by Lana Sky
The stench assaulting my nostrils warns that whoever he is, he’s been here for days. Beaten for days…
My gaze fixates on a particularly nasty row of scratches along his shoulder and both eyes widen. It looks as if someone dug their nails in with all their might without giving a fuck as to the damage they’d cause.
“Back so soon…Maxi?” A hoarse, ragged sound fills the room. A laugh. His. He’s alive. Sevastyn?
I flinch back, wrenching out of Maxim’s reach. “What did you—”
“Look at me,” Maxim commands. His hand latches onto my chin, giving me no choice but to obey. “You wanted to know why I left…” He waits until I nod.
“I went to Russia and met with some of my uncle’s old acquaintances. Some of them were hostile to me. But others had axes to grind.” His eyes flash, displaying every ounce of ruthlessness I know he possesses. “In the end, most gave me their loyalty. So if Anatoli wants retribution…he can have his war.”
My head spins. “But—”
“As for you.” He returns his attention to Sevastyn. “I thought even a dog like you should be shown mercy before you die. I’ll let you plead for your life, even.” He cuts his gaze back to me. “So beg her for it.”
I sway. Maxim’s lips continue to move but all I can hear is the whoosh of air leaving my chest and the thrum of my pulse hammering through my eardrums. I try to speak. Refuse. Scream—anything.
The moment my lips part, more maniacal laughter drowns out whatever I intend to say.
“Mercy?” Sevastyn wonders, his voice wracked with pain. “For me, Maxim? Or her?” His eyes seek mine out, red and swollen but gleaming. Burning. “You think I’m the monster? He’ll destroy you worse than I ever could. You never could protect your toys, could you, Maxi?” He spits out each word, spraying blood. “You are pathetic. Still just a soft, pansy little fa—”
“Enough!” Maxim lunges, a blur of shadow, and something silver arches through the air. Sevastyn grunts and I turn away—but not fast enough to avoid seeing the blood splattering the gray floor.
And then silence descends like a noose.
I can’t move. My eyes sear with the horror of what I’ve witnessed, but in a sick way I can still pretend that it was just a trick of the light. Or a nightmare.
That this isn’t real.
But the man crouched before me is, and for some twisted reason my brain doesn’t shy from his violence. Not the blood streaking his pale hands, or the harshness in the grunt he releases, throaty and raw as the metal object in his grip falls to the floor.
“He’s wrong,” he murmurs, rising to his feet. “Protect you? I’ll do so much fucking more than that.” The air hitches in my throat as he faces me, sweeping his gaze along my body. “I’ve thought of so many ways. So many ways to mark you. I’ve considered them all. Branding,” he says musingly as he wipes his scarlet fingers onto the front of his expensive slacks, “with ink or with fire. A collar. A leash. Something so that the world knows you are mine.”
That dark gleam in his eye greedily strips me down to the bone. Like he could devour me, body and soul.
“But none of those methods were enough,” he continues while advancing on me another step.
I stagger in the opposite direction out of pure instinct, but my back strikes the wall and there is no escape.
“It isn’t enough that the world knows you are mine, if you still have doubts.”
Shaking his head, he approaches a table overrun with stone dust and worn tools in the corner and lifts something from the piled-up chaos.
“Here.” He extends his hand. Warily, I wrestle my limbs into submission and cross over to him.
My fingers shake, grasping at the air as he drops a single object onto my palm. It’s small, whatever it is. And yet oddly heavy. I almost can’t bear to unfurl my fingers. So I don’t. I tremble, observed by the man before me, and for some reason he allows me just a few moments of disobedience.
“Look at it, kotyonok,” he commands finally.
The tone of his voice snaps me into action and I crane my neck down while peeling my fingers apart.
A small circlet of black marble rests on my palm. Streaks of silver embedded into the stone catch the light like stars in the night sky. It’s beautiful. I can admit that—despite the way my stomach sinks to my toes as a gasp escapes my lips.
There in the center of it, etched in gold, is a single name, shining with ownership. MAXIM.
“You wear it when you are ready,” he tells me. “When you can give me your trust... Can you give me that? Can you prove him wrong?”
“H-How?” I rasp.
“It is simple.” He almost seems to shrug despite the tension radiating off him conveying anything but nonchalance. “Francesca Marconi must die—”
“What?” I rock back on my heels but he grabs my arm before I can attempt to run.
“You give me everything,” he says, tightening his grip as he braces against me from behind. “Your body. Your life. Your name...” His fingers grasp mine, curling them around the ring I’m still holding.
“And you take mine.” He breathes heavily against my throat, painting me with fire in every exhale. “As a Koslov, I can protect you. Forever.”
And now I know exactly why he’s brought me here. In shock, I eye our entwined fingers, his rough and tanned, mine trembling and pale.
Ink.
Blood.
Marble.
They are all just symbols—but a man like Maxim doesn’t mark his ownership with something so simple. A man like him won’t just claim any soul he craves. It must be offered.
With complete surrender.
A Word from the Author
Hey there!
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed the story, please leave a review and recommend the book to any friend you think would love this twisted world. You’d have my eternal gratitude. Even a short sentence goes a long way!
Then, come join the rest of us dark romance lovers in my Facebook Group where you can get snippets, sneak peeks of upcoming books and even help vote on aspects of future novels.
Come to the dark side
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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.
Other Novels:
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
SAVAGE FALL DUET:
King’s Men
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 is 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
XXX MAXIM:
SUBMIT
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.
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.
MAFIA ROMANCE
Crescendo
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.
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.
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
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?
With a decision as harmless as checking the wrong box on a mysterious questionnaire, Ellie is plunged into a dangerous world where souls are sold to the highest bidder and pleasure is fueled by pain.
The rules of this new life are simple: submit everything—mind, body, and soul. But the further Ellie falls under Dublin’s control, the more she comes to realize that it’s not just her sanity at stake, but her heart and a whole lot of blood too.
OTHER BOOKS
Dirty Lyrics
All’s fair in sex, love, and Rock N’ Roll.
Star publicist Abby Newman takes only the roughest, toughest, and naughtiest rock stars under her belt. Her love of bad boys has warranted her a naughty reputation to boot—but her newest client, country crooner Jason Daniels, is anything but. In fact, Jason’s sweet, wholesome image isn’t in need of a cleanup, so Abby can’t understand why he’s so insistent on hiring her.
But, after a few clandestine meetings, she’s quick to realize that the Jason Daniels isn’t exactly the same man in real life that he pretends to be on the radio. In fact, he brings a whole new form of “bad” to the table, and before Abby can help it, she finds herself hopelessly falling under his spell.
After all, all’s fair...
Dragonfly
Sheltered by an overprotective family, Amy Sager—a shy twenty-something poet from Canada—just wanted to break out of her shell and be free to live her own life. What better way to assert her newfound independence than by moving to San Francisco?
However, when she meets a tall, blood-drenched stranger, she gets more than she bargained for.
Jackie is everything she should never want. Violence, lies, and even murder taint this strange man, but she finds herself irresistibly drawn to him…like a moth to a flame.
When their relationship strains her loyalty and his livelihood, it isn’t long before violence consumes her independence and Amy’s quest for freedom turns into just another story of a good girl caught on the wrong side of the tracks, too far gone to turn back.
Pretty Perfect
Perfection. It is an illusion that twenty-year-old Anya DeSotto strives to maintain.
The perfect ballerina.
The perfect daughter.
The perfect liar.
Everyone else seems fooled by the charade—but Anya isn’t prepared for the moment her perfect mask is cracked in half by someone much more adept at the art of pretending.
Nearly two decades her senior, Revend Marcus, the owner of a prestigious international ballet company, has no problem with breaking Anya down to suit his own twisted idea of perfection. But, when a shadow from Revend’s past looms over their futures and Anya’s insecurities push their relationship to a violent crescendo, the resulting chaos threatens to destroy them both.
Though, sometimes, even destruction can be pretty perfect.
Also by Lana Sky
The Ellie Gray Chronicles
Drain Me
Chain Me
Beautiful Monsters
Crescendo
Refrain
Mezzo
Allegro
Rockstar Rebels
Dirty Lyrics
Moth
Dragonfly
Moth
XXX
Maxim: Submit
Maxim: Obey
Savage Fall Duet
King’s Men
King’s Horses
Standalones
Pretty Perfect
