TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains flashbacks of violence and drug abuse, and the impact of these factors on family members. If you have issues with these elements, this book is not for you.

Chicago’s premiere tattoo studio, House Of Payne, is across the street from the Mad Cow diner, but it might as well be on another planet as far as waitress Paradise Simone is concerned. She’s a good girl from Waukegan with a past she’d rather forget, and a future that goes only as far as the next day. What does she know about superstars and paparazzi?

But Pari does know danger when she sees it, and tattooist Max Kulagin has it written all over him. A proper Waukegan girl should know to steer well clear, but she can’t resist Max when he leaves beautiful, intimate art sketched out on cheap diner napkins.

Beautiful, intimate art…of her.

Max knows ugliness. He was born in it. Raised in it. Had it shoved down his throat every goddamn day. So when he stumbles across true beauty, he worships it. There’s a deep sensuality in the waitress who likes to suck on her pen whenever he’s around, and he’s just the man to bring that beauty out in her. She might be a lady in the street, but one look at Pari tells him she’s going to be a freak in the bed.

And in the shower.

And while he’s driving with her head going to town in his lap.

The life Max leads might be in the spotlight, but it’s Pari who gets caught in the glare. When her past catches up to her, it’s her life that holds all the excitement, and not in a good way. But there’s no force on earth that can take Max’s beautiful Paradise away now that he’s finally found it.

***This standalone, mildly erotic contemporary romance contains a woman with an oral fixation and a man who’s happy to encourage it. There are multiple sex scenes that include oral sex. No cheating, no love triangles, no cliffhangers. HEA guaranteed. Due to adult language and sexual content, this book is not intended for people under the age of eighteen***

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book.

Sooo, Max is probably some I’ve been waiting forever to read it seems, ever since he started talking to Essie in Steele’s book!!! I knew what I thought he was going liked from his first words and I’m glad to say he was so much MORE!!!! I also had pictured who he was going to look like, hello Josh Mario John!!!
Pari, she is someone who has been through some deep s**t, but she didn’t let that break her. She is someone that has become stronger than even she knew.
Pari works as a waitress at The Mad Cow, love the name, a diner across the street from the House of Payne shop. Max has been coming to the diner for a month and during that month he has left her little drawings on napkins. Sometimes funny drawings, sometimes drawings of her, and sometimes very naughty drawings of her.
As you can tell from the drawings that he leaves her, Max is a artist. He is one of the premier artist at the House of Payne, the top tattoo shop in Chicago if not the world.
I love how easy these two seem to come together it seems almost effortless, but let’s face it, it wasn’t. Max has spent that month falling more for the girl with the purple hair and killer butt than he has for anyone else and Pari has spent that month secretly keeping his drawings and falling for him too.
When her past comes back to haunt her Pari thinks about leaving the city to be safe, but after hearing about her past Max vows to do everything in his power to make sure she is happy, safe, and staying by his side where she belongs.
I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much while reading a book, not laughed just smiled because these are two characters that I can plainly see in my head and having a picture of Max in you head is a good thing!!
Gail did a wonderful job with Pari’s backstory, showed how you can overcome anything, if you have people that love you and you can trust at your side. She also wrote about the family that they have in the epilogue and it seems that Max and Pari get everything that could possibly want to make them happy.
I can’t wait to meet Tag in the next House of Payne story, I just know it’s gonna be a good one.

Goodreads

Amazon

House of Payne: Payne

House of Payne: Scout

House of Payne: Twist

House of Payne: Rude

House of Payne: Steele

A competitive figure skater from the age of eight, Stacy Gail wrote stories between events to pass the time. By fourteen, she told her parents she was either going to be a skating coach who was also a romance writer, or a romance writer who was also a skating pro. Now with a day job of playing on the ice with her students, and writing everything from PNR and cyberpunk to contemporary romance at night, both dreams have come true.

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