When she enters his world… will she be able to find her way out?
Will she even want to?
Cassie Lockhart is alone in the world, save for her beautiful and troubled sister, Amber. When Amber gets in over her head in the world of organized crime, Cassie dives headfirst into the darkness to save her.
Dante diRuggiero rules his world by taking what he wants, uncaring who he may hurt in the process. He can’t help but be intrigued by the shy, plain woman who comes to his club, pleading for the sake of someone else. He sees beneath her mousy exterior and finds a woman so loyal she would sacrifice herself for those she loves. It’s that loyalty that draws him in at first, and then her passion makes him burn.
When Amber’s poor choices force Cassie to choose between her sister and Dante, will she choose the person she has tried to protect all her life, or the man that would never betray her? Can Dante keep her safe from the war brewing in his dark world?
Dante is book two in the steamy diRuggiero Mafia Family Saga.
“Cassie, come home with me,” he breathed, eyes closed and forehead pressed against hers.
“Yes, Dante,” she whispered, and he pulled away to look at her face, into her eyes, to gauge precisely how poised she was to flee. He’d have to precisely manage and time everything to keep her from taking flight like a startled doe. She was so lovely, and so innocent, for a woman her age. Part of him, a dark part, a part that he kept under iron control, jumped at the chance to corrupt that innocence.
Dante waved away the pimple-faced valet and opened the door of the car for Cassie himself. Once they were both enclosed within its sumptuous leather interior, he slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her body against his.
“My penthouse, Manny,” Dante told the driver.
“You got it, boss.”
The car pulled away from the restaurant and into the crowded streets of downtown Dallas. Dante didn’t live far from the restaurant, but it would still take a good fifteen or twenty minutes before they arrived.
“You are so handsome,” Cassie said after a few minutes, her voice somewhat dazed.
“Am I?” He asked, smiling, and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose against hers.
“Ugh, you know you are.” She threaded her fingers through his hair as he peppered tiny kisses over along her jaw.
“Well, you’re beautiful.” He mouthed the shell of her ear, tugging on her earlobe with his teeth. Cassie rewarded him with a low moan, so he tugged a little harder. She moaned louder, fingers tightening in her hair.
“Do you like that?” he whispered.
She shuddered at his words. Slowly, Dante moved his hand up over her silk-covered midriff, until his hand clasped her breast. Its weight fit very pleasantly in the cup of his hand and this time, when he tugged on her earlobe with his teeth, he also pinched lightly at her already rigid nipple.
Cassie groaned. Dante smiled against her skin as she wriggled against him, burrowing deeper into his embrace. He understood that pressing need to be closer, closer, closer. The same compulsion was riding him, too, harder and harder as the seconds of touching and kissing passed.
She moaned her appreciation of everything he did to her; he wholeheartedly approved of each of her caresses, the way she stroked his shoulders and raked fingers through his hair. It seemed like they were going to get along just as well in bed as they did out of it. Dante sealed his lips over hers and pressed his tongue into her mouth, exultant when she greedily accepted it, met with her own for a sensual kiss.
He pushed her back into the seat, his body encroaching into her space without shame. She dragged him closer still, one hand in his hair, the other crumpling the lapel of his suit without care.
A crumpled suit was of no consequence; honestly, it only seemed right, that a passion such as what had risen between them would result in a bit of destruction. It didn’t seem possible that there would be no consequences to the world around them in the wake of such a powerful force. When it was all over, when they lay in his bed, sated and sweaty and replete, he fully expected the curtains to be shredded, perhaps a window or two broken. Would be disappointed, perhaps, if that were not the case.
With that destructive force, or perhaps because of it, came corruption. His family was so thoroughly corrupted that there was no force in heaven or hell that could dig them free of it. And contact with him would only taint Cassie, as well, both in and out of his bed. If he were a different man, he would care. He would scruple that he was taking advantage of her naiveté, of her clear desire for guidance and instruction, her hunger for acceptance and appreciation.
But he wasn’t a different man. He was the eldest of four sons, the heir to a legacy of wealth and power at the expense of the weak. He was the monarch of a kingdom fuelled by drugs and sex, and he ruled it with a heavy hand. He was a man who got what he wanted and damn the cost to himself or anyone else.
He was Dante di Ruggiero. And she would be his, body and soul.
I write steamy romances and the compelling, hot, sexy, heroes that dominate those pages and the heroines that fall in love with them.
My day-to-day is full of time at the beach, playing fetch with my dogs in my backyard, and often thinking up new ideas and worlds that help bring my books to life. I’m a small town Texas girl who likes to dream big and put those big dreams down on the page!
Cletus Byron Winston wishes to marry Jennifer Anne Donner-Sylvester (aka The Banana Cake Queen) posthaste! He’s spent the last year wanting nothing more than for the celebrations to be brief, libations flowing, and BYOB (bring your own blueberries). His future mother-in-law has other plans, plans his intended has been willing to indulge, much to Cletus’s chagrin. Therefore, so must he. To a point. But truth be told, he wouldn’t mind if the meddlesome matriarch disappeared, at least until the nuptials are over.
On the night of Cletus and Jenn’s long-awaited engagement party, just when the surly schemer is of a mind to take matters into his own hands, a shocking event upends everyone’s best laid plans and sends the small hamlet of Green Valley into complete disarray. The final months leading up to Cletus and Jenn’s matrimonial bliss are plagued with chaos and uncertainty. Will Cletus and Jenn finally make it to the altar? Or will murder and mayhem derail their happily-ever-after?
“Here.” Cletus suddenly appeared, looking devilishly handsome in the dim light and seemingly all put back together—like we’d been in here holding hands instead of. . . ANYWAY.
He held out my underwear. His eyes were bright even in shadow, and I could see they were half-lidded as they lazily trailed over me. He looked at me like he was hungry, and I was dinner. Despite all the encore orgasms I’d just had, the effect hit me right between my legs.
I wondered what he was thinking, watching as he licked his bottom lip and drew it into his mouth. Was he just as insatiable for me? And if so, was he okay with that?
Tearing my eyes away, I pulled on the lace and fixed my skirt, telling my body to settle down. We were getting married for hootenanny’s sake!
Cletus cocked his head to the side while I smoothed my hands down the red fabric, working to get a hold of all this raging want always coursing through my veins whenever he was near. Maybe it was because he was my first, and I guess, my only. Was that why I felt so crazed for him all the time?
“Miraculous,” he said.
I surmised he meant the dress. “Right? The wrinkles are hidden, if there are any. It’s ’cause they ruched the outer fabric at the seams, see?” I turned to the side to show him the seam, and he stepped forward as though he were going to investigate.
Instead, his hands cupped my face and tilted my chin back. He stared at me with a vibrant intensity I felt all the way to my fingertips. “No, Jenn. Not the dress. You.” Cletus gave me a soft kiss, ending it by gently nipping my bottom lip. “You are my miracle.”
I sighed. And I smiled. And I felt like I was walking on a cloud instead of in four-inch heels, which was also probably something of a miracle. “You say the sweetest things.”
“I think you mean, I say the truest things.”
I laughed, and he kissed my forehead. He held me there, in the dark with his lips pressed to my forehead. “I love you so completely, with every cell in my body. I wonder sometimes if I’d cease to exist—just evaporate or disappear—if anything ever happened to you.”
“No.” I anchored my hands to his wrists and squeezed. “Don’t think like that. We’ve got our whole lives in front of us. There’s nothing anyone can—”
Three bangs in quick succession pierced the quiet moment, and not a second later Cletus had me on the ground beneath him, covering my back with his body. “Gunshots,” he whispered in my ear. “From the parking lot. Don’t move.”
Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Winston Brothers, Knitting in the City, Rugby, and Hypothesis series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.
We shared a single kiss over a year ago, and I can still remember every toe-curling second of it. He thought I was too young for him. I thought he was running scared. But that kiss was the first time I’d felt alive in a long time, and I’ve been chasing the feeling ever since—doing my research, a lot of research, a lot of men. Something my protective older brother isn’t too happy about.
I’ve been through more than most guys my age, and I still bear the scars. My head’s not always my best friend, but I’m building a life, PTSD be damned. I can’t turn back the clock, and I’m not sure I want to.
Except maybe to that moment when Penn kissed me. I mean, the odds of us ever meeting again were slim to none, right?
Yeah, about that.
But this time I’m ready. I’m a year older, an ocean of therapy wiser, and I know exactly what I want.
2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST IN GAY ROMANCE for her novel ‘DIGGING DEEP’
Jay is a New Zealand author writing in MM romance and romantic suspense primarily set in New Zealand. She loves writing character driven romances with lots of humour, a good dose of reality and a splash of angst. She’s travelled extensively, lived in many countries, and in a past life she was a critical care nurse, nurse educator and counsellor.
Jay is owned by a huge Maine Coon cat and a gorgeous Cocker Spaniel.
