by Lana Sky
I head out to the stables. Sure enough, the beautiful Zzazza is in one of the fenced-in pastures, looking like something out of a fairytale. Riding her is Vadim, still in his rumpled sweats. Seated before him, in her riding outfit, helmet in place, is Magda. She sits stiffly as he murmurs instructions into her ear, explaining various aspects of riding.
But bit by bit, she obeys his gentle suggestions, adjusting her grip on the reigns. And every now again, her eyes dart to him for approval—which she finds every single time.
My chest aches as I creep to the fence and watch them. It’s a night and day contrast to yesterday. They both look relaxed, for one, their expressions neutral. Still hesitant in some ways, but it’s progress.
Spotting me, Magda cracks the tiniest hint of something that may or may not be a smile, and my heart soars. Above her, Vadim grins in that wary, breathtaking way.
And their fragile, fledgling joy resonates like sunlight, adding life to the overcast landscape.
Only once night falls, and Magda is fast asleep do I finally meet with Vadim alone. He enters the bedroom awkwardly, having been the one on bedtime duty for once.
Our eyes meet, and words spill from my throat before I can hold them back. “I’m so happy for you,” I tell him, my voice wrought with emotion. “I am. I’m so, so happy—”
“But you’re doubting.” His eyes narrow as he advances, pinning me in against the wall before I even realize what’s happening. One shift of his body and I’m trapped. But this prison isn’t one I’m eager to escape, no matter how fiercely every nerve in my body is urging me to run.
“My beauty…” My eyelids flutter as he grasps my chin, cradling my jaw against his palm. It should be illegal for one gesture to contain so much emotion. I sway, overwhelmed as he draws me to him, his mouth hovering near my throat.
“Gaining Magdalene was one obstacle I’ve surmounted,” he tells me, his voice low with a determination that sets me alight. “I won’t lose you. Whether I have to shackle you, or chastise or claim…” He captures my hips, grinding his touch into my flesh. “I refuse to relent. You will give in to me. I know it.”
“Through marriage?” I ask softly.
He smiles, and my heart lurches, hammering madly. “Through corruption,” he corrects, stroking my hair from my face. “I will corrupt you as thoroughly as you have tainted me, be it through marriage or otherwise.”
“That sounds like a threat,” I confess, even as I find myself lurching into him, manipulated by his groping touch.
“Take it as you will,” he warns, his voice deepening with possession. “I will have you. No matter the cost. No matter the price. I will.”
Whether I’m willing to be bought or not.
Chapter Nineteen
“That’s another round lost for Tiffany,” Vadim declares from over a stack of neatly arranged Monopoly money. “I think we might have to up the stakes.”
“Like what?” Magda asks conspiratorially. They sit on the same end of the table, far too close for my liking. Something tells me that I’m woefully outmatched in this war.
“Like…” Vadim cuts his gaze to me. “If Tiffany loses again, we should devise a fitting punishment for her.”
“No fair!” I snatch a handful of money from the till and throw it at him. “I forfeit!”
Vadim’s grin is sinful. “Shall we let her?” he asks Magda, who gleefully shakes her head, her curls bouncing.
“Then, I declare…” He strokes his chin in chilling contemplation. “That she be tickled to death!”
He lunges for me, and I race away, cackling at the top of my lungs. “No! I’ll never give in! Never—”
I break off as a knock sounds from the front door, and I skid to a stop at the mouth of the foyer.
Frowning, Vadim slips past me, the playful mood broken. Squaring his shoulders, he opens the door, and I can tell just from his posture alone who he expects to be on the other end. His brother. “Shit, Ena didn’t tell me that anyone…”
He trails off at the sight of the figure on the other end. As he steps back, alarm shoots through me at his expression. I’ve never seen his eyes so wide. So…open. It’s as if he’s seen a ghost.
And maybe he has.
The beautiful woman in the doorway is pale enough to have come from some ethereal realm. Curling blond hair falls down her shoulders, stopping almost at her waist. Delicate features form a face of breathtaking perfection, crowned by two intense light-blue eyes that fixate solely on the man between us.
“Irina,” Vadim croaks.
“Vadim,” she says, her voice softly accented. “I came to see our daughter.”
Vadim’s story continues in Conquer! Read now!
A Word from the Author
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About the Author
Lana Sky is a reclusive writer in the United States who spends most of her time daydreaming about complex male characters and legless cats. She writes mostly paranormal romance, in between watching reruns of Ab Fab and drinking iced tea. Only iced tea.
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
* * *
PAINTED SINS DUET:
A Touch of Dark
With a killer on her trail, this sheltered socialite has no choice but to turn to her father's sworn enemy.
Could the tension building between them be entirely due to lust, or the trappings of a greater scheme...
* * *
One driven solely by revenge?
* * *
PAINTED SINS DUET:
A Taste of Sin
IS HE A HEARTLESS MONSTER?
The more she’s subjected to his charms, the deeper Juliana falls under Damien’s spell. But the promise of protection and security may come at a higher price than she’s willing to pay...
* * *
OR A RELUCTANT PLAYER?
The reclusive billionaire has his own secrets, and his relationship with Juliana may threaten to send his precarious house of cards crashing down...
* * *
Will their bond survive the chaos?
Or will they both be destroyed in the end?
* * *
SAVAGE FALL DUET:
King’s Men
She will do anything to save her family’s crumbling business empire—including selling herself to the billionaire responsible for the destruction...
_____
THE MORE TREACHEROUS THE LIE…
* * *
Ten years ago, Snowy Hollings did the unthinkable: she betrayed the love of her life.
* * *
Now, when her family's fortune is decimated overnight, the popular socialite is in for a rude awakening: you reap what you sow.
* * *
…THE HARDER THE FALL.
* * *
Mysterious newcomer Blake Lorenz despises everything that Snowy Hollings stands for--and he's determined to destroy her piece by piece.
* * *
When all i
s said and done, this ruthless corporate king will stop at nothing to torment the redheaded beauty.
* * *
She had it coming, after all.
* * *
And, when he's through, she'll be lucky if there's anything left to ever make whole again.
* * *
SAVAGE FALL DUET:
King’s Horses
THE HARDER THE FALL…
* * *
Ten years ago, Snowy Hollings betrayed the love of her life…
Or did she?
Blake Lorenz has finally broken the Hollings heiress but revenge doesn’t taste quite as sweet as he’d hoped. And as the murky depths of his past begin to come to light, the more he’s forced to realize that he may have made a grave mistake.
* * *
…THE MORE BRUTAL THE REDEMPTION.
* * *
Destitute and disillusioned, Snowy is trying her best to piece her broken heart back together. But Blake isn’t the only man on her trail, desperate to claim her.
* * *
No good deed goes unpunished, after all.
* * *
And the truth has a way of destroying even the most resilient of hearts…
* * *
BDSM BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE
* * *
CLUB XXX
Maxim: Submit
In this dark mafia romance: she assumed he was just another client--but this vicious billionaire doesn't just play the game.
He makes the rules.
_____
Pain is the most potent drug and Frankie Marconi is addicted to the burning sting of it. Maxim Koslov, a deranged crime lord with a tormented past, is more than willing to deliver the dose she needs.
* * *
But when lust becomes obsession, Frankie begins to realize that there is only one way out of this dangerous game of Russian Roulette...
* * *
And Maxim never loses.
* * *
CLUB XXX
Maxim: Obey
Under the dangerous Maxim Koslov's spell, Frankie Marconi finds herself falling deeper and deeper into a world of violence and sin. But the rabbit hole of chaos can only go so far. When cruel reality threatens her cocoon of pain, can she rely on Maxim to help her withstand the onslaught?
* * *
Or will she goad him into finally ending their twisted game...
* * *
Once and for all.
* * *
CLUB XXX
Maxim: Surrender
In the final round of their twisted game, Francesca and Maxim have the ultimate choice to make: surrender to their dangerous attraction, or succumb to the many dangers driving them apart.
* * *
With her heart at stake, Francesca must weigh her family’s safety over her own, and trust that Maxim can truly triumph over his past trauma…
* * *
Or it will be game over for them both.
* * *
CLUB XXX
Vadim: Control
A desperate divorcee on the hunt for some no-strings kinky fun.
A brooding, sexy billionaire with a penchant for manipulation and mind games...
What could possibly go wrong?
* * *
Brother of the fiercest crime lord in Fair Haven, Vadim Gorgoshev has survived horrors most men couldn’t imagine in their nightmares—and he’s learned to thrive in the chaos.
But the master of control meets his match when a fiery redhead crosses his path.
* * *
Will the obsessive Vadim maintain the upper hand or will the reckless Tiffany turn his world upside down?
* * *
CLUB XXX
Vadim: Corrupt
With Vadim’s control stretched to its breaking point, he aims to turn the tables by enacting Tiffany’s wildest fantasies—whether she wants him to or not.
* * *
The harder she finds it to resist him, the more she becomes swept into his growing family, forced to reassess her previous boundaries.
* * *
But when Vadim’s past comes back to haunt him, the chaos threatens to ignite their budding relationship…
* * *
And destroy it for good.
* * *
CLUB XXX
Vadim: Conquer
When a ghost from Vadim’s past returns to haunt him, he resorts to his worst instincts—putting his relationship with Tiffany to the test.
* * *
With no end to his paranoia in sight, Tiffany is forced to decide once and for all whether to conquer their shared demons together...
* * *
Or protect her heart by walking away for good.
* * *
MAFIA ROMANCE
* * *
BEAUTIFUL MONSTERS
Crescendo
Daniela Manzano has spent the last five years learning how to please a powerful mob boss. But after a rival kidnaps her, she becomes a pawn in the dark games of two dangerous men.
___
You don't become the fiancé of one of the most powerful mafia bosses in the city without understanding exactly how gritty and depraved the world truly is... and how to thrive in the inferno.
* * *
After five years spent under his controlling thumb, Daniela knows her position with a man like Vincent Stacatto is precarious, but as long as she plays by the rules of his "game", she's safe...
* * *
Until she's taken captive by the devil.
* * *
Kidnapped by a rival crime lord, Daniela becomes a pawn between two powerful forces, and just another casualty in a bloody game of chess. But to get to the top, and stay at the top, you have to fight dirty and hold nothing back, because the most dangerous piece on the board isn't the King.
* * *
It's the queen.
* * *
BEAUTIFUL MONSTERS
Refrain
* * *
Some demons have angelic intentions...
* * *
Caught in the middle of a vicious gang war, Espi Vialle is torn between helping a woman with a twisted past or escaping a world of crime he’s ashamed to be a part of.
* * *
But when his own dark choices threaten to destroy what little hope of a future he has left, he’ll have to face his deepest fears and risk becoming the one person who has let him down the most.
* * *
His brother.
* * *
TRIAD ROMANCE
* * *
DRAGON TRIAD DUET
Moth
He thought he could make my life hell.
* * *
But it already was.
* * *
The one-time Hannah Dewitt tries to live a little, she winds up in the crosshairs of a local thug who seems hellbent on terrorizing her. As it turns out, there is more to Rafe than meets the eye, and their connection stokes her creativity like nothing else. Drawn to him despite the inherent risks, she can’t resist feeding the flames of this unlikely attraction no matter how hot they burn.
* * *
But Rafe isn’t the only monster in her life. Another looms in the background, and he won’t let her go so easily…
* * *
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
* * *
THE ELLIE GRAY CHRONICLES
Drain Me
When diagnosed with a fatal illness at the age of twenty-six, Eleanor Gray is resigned to her fate—at least until the enigmatic Dublin Helos appears and makes her an offer she knows she should refuse:
Life or Death?
* * *
