First published 2014
Tenley Page walks into Hayden Stryker's tattoo shop and asks him to ink an elaborate design across her back. Hayden has seen plenty of clients, but Tenley stops him cold. Long dark hair, soft curves, and something underneath it all that reads like a wound that never closed. He takes the job. She keeps coming back. Each session pulls them closer, and the physical heat between them is hard to ignore or explain away. But Tenley wakes up screaming from nightmares she will not name, and Hayden carries his own damage beneath all that ink and steel. Both of them know how to keep people at arm's length. Both of them are tired of doing it. The more time they spend together, the harder it gets to stay guarded. Tenley wants Hayden in ways that frighten her. Hayden wants to fix something he cannot even identify. Their pasts are not finished with either of them, and no amount of desire is going to change that. The question is whether two people this broken can hold on to each other long enough to find out.
Genres: romance, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance
Vibes: dark, emotional, gritty, intense, intimate, slow-burn
Tropes: damaged-heroes, emotional-healing, forced-proximity, slow-burn
Period: contemporary
391 pages · Paperback · Gallery Books
Content warnings: abuse, mental-illness