Garnell Wallace – författare

Dark family secrets...Dr. Sadie Bordelon comes from a long line of killers. It's family tradition to sacrifice one soul every year on Halloween to bless the people of the tiny yet prosperous Caribbean island of Bordelon Bay. As the only child of the island's current patriarch, Sadie is expected to honor the contract Michele Bordelon made with the devil centuries earlier. The demon at her back is there to make sure she keeps the family's end of the bargain, or suffer the consequences. Sadie daringly defies her family by saving lives, not taking them. She has no intention of becoming a murderer, despite being taunted by the demon demanding blood. The demon always finds her, no matter how far from home she runs. Sadie is haunted and beaten down until she can't even trust herself around her own patients. Stripped of everything she loved, Sadie is forced back home, though she has no intention of surrendering. She is determined to annul the contract and kill her tormentor. The only way she even stands a chance of getting out alive is by embracing witchcraft like her grandmother who was able to resist the demon's snare. Or so she believed.Once she starts digging through her family's past, Sadie uncovers long buried secrets and meets demons far more terrifying than anything she'd ever faced before. Two broken souls...The last thing Sadie expected to find on her return to Bordelon Bay is Wolf Deluna, a man with a legacy almost as dark as her own. Wolf stumbles into Sadie's life barely clinging to his own. Shot while trying to protect his brothers in a drug deal gone bad, Sadie saves his life; however, it's a life she wants no part of. Yet she finds it hard to walk away from a wounded man with a broken heart and a troubled past he's desperately trying to change. Though she finds solace in Wolf's arms, Sadie fears she's just not strong enough to handle his demons as well as her own.They are too much alike and there is no way to forge a future out of so much darkness. Yet each kiss holds a glimmer of light, each secret shared brings them closer. Can Sadie trust that out of the broken pieces of their souls, she and Wolf can find the courage to defy their fates, and create a legacy of love? My Soul To Take is a paranormal mafia romance set in the Caribbean which usually conjures up images of beautiful beaches and sunshine. Just be warned, that beneath the idyllic façade, there are monsters lurking in the shadows, and nothing is ever as it seems. So the next time your drunk on island rum and sunshine, remember you are not alone. There are island residents you'd never want to meet, and God help you if you do.

After her marriage ends, Calla Crane finds it hard to trust another man with her heart. However, sharing her body is something she has come to enjoy, so much so that she's doing it with not just one man, but a whole group of hot men! After ten years with a serial cheater who stripped away her self-esteem as easily as he stripped off other women's clothes, Calla is rediscovering what it means to be a sexual being. While her body is distracted by pleasure, her heart is slowly healing, and eventually, it craves more.Diego Luna is the only man who has given her more. He's touched not only her body, but her heart and soul, all while he keeps a fortress around his. How can she trust her heart to him when he won't even open his to her? The last thing Calla needs is to get hurt again, and there are too many questions surrounding Diego's past. What is he hiding from her and will the truth shatter her slowly mending heart all over again? Falling in love with a man like Diego would be risky and foolish. But the heart sometimes has a mind of its own.

Creed Dawson is a man who always gets what he wants, and the last thing he wants is to fall in love with Jillian Perkins. He believes he's in charge of his heart, just like he's in control of everything else. However, he can't control his desire for Jillian. He thinks sleeping with her will get her out of his system. Once he opens his arms to Jillian, his heart soon tries to follow, but there was no way in hell he could allow that. The few people he really cares about had to fight to get past the rabid hounds guarding his heart. There's no way this spoiled little rich girl who's never had to work for anything would get to him so easily.Both of them have things in their past that should've had them going separate ways once the bliss faded. So when a dark secret from his past comes to light, how is it that Jillian's opinion is the only one he cares about?

When your roots are in the Caribbean they run deep. It's this strong connection that brings three lost souls back to her shores.Journey to The Bahamas with Naima and Mia and to Haiti with our cover girl Kia. These women leave shattered lives in the United States for tropical nights in the arms of men who challenge and change them.Naima is in Nassau to sell the house she's inherited from the father who gave her little else. There she meets Zion, a man with a soft spot for old houses and a hard spot for her.Mia seeks solace in Nassau after failing as a chef in New York. She's home to reopen her grandmother's restaurant. Her contractor, Xavier with his dark eyes and magical hands will repair far more than her rundown property.Then there's Kia, half Haitian, half French, who finds her soul amidst the chaos of Port-au-Prince in the arms of Jonah.Bonus Story!Zemi Munroe travels to Coral Gables, Florida, to research her Bahamian history and meets Laz, a Cuban chef who tempts her with his food, body, and heart.The complexity of these countries and what it means to be a sexual woman are explored in these short stories inspired by the Caribbean sun.

Bronte Manley is a woman on the run, and if her past ever catches up with her, she's a dead woman. Crimson Island is supposed to be a temporary place, a moment to catch her breath before moving on. Through a series of mistakes, she stays long enough to make friends, and then, Liam Cadwell walked into her life.Liam was the opposite of what she'd always known, a man with a dog who knew how to make great coffee and chocolate chip cookies. Bronte craves a moment's respite, a taste of something new in a good man's arms.She soon learns that even a good boy can have a dark side, and the man in whose arms she feels so alive, may be the most dangerous person she's ever known.

Crimson Island is the last place in the world Calla Crane wants to be. She's only back to fix up her parents' dilapidated property and see her best friend. She hates that she's now the topic of conversation on an island where gossip is the national pastime, and the curious stares ask why she's back without the husband she so defiantly left town with. She keeps her head down on her checklist, and her plan works until she hires Diego Luna to landscape her yard.Diego is gorgeous. However, the last thing Calla needs is another gorgeous man. Her defenses drop a little bit more when she learns Diego is also very sensitive when he offers her a broad shoulder to cry on, and any other part of his body she'd like to have.Calla can't trust the desire in his eyes, even as her body clamors for him. She finds it hard to believe that a man as beautiful as Diego would want a woman with some extra pounds and extra baggage when even the man she'd married had repeatedly cheated on her.She finally gives in and accepts the solace and pleasure Diego offers while her shattered heart and damaged ego look on in suspicion. How can she trust a man who wants so much from her, yet emotionally gives her nothing of himself?What is Diego hiding that he cannot share with her?Though Calla blossoms like a rare flower in Diego's arms, she can't get past his secrets. Will the self-confidence he planted in her be the very thing which gives her the strength to walk away from him and into the arms of another man?This steamy romance is the first installment in a series and contains a threesome scene before Calla and Diego find their way to true love.

Six steamy interconnecting stories featuring four friends and their journeys to true love and happiness while battling their demons and learning to let go of the past. Crimson Island is the last place in the world Calla Crane wants to be. She's only back to fix up her parents' dilapidated property and see her best friend. She hates that she's now the topic of conversation on an island where gossip is the national pastime, and the curious stares ask why she's back without the husband she so defiantly left town with. She keeps her head down on her checklist, and her plan works until she hires Diego Luna to landscape her yard.Diego is gorgeous. However, the last thing Calla needs is another gorgeous man. Her defenses drop a little bit more when she learns Diego is also very sensitive when he offers her a broad shoulder to cry on, and any other part of his body she'd like to have.Calla can't trust the desire in his eyes, even as her body clamors for him. She finds it hard to believe that a man as beautiful as Diego would want a woman with some extra pounds and extra baggage when even the man she'd married had repeatedly cheated on her. She finally gives in and accepts the solace and pleasure Diego offers while her shattered heart and damaged ego look on in suspicion. How can she trust a man who wants so much from her, yet emotionally gives her nothing of himself?Creed Dawson is most women's idea of the perfect man. Tall, sexy and rich as hell, he has a little black book of women clamoring to be at his side. Jillian Perkins isn't one of those women. The adjectives she would use to describe Creed are arrogant, rude, and annoying AF. Even his money can't redeem him in her eyes, because, like she so boldly told him, unlike him, she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Unfortunately, she does need Creed to feature one of her plays at his new mega-hotel, which will never happen if her temper keeps getting in the way. Creed just rubs her the wrong way, and the right way too, which is a serious problem for her. It goes against everything she believes in to fall for a rich bastard like Creed. As these two fall into bed and fall deeper into each other, dark secrets come to light. Will the bright lights blind them to the truth of what they really mean to each other? Bronte Manley is a woman on the run, and if her past ever catches up with her, she's a dead woman. Crimson Island is supposed to be a temporary place, a moment to catch her breath before moving on. Through a series of mistakes, she stays long enough to make friends, and then, Liam Cadwell walked into her life.Liam was the opposite of what she'd always known, a man with a dog who knew how to make great coffee and chocolate chip cookies. Bronte craves a moment's respite, a taste of something new in a good man's arms.She soon learns that even a good boy can have a dark side, and the man in whose arms she feels so alive, may be the most dangerous person she's ever known.Jessica Munroe has never been anywhere or done anything her deeply religious family has not deemed worthy of a good Christian girl. When she finally steps away from her family's dogma, she goes all the way to the dark side where she meets Kane Morley.Kane Morley is enigmatic, sexy, and something more than human. What he requires of Jessica is akin to selling her soul to the devil. Jessica soon learns that even the holiest people are touched by darkness and to make things right; she has to be willing to give Kane her body and soul.

CamilleLiving in a small town was never part of my plan. I was born to live in a big city and take over the publishing world. I've always marched to the beat of my own drum. When my mother told me I was fat and needed to lose weight, I proclaimed that I was perfect just the way I am. I set my sights on the top magazine in New York which was run by men high on testosterone and low on sense. After introducing my knee to the nuts of a man who didn't know how to respect women, I found myself without a job, licking my wounds in a small town and plotting my next move.That's when I met him, Dane Toro, a man so hot and gorgeous he came with a warning label. I was told to stay away from him, that he had a dark past, and couldn't be trusted. The problem was I'd had a lifetime of doing what people told me not to do. Why would I make an exception for the sexiest man I'd ever seen?DanePerhaps a small town wasn't the best place to hide from my past. When family obligations demanded I stay on Pretty Molly Bay, there were times when I thought I'd lose my mind. Then this sweet curvy distraction walked into my business with the same mistrust in her beautiful eyes as half the town. I was willing to plead my case to her. I soon learned that I would do anything for Camille and that mouth of hers.

NovaNo woman likes being dumped, especially by the only man she'd ever loved. After it happened to me, I swore I'd never give my heart to another man. I would use them because I'd been used. Charlie was supposed to be just another one to scratch my itch, and then I'd go about my day until I met my next victim. The problem was I couldn't forget about Charlie. He wasn't just a patient or a good time. I wanted more, but was I brave enough to ask for it?CharlieThey called her the black widow because she used men for sex and then dumped them. I didn't see what the problem was because that's exactly what I wanted from Nova. I wasn't ready to give my heart to another woman because I still loved my wife. When I lost Evie I lost the will to live. Nova saved my life when I wanted to die so the least I could do was give her what she wanted. We were having a good time, until she left me, just like she left all the other guys. Here I was thinking that I was special. What was shocking was how much I wanted to be.

Jessica Munroe has never been anywhere or done anything her deeply religious family has not deemed worthy of a good Christian girl. When she finally steps away from her family's dogma, she goes all the way to the dark side where she meets Kane Morley.Kane Morley is enigmatic, sexy, and something more than human. What he requires of Jessica is akin to selling her soul to the devil. Jessica soon learns that even the holiest people are touched by darkness and to make things right; she has to be willing to give Kane her body and soul.

Creed Dawson is most women's idea of the perfect man. Tall, sexy and rich as hell, he has a little black book of women clamoring to be at his side. Jillian Perkins isn't one of those women. The adjectives she would use to describe Creed are arrogant, rude, and annoying AF. Even his money can't redeem him in her eyes, because, like she so boldly told him, unlike him, she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.Unfortunately, she does need Creed to feature one of her plays at his new mega-hotel, which will never happen if her temper keeps getting in the way. Creed just rubs her the wrong way, and the right way too, which is a serious problem for her. It goes against everything she believes in to fall for a rich bastard like Creed.As these two fall into bed and fall deeper into each other, dark secrets come to light. Will the bright lights blind them to the truth of what they really mean to each other?

Jonah Bishop was the love of my life. Even at nineteen, I knew that. There were people in Black Pond, South Carolina, who thought they knew what was best for us and being in an interracial relationship was not it. We were so young, maybe the pressure of our families telling us we didn't belong together got to us, or maybe our love wasn't strong enough. Whatever the reason, Jonah lost me and his parents in one fateful night, and I made a mistake that would haunt me for years to come. I left town and I never expected to return.Ten years later, I was back. It was only supposed to be for a few hours to check on my family home, on my way from New York down to Florida where my parents had retired. The life I'd built in New York had fallen apart, my boyfriend of seven years had left me, and my music career had come to a screeching halt.Black Pond was the last place I wanted to be, but my mother had begged me to check on the house. It would only take a few minutes; I would be in and out of town before anyone even knew I was there. I should've known even the trees gossip in a small town. It was raining too hard and unfortunately, I had a minor accident and who should come to my rescue; Jonah Bishop, the last person I wanted to see.We didn't talk about what had happened ten years earlier. He gave me a ride home and I thought I'd be gone the next day as soon as my car was pulled out of the ditch. One day led to two and I kept finding reasons I had to stay. The longer I stayed, the more demons came out of the shadows until finally, Jonah and I learned what really happened the night our relationship ended, and how the secrets and lies hidden in Black Pond, had kept us apart for a decade.Had there been too much time and heartache, or was our love strong enough to weather a second chance?

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. With Dominic Coltrane, I didn't need one.Even though the night we met I threw up in his lap during the worse panic attack of my life.He didn't walk away.After learning I'd survived molestation, the loss of a baby, and my faith by the time I was fifteenHe didn't walk away.The man of God I was engaged to had dumped me weeks shy of our wedding after he learned the full scope of my tainted past.I'd gone to the end of the earth, Barrow, Alaska, to lick my wounds and met Dom, a man scarred from the memory of not being able to protect his mother from his abusive father as a child.Dom needed to protect the people he loved regardless of the consequences to himself or anyone else. He was always ready for a fight and was carrying too many demons of his own to sweep any woman off of her feet.When the skeletons in my closet surrounded me and moved in for the kill,He didn't walk away.He protected me in his big strong arms, and the man I thought wasn't what God had for me, showed me that sometimes a Boaz man could be a little rough around the edges, but he always knows how to take care of his woman.

He was a blue-eyed heathen with the manners of an alley cat, and I was a devout Christian woman he disliked on sight.When Kova Novikoff picked me up at the airport for a month-long stay at his family's lodge, he was the rudest man I'd ever met. I'd come to Barrow, Alaska, a place as cold and barren as my womb, to write a devotional book to help other Christian women while I ignored my decades-long abusive marriage to a charismatic pastor with more demons than the blue-eyed devil who made me feel like a woman again. Kova's kindness, once he got to know me, more than made up for his rudeness, and the fire he ignited in me changed me.Still, I wasn't sure I was strong enough to walk away from a life of lies for a slim chance with a man fourteen years younger than me who didn't believe in God and still clung to the memory of the wife he'd lost.In the frozen tundra where even weeds couldn't grow, what chance did two very different people have when their hearts were just as cold?

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.William Shakespeare, The Tempest.William Shakespeare didn't specify where the devils were hiding, but I knew one of them was the pastor at New Morning Church. I was adopted into his family at ten, not for love, but to be exploited.The devil had a son, Tarot, and before he'd left home at seventeen never to return, he'd been kind to the scared little girl who'd lost everything. He'd given me something to cling to when living with the devil became too much.I'd built him up to be my knight, but the man who came crawling back home fifteen years later was a widowed, drug-dealing convict with nothing in his life except the beautiful little girl he now had to be a father to. He was never supposed to be the man I fell in love with.I let him move in with me because he was my step-brother and Willa's father, and I loved Willa as if she was my child. No one would fault me for loving an innocent child, but my step-brother? Was our love so wrong that even the devil himself would be appalled if he ever found out?

Nola had been married to Pastor Harris for over twenty years, and Sonya was the church secretary and his mistress for almost as long. Nola had endured Sonya's he's-mine-bitch attitude and the agony of an empty womb while Sonya had given the good pastor three babies. She'd remained a dignified Christian woman until on a writing retreat to Alaska; she'd finally traded in her cheating man for a much younger and faithful one. Now, just weeks before her second marriage and new life with Kova, Sonya wants to talk, and apparently, it's a matter of life and death. Nola has no reason to trust Sonya who could be leading her into a trap set by Harris who'd vowed to destroy Nola for the tell-all book she wrote exposing the lies behind the pulpit of his mega-church. Should she continue to ignore Sonya like she has for almost two decades, or was there something going on that was so shocking that even the pastor's mistress believed he'd gone too far? December had risen like a phoenix from the ashes of a past that included molestation, teen pregnancy, and the loss of a baby and fiancé. She'd followed her boss, Nola, to Alaska where she'd hoped to rebuild her life. Her plan hadn't included a man, but when Dom rescues her like some white knight with a badge and an I-don't-give-two-shits-about-your-past approach; she can't help but fall for him. December is about to learn that the past doesn't go away just because you don't care about it, and that it can insidiously weave its way into your future and connect you to your boss's mistress in ways you never thought possible. Nori was a young woman well acquainted with drama and pain. Born to a drug-addicted mother who she'd watched get murdered when she was just five, she'd been adopted by a charismatic preacher doing the devil's work. As an adult, she thought she'd left his clutches but soon learns that the talons of the past are deeply embedded in her future with Tarot, the adopted brother she shouldn't love and yet he makes up for everything that'd ever happened to her. She has no idea that she's a piece of the puzzle behind Sonya's cryptic message, and that the truths lurking in the shadows of her past are about to come to light. In the conclusion of the Sunday Secrets Series, Nola, December, and Nori have broken away from their churches and found God and love on their own terms. But, the bonds tethering them to their pasts are not so easily broken and each woman must face the things they left behind before it destroys everything they have fought so hard for.

ZemiHe was the invisible boy in high school who became my world; a world he shattered when he left me at a time when I needed him most. Twelve years later, still reeling from the loss of the babies we never wanted, I run into Kofi at a bar and all the pain comes rushing back, but so does the love. How can I still want him after what he did to me, and why does it matter when I'm weeks away from marrying another man? Then my life falls apart again and Kofi is there for me. This time he's not leaving, but I'm once bitten and twice shy, and though the boy had become a man, I was still too wounded to trust him.KofiShe was the popular girl in high school who never noticed me until I shared my umbrella one rainy day. Loving and protecting Zemi became more important than the objections of our families and my vow to never give my heart to anyone. My fear of love was validated when Zemi betrayed me, and that first cut was so deep that it shattered my soul forever.Now more than a decade later, she's back in my life and the fire is still there, mere embers that flare every time I see her. I should walk away because I know how badly she burns, but she needs me, and once again, protecting Zemi is more important than protecting myself.

If Jericho Blackwood tells you the sky is blue, trust me, it's gray.The man is a beautiful liar and believing him left me heartbroken, pregnant, depressed, pissed off, and shattered when the only real love he'd given me, our son, was brutally ripped from my arms.Now, here he comes twenty-two years later with sugar on his tongue after a terrible accident steals away my sister and young niece.  He offers me comfort in his arms and I can't resist that magnetic pull back into his web of lies.I know this man, inside and out, so why do I ache for him and will history repeat itself, and once again, will being in Jericho's arms destroy me?I was born into a family of monsters who would lie, cheat and steal to get what they wanted.I did all of the above and more to Salem after I told her I loved her.Decades later, I have to convince Salem that I'm not the man I used to be, but how can I do that when there are still lies between us? I want to be honest, but there are some things she must never know.

CiderIt's bad when your dog is a nicer human being than you are.Zaiden Sano was at the wrong place at the wrong time the day he walked into Bumble Books and met me. Big and bad and with the manners of a mongrel, he thought he could bend me to his will. Too bad for him, I wasn't the cowering type anymore. Leaving my abusive husband and creating a better life for my son had given me a backbone and I wasn't about to bend for anyone, not even the hot hermit who made my heart forget it was too broken for love.ZaidenI'd never had very good social skills and I became even more of a recluse after my wife died. I lived with my dog, books, and demons for six years. I didn't need people, and then I met Cider Rae. She annoyed the hell out of me at first with her tit-for-tat attitude, but that was better than the write-off most people gave me. When I saw the woman behind the bravado, I knew I was the last thing she needed. I was a deeply damaged mess and had no business loving her and her child. The certainty that I would destroy her was still not enough to keep me away.The thing is, I was so worried about how I would destroy Cider that I never imagined that this sweet temptress could be the death of me.Destroy The Pretty is a standalone book in a trilogy.

LeoI'd instantly fallen in love with Gideon Grey the first time I saw him. Granted, I was seven at the time and had no idea what falling in love was. However, there was something about the scrawny boy that fascinated me. I stole bread from the church charity bake sale to erase the hunger in his eyes, and he stole my heart.Years later, we reconnected in a bar, and I learned what falling in love meant. I thought we would spend the rest of our lives together, and we'd tell our children about growing up in the same small town, and how my parents had forbade us from being together. They took me away from him at fourteen, and fate brought us together again at twenty. We had the perfect forbidden love story, and then, like so many other great love stories, ours ended in tragedy.We didn't die like Romeo and Juliet, but four other people did, because of Gideon's terrible mistake, for which he went to jail, and I ended up in a wheelchair. Six years after he destroyed my life, Gideon returned home, and I quickly learned that hating him would be a lot harder than I'd anticipated.GideonThe night of the car accident began in Heaven, and ended in the depths of Hell. The choices I'd made came with irreparable consequences, and I'd accepted them all. I have to live with my choices and carry my demons on my back. My guilt will always be my cross, and I would gladly endure the burden with Leo by my side. From the moment I first saw her, she was the only woman for me. I came home to the hate-to-love chapter of our story, and I'm willing to wait until she has a change of heart. We will have our happily-ever-after, because a love like ours is too powerful to die from one mistake.

TibiAfter ending a five-year relationship, two weeks in a quaint cabin in Key West while the Florida sun dried my tears, was just what I needed. However, my oasis was soon invaded by a man with dark secrets in his eyes expecting his sister, and not some strange woman in his childhood home. A summer storm and flooded roads meant neither of us could leave. We had to make the best of it, and what was the worst that could happen in a few days trapped in a cabin with a mysterious and gorgeous man?I had no idea how much my life could change in less than a week.StormAfter spending eighteen years breathing prison air, I was looking forward to the smell of the ocean and spending time with my younger sister, Alice. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at our childhood home just minutes before the rain, to find a dark-skinned beauty instead of Alice. I had no place else to go and no time to get there, so Tibi was stuck with me whether she liked it or not.As it turned out, we both liked it a lot, until things took a deadly turn. When my past comes back to haunt me, Tibi was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and I had to do whatever it took to protect her.

RueAfter meeting Levi Carrington, he pissed me off so badly, I punched him in the face. We were five.The next time I saw him, we were seventeen, and he saved me from three racist vultures in his all-white neighborhood who thought a young black girl was easy prey.He promised that he would always protect me. He didn't.Twenty years later, I'm still traumatized by how our relationship ended with the loss of our baby.Levi says he still loves me, and he wants me back.Well, tough luck, Cookie.I'll never let any man get that close to my heart. One time was more than enough. Levi will have to get over his feelings because the only thing I'm in love with is my multi-million dollar career. Money has never hurt me.LeviI was a little prick when Rue Roberts and I met. What can I say, I was five, repeating the racist words I heard in my family. By seventeen, I'd formed my own beliefs, and I believed Rue and I were made for each other.Neither of our families wanted us together, but mine was the one that destroyed us.Twenty years later, a medical scare reminded me what's important in life and Rue was high on my list.But she's so broken. How can I get her to trust our love again when the first time literally almost killed her?I had to find a way because I was determined to make her mine again.

CiderWho would've thought that the mongrel I detested would become the love of my life?When I first met Zaiden Sano, he was rude, uncouth, and a miserable human being. I was forced to care for him because I'd hit him with my car. Taking care of Zaiden exposed a different side of him, namely his backside...among other things. While I was ogling his body, his heart crept up on me, and when I saw how he treated my son, I fell head over heels for him, and, despite his rough exterior, Zaiden found room in his heart for both of us.We had an amazing love story, and then, Zaiden's past returned to haunt us.Was I about to pay the ultimate price for loving him?ZaidenI didn't deserve Cider or her son, especially after she was kidnapped to pay for my sins. Once again, I was a fool to believe in the love of a good woman. I was cursed, and I destroyed everyone foolish enough to love me. I had to save her from my enemies, and then from myself.If you loved Cider and Zaiden's story in Destroy The Pretty, the first book in the Destroy Me Trilogy, then you'll be excited to see what happens after the I-love-you's in Save The Pretty.Sometimes, the Happily-ever-after is delayed, but it's never denied.This novella can be read without reading the book, but it will be better understood and enjoyed if you know their love story, and what it took for them to get to the place where they would risk it all for each other.

Samson SassoI return to the haunting shores of Sorrow Bay, South Carolina, a man of contradictions with my terminally ill mother, who wants to die in her childhood home. With the weight of my family's scandalous legacy looming over me, I want to get in and get out, though I'd stay forever to keep my mother alive.My desperate need to flee vanishes when I visit a quaint shop in search of holistic remedies to ease my mother's transition. There, I encounter Winsome Munroe, a woman whose siren-like eyes and sharp wit draw me in like a moth to an inferno. Winsome is a tempest, her spirit igniting a flicker of life in my weary heart. As we clash in a battle of words, I feel an undeniable pull that tempts me to stay longer than I'd planned.Caught between duty and desire, I soon discover that love can be the most potent elixir of all. In a place where old wounds fester and new beginnings bloom, I have to decide to either embrace the chance for redemption and the fiery connection with Winsome, or retreat again into the shadows of my tortured past.Winsome MunroeI'd mastered the art of not giving a f**k. I wield my beauty like a weapon to keep men at arm's length. Uninterested in anything from them except fleeting physical connections, I always called the shots—until Samson walked into my store with that notorious family stain that automatically makes him the town scoundrel. Samson's enigmatic presence sparks something I never anticipated: curiosity.The gossip mills have spewed a lot about Samson's family, and yet I feel that I know so little about him. As whispers swirl around town, I find myself drawn to the depth behind Samson's troubled eyes. But as I attempt to peel back the layers of his past, I must confront the legacy of heartache that has left my soul scarred and mistrustful of love. Can I unravel the mystery of Samson without risking my heart? Or will the curse that shadows my family prevent me from taking a chance on the one man who could offer more than just a fleeting connection? Faced with the promise of love, redemption, and the struggle to confront my past, I must decide to finally risk my heart, or remain forever the siren, ensnared by my own fears.

RIA SMIRNOVI was born into a legacy dominated by men who saw being female as a weakness, even though I have the brains and the balls to rise straight to the top. All I needed was a chance to prove myself to my father, the formidable head of the family.My opportunity comes when I meet King, the son of my father's greatest rival and one of the world's most powerful and ruthless Italian mob bosses. All I have to do is deliver King to my father and earn the respect and place in his hierarchy that I've always craved. King is within my grasp; the only problem is that I don't want to let him go. As the lines between duty and desire blur, I know that keeping King may be the biggest mistake of my life.How can I risk so much for a man whose assignment was to kill me? How can I ignore the devastation his family has caused mine just because he rebelled against his father for me? King may not want my blood on his hands, but how can I be sure he won't remember where his loyalty lies and deliver me to someone who would revel in it?I'm caught in a dangerous game of loyalty, betrayal, and unexpected passion with my greatest enemy, and I must decide how far I'm willing to go to rewrite the rules of the game I'm not even playing in. Do I follow my heart, or will my ambition lead to my downfall? The only thing I know for sure is that I will carve my own path, and live with the consequences.KING MEDICII have one assignment from my father: kill the daughter of the head of the Russian mafia in retaliation for my brother. An eye for an eye is how we handle things in our world. Though once I lay my eyes on Ria Smirnov, I decide she's too pretty to kill, at least not until after I've had a little fun with her. From the moment we meet in a dark alley on a tiny Italian island, I fall into the role of protecting Ria, especially after I find out that she's not even a part of our dirty world. My decision not to kill her was because she was innocent, and then because I craved her too much. Then I had to protect her because my father was a monster. With the threat of war on the horizon, I didn't have much time to deny how I felt about Ria, and to decide if she was worth losing everyone I loved.

RONAN SMIRNOVAs the ruthless head of the Russian mafia in the South, I know the good I've done in the world doesn't outweigh the bad. The thing I was most proud of was my three-decade love affair with the mother of my four girls. When she and one of my daughters are taken from me, the only thing I want is to destroy Antonio Medici and anyone else who stands in my way of revenge. The weight of their retribution weighs heavily on me, and even the strongest man in the world sometimes needs a soft place to lay his head and his burdens.My soft place is Stella Jones, a beautiful doctor who's far too young and too good for me. Stella has a smart mouth and a deviant spirit that makes me forget my pain. There's no question that I need her in more ways than I can count, but is it fair to bring her into my world when everyone I care about is nothing more than collateral damage to the madman hunting me? Can I ask Stella to stand with me when I know I must remain a savage beast or watch everyone I love die at the hands of a man who's not afraid to be one?What will remain of the man beneath the brutal boss Stella has come to know after the bloodbath is uncertain, and will she be strong enough to pick up the pieces and put me back together again?STELLA JONESI moved to Charleston, South Carolina, for a better life, and just a few days after settling in, my new life took an unexpected turn when I witnessed a chilling murder at the hands of the enigmatic Russian mob boss, Ronan Smirnov. Though I fear him, I'm inexplicably drawn to Ronan's magnetic charm, and his striking resemblance to the father figure I lost at nine.When Ronan asks for my help in orchestrating the murder of Antonio Medici, the Italian mob boss who shattered his family, I desperately want to help him. Still, I struggle to accept my need to help a man like him. Was my yearning for a connection blinding me to the truth, and if so, what was the truth? Is Ronan a man capable of redemption, or merely a ruthless criminal masked by moments of unexpected kindness?In a whirlwind of passion, danger, and haunting memories, I'm forced to confront my deepest fears. Is there beauty beneath the beast, or am I playing a grown man's game that could cost me my heart and my life? When the lines between right and wrong blur, the only thing I can trust is my heart.