Beauty and the Thorns Read online Lee Savino, Stasia Black (Beauty and the Rose #2)

Categories Genre: BDSM, Dark, Erotic, Romance Tags Authors: , Series: Beauty and the Rose Series by Lee Savino
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Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66565 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
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But then everything got so out of control. I finally unmasked Adam but it didn’t go like I always planned.

She didn’t rush into my arms.

No, she ran the other way.

You’re a monster. Of course she ran, especially when others were looking on.

In front of me, Adam is shouting something. A phalanx of security guards in penguin suits rush me. I push them off, heading to the door. But she’s already gone. Gone, gone, gone.

This foyer is covered in roses. Red and white and rose, but all I see is green. The color of emeralds. Of absinthe. Of poison.

The color of her eyes. Daphne, the goddess in a green dress. She was so lovely—and untouchable.

I wanted to kneel at her feet. I don’t deserve her. The son of a strung out mother and a father who never claimed me. A bastard in every sense of the word.

Cruel hands grab me and I fight on autopilot. There are too many, and they drag me down the stairs. The basement air is full of mold. Of course. A beautiful building, rotting from the inside. New Olympus in a nutshell.

A shadow steps in front of me. This is going to hurt.

A punch to the face. Another. They want me to pay for breathing their air. For existing. I smile through aching teeth, dripping blood.

“Hit him again.” Adam says, excited. He sounds like he has a hard-on from seeing me bleed.

I throw off the men holding me. Four on one, and they can’t keep me down.

“You,” I snarl in Adam’s direction. He doesn’t look scared. He holds all the cards. He always did. Fucker’s been playing me since he met me. A poor, scrawny kid on scholarship.

I played the cards I had and...I dealt wrong. Daphne’s gone. Have I lost her for good this time?

“Logan,” Adam says. “You came back.”

“I never left.”

“I always wondered what happened to you. The hospital told me you disappeared, but I didn’t follow up.”

“This isn’t over,” I promise, and head for the back door. I’ll find Daphne, get her back. Keep her safe while I destroy her father and Adam, my enemies.

The battle is lost, but the war? The war has just begun.

Twenty-Seven

Present Day

Daphne

I’m shaking as the cab pulls away from the curb. No one spills out of the ballroom to follow me. Not even Logan.

I half expect him to burst out of the building and chase down the car like a monster in a movie. Part of me wants him to. The other part of me is pissed. I’d cross my arms over my chest, but I don’t want to chafe my nipples. Although, I laughed bitterly, what do the piercings even matter anymore?

The cab turns the corner, heading to my apartment at the heart of the city, and suddenly I’m super cold.

The ring is gone, and with it a huge weight. If tonight had gone as planned, I’d be heading back to the castle. Back to Logan, my Master. Why did he have to ruin everything? I was his. The big stupid dominant nerd.

I. Was. His. Did I have to brand his initials on my butt for him to know it?

The woman reflected in the cab window smiles sadly. She’s stunningly beautiful, but looks so alone. I fought hard and have come so far, only to end up alone.

“It’s not fair,” I growl at her.

“Excuse me, miss?” the cabbie asks.

“Um, nothing.” I duck my head. Great, now I’m a crazy woman, talking to herself in the backseat of a hired car.

If only Logan had trusted me. Now he thinks I left him, when really I was trying to return to him with no strings attached. Completely free. It’s not fair that he chased me down, but when is life fair? Love is not just give and take. The more I give, the more I own his heart.

I sit up straight on the tattered backseat. Maybe that’s it.

Maybe I’ve done all I can do and it’s up to him. All I can do is control my own actions and continue down this path, wherever it leads me.

What do I want? What do I really want? Not my father, not the board, not Adam, and not even Logan?

What do I want and what am I willing to sacrifice to get it? The gods won’t accept a small sacrifice, my father once told me. They want everything. He was old and tired after my mother’s last relapse. Her disease was taking its toll, taking it all, but he was willing to give up everything for love.

He was even willing to sacrifice me, his daughter.

But he’s no role model and I’m not him. I won’t abandon my soul so that love contorts until it looks nothing like love.

Who am I, Daphne? What is core to what makes up me and what will I sacrifice for that true self I’m only just discovering?


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