Lovers & Ropes

Anastasia Allyson has been on
her own with nobody to care for her and nobody to love her for as long as she
remembers. If she doesn't let anybody get close, she can't get hurt.

Then Trevor Savage shows up
and ruins everything. He's broken her heart before. She wasn't going to let him
hurt her again.

She might not have a choice.

Anastasia is the first love
story in Dark Desires, a series that is as dark as it is steamy.

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Excerpt -----

His perfectly shaped eyebrow
arched together with a corner of his lips. He towered over her, a tall statue
of a man, sculpted to perfection. There was nothing about him that any sane
artist would change. Yet, there was something about him that she wanted to
change. Something to make him less perfect; something to give her an excuse to
dislike him.

'Perhaps you would like
to know about me before asking me out?' she asked. 'I'm quite
infamous around these parts, you know,' she divulged magnanimously. It
didn't matter if he was the hottest man on earth. The truth was, she wasn't
looking to date anyone. Not now. Not anytime soon.

He pondered for a moment, a
low 'hmm...' that vibrated in the air, as if considering the option.
Ultimately, he grinned and shook his head. 'No,' he said with an air
of finality that took her breath away. 'I would prefer knowing you. The
real you.'

And just like that, she knew.
She knew in her heart that this was a man who could wrench her heart from her
ribs in his palm and squeeze it until it stops beating.

She took a shuddering inhale.
'Perhaps I would prefer you not,' she responded, also full of
conviction, because her heart could not take another beating.

'Not what?' he
asked, his smile genuine.

Her mind spun and just like
that, it was hard to breathe. 'I would prefer you not know me at
all,' she answered without blinking, eyes wide with something she wasn't
quite prepared to feel. Her heartbeat sped up without her permission and she leaned
against the wall for support.

'Wouldn't you like to
know me?' he asked, full of questions she hadn't the answers to.

She stared at the confident
man in front of her and shook her head. 'No. I would not,' she said.

When she turned to walk away,
he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back until she was flush against his
chest, all hard muscles.

'Give an old man a
chance,' he murmured, his breath warm against her skin, spreading into
warm butterfly flutters in her belly.

'You're hardly an old
man,' she breathed, her breasts inches from his body, each inhale bringing
her aching nipples dangerously close to touching him. His gaze burned, intense
eyes dilated as he stared into her mesmerized look.

'How old are you?'
he asked.

'Twenty two,' she
answered automatically.

'I'm forty,' he
grinned, unabashed about his age. 'Old enough to be your father.'

'Then perhaps you should
stay away,' a painfully familiar voice interrupted. She didn't need to
turn around to know the owner of the voice. It haunted her countless sleepless
nights and tickled her naked skin in the showers. It made her tremble with both
desire and the need to run away.

Like a ghost, he was there,
the man who had broken her heart into so many pieces years ago.

His expression was angry as
he walked forward into her view, dressed in dark slacks and a shirt underneath
a dark jacket. Everything about him was as perfect as she remembered.

'Anastasia,' he said her name like a caress. It
wove through her, creating patterns of desire on her skin. She couldn't move as
he stood close to her, stopping just inches from her. His gaze penetrated
through her. 'I was hoping to see you here.'