This week’s Romance Roundup includes a heroine who fights crime against women across the globe, a wolf shifter who wants to prove his innocence to his new love, and a guy who is about to find some very unexpected romance.
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Overview
A woman unable to connect, struggling to hide another part of her. A man burning to learn her truth, and make her whole. Through explosive passion and deep exploration, they are about to take the greatest risk of all. But will they be able to take that leap, and come out on the other side together? In this next passionate novel in the Honey series, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley delivers a stunningly romantic and intensely sexy novel that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250177117 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2018 |
| Series: | Honey Trilogy Series , #3 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 512 |
| Sales rank: | 130,474 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Kristen Ashley is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels, including Mystery Man, The Gamble, and Own the Wind. She grew up in Indiana, but has lived in Colorado and the West Country of England.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Let's Go
SIXX
Present day ...
Sixx wandered the halls of the Bee's Honey for absolutely no purpose except to make the boys in the booth watching the cameras that monitored the action in the club think she was taking in the scene.
Instead, she was biding time to go into the Dom Lounge to get what she'd stashed in her locker.
She was over it.
Over the scene.
Over the wait.
Done.
The Honey had now become a place she could hang and have a drink, connect with some friends if she was in the mood, get some of her kink by watching, and torture herself being around Stellan.
It was also where she stashed something if she had it to stash. This was because the Honey had surveillance and security that rivaled that of the White House. If a person wasn't supposed to be there, they didn't get in there. The end.
She'd been back in Phoenix now for a while.
Months.
And although she'd put on a variety of shows, bided her time, put herself out there, made herself available, Stellan hadn't thrown down the gauntlet.
She sure as hell wasn't making the first move.
Thus that first move wasn't going to be made.
So be it.
She hadn't expected much and she sure got that.
And she had to admit, part of her was relieved (a large part).
Because if he took a shot, what then?
Could she protect him from all that was her?
Doubtful.
More like impossible.
She never had with anyone who mattered, not that she'd had many in her life who mattered.
And Stellan absolutely did not deserve to have to deal with all that could befall anyone who got close to Sixx.
Tonight was different, though.
Tonight, she wanted done with the extracurricular activity she was engaged in.
Also tonight she roamed the halls knowing Stellan was there, he'd taken a room, and he'd gone off his normal modus operandi.
He'd selected a female sub.
He'd also selected a male.
If in a mood, though that mood was always rare, he'd pick more than one sub.
But they were always females.
Sixx had a feeling she knew why he'd done this. She had Google alerts set up, and she'd seen it.
That it being that it was announced to the media that day that the two-and-a-half-month marriage of Andreas Lange and his prettymuch-child bride Priscilla was done. Although the press was asked to leave the couple alone in this trying time, it was nevertheless reported that Andreas might often think with his dick and had apparent self-esteem issues that drove him to having a pretty young thing dripping off his arm, but when it counted, he used his other head. The one with an actual brain in it.
In other words, he had a reported ironclad prenuptial agreement, and the soon-to-be-again Ms. Newton would walk away with the engagement ring he gave her, any gifts she'd acquired during their relationship and nothing else.
Nothing else.
Not even a settlement.
She was young, and Sixx knew that young didn't make you stupid, it just made you young, naïve, and perhaps with the beauty that girl had, overconfident. Thus she probably thought her golden looks mingled with a twenty-two-year-old pussy would buy her a lot more time to get a lot more gifts.
Sadly, she'd been wrong.
Sixx could not know how this news affected Stellan. Although they had exchanged a variety of words since she'd been home, they'd both been at a few get-togethers where he didn't avoid her, but he didn't pursue her, they'd caught each other's eyes on a number of occasions; and she'd noted him watching her work with her submissives, as he'd noted her doing the same with his, they had not even resurrected the loose but friendly relationship they'd had before she'd left.
She put it down to him still smarting from Leigh's falling in love with another man.
That said, even if Leigh had, it appeared that not much had changed between Stellan and Amélie. Although chilly between them when Sixx got back, that had thawed, and they were as sociable and close as they ever had been. And it was clear Stellan liked Olly, Amélie's enormous, gorgeous stallion.
Then again, everyone liked Olly. It was impossible not to like the guy. He was just that guy who had it all and not simply the fact he was so easy to look at.
He adored Leigh, for one. Utterly. And he did not hide it in the slightest.
But he was outgoing, funny, solid. If you were moving house and you needed an extra pair of hands, he was there. If you had a nephew (or niece) who wanted to be a firefighter (which Olly was), he'd take the kid through his station and introduce him to all the guys. If you were at a cookout with him and running low on your drink, you found your glass slid out of your hand and another one put in it without even having to ask.
Even Stellan, wanting Amélie for as long as he did, couldn't dislike the guy.
So they'd become friends.
And Sixx had watched.
That was one of the two things she'd done since being back.
In a halfhearted attempt to get his attention (and keep Aryas off her back), she played.
And she watched.
Which was what she was on a mission to do now before she hit the Dom Lounge to prepare to complete her other mission.
As she wandered, Sixx didn't spend time watching Mira and Trey in their room.
It was tough watching Mira work now that she had a sub and they were together together. In other words, in love. Mira was good at what she did, and Trey liked what his Mistress gave him, but that look of adoration on her face while she was doing it ... Sixx just couldn't deal with it.
This was also why she avoided Leigh and Olly when they were at play (and more recently, also when they weren't because the connection they had between them just didn't stop).
Right then they weren't in a playroom. They were still in the bar, holding court, The Stallion Alpha Sub King and his Dominatrix Queen, as usual reigning supreme over the club and enjoying it before they moved to a room to enjoy each other.
They were actually worse to watch than Trey and Mira, they were so beautiful together. They were like watching dancers, so perfectly in sync, expressive, at one with each other and their own bodies. The sequence practiced, even if it was always different, it was so graceful it was sublime.
Putting this out of her mind, Sixx moved on her black platform pumps to the back hall full of playrooms, noting, and not surprised, that Aryas's red room was shuttered away from view. The blackout blinds to that room were scarlet, not black like all the others, thus its name.
It was his own personal playroom if he was in town. And he was. And he had one of his babies in there, working her.
Sixx didn't need to watch that, although she would have. She'd not only seen Aryas at play, he'd worked her because he'd trained her. He showed her how to be who she was. He introduced her to other Dommes to teach her the things he could not. And he'd played with her in his sessions in which she was required to sub so she could understand the headspace her own subs had to get in to serve her.
She had been surprised she'd liked it.
She'd been freaked she'd liked it so much.
Too much.
Aryas had handled that too for her — amazingly. Which meant he'd helped her handle it.
And then she'd locked it away.
However as she bypassed his room, she felt her lips thin that he was back there with one of his babies and not with the woman he should be with.
At first when Sixx arrived back in Phoenix, he'd let things lie.
Now that months had passed, he was getting up in her face about making a move on Stellan.
Fortunately, she was able to fight back since he wouldn't make a move on Mistress Talia.
Which was where Sixx went and where she stopped to watch, also not surprised that Talia was working a sub mostly because those two circled each other just this way. If Talia took a sub and he caught it, Aryas wasn't too far from taking his own. If Aryas took one and Talia caught it, she hustled a sub into a playroom.
Retaliation.
As Sixx watched Talia work a sub named Bryan, definitely a favored and oft-used toy of hers, she got worried.
In a heartbeat, Bryan would take things further with his tall, slender, lithe, beautiful, mocha-skinned, tawny-fro'ed Mistress, and not just because he seriously got off on the way she worked him.
She wasn't just beautiful and had a serious style going on in and out of a playroom. She was funny, quick-witted, smart-mouthed, loyal and very sweet. And Sixx had witnessed her aftercare of Bryan when she got down to serious business with him, and even knowing Talia's heart was with Aryas, her head and attention was with Bryan in a way he could mistake the fact that he didn't have a place in that particular vital organ.
Sixx considered having a word with the Mistress.
She did that, and then she decided instead to have a word with Leigh so Leigh would have a word. Amélie was probably already thinking of doing it. She wasn't Queen Bee just because she rocked a playroom, and she took her unofficial role seriously.
But if Sixx had a word, she might light a fire, and perhaps if they double-teamed Aryas and Talia, they could get something going.
Before hitting the Dom Lounge, she found her feet taking her one last place.
At first, she positioned herself carefully in order to be able to process what she might see and at the same time be out of his line of sight because he always broke scene to catch her eyes if he saw her at the windows. And the possibility of seeing him working a male sub was something she wanted without him breaking scene.
This eye contact, at first, she'd found terrifying, because it was encouraging. It was rare a Dom working would do that unless he was working directly with another Dom.
When months passed and nothing came of it, Sixx stopped finding it terrifying or encouraging and just found it weird.
There was no invitation in his gaze. No challenge issued. No warmth or comradeship or humor or anything.
He'd just catch her gaze and hold it for as long as it took for her to break it. Even if he was physically inside one of his subs, he'd thrust while simply looking at Sixx, remote and disengaged, from her and his sub, until Sixx herself broke the contact and his attention went back to his sub.
But if he was working a male, especially inside one, this she'd want to see. Man-on-man was a thing of hers, and since she'd returned to Phoenix, she'd indulged in that, always taking multiple submissives, they were always male, and she'd call the shots to get that fix.
Seeing Stellan engaged in something like this would probably make her orgasm right there in the hall. Hell, just thinking about it got her wet.
Then again, although this would be an extraordinary sight to see, Sixx didn't figure it would take much to do that. In all her play since she'd come back, she had not once let a single sub touch her, she'd rarely touched them, and she hadn't had that first orgasm, not in play, not with some random partner she picked up out in the vanilla world (because she hadn't picked anyone up), not even at her own hand.
But as she hesitated at the edge of one of the rooms Stellan favored, the silhouette and blackout blinds up like he normally played it, she didn't even see Stellan.
The female was working the male, and that work was inspired, but there was no Stellan.
Sixx took one step along the hall.
Another.
And there he was, still in his trousers and dress shirt, but the suit jacket was thrown over the back of the leather club chair he was sitting in. He had his long legs crossed, and he was slanted to the side, elbow on the arm of the chair, head propped up in his hand where it held his square jaw at his knuckles with his forefinger extended along his chiseled cheek.
She drew in a breath at the bored expression on his arrestingly beautiful face, that expression running deep into his dark blue eyes.
He did not look annoyed, upset, or distracted, as news of his father acquiring then disposing of another wife in a matter of months might make him.
He didn't look anything, certainly not like he was in a room where sweet and dirty sex acts were being performed at his command by the slaves he'd chosen for the evening.
He looked like he was in a meeting that he couldn't wait to get out of.
Then suddenly, his gaze came to her.
He didn't move, didn't lift his head, just swept his eyes straight to her, not like he'd noticed her standing there, like he'd sensed she was there.
His expression didn't change. Neither did his position.
He stared her right in the eyes, pinning her to the spot, giving her nothing except his regard.
She wanted to scream, Why? Why do you look at me like that? Why can't you give me something? Anything?
She didn't do that.
Of course not.
She accepted the only challenge he gave her and stared straight at him in return for as long as she could stand it.
And Sixx could stand a lot, so this lasted a long time, perhaps full minutes, before, as ever (and as ever wanting to kick her own ass), she broke the contact and walked slowly, and as casually as she could fake it, away.
Once out of sight of Stellan, she didn't mess around going to the Dom Lounge.
There were cameras in there too, but she'd given herself a reason to return there after she had a drink in the hunting ground. This being so she could collect what she'd put there a week ago and be done with the job she was on so she could then collect the paycheck.
She did just this, going directly to her locker and grabbing the small, boxy, black python Alexander McQueen clutch with its four finger loops topped with various skulls or roses. A clutch she'd placed there after she'd arrived rather than giving it to reception, which was what most of the Dommes did.
Inside was a slim, business-card-sized wallet with her credit card, ID and a few banknotes, her phone, another phone that was hers-but-also-not, her lip liner and lipstick, her fabulous vintage compact with mother-of-pearl inlaid in black depicting cranes flying across a yellow moon, her Cayenne keyfob and nothing else.
With her back to the camera, she grabbed a random vibrator she had in her locker, twisted off the bottom where you'd put batteries, upended the flash drive she'd hidden there, and slid it in the lining of the clutch that she'd jimmied so she could open it, hide things behind it, and then press it back in place where it held.
She then went to the mirror.
At first, she didn't look at herself, but instead used it to take in the plush surroundings of the Dominants' Lounge.
Deep-seated, purple-velvet banquettes spanned the walls. They were covered in red-and silver-velvet toss pillows. The patterned silver wallpaper behind them was bottom-lit with soft light.
There were attractive steel tables with scented candles glowing on top of them.
The lockers were made of the same steel as the tables and looked like a bank of cabinets with a variety of digital locks, not lockers.
The gleaming black basins had no faucets, just wide, lush waterfalls that activated by motion. There were no paper towels, instead thick, soft, purple, red or silver hand towels and washcloths.
There were showers around the side, as well as a Jacuzzi tub, a steam room and a sauna.
Available for use was anything you could need. Disposable razors (for men and women) and shaving cream, aftershave, a variety of colognes and perfumes, hairspray, lotions, oils, deodorants, tampons, condoms, face moisturizer, bath soap and scrub, shampoo and conditioner.
Submissives were specifically disallowed there. The lounge was for downtime and Dom time outside any scene. If a sub needed to be cared for or it was part of the scene, you requested a room that had those amenities, and the Dom took care of that.
And Sixx longed to stretch out on those banquettes and close her eyes to the D. L. & Co. candles that smelled like vanilla, balsam and pepper, soothing and spicy, so very Aryas. So very the Honey.
God, she loved it there. It was like her home. It was the only place, outside being on a job, where she could be ...
What?
Not herself. She played a role there. No one knew who she was. Not really. (Except Aryas, or at least he knew more than everyone else.) Not even people she called friends.
So why did she love it there so much?
And why was her heart hurting that she wasn't getting out of it what she needed anymore?
She looked at herself in the mirror.
"Because it's safe," she whispered to her reflection.
That was it.
And now it no longer felt as safe.
Because Stellan was there, and wanting him and not having him — but more, knowing she should never expose him to what it would mean to have her ... hurt.
That didn't make sense either. She'd wanted a lot in life.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Greatest Risk"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Kristen Ashley.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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