Hey loves! Guilty Pleasures is LIVE on Amazon! Since a big chunk of the first chapter is already available in the Amazon sample, I thought I’d share a different excerpt here — the one where the big, bad billionaire (who got obsessed with the heroine after a one-night stand) confronts her sleazy ex.

Enjoy this sneak peek to the max, and feel free to share it with friends who’d appreciate a piece of decadent literature like this one. But fair warning: this is a dark romance, so it contains language, questionable behavior, and situations that push some boundaries. That said… let’s dive in.

***

“You’re right, Mystery Girl. My public image is carefully curated,” I say, my voice low, charged with something only she seems to bring out in me. “But this is the behind-the-scenes version. The one only few people ever got to see. Most of them regret it afterwards, and this piece of shit will be one of them if you don’t finish kicking him out.” I give her the smirk that had her squirming at the villa.

It makes her breath hitch, and Adams seethe as he watches us. 

“I’m sorry, actual boyfriend here,” he blurts out, raising his hand. “We were in the middle of a conversation here, and you’re interfering.” 

I slowly drag my eyes to him, barely holding back the beast inside. 

“Listen very carefully jackass, because I’m only going to say this once. The only reason I haven’t ripped your life apart is because I promised the privilege to someone else. So don’t push your luck.”

“Excuse me?” he shrieks, his eyebrows rising even higher.

Seriously, what did Emmaline even see in this guy? She could have had anyone, even if she doesn’t fully know it. I wonder if that’s why she likes filthy sex. If, deep down, she doesn’t believe she deserves better. 

“However, I can revisit that decision,” I continue. “But it wouldn’t be in your best interest.”

“You dirty bastard, who do you think you are?” His voice shakes, pitch climbing higher. His thin limbs tremble too, fists balled, though he doesn’t dare gesture at me the way I saw him do at Emmaline from the street. “Being rich and famous doesn’t give you the right of life and death over people. You’re not the fucking boss of our lives. That night at the villa was fun and all, but you don’t get to order us around in our private lives like this. And before you even try threatening me again, don’t forget I work at a media outlet. I’ll have the press all over you in no time.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and try.” I grin, letting him glimpse the madness behind the polished-boy persona. “Give me a reason to fucking destroy you.”

His eyes dart from me to Emmaline, fists loosening and balling again as he fights to control the trembling. He fails, his whole body shaking harder now. I’m so fucking ready to go off on him. The only disappointment is he’d probably drop from a single blow. So psychological torture it is.

I only wind my arm off Emmaline’s shoulders to shield her behind me as I stalk over to him like a predator sniffing blood.

“I might have knocked if I didn’t overhear you threatening her. Why were you all over her like that?” 

He has the sense to step back, but something flashes through his mean-spirited little eyes. “Wouldn’t it be more interesting to know what I was threatening her with?”

“I asked what I asked.” My voice drops a few tones. If it wasn’t clear by now that I mean business, it’s clear now. “What were you trying to get from her?”

“My freedom.” He juts out his chin. “I want out of the relationship, and she won’t let me.”

“That’s a fucking lie,” Emmaline bursts behind me. I don’t need to look at her to know who’s telling the truth. I overheard enough of the conversation, but I’m curious how far this piece of shit is willing to go.

“Oh, shut up, Emma. You’re always playing the victim, and it’s getting old. Besides, if anyone has seen your real face, even behind a mask, it’s this guy.” Then, to me. “I can’t even bear to look at her after I saw you two together, okay? There, I said it. And it wasn’t even the first time I saw her with another guy, by the way. She always seems to get more pleasure from other men than from me.” 

“And whose fault is that?” I rasp dangerously. 

“What do you mean?” He makes a face like I’m missing something obvious. “Nobody ever forced her to do anything. Ask her! Ask her if she was ever forced!” 

I look over my shoulder at Emmaline. Fuck, she’s beautiful. It hit me the first time I laid eyes on her tonight, it’s hitting me again now, and after days of stalking her social media, something tells me it’ll never stop hitting me. Which is exactly what pulls me deeper into her orbit.

She turns away, cheeks crimson with shame.

“Were you ever forced?” I spell out.

“You know damn well she wasn’t,” Adams replies in her place, and I’m tempted to snap his spine. “You know how she reacted to you at the villa. The things she asked you to do to her when you gave her the chance, and how much she enjoyed them.”

Emmaline doesn’t deny it, rubbing her arms, eyes at her feet. I slowly drag my eyes back to Adams and resume advancing on him. He keeps talking, trying to frame Emmaline as the rotten one, until his back hits the door. I’ve stopped listening by the time he blurts out, “There’s something you don’t know about her, and you need to know it. No matter how much you want her, you won’t anymore — I fucking promise!”

“Shut up!” Emmaline cries out. She crosses the space between us in a second, stopping just short of slapping him.

So that got to her. A sick grin spreads across his face at her desperation.

“What are you more scared of, sweetheart? That he’ll take back the money, or that he won’t shove that big dick up your whorish cunt again?”

My fist cracks into his jaw before he can see it coming. The back of his skull hits the door. His head bobs for a moment, eyes rolling back before he collapses in a heap on the floor. 

I didn’t intend to hit him, but now that it happened, I stare down at him with the same sick satisfaction he felt at her fear. But Emmaline drops to her knees, slapping his cheeks, trying to bring him back.

“Rick! Rick, for Christ’s sake, wake up!”  Her face whips up at me, her hair flying out of the way. “What have you done? He could get a concussion!”

The worry in her eyes for the bastard twists my guts. Despite that, my cock twitches—and not only because I get to see her on her knees again, no mask this time. An image flashes through my head: my jizz roping her face, Adams’ unconscious body under her. I’d save it all on video just to make him watch it afterwards. 

But, even though I don’t know exactly what I want from her yet, I know that I don’t want her to hate me.

“Why do you even care?”

She shoots up to her feet, and hurries to the kitchen to grab a bottle of cold water from the fridge. Returning, she sprinkles it on his face. When that doesn’t work, she curses and downright pours it down on him, which causes him to choke and sputter, quickly returning to himself. 

“Fucking hell, you dirty bastard,” she heaves, dropping  down next to him and resting her back against the wall while he pulls himself together. She covers her face with her hands. 

The fact that she chooses to stay down next to him turns my blood to rocket fuel. Makes me wonder about what he said—that she refuses to let him go. 

“Why are you still with him?” I glare down at his pathetic shape trying to scramble itself back together. “He’s not even your type.”

“How do you know what my type is?” she bites back, resting the back of her hand against her forehead. I don’t know what caused her more distress: me showing up here, or my fist almost breaking her boyfriend’s skull, but she doesn’t seem to be welcoming any of it. 

And I wish she fucking would. 

“I know how you checked me out back at the villa. How your eyes called to me.”

That gets her attention.  

I hunker down to bring my face to her level, smirking just like I did that night. 

“Didn’t you ever wonder why I walked straight to you, Mystery Girl?”

“I don’t know, I just assumed—” She stops, bites her lip, lowers her gaze. “I didn’t think it would mean anything.”

I grab her chin, making her look me in the face.

“You didn’t think I’d notice?”

Her eyelids flutter down, as if she’s refusing or unable to hold my stare. I grab her jaw, forcing her to do it anyway.

“How could I not?” I croon, penetrating her blue gaze, feeding like a junkie on her essence. “Your eyes stood out like magic jewels in that crowd. I wasn’t the only one who noticed where you were looking. Everybody did. The contrast with the black lace mask only made them pop more. I wanted those eyes on me when I filled you up with my cock. I wanted to see in them what I did to you.”

Adams groans, hand at his jaw, and her eyes flick to him.

“I can get him fired,” I offer. “That way, you won’t have to see him here or at work anymore. Derek tells me he’s useless anyway. You and your friend Margot are pretty much the ones keeping that place in business.”

“No,” she says. “Don’t.”

My eyes narrow. “Why?” I ask, narrowing them further, trying to read the reason behind her refusal. “What does he have on you, Emmaline? What are you so afraid of?”

She chews her lower lip, growing visibly nervous.

“Whatever it is, I won’t judge you,” I offer, softer this time, but it does nothing to ease her discomfort.

“Stop putting pressure on me,” she snaps, shoving my hand away and pushing herself up to her feet. I rise slowly to my full height, watching her walk to the kitchen, busying herself at the sink with her back to me.

I follow her, pushing the hood off my head, measuring my pace, because what I actually want is to close the distance between us at the speed of fucking light.

“Why hide anything from me? It’s not like I can take back the money, if that’s the issue.”

“That’s not the issue,” she snaps over her shoulder. “You can have it all back right now, if you want. I’ll sign whatever you need me to.”

“Nah, it wouldn’t be fair. That amount was offered for one night. I made you agree to keep seeing me. I got you to sign on because I’m a business shark—at least that’s what you think of me, isn’t it.” 

I stop behind the kitchen counter, watching her. She loads the dishwasher, tense under the pressure of my gaze. 

“What was he talking about, Emmaline? What are you so desperately trying to hide?”

She drops the remaining dishes into the sink and grips the edge, lowering her head. Every instinct in me says go over there, grab her shoulders, pull her into my chest. But watching her put up with this fucker’s demands, protecting him from me just to keep a secret, it gnaws at my guts like a plague-infested rat.

***

Get Guilty Pleasures and keep reading, or start from the beginning with the first novella in the series, King of Decadence. They are both available in KU on Amazon, and pair best with a decadent lava cake and a glass of red… trust me.

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