Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:09:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 http://www.ilovenovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com 32 32 Burning Blood (Darkest Destiny Trilogy #2) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/burning-blood-darkest-destiny-trilogy-2-read-online-pepper-winters Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:09:17 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/burning-blood-darkest-destiny-trilogy-2-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Authors: Pepper Winters Series: Darkest Destiny Trilogy Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)

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Lucien has three goals.
Escape Cinderkeep.
Ignore his feelings for Rook.
And drown in a sea of his enemies’ blood.

Rook only has one goal.
Stay alive.

But if she gives him what he wants…one of them will die.
And if one dies…the other follows.

Dark. Obsessive. Fated.
Perfect for readers who love morally grey villains, forced proximity, touch-her-and-die energy, and romance that becomes elemental

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Playlist

Jared Benjamin – Poison

Jared Benjamin – Believe it

Kygo & Imagine Dragons - Born to be Yours

Coldplay - A Sky Full Of Stars

Ruelle - War Of Hearts

Ruelle - Monsters

Pink - What About Us

Zac Efron, Zendaya - Rewrite The Stars

Avril Lavigne - Head Above Water

James Arthur - Impossible

Neoni - Darkside

Prologue

I’VE HEARD THAT WHEN DESTINY COMES for you, there’s no escape.

You can fight, fake, and force yourself to believe whatever you want to believe, but fate always finds a way.

No matter if you’re enemies or strangers. No matter if you met in tragedy or sweet romance, once destiny binds you together, that’s it.

You’re no longer your own person; you’re part of a whole.

It doesn’t matter if the person you chose is crazy or angry or suicidal.

Once you’re bound, two hearts beat as one.

Their revenge becomes your revenge.

Their love binds with your love.

And their death...is your death.

Always.

Chapter One

TO GO FROM THE BEST KISS of my life to being asked to commit murder...

He had to be kidding, right?

I gawked at him.

His voice echoed over and over in my head.

“Kill me, kill me, kill me.”

My palm turned slippery around the knife, my lips still stinging from his, my heart a manic monster in my chest.

Raw panic rushed up my throat. “There’s no way I’m—”

“Do it.” His eyes held mine, narrowed and black. “Stab me. Right now.”

I backed up, wrenching my hand from his where he forced me to hold the knife. “You’re crazy.” Tears pricked my eyes. “I can’t. I physically can’t hurt you.”

“Once again, your lack of obedience is infuriating.”

“My obedience?!” My temper got the better of me. “I don’t remember promising to obey you—”

“I told you not to fuck this up for me.” His eyes locked on the drones above. The drones watching everything. “And keep your voice down.”

“Let’s just go back inside—”

“It’s too late for that.” He reached for me. “Come here.”

“Get away from me.” I went to throw the knife into the bushes, but he rushed me, grabbed my shoulders where my rucksack hung, and hissed into my ear. “You will do this for me because I can’t do it on my own. I need you.”

Need you.

Need you.

Up until now, I’d hoarded those words.

I’d relished that someone like Lucien Ashfall—who prided himself on hating everyone and everything—needed me.

Useless stress-phobic me.

To ease his pain.

To give him pleasure.

To share my company and just talk to him...

But this?

Murdering him?

Not possible.

Utterly impossible.

I fought him. “Let me go.”

“I’m not asking, Rook.”

“And I’m not doing it, Lucien.”

“Don’t you get it? I only have one shot. Just one!” His snarl vibrated through my bones, making me ache from head to toe. “And I’m not going to fail.”

“I’ll do whatever you need, but I can’t—”

“Stab me. Before they come.” His fingers dug into my shoulders like pincers. “Stab me, Rook. Do it.”

My name. He hardly ever said my name.

Now he’d said it twice in succession.

It made my heart skip a million beats and feelings to surge that had absolutely no business surging.

The drones suddenly abandoned us, shooting back over the wall as the rain became heavier, drenching us with wet splashes.

Without the drones recording us, I shouted, “You can command me all you want. I will literally do anything else you ask, but I won’t hurt you. I refuse.”

“Don’t you want revenge on me keeping you here?” He gripped me agonisingly hard, his face going black. “Aren’t you furious?”

“What?” My eyes widened. “Why would I—?”

“Don’t you hate me for taking you away from your life?”

“Yes. I mean no.” I scowled. “I mean...it’s not you who did this to me.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m the reason you’re here. I’m the reason you can’t leave.”

“You’re the reason I’m still alive. You’ve saved me from the others. You’ve given me your blood—”

“Purely to keep you alive for this. I needed you well enough—obedient enough—to kill me.”

My heart quit beating. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. You’re the key. My one chance. I’ve been using you this entire time—”

“No, you haven’t.” I shook my head, clinging to all those moments where our lives had woven together. All those seconds where we’d fallen into something against our wishes but something that was real and true and—

“You mean nothing to me.” He bared his teeth like a beast. “You’re just a tool. A knife I’ve honed to be used at this very moment.”

“No.” I swallowed hard, fighting his words, my reaction, begging stress not to black me out. “I know what you’re doing, and I don’t blame you—”

“I blame me,” he cut me off with a roar. “I fucking despise everything about myself and this place. You’re here because of me. You’re trapped because of me. And if you don’t do what I say, I’ll kill you.”

“You can’t keep threatening me with something we both know isn’t true!” I stomped my foot like a child, splashing droplets from a gathering puddle. “You can’t kill me. We both know that. If you could, you would’ve done it already!”

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Darkest Destiny (Darkest Destiny Trilogy #1) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/darkest-destiny-darkest-destiny-trilogy-1-read-online-pepper-winters Thu, 26 Feb 2026 08:20:39 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/darkest-destiny-darkest-destiny-trilogy-1-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Authors: Pepper Winters Series: Darkest Destiny Trilogy Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >109

For twenty years, Lucien Ashfall has been caged by the very men who profit from his blood. He’s dangerous, uncontrollable, and deadly. He’s also the only one carrying his bloodline and they need another.

Every six months, thirty girls are sent into his prison and tasked with one goal: Make him create an heir by any means necessary. But everyone who goes in, never comes out.

Until Rook Snowdon is thrown into Cinderkeep by mistake.

She isn’t a seductress. And she certainly isn’t there to save anyone.

In fact, she only has three goals in life:
One, hide her true identity for as long as possible.
Two, nap and self-medicate with wine.
Three (and most problematic) ignore the fact that stress is slowly killing her.

Lucien only has one goal: escape and burn everything to the ground. Unfortunately, everyone has their secrets and these two have many.

They just don’t know it yet.

Because she might be the key to getting him free. But if he gets out, it’s not the world that will burn.

It’s him

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Playlist

Symphony of Misfits – Imagine Dragons

Believer – Imagine Dragons

Chills – Mickey Valen, Joey Myron

I Want Love – Jessie J

Secrets – OneRepublic

In the End – Linkin Park

Make Me Wanna Die – The Pretty Reckless

I Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty

The Ones You Think You Own – Ilia

Only – Nine Inch Nails

Let the World Burn – Chris Grey

Burn – Ellie Goulding

Prologue

BY THE TIME I WAS TWENTY-TWO, I already had many names.

Runaway Heiress.

Missing Empress.

Slacker Queen.

The titles filled me with guilt for abandoning my responsibilities, but after witnessing my parents die in the name of making immortality a reality, I suffered what the media called a ‘nervous breakdown’.

I went from being groomed to take my rightful place at Snowflake Corp to vanishing overnight.

The beauty of disappearing meant troubles struggled to find me.

But it also meant that when they did find me, no one was there to save me.

And I found myself hurled into the darkest destiny imaginable...

Chapter One

“ARE YOU COMING BACK AT ALL in this lifetime?”

I sighed and inched away from the crowd of women. I knew answering my phone was a bad idea. “Frank, we’ve talked about this. I agreed to give you this number, but only for actual emergencies. Everything else, I don’t exist, got it?”

Frank Lampton—the MD, CEO, CFO, and basically king of Snowflake Corp groaned dramatically. “Rook, listen to me. We all know how hard it was on you when your parents—”

“Dissolved right in front of me?”

“Yes, well, they were playing with cryogenics and anti-aging compounds that—”

“Made their quest for immortality ensure they died far before their time?”

“I know it affected you, but you have responsibilities—”

“I was fifteen, Frank. I started those responsibilities when I was twelve. They yanked me out of school and my life was just another cog in their company. Forgive me if I no longer have the capacity to—”

“I’m not saying you had it easy. And I’m aware you’ve earned the right to be alone for a while, but...we need you here for more than the occasional signature. You’re the sole heir to every subsidiary and enterprise. Your disappearance sent ripples through the corporate world and—”

“They’ll survive.” I cut him off for the fourth time, sick of the same ‘ole conversation. “Look, if you don’t have an emergency—if the labs haven’t blown up or the pill for everlasting life hasn’t been created, then please, please, leave me alone.”

Already, I felt the headache pressing. The sharp shooting pains behind my eyes. Ever since that day, I’d suffered the aftereffects of death, along with the knowledge that I might’ve been a fifteen-year-old child, but overnight, every asset, obligation, and untold secret patents that Snowflake Corp was involved in became mine.

So I did what any logical, broken teenager would do and got the hell out of there.

“Ladies, my, my, what a fabulous turnout!” A man’s voice crackled through the speaker system, floating with a rich baritone through the luxury garden. Whipping around, I scanned the crowd of women. Some pretty, some not so pretty, some in dresses, some in jeans. But all of us had one thing in common thanks to the pink invitation in our hands.

“I have to go, Frank.”

“No, wait—”

“Thank you so much for accepting our offer to attend the Ember Wellness Retreat Weekend. With our grand opening next month, you’re an integral part of helping us find the areas of improvement that may arise. Because your feedback is so valuable, the entire weekend is on us—including unlimited massages, beauty treatments, and access to the many hot pools and ice baths within the estate.”

Everyone smiled at each other, clutching their bags packed with the essentials for a weekend at a five-star spa.

My headache started to fade, knowing that the moment I hung up the phone, I would once again be a nobody. A twenty-two-year-old slacker who had no ambition, no agenda, and had successfully become one with the art of doing nothing.

That was how I’d ended up at the right place, at the right time to receive an invitation.

I’d only just arrived in London from a month in Thailand. After so much sun, sand, and bright teal sea, I wanted to bundle myself up in sweaters and eat fried food in front of a fireplace in a thousand-year-old pub.

Two extremes. Two experiences.

That was what made up my life—just a constant drift toward the next stress-free moment with a single rucksack to my name—so when a handsome man approached me at said pub, asked if I was free this weekend and wanted to be pampered, I took it as a nudge from the universe to relax after my flight and agreed.

Of course, I wasn’t entirely stupid.

I might be one of the richest women alive and had long since lost the tangible value of money—seeing as it kept pouring into my account faster than I could give it away to charities—but I’d been put to work in my parents’ company when I was just twelve for a reason.

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Texting Dr Stalker Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/texting-dr-stalker-read-online-pepper-winters Sun, 02 Feb 2025 19:15:50 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/texting-dr-stalker-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic Authors: Pepper Winters Advertisement

Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)

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From New York Times Bestseller, Pepper Winters, comes a green-flag stalker standalone romance

Now a #1 bestseller in Medical Romance!

I have a stalker.
A masked man who watches me from the shadows. A guardian who says he’s there to protect me—to help me heal from almost dying at the hands of another man.
He says he’s willing to do anything to help me move on. That I needn’t be afraid of him.
I agree to keep him my secret and share how much I’m truly struggling.
In return, he guards me. Even if it means guarding me from himself.

I’ve known her my entire life.
She’s the girl next door who I share a childhood betrothal with thanks to our two grandmothers wishing to turn their lifelong friendship into family.
I’m also the doctor who tended to her in the ER after her ex tried to kill her. I want to help her in any way I can, but I also know she’ll never accept my help because I’m the reason he tried to kill her in the first place.
But I can’t stand by and see her suffer, so…I come up with a plan.
A highly illegal plan that ends with me breaking laws, rules, and my own heart...

Doctor/girl next door, childhood friends to lovers, green-flag stalker, hidden identity, lots of texts, masked protector, would do anything to keep her safe, standalone, he has a motorcycle, he does things to her in the dark.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

* 1 *

Sailor

Hospitals and Ghosts

I SHOULD SEE WHITE LIGHTS AND PEARLY gates, right?

So why can I only see him?

Milton’s face burned a permanent nightmare on my eyesight, thanks to him strangling me to death on the rug I’d bought in honour of my nana’s birthday. She would’ve been ninety-nine. We’d often joked that she’d make it to two hundred—

Until time decided it could stop, just like that.

Just like it almost ended for me.

Or rather, had ended for me.

Yet here I was, being wheeled at dizzying speed beneath row after row of fluorescent lights, strangers looking down at me with worried frowns, hands touching me with professional inspections.

Everything was a blur as doors banged wide, and the rush made my head swim. I closed my eyes again, but Milton was there, looming and sneering. His hands like iron shackles around my throat, his thumbs digging so painfully.

“Think he’s better than me, huh? I’ll show you—”

Blocking the memory of his voice, I tried to swallow, but fire-gushing agony looped around my neck.

Time skipped again.

I was grateful for the blips as I suddenly came to on a different bed with different people staring down at me.

Everything hurt.

Every finger and toe.

Every bone and limb.

Tears stung my bruised eyes.

Fear throttled me just like Milton had.

How was I here?

Had he stopped and called for help?

Was he here too? Playing the role of caring boyfriend all while waiting for yet another excuse to kill me?

A wash of full-body terror drenched me at the thought of him still in my house. The house my nana had left me. Prowling through the rooms where I’d always found happiness, contaminating every nook and cranny with his violence.

God, how could I have been so stupid?

How could I let him taint my most favourite place in the world?

A nurse poked me with a needle. Another nurse pressed a few buttons on a machine by my head. They looked at each other before glancing at me with a pitying smile. “You’ll be okay. You’re safe now, alright? He can’t get you here.”

I wanted to cry.

I might be safe in this chaotic place with doctors and patients and beeping, annoying monitors, but what about my home? How could I ever go back there? How could I ever be in the same room as him again?

The kind nurse with bright coral lips gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Relax now. We’ve got you.”

A fuzzy cloud crept over my mind.

I tried to fight it.

But sleep pulled me under, and the last thing I saw was the ghost of my nana standing at the foot of my bed. Her thick white hair curled perfectly around her chin, the usual pink peony in the top button of her housedress, and a wonderful smile on her gorgeous, wizened face. “Rest, Little Lor. Everything will work out in the end…you’ll see.”

I slipped into darkness.

* * * * *

“Did the scans show any internal bleeding?” A masculine voice that sounded familiar wriggled through my gluey thoughts.

“No, Dr North. She was lucky.”

“Lucky? You call attempted murder lucky?”

“Oh no! Of course not. I just meant…she’ll recover. It’ll take time, but she’ll heal.”

“Give me a rundown.”

“Of course, Dr North. She’s suffered contusions to large areas of her arms and legs, has a hematoma on her hip, multiple abrasions, and a few bruised ribs. Dr Yang did a thorough investigation of her neck and spine, and there doesn’t appear to be any skeletal damage. However, he did recommend she doesn’t try to speak for up to a week while her larynx heals.”

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Diamond Kisses (The Jewelry Box #4) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/diamond-kisses-the-jewelry-box-4-read-online-pepper-winters Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:23:11 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/diamond-kisses-the-jewelry-box-4-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Billionaire, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Jewelry Box Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >116

“I hoped we’d have luck on our side. Goodness over evil, right over wrong. I’d prayed for a miracle, but in the end…the darkness won.”

I knew what it felt like to reach rock bottom.
To do things I could never repent.
To want things I could never absolve.
I’ve wanted to die for so long.
I deserve to die for what I’ve done.
But not until I finish this.
Not until I atone.
And so, I make a decision.
A cascade of decisions that will bring about the end of my world.
The darkness wants to be fed.
So I’ll feed it.
With blood.

THE FINAL BOOK IN THE JEWELRY BOX SERIES!

Triggers on every warning possible.
This is dark, explicit, and will push every boundary that exists.
Be warned....
And to all those dark souls out there...welcome to The Jewelry Box

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

………………………….

Ily

MY LIFE DIDN’T FLASH BEFORE my eyes.

I didn’t dissociate or float away.

I couldn’t look away from Henri as a guard moved to his side at Victor’s orders.

I couldn’t stop trembling, bound on the altar, as Henri fisted the diamond-handled dagger and sucked in a tattered breath.

Every moment we’d shared.

Every night, every kiss, every whisper.

We’d tried and failed.

Peter would die after me. The jewels would be punished. And Henri…he might truly lose himself.

He shifted and pressed one hand on my belly, where Victor told him to cut through my ribcage and rip out my heart. His other hand brought the knife to my throat as he bent over me and whispered one final time. “Forgive me.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks, trickling beneath the crystal-adorned mask.

I nodded as he caught my stare.

I hoped he sacrificed me to save the others.

I hoped he’d come to the same conclusion I had; it was over for me and Peter, but not him. He could go on and save them. He could finish this.

With my heart winging and adrenaline racing, I gave him a watery smile. “Forgiven.”

His eyes flared behind his black tourmaline mask.

For a moment, it looked as if he’d kiss me.

But then he stood to his full height.

Strangled the knife.

And cut—

Chapter One

………………………….

Henri

I WASN’T IN CONTROL OF MY actions.

Barely conscious of my body, thoughts, and feelings.

I shut down.

That icy darkness that’d prowled through me when I’d stumbled through the caves returned. The pressure of it. The utter annihilation of it.

I didn’t feel human.

Which was good because what I was about to do was definitely not human.

Spinning in place, I attacked.

I aimed wild.

I slashed with the dagger.

I gasped as blood sprayed.

The heat of crimson, the taste of metal.

Victor roared and backpedalled, holding his bleeding chest. “You motherfucker!”

I smiled.

I went to leap on him—

The closest guard grabbed my throat and shoved me back.

Darkness drowned me as I repaid the favour.

The guard had strangled me; I cut his windpipe.

Blood fountained over me.

The guard gurgled and tripped, his fingers loosening around my neck. His jugular kept pumping blood as his knees buckled.

Victor scrambled farther away, hiding behind a wall of guards. “Disarm him. Immediately!”

For a moment, no one moved.

And then, everyone moved at once.

Loud shouting as I stabbed a different guard.

I only managed a glancing blow before another one crowded me. Shoving him away, I aimed my attack at the closest Master.

I only had minutes before my life was over.

And I intend to take them with me.

I funnelled all my strength into my arm and let loose.

I didn’t know which Master it was with his black mask and cape, but I drove the tip of my dagger right through his gristly throat.

He dropped with a gurgle.

I stabbed another.

The knife twanged with obstruction as the blade struck bone.

I pulled it out of his sternum and aimed for his belly.

It went in easily, smoothly.

He screamed and fell backward, clutching the new hole I’d given him.

The other Masters scattered, trying to get as far away from me as possible.

The monster inside me stalked and slobbered for blood.

So…I fed it.

I hunted them.

Three guards charged me.

I parried and slashed, trying to incapacitate them so I could slaughter every monster in this cave. I didn’t stop to wonder if these men were the guards who Stewart and Ben had been liaising with.

I didn’t care.

I smashed my chains, freed the darkness, and as Ily’s gentle wonderful voice echoed in my head, forgiving me for so many sins, I took my final breath as Henri and became something else.

Barrelling through the wall of guards, I launched myself at Victor. His eyes flared in panic as I managed to get through two of his protectors. But then three more grabbed me, throwing vicious punches and knocking me to the ground.

I didn’t stay down.

Adrenaline fed me.

Fury ignited me.

I lost it.

Springing upright, I threw myself into war.

Just like the fugue that came over me the night of the treasure hunt, everything happened in a blur. I kicked, punched, stabbed, and slashed.

Blood and screams.

Bellows and pain.

The entire chamber erupted with violence.

“Someone stop him!” Victor snarled.

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Sapphire Scars (The Jewelry Box #3) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/sapphire-scars-the-jewelry-box-3-read-online-pepper-winters Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:38:52 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/sapphire-scars-the-jewelry-box-3-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Dark, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Jewelry Box Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >145

“I thought I was strong enough to survive this awful nightmare. I did my best to take back my power and refused to let my heart fall. Only problem is…my heart is an idiot.”

It only took one droplet of blood to forever change me.
Her blood.
The taste of it. The heat of it.
I swallowed her down and devoured her.
For a while, it was enough.
My monster was content. I believed I’d found where I belonged.
But now…that droplet is no longer enough.
I want rivers of it. Oceans of it.
I want the world dripping in red, and I honestly don’t know who I’m hunting anymore.
Her?
Me?
Them?
One thing’s for certain, someone is going to die today.
I just hope it won’t be me.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

………………………….

Henri

THE CURSE OF BLOOD & DARKNESS

by

Henri Mercer

I THINK THERE COMES A POINT in everyone’s life when you wake up.

You wake to the truth of who you are, what you’re doing, and who you’re meant to be.

Some people wake and realise they’re on the right path already.

Others wake and come face to face with all their mistakes.

Near-death experiences can cause such an awakening.

Reaching rock bottom can slap you into seeing.

Sickness and burnout, terror and tragedy—they’re all feared but can grant such freedom if you submit.

Pity I didn’t submit.

Pity I wasn’t ready.

Because when my awakening happened…

I broke.

Chapter One

………………………….

Ily

“THIS WAY!” PETER HOBBLE-RAN beside me, dripping with pain and grunting with every stride. “I know a shortcut to Neverland!” He chuckled, but it came out more like a sob.

Every jewel spurred onward, so used to obeying Peter when he was sober and smart, not questioning his judgement now he was high and hurting.

The way we ran as a group reminded me of track at high school. How we’d always start as a group and slowly thin out the more distance we covered.

Would that happen here?

Would jewels fall back? Would we slow to stay together? Or would some bolt ahead, chasing after hope that they might find escape, if only they ran quick enough?

Gasping for breath, I glanced at Peter. The target mark on his chest rivered into streaks of black, white, and red. The paint smudged and soaked into the band of his nude-coloured boxers. His glazy eyes and feverish skin far worse than even ten minutes ago.

Rachel scowled, holding her full breasts as we ran, preventing them from bouncing too much. “You are not Peter Pan, Pete. There is no such thing as Neverland.”

“Pretty sure I am.” Peter spread his arms. “Share his name, don’t I? Bet you I could fly if I threw myself off the cliff.”

“No one is throwing anything off the cliff.” Rachel grimaced. Shooting me a look, she couldn’t hide the depth of her terror. “He’s lost it,” she whispered to me.

“Fly faster, friends!” Peter shouted, almost falling to his knees from running on burned feet. “Shortcut ahead!”

Rachel reached for him, but he shrugged her off.

Sighing heavily, Rachel let fear braid with her temper. “How the hell do you know a shortcut? What shortcut? You’re as high as the clouds, and if you say you can fly in those clouds, I’ll—”

“Rachel.” I shook my head. “It’s okay.”

Tears instantly welled in her eyes. Gritting her teeth, she looked away.

Peter stumbled as we bolted down the lush grass of Victor’s runway and past his private plane. A split-second idea of stealing the plane and flying everyone out of here tantalised. If only I’d studied to become a pilot instead of a gemmologist.

As we dashed past, the roar of the ocean crashed against the cliffs to our right, almost deafening us.

Everything was louder out here, alive out here…wilder out here.

The forest we sprinted toward beckoned with bark and leaf, promising to protect and hide us.

A few running jewels looked at the cliffs.

A guy I hadn’t spoken to and Suri—the girl who’d been on show with Kirk the night of the treasure hunt—gravitated toward the edge.

“Don’t you dare!” Peter bellowed, tripping again as if his burned and blackened feet were moments away from snapping off. Shaking his head to clear the clouds Rachel mentioned, he added, “Ignore me. I can’t fly. No one can fly. No one jumps, do you hear me?”

“What’s the point in running?” Suri gasped with tears as she did her best to keep pace. “They’re going to catch us. They always catch us.” She broke ranks, drifting toward the cliffs. “I-I can’t take anymore.”

Peter cursed and charged after her. Wrapping his bleeding, brutalised hand around her cuffed wrist, he dragged her back into our midst. The drugs in his system faded just enough for seriousness to bleed through his fantasies. “It’s almost over, Suri. I promise.” He looked at me with pure agony in his gaze. “Ily and I are going to get you out. I swear.”

“Hell, not this again, Pete. Stop saying shit like that.” Dane put his head down and ran harder, grabbing the elbow of a small dark-skinned girl flagging beside him.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >145

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Emerald Bruises (The Jewelry Box #2) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/emerald-bruises-the-jewelry-box-2-read-online-pepper-winters Sat, 13 Apr 2024 11:41:51 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/emerald-bruises-the-jewelry-box-2-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Billionaire, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Jewelry Box Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 101988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >100

Second book in the Dark Romance series, The Jewelry Box...

“I made a bargain with a monster.
A vow to save both our lives.
I thought our commitment would stay true.
It didn’t.”

I’ve spent my entire life alone.
I’m well used to loneliness and the endless pain of having no one.
Sure, we made a bargain. We shared our secrets and made a vow.
But I warned her not to do one tiny thing.
One very important thing.
For a while, she obeyed me.
Until the night she didn’t.
And now…the connection we shared?
That alliance we forged?
It’s broken.
I’m broken.
And by the time I’m done with her…she’ll be broken too.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

………………………….

Henri

LONELINESS AND NAUSEA.

Two things I’d been afflicted with since I was old enough to know I was different.

Different from the boys in the playground—boys who had mothers who hugged and loved them.

Different from the men in the bars—men who could laugh and flirt without feeling sick to their goddamn stomachs for what they truly wanted.

Loneliness and nausea.

My barometer of right and wrong.

Loneliness pushed me into the dark.

But nausea kept me in the light.

I hadn’t realised how much I relied on those two afflictions.

How much I needed to live in constant motherfucking pain.

Until the moment both emotions switched off.

The moment Ily kicked me in the nose and fought me with all her terror and heartache, my moral compass well and truly shattered.

I’d been wrong when I thought I’d been born with a broken one.

My compass had just been different from everyone else’s.

I’d carried it my entire life—relying on it to keep me normal.

Loneliness was my North.

Nausea my South.

East and West, my right and wrong.

But now…I was lost.

Plummeting into perpetual darkness where I’d always belonged.

No, not just darkness…

Freedom.

Freedom from sickness.

Freedom from loneliness.

Free to be entirely…

me.

Chapter One

………………………….

Ily

I’D NEVER WISHED FOR DEATH before.

Even on my darkest days when I wondered why I’d been abandoned on the steps of a hospital, I’d always been grateful to be alive.

I might have been born unwanted, but I’d been cherished from the moment Krish spotted me. I’d become a sister and a daughter. I’d been kissed and hugged, doted on and adored. If anything, I was grateful to my birth mother for giving me up because I’d found exactly where I was supposed to be.

So no…at no point in my blessed, happy life had I ever heard the whispers of giving up.

Until now.

“Fade away,” hissed a drugged delusion.

“Die so you don’t have to feel the pain,” whispered a roaring tiger head mounted on the wall.

The dead zoo crushed me from all angles, puncturing me with antlers, horns, and tusks. Even if Peter hadn’t forced psilocybin down my throat, I would’ve struggled in this room.

Struggled not to hear the phantom screams of death.

Struggled not to be affected by the stagnant energy of slaughtered things.

But with the drugs?

I didn’t stand a chance.

Henri’s voice trickled down and down into my soul.

“I told you what would happen, little nightmare. I told you what exists inside me. I told you.” Over and over again, his raspy, drunken voice repeated. “I told you what would happen. I told you…”

A vortex.

A spinning, sucking hellhole binding me to the X-shaped cross where he’d imprisoned me.

I shuddered as his tongue slid over my cheek one last time, catching stray tears before he pushed away.

He sighed as if he hadn’t taken a proper breath his entire life. He flexed his shoulders as he finally slipped into who he truly was. The illusion of him with bat wings and vampire fangs returned, painting a morbid fantasy of his shredded, skin-webbed wings fluttering behind him, kicking up dust motes, and sending feathers of dead birds shivering.

I blinked and tried to see past insanity. Tried to cling to sanity.

But it was no use.

I only saw a fallen angel.

A devil born from a man.

With a huff, Henri unwound his fingers from my throat. They fell away, trailing down my chest before he put distance between us, coating me in ice after he’d burned me with brimstone.

I couldn’t breathe as he stumbled back, alcohol stealing his steadiness. With a groan, he raked both hands through his hair and looked at the domed ceiling. With his head tipped back and blood streaking his upper lip from my kick, he looked as if he implored the heavens to give him a second chance. To let him fly into the clouds and save him from the despicably dark things crawling through his spirit.

But no deity answered.

No spearing ray of light appeared.

The fog swirling by his legs only grew thicker, congealing like blood as his chin tipped down again, and he sucked in another huge breath.

His hands balled. His tattered wings retracted and folded down his back, the bone-clawed tips kissing the bloodstained carpet below.

And then…his eyes locked on mine.

“I told you what would happen, little nightmare. I told you what exists inside me…”

Every atom inside me froze, all while my hallucinations grew stronger.

The unexplainable attraction I held toward Henri chose that moment to tear out my stupid, useless heart. His grey gaze was the hook, puncturing the pathetic organ. His cold smirk the line, tugging on my ribcage. And his blackened voice the final yank, ripping me from existence, delivering me flopping and gasping at his feet.

“I’m finally free.” His voice echoed in my buzzing mind. “Free.”

I trembled as he smiled. Not the fake, perfected smile of a cop playing the role of a sadist but a monster who was truly, finally free.

He’s free, and I’m…

dead.

“Let yourself die. This is just the beginning…you don’t want to endure the end,” a hummingbird whispered.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >100

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Ruby Tears (The Jewelry Box #1) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/ruread-online-tears-the-jewelry-box-1-read-online-pepper-winters Mon, 25 Mar 2024 04:51:39 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/ruread-online-tears-the-jewelry-box-1-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic, Taboo Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Jewelry Box Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 130048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >129

“Ten thousand dollars.
That pitiful sum changed my entire life.
It bought my entire life.
A measly ten thousand dollars, given to my boyfriend by a monster to fuck me.
He took it.
The monster took me.
And I never saw freedom again.”

I’m the bastard son of a monster.
My other half-blooded siblings have their own demons…but me?
I truly have the devil inside.
I try to be good.
To do my best to ignore the deep, dark, despicable urges.
But every day it gets harder.
I thought family could help.
I reached out to my infamous half-brother, Q begging for his secrets to stay tamed.
Instead, he gave me an ultimatum to prove I’m not like our father.
Infiltrate The Jewelry Box: a trafficking ring of poor unfortunate souls, kill the Master Jeweler, free the Jewels, and don’t lose my rotten soul while trying.
Only problem is…my initiation into this exclusive club is earning a Jewel all of my own.
She sparkles like diamonds, bleeds like rubies, and bruises as deep as emeralds.
She’s mine to break.
I can’t refuse.
If I want to prove to my half-brother that I’m not like our sire, I have to sink into urges I’ve always fought, plunge into madness, and lose myself so deeply into sin that the only one who will be breaking is me.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

………………….

If you haven’t grabbed the FREE prequel THE MERCER CURSE and would like to either listen or download the ebook, both are free on my SHOP. It’s short and spicy and introduces you to Henri as he seeks out his half-brother. You don’t have to read/listen (it has no affect on this book or series) but thought I’d mention that it’s available.

THE MERCER CURSE FREE EBOOK (also available on all platforms)

THE MERCER CURSE FREE AUDIO (also available on most platforms)

………………….

Ily

TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

That pitiful sum changed my entire life.

It bought my entire life.

A measly ten thousand dollars, given to my boyfriend by a monster to fuck me.

He took it.

The monster took me.

And I never saw freedom again.

Chapter One

………………….

Henri

WHO THE FUCK WAS I kidding?

I can’t do this.

I didn’t have the morals, the self-control, the strength.

Even suggesting I try to do this was like dumping an oblivious goat into a T-Rex paddock. The goat thought he’d scored a good spot—a nice place for a snack and a snooze, only to end up decapitated and spat all over the foliage.

I honestly didn’t know if I was the T-Rex or the goat in this scenario.

Honestly, I was both.

It took all my fucking willpower to restrain myself. To smother the parts of me that were rotten and monstrous all while doing my best to be good. To be a genuinely nice guy who didn’t crave such debasement.

To be like him.

My half-brother who’d fought such urges and won. Who’d not only survived with the inherited compulsion to cause tears and get hard on pain but to also find a wife capable of leashing him.

Fuck, I wanted that.

I wanted the freedom to be me, all while too shit terrified to even approach a girl these days.

Not after what I’d done.

Not after what I’d wanted to keep doing.

The familiar black hunger clawed its way through me, and every despicable part of me came out to play. My hearing seemed to sharpen, my nose became more acute to the scents of writhing, sweaty bodies dancing in the club around me; even my teeth ached as if they could lengthen, ready to puncture sweet flesh and lap up the hot essence inside—

Christ, stop it.

Do you hear yourself, Ri?!

My fist spasmed around my glass of whiskey.

The cheap imitation crystal fractured, cracked, then exploded into shards, tearing through the meat of my palm and drenching my newly purchased suit in liquor.

“Merde, you okay, Ward?”

Ward.

The name on my falsified birth certificate but not my true name.

My true name I’d only just found out, and under no circumstances could it be uttered around this scum.

Cursing under my breath, I glanced at the man beside me.

The man I’d painstakingly stalked, befriended, and done whatever it took to gain his trust. Six months it’d taken. Six months to slime my way into his inner circle when I should’ve run in the opposite direction.

He was the type of human I did my utmost to avoid because he represented who I truly was at my core. Each time I hung out with him—slowly evolving from shared drinks with acquaintances to watching dark-web porn in his den—I came face to face with the monster inside me.

It clawed and snarled. It thirsted for things not normal. It howled for things not sane. My dreams were full of despicable deeds, and my body hardened at the foulest images. The first time I’d been invited to his house to watch some sick shit he subscribed to, I’d had to run to the bathroom to throw up.

Just because I had urges didn’t mean I would ever, fucking ever, give in.

I’d walked away when I’d wanted to keep going. I still had a shred of decency…unlike the animals in those movies.

But, little by little, video clip by video clip, I shut down the parts of me that I’d clung to all my life. I turned my back on the last embers of light and embraced the disturbing darkness within me.

That choice had gotten me this far.

But at what cost?

My fucking soul, that’s what.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I muttered, snatching a serviette from the holder on the bar, watching with morbid satisfaction as the pristine white soaked a vibrant red with my blood.

I shuddered as I imagined someone else’s blood. A nameless woman with her eyes wet and legs spread—

Fuck.

Clenching my teeth, I scrubbed at the wound.

I was so fucking twisted.

I should’ve just killed myself when I had the chance—done myself a favour instead of being weak and reaching out to my half-brother. A sibling I hadn’t even known existed until my mother told me on her deathbed four months ago. I’d thought my father was a deadbeat who’d knocked her up, then left her with nothing and no one.

Turned out, my origins were far, far worse.

“Looks deep, man.” Roland grabbed my wrist and inspected my wound. My skin crawled where he touched me, but I kept a perfectly schooled grimace on my face. It would not help my case if he learned how many murdering fantasies I’d had since entering this nightclub with him.

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The Mercer Curse (The Jewelry Box #0.5) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-mercer-curse-the-jewelry-box-0-5-read-online-pepper-winters Sun, 03 Mar 2024 19:18:16 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-mercer-curse-the-jewelry-box-0-5-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic, Novella Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Jewelry Box Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 14237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 71(@200wpm)___ 57(@250wpm)___ 47(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 >15

From New York Times Bestseller, Pepper Winters, comes a brand new Dark Romance.

This 13,000 word prequel is recommended to be read before RUBY TEARS (Book One of The Jewelry Box Series). It's short but it's spicy.

I’ve fought a curse all my life.

A curse inherited by my sick father.

There is no cure.

No antidote for what I am.

For years, I existed alone. Fighting the urges, doing my best to stay good.

Until Esclave 58 entered my life and I didn’t have to fight so hard.

She makes me better, she makes me human, but then he arrives on my doorstep.

He says he’s my half-brother.

He shares my blood. Our father’s blood.

That makes him dangerous.

That makes him like me.

He wants me for his family?

First he has to prove he has control over his darkness.

If he does…fine.

If he doesn’t?

I’ll kill him.

5 Stars - Get ready for more darkness … Q is back and he’s not the only Mercer man to lavish your attention on. -- Literary Puff5 Stars - This short novella is BLAZING HOT while Q shows just how much of a master he still is. -- Melissa GR5 Stars - Henri is a worse monster than Q and boy I am obsessed. --Daisy Book Attic5 Stars - I can already tell that Henri’s monster is going to be more depraved and harder to suppress than Q’s. -- Melissa GR

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Q

“MAÎTRE?”

I groaned and squeezed the back of my neck.

Whenever she called me that, bad things happened.

Hot, dark, deliciously bad things.

“Esclave…I told you. Give me thirty minutes and then I’ll fuck you within an inch of your life. Distrais-moi et tu saigneras pour cette erreur.” (Distract me and you’ll be bleeding for the mistake.)

The soft whispers of her bare feet on carpet sounded behind me. “I haven’t come for you to pleasure or punish me, Master.”

“Oh?” I ran my fingers over the figures of the latest building development in Amsterdam. “Why are you here then? Corrupting me like you always do…”

She didn’t reply, creeping up behind me like a girl who wanted to provoke every despicable monster that lived within me.

I shuddered.

I felt the darkness unfurl and get ready to play.

The short leash I kept myself on had ensured I’d lived a lonely, miserable existence before Tess tripped over my doorstep, spat with such intoxicating fury, and ensured I tumbled right into the darkness with her.

She was the only slave I’d ever touched.

The only woman I’d ever loved.

The only mate I wanted, now and forever.

Doing my best to ignore her games, I kept my gaze on the spreadsheet. I’d been offered the deal by a middle-ranking Dutch Mafia member—a bastard who thought he could go behind his bosses and make some coin on the side by enticing me and my overly inflated bank account.

Pity for him, I knew exactly what he was and cast out my line, fishing with bait I knew he wouldn’t be able to refuse.

I’d said I needed a special sort of incentive to work with him.

He’d laughed and told me to meet him in the red-light district.

I’d gone, purely because I’d heard rumours. And rumours always started in truth. He dabbled in slavery. Sold living, breathing girls and boys as if they were coins to buy him power.

It was up to me to see if that was true.

And do something about it if it was.

Despite my wife’s fury, I’d flown to Amsterdam three days ago. I’d allowed the bastard to seduce and flatter me, but the moment he’d closed the hotel suite’s door and paraded a whimpering sixteen-year-old girl shot to hell with heroin toward me, he’d signed his death warrant.

The girl was a gift.

For me.

Like always.

My reputation preceded me in almost every country on this godforsaken planet.

Police knew who I was.

Criminals knew who I was.

Both of them had a different story, truth mixed with lies, and neither of them were the wiser.

I’d swallowed down my rage as the broken, skinny girl stumbled toward me. I’d allowed her to crumple at my feet and pretended to listen to the bastard’s demands.

I would’ve killed him right there but…he wasn’t the only one trying to forge this alliance. Instead of giving into my bloodlust, I kept my smile in place, accepted the girl, and flew her back to my estate in France on my private plane.

His death would come…once I knew how many other girls he had and where I could find them.

Tess hadn’t blinked an eye as I carried yet another slave into our marital home. She merely summoned Suzette, told Mrs Sucre to get cooking, and Franco pushed open a door to one of the fifty guest rooms for this purpose as I strode through opulence and tucked the drugged-up girl into safety.

The doctor had come.

Two days into the girl’s detox and she’d finally stopped screaming. She’d now turned catatonic instead.

“You haven’t touched me since you returned from Amsterdam,” Tess murmured as she pushed me back in my chair and deliberately sat her pretty ass on my desk, squashing my paperwork. “You went without my permission. You put yourself in danger. You made me mad, Q Mercer, and you know what happens when you do that.”

I smirked and reclined. “Remind me, wife…what happens when I make you mad?”

“I make you lose your mind.”

My blood heated. “And what is your plan tonight, esclave? How are you planning on making me come undone?” My hand dropped between my legs, fisting the hard-on she caused every time I caught her scent. “Because I will be coming…whether you will too is a matter of discussion.”

“Oh, you’ll make me come, husband. You won’t have a choice.”

I chuckled and stroked myself. “Bold, Tess. Very bold.”

“You left me.” Her hands went to the belt holding her satiny, sexy dressing gown closed. The faint lilac gown had looked stunning on its hanger in the lingerie shop in Amsterdam, but on her?

She made it fucking sinful.

“You brought home another woman.” She unthreaded the bow, letting the material slip like water from her delectable skin. Skin I’d marked, bit, branded, and whipped. Skin that bloomed a perfect shade of red. Skin that always healed so I could do it all over again.

A tremor ran through me as my cock hit full mast, growing painful in my slacks. With steady hands, I reached for my belt.

<<<<1 2 3 11 >15

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One Dirty Night Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/one-dirty-night-read-online-pepper-winters Wed, 25 Oct 2023 18:31:53 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/one-dirty-night-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Erotic, New Adult, Taboo Authors: Pepper Winters Advertisement

Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >91

A super steamy standalone rated F for filthy...

“If you came here to get mauled, Ella…I’m very willing to bite.”

The night of my birthday looked as boring as the rest of my life. Sitting on my own, trying to avoid my insanely gorgeous but horribly mean flatmate, all while waiting for him to leave so I could have a party for one…if you know what I mean.

But that was before I almost crashed on the way home when a big top rolled into town. Before I locked eyes with the hottest guy I’d ever seen swinging a sledgehammer in the rain. Before I read the flyer promoting the newly erected circus. A circus that wasn’t the usual garish carnival…oh, no…this one was most definitely not for children.

Not unless you counted bondage, fantasies, and one dirty night full of heinously deviant fun.

Only problem was…my flatmate decided to get his freak on too. He saw me as I agreed to spend the night with the owner of said depraved circus…and he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Both.
Together.

I get to be owned by two men, not just one.
I get to live out my wildest fantasies and teach Nicholas Davis a lesson for all those stony scowls and disdainful glances he’s given me.

He can have me for one night.
He can make me crawl, beg, and take me in any way he chooses.
But he has to share.
That is his penance.
And I mean to make him suffer…

Tropes: HIGH, HIGH spice. (We’re talking volcano heat). Standalone. Dirty. Kinky. BDSM. HEA. MFM one scene. MF romance after. Longing. Kink. Master/Sub. Punishments. Praise. Toys. Fall Hard. Dirty Men. Dirty Talk. Dirty Deeds. Forced proximity. Enemies to Lovers. Explosive Chemistry. Quiet on the Outside absolutely Depraved on the Inside. And rated F for Filthy, Filthy…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Playlist

Teardrop – Massive attack

I put a spell on you – Annie Lennox

Earned it – The Weeknd

Nothing left to say – Imagine Dragons

Dusk till dawn – Zayn & Sia

Treat you better – Shawn Mendes

Flowers – Miley Cyrus

It’s you – Ali Gatie

Love me like you do – Ellie Goulding

Chains – Nick Jonas

Birthday Sex – Jeremih

Beg for it – Chris Brown

Tonight – John Legend

I bet my life – Imagine Dragons

Love me harder – Ariana Grande, The Weeknd

I want to fuck you like an animal – Nine Inch Nails

Shamanic Drumming Air Immersion (Sky Dance Tribe) (the music Hunter turns on in the Big Top)

Chapter One

THE BIG TOP ROLLED INTO TOWN THE NIGHT of my twenty-fourth birthday.

Swaths of billowing material teased childhood memories as I drove home after a long day at work.

My hands gripped the steering wheel as I peered through a rain-splattered windscreen, suffering a pang of sadness that it might be my birthday, but I had no celebrations planned.

Those heading to the circus, even in a storm, would have a much better time tonight than me.

Stupid circus.

I glowered at the purple-and-silver dome.

Whatever show they’re putting on in there better not have animals.

Movement dragged my attention to the flapping big top corner. Caught in a breeze, the heavy canvas fought against being secured.

Good lord...

My mouth fell open.

All my faculties vanished. Poof. Just like that.

A half-dressed man whacked a sledgehammer over and over. Rain ran down his bare chest, catching on hard muscles and soaking into his jeans.

What the hell is he doing?

The temperature outside was enough to pucker every body part, and my car’s heater couldn’t cope with how high I had the thermostat. He must have ice for blood. Either that or he’d worked up a sweat throwing that sledgehammer around.

My mouth watered as he stretched and swung, showing off every rippling ab, every bunch of biceps, every damn delicious part of him.

Surely, that ought to be illegal.

Children went to the circus. He needed to put on a t-shirt, for goodness’ sake.

I rolled to a halt at a stoplight, inconveniently putting me in front of the show. Other men and women worked—erecting a fence, a ticket booth, a quaint carousel—but I couldn’t tear my eyes off the man currently taming the wind-whipping big top.

Even in the rain, the dark silver and rich purple of the main arena screamed money, opulence, and something...else.

Something decadent, something sinful...

Something that sent shivers down my spine.

My heart skipped as I studied each sky-puncturing spire and the black ropes tethering it down from the angry breeze.

The half-naked guy continued to whack his sledgehammer against huge tent pegs, driving them deeper and deeper into the ground, ensuring my blood tingled and an annoying little fire kindled between my legs.

Fuckable.

He was deliciously fuckable, and oh my God, what am I thinking?

Just because I’d been through the longest dry spell of my life.

Just because I lived with a roommate who hated me.

Just because I hadn’t seen a half-dressed man in years didn’t mean I could drool over anyone.

Ella...keep your damn legs together—

A honk wrenched me from my thoughts.

I jumped a mile, guilt coating me like the thick clouds above. Flashing a look at the green light, I glanced at the stranger, drinking him in as if to imprint his beauty for all those long, lonely nights in my future.

Damp skin, wet jeans, black hair plastered to his handsome face. His powerful chest and wiry muscles made me picture him as an acrobat: sculpted, toned, and lithe.

Wonder what he looks like without the jeans—

The honk came again, louder and obnoxious.

I glared at the older woman in my rear-view mirror. She flipped me off, and my mouth dropped open. Jeez, how rude could some people be?

Grinding my teeth, I put my cantankerous Toyota into gear and took off. My tyres squealed a little, wrenching the guy’s eyes to mine, snapping us together across the road and rain.

My heart stopped.

He froze as our gazes locked as I rolled past.

For a second, he frowned as if annoyed at something but then he grinned. A grin as decadent as the big top he erected, full of secrets and sin.

The fire between my legs turned into an uncontrollable blaze.

Look at the damn road!

He tracked me, and just before our eyes unlocked, he freaking winked.

Winked!

As if he could hear all my dirty thoughts about him and wouldn’t mind obliging me by stripping off rain-logged jeans and showing me exactly what he packed beneath them.

My foot slipped on the gas pedal.

Something primitive shot through my body. Something hungry and filthy and not at all me. I’d never been one to let desire cloud my head, yet here I was, well and truly in a fog.

Giving me a seductive wave, he raised the sledgehammer again and returned to his task.

Ripping my eyes away took inhuman strength; my foot pressed a little too hard on the accelerator. My tyres squealed again, and my cheeks blazed as the man threw his head back and laughed.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >91

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Cor Amare (The Luna Duet #2) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.ilovenovels.com/cor-amare-the-luna-duet-2-read-online-pepper-winters Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:01:23 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/cor-amare-the-luna-duet-2-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Dark, Mafia Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters
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Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 207002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1035(@200wpm)___ 828(@250wpm)___ 690(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >208

I made the worst mistake of my life when I was twenty-two.

I let love and fear destroy everything I ever wanted, and now I have a choice to make.

Run and hide, or stay and face the consequences.

I'd always known I wasn't allowed to love her.

I'd always accepted that I wasn't allowed to keep her.

But that didn't stop me.

I broke every rule and choked on every secret to have her.

The only problem is, those secrets aren't just hunting me anymore, they've found me.

I can't run.

I can't hide.

For a moment, I had it all. I had all my dreams and the girl I would kill for.

But now, I have to pay the price.

I have to pay...

And I won't survive.

A true coming-of-age story that spans a lifetime. This book deals with heavy subjects and is advised you check the Content Warnings on the Author's website.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

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Nerida

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(Love in Latin: Amare)

I’VE KNOWN PAIN.

Exquisite pain. Devastating pain. Ravaging pain.

But no matter the abuse on my body or the torment in my mind, nothing could’ve prepared me for the savaging of my heart.

They say a heart needs love to survive, and love needs a heart to exist.

But what if both are stolen?

What if both are broken?

What if, by the end of everything, all that’s left are fragments and pieces, hope and unhappiness...an emptiness that swallows everything?

Chapter One

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Nerida

AGE: 17 YRS OLD

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(Love in Welsh: Cariad)

I DIDN’T TURN AROUND AS THE TWO policemen tumbled into my room.

I didn’t look back at my unconscious father on my favourite cream rug. I had no interest in those men when the only man I wanted, the only boy I would live and die for, tripped and stumble-sprinted out of our garden and down the street.

The coral pink sunset etched Aslan in glowing warm splashes, staining the ridiculous Hawaiian shirt Dad had made us wear for Christmas. I’d worn a matching shirt, before the strain of the day’s festivities and the haunting in my mind made me lock myself in the bathroom.

I’d hurt myself.

I’d put on makeup to hide that hurt and tried to dress up my pain with a little black dress.

Both my attempts had failed at healing me.

But Aslan?

God, him?

He’d given me the perfect brand of medicine.

Not quite a cure but enough of an antidote that I felt stronger than I had in so very, very long. More myself. More brave. More accepting than ever before.

In an act of love wrapped up in violence, he’d proven to me that I didn’t have to be afraid of the world.

The world needs to be afraid of me.

I clung to that conviction as Aslan vanished into suburbia, running from the police my parents had called, bolting from a rape charge that wasn’t his to bear.

Balling my hands, I turned from the window with my teeth bared and fury flowing swiftly in my veins.

It burned so bright, so hot, so sharp that I pitied anyone who got in my way.

My attention fell on the two policemen.

The slender, leaner one with short brown hair tripped to my father. Speaking into the radio hooked to his chest pocket, he barked, “Unconscious male. Requesting ambulance immediately.”

Guilt panged. My hand still throbbed from the vibration of hitting my beloved dad over the head with the very same mermaid lamp he’d bought me for my thirteenth birthday.

Tears pricked but then my hackles rose as the other cop, the shorter, stockier one with black hair, marched into me and shoved me away from the window. “Where is he?” Folding himself over the windowsill, he peered at the garden with its ferns, boulders, and sandy-bottomed pool.

Using his radio, he barked, “Male running on foot. Requesting a unit to patrol the streets around Helmet and Reef.” His gaze lingered on the sala-bedroom where Aslan had hidden for almost six years.

With a huff, he pushed back into the room. “You let him go? After what he did to you?”

My chin tipped up. “He didn’t do anything to me.”

Crackle of radio chatter as the cop tending to my father checked his vitals.

My mother stepped into the room, wringing her delicate hands, her pretty pink dress dancing around her calves.

I stiffened as our eyes met.

The guilt inside me swarmed thicker.

And then she noticed why I was guilty as her dark blue gaze landed on my father.

“Jack?” Her eyes popped wide in horror. “Oh my God, Jack!” Running to his side, she dropped to her knees and grabbed my father’s suit lapels. “Jack. Honey. Wake up!”

“Mrs Taylor, I must request that you don’t shake him,” the taller officer muttered. “He might have spinal injuries that we’re unaware of—”

“What?” Tears streamed from her eyes. “Spinal injuries. W-What happened? H-How could Aslan do this? After everything we did for him!” Rage thickened her voice. Her fingers clawed at my father. “Get out there and find Aslan Avci, right now!”

I winced at the hate in her tone. At the awful, awful belief that the boy she’d welcomed into our family wasn’t the kind, loyal, and hardworking illegal immigrant she’d grown to love as her own, but was somehow a complete stranger. A stranger who’d become a daughter molester, father hitter, and criminal.

He’s none of those things.

How could she believe them when she knew him?

How could she question his loyalty after he’d given every part of himself to us?

Another gush of anger heated my blood, followed by panic rippling down my spine.

I’d ruined everything.

Every mistake and consequence was my fault, and I refused to let Aslan pay.

Not even for a second.

My kneecaps bounced as I stepped around the shorter cop. “It wasn’t Aslan, Mum.”

Her frantic stare ripped to mine. With her hands still on Dad’s chest, she narrowed her eyes. “Of course, it was him. He hurt you, and then he hurt Jack to get away. We had him so wrong.” More tears coursed over her cheeks. “We didn’t know him at all—”

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