Dark Desires (Dark Romance Boxed Set)

by Cerys du Lys

  I could be ninety-fucking-four years old and as long as I’m with Angeline, I don’t think I’ll ever need any of those blue pills. Sexual performance enhancers or whatever the fuck. There’s a ton of brands. Pick one. You can have it. I don’t want it. I will never need help getting an erection around this bitch. Just looking at her makes me hard.

  Fuck.

  I think this is love. Love is bullshit, though. I don’t even fucking know what this is. It’s fucking forever. And always. Eternity. Fuck. And more. Godfuckingdamnit.

  I’m done. My life is over. I’m kind of alright with it.

  Are we going to be happy together? Fuck if I know. I think we could be. You know why?

  Besides wanting to fuck the shit out of her every time I look at her, there’s a lot more, too. We’re in the same kind of business, so that’s a positive, right? Also, I don’t know what the fuck she’s doing here, but these guys hanging around her house aren’t so bad. I was talking to a couple of them. Angeline doesn’t like when they talk to her, but I guess she’s nice to them. She wasn’t always nice to them. She treated them like dirt before, but I guess they deserved it. I deserved it, too. I’m an asshole. We both know that.

  That doesn’t matter. You can ask her about that shit. I don’t know much about it. It’s just something that happened.

  Anyways, I think we could be happy together because of that. Sort of. We’ve both got goals. We’ve got shit to do and we’re going to do it. Right? Fuck yeah.

  I don’t know why, but I feel like this psychotic bitch and I can make a difference in something. We’re both fucked up monsters, which sounds bad, but maybe it’s not. What the fuck are you going to do if two fucked up monsters are coming after you? You’re going to piss your fucking pants and beg for your life.

  It sounds stupid as shit, and I get that, because what the fuck do I do? We’ve talked about this. You should remember it by now.

  My name is Noah.

  I kidnap women, I hold them against their wills, I break them down, I hurt them mentally and physically. Occasionally, I hurt them emotionally, too. I cause them pain. I give them a reason to hate me, but I force them to love me.

  It’s fucking hard. I understand that. I never said it’d be easy. I’m sorry it has to be this way, but that’s the way it is. I can’t change it. I can’t change the fucking world. I don’t like doing this shit, but I’m not the worst one out there.

  I’ll come back for you. I’ll find you. You’ll still fucking hate me. I don’t give a fuck what you think about me. We’ll do this shit together, whether you realize it or not. We’ll help people. I’ll make you a goddamn fucking princess afterwards. You’ll never have to fucking see me again. I’m sure we’ll both like that. You’ll fucking hate me, but you’ll become stronger. I won’t break you as much as you think I do. You deserve better than that.

  Angeline and I will do it together. You might not realize it now, but you should be scared. Really fucking scared. There’s monsters out there, and they want to destroy you. Angeline’s the craziest fucking monster of them all. She’s the monster in my fucking closet and she’s already destroyed me. It was bad. Real fucking bad.

  What I’m saying is that I’m sorry. Don’t forgive me. Just move on with your life and forget me. I’m sorry.

  I fell in love with a monster and she ate my fucking soul. I let her, though.

  There’s going to be a lot of people who want to do that to you, too. They’re not going to give you a choice. The thing is, you can tell them to fuck off. You can be quiet and patient and wait. Yeah, fuck, it might be hard, but you can do it. Do it until you don’t want to anymore. Find that fucking asshole that you want to give your soul to, and then just fucking do it. Don’t let him just take your soul, shove it down his throat and make him take it. Forever and always and eternity and more, or whatever the fuck bullshit you want to come up with. Add a few more things if you want, I don’t give a fuck.

  I’m sorry that you have to hate me. That’s just the way it is. It’s better this way.

  You don’t have to hate everyone, though. I don’t. I love someone and it’s really fucked up. If I can love someone, you can, too. If someone can fall in love with me, it’s probably the end of the fucking world. We all better start piling into some fucking spaceships, because this place is about to burn.

  I’m sorry for what I did to you. I love you, Angeline. I’m not a nice person. I’m an asshole, and I’m fucking rude, and I’m too fucking vulgar and I curse a lot.

  I’m sorry. Thank you for loving me anyways. I promise I’ll love you forever. I always have.

  ~*~

  A Note from Cerys and Ethan

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  ~*~

  In my own books, I always like to leave a note at the end, so I wanted to leave one here, too. I’ll (Cerys) will be writing this, but I’m using some thoughts that Ethan and I have both talked about, as well.

  First off, I want to let you know that this is the “boxed set” version of this story. What I mean by that is that we’re currently planning an extended version for official release later this year. That’s not to say this isn’t the entire story, because it is. We just wanted to add some extended scenes to the official release, too. We’re comparing it to something similar as seeing a movie in a theatre, and then getting the DVD version with extended/deleted scenes, you know? So if you’re interested in that, definitely keep an eye out!

  We’ll be offering a cover reveal for that on August 4th 2014, with the tentative release date being October 20th 2014. If you liked this story and you’d like to read some extended scenes with the same characters, then definitely check it out. You can get notices by signing up for my newsletter above (along with some information about my other books). Ethan will be working on setting up his own newsletter and Facebook page and all of that in the future, as well, which we’ll both let you know about soon!

  As another note, this is Ethan’s first “official” book he’s published. We co-authored it together after I convinced him it’d be fun, and we both did have a lot of fun with it. He’s helped me before with editing my other books, and I think he’s a good writer, so I was glad we could collaborate on this. We hope to collaborate some more in the future, as well, and also to write books on our own, too.

  One of the things I thought was neat was getting a man’s perspective on everything, you know? Ethan brings a different sort of viewpoint to the entire story, which I liked. I hadn’t really thought about everything that he brought up. We had the story planned out and we talked a lot about it, but I still enjoyed a lot of the different ways that he brought Noah to life. I loved writing Angeline, too. She’s a strong character, but in a different sort of way, you know? She’s confused because of everything that happened in her past and how much she’s gone through. She’s kind of “broken” in a way, but she’s still competent and self-assured in another way. She just wants love and understanding, except with everything she’s been through, it seems impossible, right? That’s kind of where Noah comes in... and she satisfies those same needs and wants in him.

  They both have their issues, but I really enjoyed seeing them come together. They don’t love each other -despite- being broken and twisted people. They love each other because they understand what it’s like to be broken and twisted. They can relate to each other in a way that’s probably impossible for anyone else to relate to. You can’t fully understand a situation unless you’ve lived through it, you know? They’ve both lived through a lot.

  That’s actually going to be a big focus of the extended scenes, too. We’d like to bring you more of Noah and Angeline’s past, instead of just a glimpse and a remembrance. We’ll be adding a lot to that, with more “in the moment” types of scenes. You may have noticed that there are also a few questions left at the end. They aren’t entirely important, but... we’ll cover those, too. You’ll see! It’ll be kind of like an epilogu
e.

  If you liked this story, we’d really love to hear your thoughts, too. This was an extremely different story for the both of us, which made it difficult to write sometimes. I think that makes it a more powerful story in a lot of regards, too. The most difficult things can sometimes be the most rewarding.

  We both have ideas for possible future dark romance stories, but we’re also going to be collaborating on some other stories that are not really dark, either. This is just something we both wanted to try, because I think it’s good to spread your wings and see what you can do sometimes, you know? If you don’t try, you never know.

  So, let us know what you think! You can email me at cerysdulys@gmail.com (and I’ll be bugging Ethan to set up an email account soon... he’s very slow at this. I’m going to have to tie him down and force him to do it or something... that could be fun, haha). If you want to message Ethan specifically, just say that in the message and I’ll forward it to him, though. Or talk to both of us! We love talking about books together, so we’d love to talk about books with other people, too. It’s a lot of fun.

  If you have any questions for either of us, just let us know!

  We hope you enjoyed Master Over You, and we also hope you’ll check out the extended version, as well. We won’t charge an arm and a leg for it (maybe just a fingernail...? Just one. You won’t miss it, I swear). We’ll be offering it for $0.99 during the week of release (October 20th), actually, with plenty of extra scenes to make it worthwhile. We just both really enjoyed the story so much that we thought it’d be fun to keep writing some more scenes and make a big event out of the official release and the official debut novel of Ethan Winters. There’ll be some fun prizes and stuff like that coming from the both of us this August and October in preparation. (It’s not my official debut, but I think I’m more important than Ethan, so I had to give him something special so he didn’t feel left out. I’m sure you know how it is)

  Bye for now! We hope you love the rest of the stories in this boxed set, too!

  Ruthless: Dragons MC Romance

  (Dark Romance)

  Published by Vanessa Waltz

  Copyright 2014 Vanessa Waltz

  * * *

  waltzbooks@gmail.com

  My husband’s dead and I’ve been kidnapped.

  Years ago, I stole money from the Dragons MC club and ran. Against all odds, I picked myself up. Became sober. Got married.

  But then he found me.

  Now I belong to Cain—a ruthless, loveless man who’s intent on making me his obedient slave. He’s done unspeakable things to my body, tortured me, and broken me down so that I’ll never betray him. And I wouldn’t have...

  Until Spike came along.

  He’s rough around the edges, but warm. When he kisses me, I feel alive. I’ve never been in love, but Spike is all I’ve ever wanted. When I’m around him, all bets are off. I’m falling for him and I can’t hide it anymore.

  If Cain finds out, he’ll kill us both.

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  PROLOGUE

  There was something about him.

  I raised myself over my man’s porcelain, carved body as my elbows dug into the bed and stared into his bloodshot eyes. The wrong look would earn me a slap across the face. I was thinking things I had no business thinking about.

  “Julia?”

  My breath caught in my throat as Cain’s bland eyes scanned mine. He told me daily that he could kill me if he wanted, but Cain didn’t destroy the things he owned, the things that still gave him pleasure.

  I lowered my body over his before he could think about my hesitation and kissed him, trying to bury my thoughts of another tall, lanky man with curly hair.

  I can’t leave Cain.

  His arm curling around my waist seemed to remind me of that. My muscles relaxed and I sighed as Cain edged up behind me, his hardness digging into my ass. I went away inside when he positioned me. I commanded my senses to go numb, not to think, not to feel. From far away, I heard my sharp gasp of pain.

  The man who made my spirits lift entered my head like a dream. Spike. I thought of how happy I was the night before, when I was between his sheets and when I dug my fingers in his thick hair as he kissed my neck. But I wasn’t with Spike. I was Cain’s old lady. I didn’t choose him, but he snatched me from my perfect life in Los Angeles that was making me so miserable. And I couldn’t leave.

  He’ll kill us both.

  The realization stabbed me like a sharp whisper in the ear. I snapped out of it and returned to the present, to the cock slamming inside me and the hand clamped around my mouth. A dirty finger slipped into my mouth, leaving me with a bad taste. I bit it hard; it was difficult to breathe. He grunted, not even feeling the pain.

  When it was over, my body was flayed and my face shone with tears. Cain retreated into the bathroom to drip some more of that poison in his eyes.

  Spike’s different.

  Cain was unfeeling. He could never love me. Not really.

  Spike was nothing like Cain. He was warm where Cain was cold with his affection, if he felt anything at all.

  When he returned from the bathroom I huddled in a ball, arms wrapped around myself as if that would protect me from him. I felt his weight on the bed again and cringed.

  “Are you going to leave me?”

  Silence.

  Too afraid to speak or look at him, I shook my head.

  Can I even leave you?

  “Just in case you ever think about leaving, I want you to remember.” He leaned over suddenly and gripped my tear-stained face so that I was forced to meet his gaze. It was terrifying to look in those eyes. “I’ll hunt you down and drag you back every time, because you’re mine. The moment you become a nuisance to me, you’re dead. The moment you disobey me, you’re dead. You have no life anymore. You don’t even get to use the word, ‘I,’ because everything you do is for me.”

  I inhaled suddenly through my clenched teeth, a high gasp. “Please don’t kill me.”

  He smiled then, the rage dropping from his bloody eyes as he released my jaw to kiss me gently, for once. “I don’t want to,” he said between kisses. “I like having you around.”

  For now.

  JULIA

  My hands slid up the smooth, round wood in a slow stroke as I scanned the dingy pool hall. It was lit with cast-iron, low hanging lamps over the dozen or so pool tables, which surrounded a small island of a bar.

  The beginning of summer meant that term was over, and bars would be flooded with naïve college kids. When I saw the crowd lining out the door, I couldn’t resist. Dozens of them swarmed around the pool tables, slamming down drink after drink as they drunkenly aimed their pool cues and laughed at stupid jokes.

  I was completely lost to that world. I never went to college, never had that kind of freedom. In passing, Bryan suggested that maybe I should take classes at the community college. I laughed at him. I could never handle the rigid structure of classes and homework and rules—I never even graduated high school, choosing instead to learn in the real world. And I learned so much.

  I was a master of human behavior and manipulation.

  I scanned them, searching for the perfect mark. There were just so many of them that I couldn’t decide which one to pick. Los Angeles had an overabundance of young twenty-year-old boys, which were easy prey for me. Some of them were with their girlfriends—that wouldn’t work.

  I need to find a couple guys on their own.

  Two heavy-set boys high-fived each other as they guzzled down their beers, heading for the wall to pick up pool cues. One of them had a UCLA shirt.

  Bingo.

  I took a sip from my rum and coke, wishing that I could light up inside the bar. In Victoria, people smoked wherever the hell they wanted, but not here. When I was young, I remember being fascinated by the plumes of colorful smoke that would spill onto the street when the bar doors opened. It looked be
autiful. It was only slightly marred by the tight feeling in my chest when I inhaled my first lungful of cigarette smoke. I didn’t like how my lungs burned, but I kept at it. Smoking was sexy.

  Now, it was just a habit.

  Without thinking, I removed the tight wedding band from my finger and slid it into my pocket, trying to ignore the swell of guilt.

  I’m not supposed to be here.

  One of them bent over the pool table and his waistband slid down, exposing the crack of his hammy ass. The other one drank from his beer with a straw. A straw, for God’s sake. He sucked in the beer, closed the opening with his thumb, and aimed it towards the other boy’s exposed ass. Ass-boy yelped and yanked his pants as the beer slipped down his crack.

  Nice.

  Tugging down my leopard print camisole, I fixed a small smile on my face and made a beeline for the two boys.

  They may as well have signs hanging around their necks: PLEASE HUSTLE ME!

  “Hi!” I said in a chipper voice as I approached their table.

  At first they ignored me, because why in the hell would a woman like me would want to talk to them? The boy with the UCLA shirt wheeled around in alarm as I tapped his shoulder. I beamed at him.

  “Hey.” He turned around to look at his friend, as if confirming that I wasn’t an alcohol-infused apparition.

  “I’m Julia.”

  His face burned as he took my hand and shook it, his brown eyes darting away from my gaze. “Ryan,” he mumbled.

  His friend gave me a wide grin, his eyes dipping low enough to glance at my tits, before snapping up again. “Mike. How are you doing tonight? Can I get you a drink?”

  “Actually, I was wondering if you guys wanted to play some pool with me.”

  Slipping into the persona of a wide-eyed, dumb blonde, I giggled unnecessarily when Mike agreed enthusiastically.