Title: Salvation
Author: Stephanie John
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Series: The Heal Me Series, Book 1
Synopsis
A chance meeting turned my world inside out.
Intelligent, sexy, and rich. With a dash of roguish charm and a cocksure smile, Nathan Blake is the ultimate fantasy. He can have any woman he wants with only a glance.
And he wants me.
My past has left me broken and humiliated, wary of men like him. I cut myself off from the pain, moving thousands of miles away to escape every reminder, determined to start anew.
I’ve been second best before. It isn't happening again.
One kiss and I'm caught under his spell, drawn to him with every breath I take.
I can't resist.
The passion that explodes between us becomes an intense connection neither of us thought we’d share.
Or need.
The suffering inside me reflects his – a pain I know he feels, but can’t bring himself to reveal.
I have no idea his love can heal me – that mine can heal him…
…if only I can let down my guard for him and trust.
Excerpt
When I joined him, he was leaning against the sink staring at the wall, his features twisted in annoyance. “It’s important to me,” I encouraged, setting his empty bottle on the counter beside him. I pressed a hand to his shoulder. “I want to know all about you like you do me.”“Yeah,” he scoffed, shrugging me off, “except you won’t let me in either.” The ferocity of him tossing the plates into the sink with a crash panicked me. My ears began to ring with the sound of my heart thudding in my chest. Nate glanced sideways, his face set. “You’re keeping secrets, too.”
I winced at the harsh truth of his words. What right did I have, asking him to open up when I couldn't do it myself?
“Kara.” His fingertips drifted over my cheekbone. I jumped, taken aback by the veneration in his touch and the gentleness of his voice. “I don't want to argue, to spoil an idyllic couple of days.”
I hated seeing him like this, so lost and bewildered, out of control. It went against so much of what I treasured about him. Yet it gave me comfort to know he wasn't just an ideal high on a pedestal, completely out of reach. Nate was human, and he was here, with me.
I stepped closer and rubbed his arm. His eyes were mesmerising, the pupils almost fully dilated. My breath caught when I saw the depth of his feelings swimming in them as he stared back at me. The tiny tick of his jaw pulsed as he gritted his teeth. “I’m trying to do right by you. Trying my utmost to shelter you.”
My body tensed. “From what?”
Nate caressed my face, seeking and finding strength the way I did from him. His eyes were fretful and undecided. God, what had happened to make him behave so out of character?
I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my cheek to his chest. His heart pounded frantically. His shower gel still lingered on me, and mine on his skin. The two scents, woody and almond merged together, giving me an inevitable sense of calm and assurance. “What happened in New York?”
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You do not want to miss this novel ... or deny yourself your next book boyfriend. So why wait? Order Salvation today!
About Stephanie
Most days, you’ll find Stephanie John on a yacht, wearing a very skimpy bikini, drinking champagne, eating chocolate and never gaining weight. When she isn't asleep and dreaming, in real life you’re more likely to find her at the school gates, wearing whatever she dragged on that morning, drinking copious amounts of coffee. She still eats chocolate, though — everyone has their vices, right? Somehow, amidst the chaos of full-time mummy duties, she manages to write. Contemporary romance has always been her favourite genre to read for as long as she can remember (age-appropriate, of course).Never in a million years did it occur to her to write one of her own. Now, she couldn't imagine doing anything else.
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Blurb
**STRICTLY LIMITED TIME SALE PRICE ON COMPLETE TRILOGY**
From New York Times Bestseller Pepper Winters comes the highly acclaimed USA Today Bestselling Series: Monsters in the Dark.
#1 Erotica, #1 Romantic Suspense, #1 Thriller. Award winner for Best Dark Romance, Best BDSM, Best Dark Hero, and Best Strong Heroine.
This is a story of eroticism, horror, tragedy and ultimately undying and unwavering love.
Included in the following edition are:
TEARS OF TESS
"My life was complete. Happy, content, everything neat and perfect.
Then it all changed.
I was sold."
Kidnapped. Drugged. Stolen. Tess is forced into a world full of darkness and terror.
QUINTESSENTIALLY Q
"All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted... fucked up to want something so deliciously dark. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. "
Q may be a monster, but he's Tess's monster.
TWISTED TOGETHER
"After battling through hell, I brought my esclave back from the brink of ruin. I sacrificed everything--my heart, my mind, my very desires to bring her back to life."
Q gave everything to bring Tess back. In return, he expects nothing less.
**Not recommended if you don't enjoy dark romance, angst-filled plots, and BDSM.**
Prologue
Three little words.
If anyone asked what I was most afraid of, what terrified me, stole my breath, and made my life flicker before my eyes, I would say three little words.
How could my perfect life plummet so far into hell?
How could my love for Brax twist so far into unfixable?
The black musty hood over my head suffocated my thoughts, and I sat with hands bound behind my back. Twine rubbed my wrists with hungry stringed teeth, ready to bleed me dry in this new existence.
Noise.
The cargo door of the airplane opened and footsteps thudded toward us. My senses were dulled, muted by the black hood; my mind ran amok with terror-filled images. Would I be raped? Mutilated? Would I ever see Brax again?
Male voices argued, and someone wrenched my arm upright. I flinched, crying out, earning a fist to my belly.
Tears streamed down my face. The first tears I shed, but definitely not the last.
This was my new future. Fate threw me to the bastards of Hades.
“That one.”
My stomach twisted, threatening to evict empty contents. Oh, God.
Three little words:
I was sold.
Q’s face twisted; he captured my cheeks between hot hands. “What are you?” he clipped, face hard and unreadable.
The question anchored me and I looked into his pale ferocious eyes. I knew the answer he wanted. “I’m yours.”
He sucked in a heavy breath, body jerking. “Say it again, but not in English.”
Q intoxicated me. My lips parted, and I wanted to stay captured by him, forever. An ancient connection linked us together. I looked into his soul—it churned with agony and demons, but he wasn’t evil.
Q dropped his gaze to my lips. “Je suis à toi.” Something feral heated his features; he pressed his mouth against mine in one fast kiss. “It means, I am yours.”
My breath stuttered as power sliced, deep and fast, igniting broken parts of me with sparks. His allure, his power, all magnified to fist around my stomach. In the dark recess of my brain, I translated his words to him being mine. The power trip the little words gave was indescribable.
No wonder he wanted me to say it. I was drunk on them. He was mine. Mine.
What life did Q live, needing to hear such a strong affirmation? What ghosts haunted him?
Q tightened his fingers, biting into my jaw. “Say it.”
With his command, I fumbled into the victim I was, the rape survivor, the slave. The brief sense of ownership left me bereft.
Q twisted my nipple under the wet material of my bra. His cruelty reddened my skin and fight skittered into yielding. He sent me reeling into needful and damaged. I’d been so close to finding strength, but he took it away in an instant.
Fresh tears spilled as I whispered, “Je suis à toi.”
Q sighed heavily, resting his forehead on mine. “Will you run again? Will you leave the one man who wants you above all others? Leave his protection?” His voice wavered with regret, resignation, as if he expected me to run, and already suffered loneliness.
My eyes popped wide; I shook my head. “No, I won’t run again.”
He looked with half-hooded eyes. “How can you be so sure? Don’t I scare you? Repulse you?”
He never repulsed me, and fear where Q was concerned was an aphrodisiac. But I couldn’t tell him. “I will never escape. Je suis à toi.”
“Worse than me?” he murmured. His voice held an edge, almost as if his question meant a lot more than what he asked.
Wanting to give him something, after all he did for me last night, I nodded. “A lot worse.”
He shook his head, eyes unfocused. Memories swirled in their depths and I wanted to chase him wherever he went. I wanted to know him. Would he ever let me get close? Was a slave allowed to help her owner, while letting him use her body? I didn’t know the rules.
Q finally released me, presenting the other package. “This is for you.” His jaw clenched as I held my hands out, accepting the large sketchpad and charcoal pencils. I opened it and couldn’t breathe. Inside, architectural graph paper—the exact kind I used in my university course—glowed fresh and new.
My eyes widened. “You remembered what I told you…that first breakfast when you kissed me.”
He sat straighter, tension rippling in his body. “I remember everything, esclave. I remember how you smell, how you taste. I remember how you feel inside and how terrified you were when I found you at Lefebvre’s residence. I also know things you haven’t told me. You secretly like what I do to you. You think you hide it, but I know that darkness in your eyes. It feeds me, calls to me.”
He fisted the covers, throwing them off me, exposing my body. “Why else do you think I can’t leave you alone?”
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex... her books have sex.
She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.
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