by W Winters
I bet she thinks I’m here for her. She thinks this is about her, and maybe it was when I first moved here. Now though, I have plenty to keep myself occupied here before I attend to her.
If she thinks what’s between us is over, she’s wrong.
If she thinks I’m going to let her get away with it, she’s out of her fucking mind.
The wine bottle is nearly empty in her hands as she sits in the driver’s seat. I’ve been watching her and Bethany, Jase’s girl, drink at the bar, go into a shop, drink at another bar, and go into another shop all damn night. They’re both on the verge of fucked up when Bethany knocks on my window, wanting a ride.
The slow smirk is hard to hide when I roll down my window. She thinks she can trust me. She hasn’t learned that in this life, you can’t trust anyone. Not even the ones you love.
Bethany’s a sweet girl but oblivious. It’s nearly sick how much I revel in her unsuspecting question to simply take them home.
Bethany gets in easily enough, feeling safe and secure because she knows her boyfriend is my boss. She knows I won’t do a damn thing to hurt her.
She has no idea what I want to do to Laura, though. She isn’t aware that I know her. I know Laura more than I know anyone.
The click of Laura’s car door echoes in the empty lot as does the staccato of her heels as she makes her way to my car. I remember those blue eyes spearing into mine when she peeks at me through her thick lashes.
She gets in without a word, but the air burns hot. Her friend is clueless. Utterly unaware.
I can’t hear a damn word Bethany’s saying of the confession that spills from her and I wonder if Laura can hear it. If she has the patience for it, the mental capacity to think of anything other than what I’m going to do to her once Bethany gets her ass out of this car.
The few miles it takes to drop off Bethany are far too long. Every second is drawn out by the deep breaths Laura takes.
My grip tightens on the wheel, thinning the tight skin on my knuckles and turning it white. The click of the turn signal distracts me from whatever Bethany’s saying, but not from the sweet cadence of Laura’s response.
Her voice is a memory that thickens the tension between us.
It takes fifteen minutes until Bethany’s out of the car, closing the door and asking me sweetly to take Laura home.
I’ve been in this town for years now. I’ve come close to seeing the girl who stole my heart and left me with nothing, face to face, more times than I can count. I’ve been patient though. Good things come to those who wait.
It’s not until Bethany closes the front door, that Laura speaks to me.
“Seth.” Laura speaks my name like a sin. She has to clear her throat after she says my name, the nerves eating away at her and showing easily enough.
The leather groans in the back of my car as she adjusts in her seat.
I’m already down the pebbled path of the driveway, minutes from the highway and debating on which way I should go. Left to her place, or right, to mine.
“Seth, please,” she begs me although I don’t know what for.
I’m silent, remembering all the times she begged me before when she was under me, writhing and loving me.
I love you. How many times did she tell me that just minutes after moaning my name like she used to do?
I can hear her swallow and in the rearview mirror, I watch as her chest rises and falls heavier with each passing second that I don’t acknowledge her.
“Seth, would you say something please, you’re scaring me.”
Scaring her? If she knew what I became when she left me, she’d be fucking terrified.
My gaze moves to the mirror, watching her nervously bite down on her lower lip. Those plump lips I used to bite myself.
Licking my own, I let out a deep sigh and sit back into my seat, easing the tense muscles and letting more time pass simply to torture her.
She leans forward, refusing to just wait like a good girl. Her hand grips the top of my seat, her fingers brushing my shoulder. The short touch is gentle, seemingly innocuous, but it lights up every nerve ending in me.
“Seth, please, just talk to me.” As she speaks, her voice cracks and her eyes turn glossy.
I can feel how her heart breaks only inches from mine. Her pain is like a hit of ecstasy after years of being clean. I want more of it; I crave it like an addict.
“What do you want me to say, Babygirl?” I question her and wait at the red light, right at the fork that decides where we’re going.
I can hear the hitch in her breath, I can feel the heat that revs up inside of her. Was it Babygirl that did it? Or simply having me answer her after nearly a decade of silence?
Inhaling deeply, I get a heavy dose of her sweet scent. Fuck, it’s just like I remember. Everything about her is exactly what I remember. I didn’t make it up in my mind. She’s intoxicating.
“Anything,” she breathes as the red light turns green and I make my decision, knowing exactly what I’m going to do to her tonight, how I’m going to make her pay for leaving me and fucking me over. “Just tell me anything.”
Locking my gaze with hers I ask her, keeping my voice low to try to hide the anger, “How did you really think this was going to end?”
Seth & Laura’s story continues in… Desperate to Touch.
Click HERE to continue reading!
If you haven’t read Carter’s saga, starting with Merciless, I highly suggest you do that now. His story is just as intense and a tale that will stay with me forever. Keep reading for a sneak peek!
The timeline of the Merciless world is as follows:
Sebastian’s story: A Kiss to Tell, A Kiss To Keep
Daniel’s story: Possessive
Carter’s story: The Merciless Series (Merciless, Heartless, Breathless , Endless )
Jase’s story: Irresistible Attraction Trilogy (A Single Glance, A Single Kiss & A Single Touch)
Seth’s story: Hard to Love, Desperate to Touch
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Sneak Peek at Merciless
From USA Today bestselling author W Winters comes a heart-wrenching, edge-of-your-seat gripping, romantic suspense.
I should’ve known she would ruin me the moment I saw her.
Women like her are made to destroy men like me.
I couldn’t resist her though.
Given to me to start a war; I was too eager to accept.
But I didn’t know what she’d do to me. That she would change everything.
She sees through me in a way no one else ever has.
Her innocence and vulnerability make me weak for her and I hate it.
I know better than to give in to temptation.
A ruthless man doesn’t let a soul close to him.
A cold-hearted man doesn’t risk anything for anyone.
A powerful man with a beautiful woman at his mercy … he doesn’t fall for her.
Chapter 1
Carter
War is coming.
It’s something I’ve known for over two years.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
My jaw ticks in time with the skin over my knuckles turning white as my fist clenches tighter. The tension in my stiff shoulders rises and I have to remind myself to breathe in deep and let the strain of it all go away.
Tick. Tock. It’s the only sound echoing off the walls of my office and with each passing of the pendulum the anger grows.
It’s always like this before I go to a meet. This one in particular sends a thrill through my blood, the adrenaline pumping harder with each passing minute.
My gaze moves from the grandfather clock in my office to the shelves next to it and then beneath them to the box made of mahogany and steel. It’s only three feet deep and tall and six feet long. It blends into the right wall of my office, surrounded by polished bookshelves that carry an aroma of old books.
I paid more than I should have simply to put on display. All any of this is a façade. People’s perceptions are their reality. And so I paint the picture they need to see so I can use them as I see fit. The expensive books and paintings, polished furniture made of rare wood… All of it is bullshit.
Except for the box. The story that came with it will stay with me forever. In all of the years, it’s the one of the few memories that I can pin point as a defining moment. The box never leaves me.
The words from the man who gave it to me are still as clear as is the memory of his pale green eyes, glassed over as he told me his story.
About how it kept him safe when he was a child. He told me how his mother had shoved him in it to protect him.
I swallow thickly, feeling my throat tighten and the cord in my neck strain with the memory. He painted the picture so well.
He told me how he clung to his mother seeing how panicked she was. But he did as he was told, he stayed quiet in the safe box and could only listen while the men murdered his mother.
It was the story he gave me with the box he offered to barter for his life. And it reminded me of my own mother telling me goodbye before she passed.
Yes, his story was touching, but the defining moment is when I put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger regardless.
He tried to steal from me and then pay me with a box as if the money he laundered was a debt or a loan. William was good at stealing, at telling stories, but the fucker was a dumb prick.
I didn’t get to where I am by playing nicely and being weak. That day I took the box that saved him as a reminder of who I was. Who I needed to be.
I made sure that box has been within my sight for every meeting I’ve had in this office. It’s a reminder for me so I can stare at it in this god forsaken room as I make deal after deal with criminal after criminal and collect wealth and power like the dusty old books on these shelves.
It cost me a fortune to get this office exactly how I wanted. But if it were to burn down, I could buy it all over again.
Everything except for that box.
“You really think they’re going through with it?” I hear Daniel, my brother, before I see him. The memories fade in an instant and my heart beat races faster than the tick tock of that fucking clock.
It takes a second for me to be conscious of my facial expression, to relax it and let go of the anger before I can raise my gaze to his.
“With the war and the deal? You think he’ll go through with it?” he clarifies.
A small huff leaves me, accompanied by a smirk, “He wants this more than anything else,” I answer him.
Daniel stalks into the room slowly, the heavy door to my office closing with a soft kick of his heel before he comes to stand across from me.
“And you’re sure you want to be right in the middle of it?”
I lick my lower lip and stand from my desk, stretching as I do and turning my gaze to the window in my office. I can hear Daniel walking around the desk as I lean against it and cross my arms.
“We won’t be in the middle of it. It’ll be the two of them, our territory is close, but we can stay back.”
“Bullshit. He wants you to fight with him and he’s going to start this war tonight and you know it.”
I nod slowly, the smell of Romano’s cigars filling my lungs at the memory of him.
“There’s still time to call it off,” Daniel says and it makes my brow pinch and place a crease on my forehead. He can’t be that naïve.
It’s the first time I’ve really looked at him since he’s been back. He spent years away. And every fucking day I fought for what we have. He’s gone soft. Or maybe it’s Addison that’s turned him into the man standing in front of me.
“This war has to happen.” My words are final and the tone is one not to be questioned. I may have grown this business on fear and anger. Each step forward followed by the hollow sound of a body dropping behind me, but that’s not how it started. Y can’t build an empire with blood stained hands and not expect death to follow you.
His dark eyes narrow as he pushes off the desk and moves closer to the window, his gaze flickering between me and the meticulously maintained garden stories below us.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” his voice is low and I barely hear it. He doesn’t look back at me and a chill flows down my arms and the back of my neck as I take in his stern expression.
It takes me back years ago. Back to when we had a choice and chose wrong.
When whether or not we wanted to go through with it meant something.
“There are men to the left of us,” I tell him as I step forward and close the distance between us. “There are men to the right. There is no possible outcome where we don’t pick a side.”
He nods once and slides his thumb across the stubble on his chin before looking back at me. “And the girl?” he asks me, his eyes piercing into mine and reminding me that both of us survived, both of us fought, and each of us has a tragic path that led us to where we are today.
“Aria?” I dare to speak her name and the sound of my smooth voice seems to linger in the space between us. I don’t wait for him to acknowledge me, or her rather.
“She has no choice.” My voice tightens as I say the words.
Clearing my throat, I lean my palms against the window, feeling the frigid fall beneath my hands and leaning forward to see Addison beneath us, Daniel’s Addison. “What do you think they would have done to Addison if they’d succeeded in taking her?”
His jaw hardens but he doesn’t answer my question. Instead he replies, “We don’t know who it was who tried to take her from me.”
I shrug as if it’s semantics and not at all relevant. “Still. Women aren’t meant to be touched, but they went for Addison first.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Daniel says with indignation in his tone.
“Isn’t it better she come to us?” My head tilts as I question him and this time he takes a moment to respond.
“She’s not one of us. Not like Addison and you know what Romano expects you to do with her.”
“Yes, the daughter of the enemy…” My heart beats hard in my chest, and the steady rhythm reminds me of the ticking of the clock. “I know exactly what he wants me to do with her.”
Click here to keep reading Merciless!
Also by W Winters
Merciless World
A Kiss to Tell
Possessive
Merciless
Heartless
Breathless
Endless
A Kiss To Keep
A Single Glance
A Single Kiss
A Single Touch
Hard to Love
Desperate to Touch
Merciless World Spin Off
It’s Our Secret
Standalone Novels:
Broken
Forget Me Not
Sins and Secrets Duets:
Imperfect (Imperfect Duet book 1)
Unforgiven (Imperfect Duet book 2)
Damaged (Damaged Duet book 1)
Scarred (Damaged Duet book 2)
Willow Winters
Standalone Novels:
Tell Me To Stay
Second Chance
Knocking Boots
Promise Me
Burned Promises
Forsaken, cowritten with B. B. Hamel
Collections
Don’t Let Go
Deepen The Kiss
Valetti Crime Family Series:
Dirty Dom
His Hostage
Rough Touch
Cuffed Kiss
Bad Boy
Highest Bidder Series,
; cowritten with Lauren Landish:
Bought
Sold
Owned
Given
Bad Boy Standalones,
cowritten with Lauren Landish:
Inked
Tempted
Mr. CEO
Happy reading and best wishes,
W Winters xx
About W Winters
Thank you so much for reading my romances. I’m just a stay at home mom and avid reader turned author and I couldn’t be happier.
I hope you love my books as much as I do!
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