He wouldn’t be
the first client she slept with, she wasn’t a saint. But neither did she know
him.
“Excuse me.” The food truck cook had walked up on them
without either noticing. “I need to load the table, sorry.” He smiled and wiped
his hands on the dirty apron.
Kellie swiped the napkin across her face. Had she really
inhaled the burrito? Judging by the sad remnants left, yes she had.
“That’s fine. Thanks for the food.”
She rose, gathered up her trash and tossed it in a recycling
bin, then leaned against the front of Quin’s truck, out of the way while Quin
lent a hand to their cook and helped load the table. Too many thoughts spun
around in her head, she needed a minute to get her head screwed on straight,
but she wasted those watching Quin’s arms and the way his t-shirt stretched
across his back. She pretended she hadn’t been staring when he headed for her,
perching her elbows on the hood and
leaning back. The truck’s grille pressed into her back but with her elbows
perched on the edge, it thrust her breasts out. As if she needed to draw any
more attention to them.
Quin’s gaze roved freely over her body and she could already
anticipate his strong touch. He would be an energetic lover, but would he be
gentle? Or rough? Did he always have to stay in control? Because sometimes she
liked to put a man through his paces.
“I can’t tell what you’re thinking and I’m dying to know.”
He stopped less than a foot away.
She smiled slowly, already having a pretty good idea what
his answer to her question would be. “I was wondering if you would like to get
a room?”
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