Manuscript Monday Alpha Enchanted (Haven City Series #8): Sexy fun in the tattoo parlor

The verdict is in! According to my betas and my editor, the book doesn't suck and Quinn isn't too weird. *wipes brow* I hope everyone agrees with them.

I'm nearly done with the final edits, so it'll be ready for you guys by September 1st.

Also, in a few moments of free time on Sunday, I found this:

By: Sakimichan

Damn, Link! He was my first video game crush. I'm talking Link's Awakening and Link to the Past, when he was a tiny 16-bit chibi with pink hair. *sigh* He's sure grown up. And he learned how to hover leaves to protect his nipples from pervs like me ogling them. ^_^

Here's what you've been waiting for, another peek at Tyler and Quinn. Quinn gets a tattoo, and things get sexy. Enjoy!

After Tyler finished and Mei left, he washed his hands and glanced at Quinn. He was looking at Tyler’s sketches again. “We’ve got an hour before that raccoon picks you up.”

“I know. What would you choose if you were me?” Quinn asked and ran his long fingers over a black and white sketch of a dead tree covered in crows.

“Not that,” Tyler said and felt his cheeks heat. He remembered drawing that after Davis first got back to Haven. His brother interrupted him at his old place and they got into a stupid fight. Mostly because Davis didn’t understand that simply coming back to the city wasn’t a free pass for forgiveness after all the shit he’d pulled over the years.

Quinn’s green-gold eyes caught him and held, so Tyler skimmed the walls. He didn’t find one sketch that fit. “I don’t know. None of these suit you. I’d have to draw something new.”

“Can you?” Quinn asked and smiled, somewhere between a grin and a smirk.

Tyler nodded before he realized it, and grabbed the sketchpad from the reception desk, mostly to stop the surge of warmth that rushed to his balls at that expression. “Sure, but it might not be great. I think you need something simple. Black ink. No color. Maybe something symbolic.”

His hand moved across the black piece of paper quickly. When he finished, Tyler frowned at his handiwork.

“Is that a broken cage?” Quinn asked. He leaned so close each beat of his heart pounded with Tyler’s, and the heat of his shoulder pressed into the alpha’s body and warmed him further – not what he needed.

“Yeah. It’s stupid though. Never mind.”

Quinn touched the sketch and shook his head. “It’s not. I—I like it. Where would you put it?”

Tyler took a sharp breath and looked at Quinn, the way his lips were always just shy of a smile and the angular cut of his jaw – the elegant strength in his neck and how his Adam’s apple begged to be touched. Kissed.

His heart did that dumb fluttery thing. Shit.

“Uh, maybe your wrist or ankle. Bicep tats are popular,” Tyler said and touched the taut flesh on Quinn’s exposed arm. He wore a gray T-shirt today, slightly too small, but that just meant it hugged his body perfectly.

Quinn leaned forward until his lips brushed Tyler’s ear. “What about a little lower?”

Tyler blinked. “You don’t want a dick tattoo.”

Glass green eyes widened briefly, and Quinn let out a laugh that sounded like music. “People do that?”

“Sometimes,” Tyler said with a shrug and fought not to smile.

“Not there, but it needs to be someplace Bradley won’t see it by accident.”

Tyler’s fingers twitched, and no matter how many times he told himself that going past this line meant more than he wanted it to mean, he still did it. Kissing a guy was one thing – willfully stroking his ass with the intent to get his pants off was something else.

 He always thought if he were gay, he’d have figured it out by now. Hell, he’d known Ken his whole life and that omega had always known he was gay. And he’d known Rory for the past two years, but Tyler never wanted to fuck either of them, though there was nothing wrong with them. Sure, there was that one time a twink sucked him off in The Pit’s bathroom, but he was also high as fuck on ecstasy and having anyone suck him off sounded like a great idea at the time.

With Quinn it was totally different.

Now, he wasn’t drunk or high, and there wasn’t anything else in the world he wanted to do more than kiss Quinn. And, shit, he’d spent most of the last month not kissing Quinn, which now felt like the biggest waste of time in the whole world.

He let his hand move, and it grazed Quinn’s ass – the muscles tight. He stopped on Quinn’s slim hip. “How about here?”

Quinn’s body leaned into the touch and his eyes sparked. “I like that idea.”

Tyler nodded. His mouth dried out before he could speak. He licked his lips. “Get on the table and pull down your pants.”

He’d said those words more times than he could count, but they never sounded like that– like he wanted nothing more than those pants to come off and stay off.

It’s not like he could blame the ache in his groin on Mei either. Tyler’d worked on her and never been aroused. Shit, he worked on plenty of people without this happening. That meant it had to be Quinn.

Several minutes later, Tyler ended up on his stool looking at the bare skin on Quinn’s delectable hip. It reminded him of how they’d first met, and what Quinn’s bare chest looked like bruised.

Those marks had healed since.

Quinn settled on his back, the pale hair splayed around his head. He’d unbuttoned the jeans so the hint of his pubes peaked out, and it was obvious he wore no motherfucking underwear.

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “You always go commando?”

Quinn shrugged. “Bradley doesn’t buy me anything, and I’m not going to wear his.”

Tyler snorted. “Can’t blame you.” Then he took a deep breath and disinfected Quinn’s right hip, the spot just below the bone. “This’ll hurt a little.”

“I’m sure I can handle it,” Quinn said, his voice held a note of bitterness Tyler never noticed before, and it played havoc on his emerging hard-on.

Quinn’s chest heaved, and his nipples hardened into tight pink tips.

The needle made contact, but Quinn didn’t so much as move. He took another shallow breath and let it out, and it felt like they were both breathing the same air at the same time. He worked for a long time like that, neither of them speaking, and it felt as natural as it always did.

“Full moon’s coming up next Monday,” Tyler said as the final bar of the cage took shape on Quinn’s fair skin.

Quinn sighed. “I know. That means we can’t meet, doesn’t it?”

“Do you still shift at the full moon or does the necklace keep that from happening too?” Tyler asked and wiped the blood off before he continued. It was as red as anyone else’s and smelled the same, but for the hint of magic.

“I shift. They can’t prevent that. No one can,” Quinn said, and his lips twisted into a smile that didn’t look anywhere near happy.

“I’d like to see it,” Tyler admitted and pricked the needle back into Quinn’s skin.

Quinn started and shook his head. “You can’t – not yet.”

Tyler frowned and wiped off the last bit of blood before he covered his handiwork lightly with gauze. “Who says I can’t? Are you going to attack me?”

Quinn frowned. “No, but there’s a barrier around the house, and it’s the only time of month I can use my magic so it’s not safe to see me like that until our bargain is fulfilled.”

Outside someone honked on the street, but it sounded like it was a million miles away.

Tyler removed his gloves and slid his palms tentatively up Quinn’s thigh. “Would you hurt me?”

Quinn sucked in a breath and grabbed Tyler’s bicep, pulling him closer. His eyes widened and a look of panic surrounded them. “Not on purpose.”

“Will our bargain hurt me?” Tyler couldn’t look at Quinn’s face because the reactions in his body were so incredible. Beneath the fabric of the jeans, his cock hardened just like Tyler’s own, and he’d never wanted to touch a dick so badly in his life.

“It. . . shouldn’t,” Quinn breathed, and Tyler’s hands tightened on his thighs.

“Shouldn’t or won’t?”

Quinn’s gaze dropped. “I can’t say anymore than that.”

Tyler sucked in a breath through his nose, and all he smelled was Quinn’s alluring scent. Quinn’s gaze held his. Then Quinn unzipped his jeans, revealing his length, thick with veins and throbbing for attention.

Tyler’s lips quirked. “There’s a window right there, and the door’s unlocked.”

“So lock it, and I’ll go behind the screen,” Quinn said and leaned forward. He almost made it off the chair when Tyler grabbed him by the chin and pulled him forward.

Their lips met, hard and hungry, and the heat of Quinn’s mouth melted into Tyler’s own like that’s the only place it was meant to be. Ever. The alpha roared inside him – fingers dug into Quinn’s hips, and their teeth bumped with a gentle clack.

Tyler didn’t bother mentioning that it was past an hour by now, and Quinn was going to be late. Because Tyler wasn’t going to let him go like this – not with his body begging for something that only Quinn could give. The lust clouding his brain felt normal by now. It surrounded him whenever he thought of Quinn.

“Am I under a fucking spell?” Tyler huffed and pulled back.

Quinn’s eyes widened, the hurt evident on his downturned mouth, and he shook his head once. “No. I can’t do that to you. If that’s what you think—”

It’s not what he thought. Dammit. What Tyler thought might’ve been worse. The way his chest ached when Quinn wasn’t around—the desire to see him happy—set him free. Not to mention the motherfucking desire that singed his goddamn hands as they slid over Quinn’s unblemished flesh.

His heart was close to bursting with all those sensations combined, and there was only one real explanation for it.

Love.

He was in love with a shifter. A male shifter, who turned into the moon only knew what.

And it didn’t faze him in the least.