I literally couldn’t take it. I hit her. So. Damn. Hard. My palm fired and stung. Tears sprang to her eyes, and I ground my cock against her ass, throbbing with unshed come.
Needing to give my hands something to do, I opened the mini-bar below and pulled out a vintage bottle of icy champagne.
Ripping off the gold foil and popping the cork, I shuddered with so much pent up need, I couldn’t think straight.
Tess watched, tears glittering on her cheeks and eyelashes. Her face pressed obediently against the counter, not saying a word.
Once the sharp tang of alcohol filled the space, I gave her a tight smile, then upended the expensive champagne all over her back, drenching her hair, making her shiver with bubbles and chill.
Tess moaned, writhing, hips bucking for mine. I growled, swigging the last dregs as I thrust against her red slapped ass. Grinding, rocking, I wanted to do so much to her, but my need to come took all control out of my hands.
She wants to see how dark I’ll go. We had a future to look forward to, full of sin and debauchery. I would teach her the meaning of blackness, initiate her into my world.
A thrill shot up my legs and into my belly. A future. Together.
My mind raced, unable to stay on one concise thought. She gave me everything so willingly, on a platter of sex, ready for the taking. In return, I owed retribution from her kidnappers. I wanted to lay corpses at her feet and prove I may be a monster but I was her monster.
A beast who would turn savage on those who wronged her.
Ducking down, I tore the white G-string off with my teeth, dragging an eager tongue up the side of her back, lapping over ribs.
Her ribs were virgin, no tattoos, unlike mine. It’d taken four years to get it exactly right, adding more and more birds as I saved more and more slaves.
The fact Tess inked herself with a bird told me how deep she already went. How much she wanted me. All of me.
The taste of her and champagne fogged my brain. I needed more.
Slamming to my knees, I grabbed her ankles, spreading her legs with force. She slipped, hands gripping the countertop. “Q… God, yes.”
Her voice vibrated through me, sending lust into overdrive. I stood back up, yanking my tie off in one swipe. Her eyes widened. “No, don’t gag me. I’ll be quiet.”
I cocked my head, glaring. “Esclave, obéi.” Obey. She closed her eyes, parting lips slightly, allowing the material to bind her. With the two ends behind her head, it felt like reins. Controlling her completely, ready to be ridden into a frenzy.
Tying the ends quickly, I resumed my position between her legs. Her exposed cunt above dripped with wetness and champagne. It was the most delicious sight I’d ever seen.
Groaning, I licked the bubbles, tracing them up her inner thighs.
She bucked, spreading her legs even more.
Fuck, she tasted amazing. Soft and smoky and hinting at orchids and frost.
When I flicked a tongue over her clit, she spasmed, moaning, tears oozing. I dug fingers into her thighs, keeping her steady. My cock ached in the confines of my pants. I wanted to shove it inside her.
But first, I wanted to lick and drown in her taste. Without warning, I spurred my tongue into her slit. She screamed, muffled by the gag, inspiring me to lick harder. The sharp tang of champagne drowned in her powdery sweetness. Nectar just for me. A mind-blazing aphrodisiac.
I wanted to bite, to brand, to rape.
I lost track of time as I worshipped her pink flesh. Who needed time when everything I needed was right here. I never wanted to eat again unless it tasted like Tess.
But my cock wept with pre-cum, throbbing with urgency to replace my tongue and fuck. Games would have to come another day. When I wasn’t about to spurt like a fucking school boy.
I stood, breathing hard, wiping Tess’s juice from my chin. Fumbling with my belt, my eyes widened as violence took me over. I yanked the leather from the loops, weighing it in my hands.
With lust-heavy eyes, Tess looked over her shoulder. Her lips were split and grimaced thanks to the gag, cheeks ruddy red with passion.
I folded the belt in half, palming the metal buckle. I slapped my palm, wincing at the sting, loving how she panted harder.
I cocked my eyebrow. “Is this punishment enough for fucking another?”
For a moment, she paused. I expected a no. A whimper, a plea to run. Instead, with a sharp blue glint in her eye, she shook her head coyly. She cocked her jaw, body language asking me to remove the gag.
I didn’t want to, but obliged.
After I untied it, she sucked in a breath as I lay the drenched tie on the counter. For a millisecond, she didn’t speak, intoxicating me with her pants. Then that sexy, dangerous glint appeared again. She snapped, “Don’t fucking think about whipping me, you monster. I told you, I don’t want this. Let me go.”
Oh. My. Fucking. God. Denial. Rape. Anger. Delicious delirium.
My eyes snapped closed and the beast raged to life. “Fuck, esclave. I told you not to tempt me.”
My hands curled around the leather, snapping it tight. This perfect woman was about to get the whipping of her life. Then I’d fuck her. Hard.
She let me do unthinkable things to her. She gave me everything I needed and more. She fed both the man and beast and she would never be free again. She was in my cage and I would never open the door. She was the key. The key to my happiness.
Patting her ass, I raised my hand. The moment of anticipation had us both shivering out of control.
I struck.
The belt whistled through air, connecting with her champagne-damp skin with a loud smack.
She moaned and bit her lip, squeezing eyes tight.
My hips jerked on their own accord, fucking air as I struck again and again. Never in the same place twice, I decorated her ass with stripes of red. I couldn’t get enough oxygen; my chest rose and fell with every pummel.
I lost control and hit too hard, a small trickle of blood welled. She yelped, moving her ass away, but I held her still. “I’m not done with you yet, Tess. Ten strikes for running. Ten strikes for leaving. And ten strikes for coming back to the monster’s den when he willingly set you free.” I hardly recognised my own voice, it was so thick with need.
“Too many. I can’t do that many.” Tears dripped and her entire face was grief-stricken.
“You’re the one who wanted dark. I’ll give you dark.”
And I did.
Thirty pieces of dark.
Thirty strikes of delicious temptation that made my life seem cosmically bright compared to the black I lived in.
Tess screamed and sobbed, but beneath it all was an undercurrent of sexual need. Her wetness trickled down her thigh, thicker, creamier than the champagne. She may hate it, but she loved it.
Once the last kiss smacked her perfect ass, I dropped the belt and in the same second, undid my fly, pushed my pants down, and pulled out my throbbing cock. “Spread,” I ordered, pushing her lower back, bending her to my will.
She obeyed, whimpering as my cashmere blazer rubbed against sore skin.
Then she wasn’t crying anymore.
I plunged so deep, so fast, her feet left the floor and she slid on the champagne wet counter. “Oh fuck, yes,” I grunted.
Her back arched as a delighted scream erupted from her. I wrapped an arm around naked breasts, holding her upright. My hips dug into hers, trying to possess every inch. My cock was hungry, desperate, already rippling with the urge to fill.
She’s so tight, so wet.
I slid in and out, thrusting deep until my balls slapped against her.
“Oh, God I’ve missed this,” she cried. “Missed you. Missed the pain.”
“Shut up and take it, esclave.” I thrust, twisting her nipple, biting her neck. My jaw trembled with the urge to draw blood again. I went wild for her blood. It was the best drug. The elixir of the beast inside.
Her hot, whipped flesh burned my lower belly; I couldn’t think o
f anything else but fucking her. I lost control. Spreading my stance, wrapping fingers around her hips, I gave myself over to darkness.
“Take me, Tess.”
“I’ve already taken you, maître.”
I pounded into her, beyond caring her hipbones collided with hard granite, or knees bruised against cabinets. All I focused on was pleasure.
She cried out, thrusting back, urging me to go harder, harder.
I couldn’t breathe as a sharp band of release throttled my cock, demanding to spurt into this amazing slave. This woman who turned my world upside down. This woman… the key to my undoing.
I growled like a feral beast as I gave myself over to pleasure. Sensation exploded from my thighs, up my balls, and into my cock. I thrust like a monster with only seconds left to live, filling her with come, marking her, making sure she knew who her master was.
The moment I spurted, she clenched around me. “Fuck, yes, Q. Oh, God. Give it to me. I want you. I want all of you.” She came and came, fisting, milking, tearing every drop of come I had to give.
I spasmed and twitched as overbearing intensity replaced hot-arching pleasure, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop rocking inside her. I never wanted to leave her hot, dark wetness. It was where I belonged.
She went floppy, breathing like tormented blackbird. My legs grew weak and wobbly. I pulled her into my arms, heading to the floor in one jumble of sweaty, champagne sticky bodies.
She laughed as I laid her on my belly, protecting her nakedness from the cool tiles. Even though depleted, my cock never softened and every wriggle fired new life into it.
Would I ever get enough of her? Would I ever show her how dark I could go?
She went to pull away, but I lassoed arms tighter. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I thought I was crushing you.” She wiggled her ass, sending sparks into my balls. After a month of no release, she wouldn’t get away that easily.
I gently smacked her belly, aware her ass was beyond punishment after the belt. “You think I’m done with you, esclave?” I nuzzled her ear, licking softly. “I’ve only just begun.”
“All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted… fucked up to want something so deliciously dark—wrong on so many levels. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. Hissing, fighting, with a core of iron, she showed me an existence where two wrongs make a right.”
Driven by his vendetta against his father, Q swore a vow he would never touch a slave. Instead, he spent a lifetime battling dark urges, the need to hurt, and threw himself into saving broken birds. Dedicating his home and fortune to fix the wrongs of others.
Until Tess.
After surviving everything life threw at her, Tess emerged from the ashes as a woman with fire and spirit. Her past didn’t break her, no matter how much Q tried, and in a twist of fate, she broke him. Together, they fixed each other.
Tess is his completely. Q is Tess’s irrevocably. But now, they must learn the boundaries of their unconventional relationship, while Tess seeks vengeance on the men who sold her. Q made a blood-oath to deliver their corpses at Tess’s feet, and that’s just what he’ll do.
He may be a monster, but he’s Tess’s monster.
Sneak Peak into Quintessentially Q…
*Prologue*
I thought I would be her nightmare—her terror and darkness. I wanted to be. I needed her more than food or sunlight. Only when she came into my life did I start to live—intoxicated by her taste, screams, and joy.
But our fucked up fairytale didn’t exactly have a happy ending.
Tess.
My Tess.
My esclave—so strong and fierce and sexually feral—wasn’t strong enough for what happened.
Her cage wasn’t me anymore.
It was them.
*Chapter One*
All I could think was—she’s dead. She had to be. All that blood, so bright with a coppery tang, almost sweet.
Her snowy skin was extra frosty, grey-blue eyes closed to me.
Rage and terror strangled as I fell to my knees in the warm puddle of crimson. The whip in my hands was slippery with sweat, and I hurled it away in disgust. I did this. I let myself go and showed my true self. The monster inside ruined the only brightness in my life.
“Tess?” I pulled her into my arms, dragging her cold, lifeless form closer. Blood smeared over us, and her red-welted body oozed with damnation.
“Wake up, esclave,” I growled, hoping an order would force those dove-blue eyes open. No response.
I bent, pressing my cheek against her mouth, waiting endlessly for a small puff of breath, a signal I hadn’t gone too far.
Nothing.
Fear stopped my heart, and all I wanted to do was rewind time. Rewind to a simpler place where I lived with needs and urges, but never let myself believe I could be free. Rewind to the day when Tess arrived, and I promptly sent her back to her silly boyfriend Brax. At least if I did, she would be safe and my life wouldn’t have ended.
At least then, Tess would be alive.
My demons killed her.
I killed her.
I threw my head back and howled.
* * * * *
“Q. Q!”
Something sharp bit my shoulder and I flinched. Rolling away, I tried to ignore the call. I deserved to stay in this endless hell. The hell I created for killing the one woman who stole my life and showed me an emotion I never dared dream for: love.
My cheek smarted as if someone slapped me, blazing through the darkness with a bite of pain.
Eyes snapped open to a wild-eyed, blonde goddess on top of me. The debilitating terror wouldn’t leave, even though she was alive, and glaring at me with passion I grew to know so well.
“What the hell, Q. That’s the third time this week. You going to tell me what you’re dreaming about to warrant howling like a werewolf?” Tess pinned my shoulders to the mattress and I couldn’t stop muscles from tensing. I liked her on top, but didn’t like her holding me as if she was in control. It wasn’t how I worked.
“None of your business.” I rolled, grabbing her hips to pin her beneath me. I risked a small smile. With her under me, my world righted again. I ran hands over her waist, up her throat, to her lips. Her breath fluttered, coming faster and the rest of my panic receded.
She was still breathing.
I hadn’t killed her.
Yet.
Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex. J
She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.
Her debut book Tears of Tess will be followed with Quintessentially Q. You didn’t think Q could stop so soon, did you? Her other two titles, Last Shadow and Broken Chance will be coming soon.
You can stalk her here:
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This is going to be a mini novella, so settle back while I thank everyone.
First, I want to thank my hubby for putting up with me working fourteen hour days on this book and talking nothing but Q this, Q that. Q, Q, Q. He really is a saint.
Next, I want to thank the amazing Beta Readers who read Tears of Tess in all its misspelled glory. Skye Callahan—you were the very first, and my God, I’m sorry for putting you through that. I couldn’t imagine writing every day without you on my FB page. J
Ing from As The Pages Turn, Chelle Bliss, Monica Robinson, Blakely Bennett, Kyra Lennon, Kelley Lynn, and Suzi Retzlaff. Thank you so much for your suggestions and giving such encouragement and putting up with my endle
ss *I suck moments*
A huge thank you to Ari from Cover it! Designs. I couldn’t imagine any other cover for Tears of Tess and I’m in love with Q’s cover! <3 I love our two a.m. conversations about all things books.
I want to thank the wonderful editors—TJ Loveless, Lindsey, and Robin for doing a great job—hopefully we caught all those hidden errors J
I could never have achieved the buzz surrounding this book without all the awesome, kickass bloggers. In no particular order: Aestas Book Blogger, Helenas Book Obsession, Breezy Books, Totally Booked, Hopeless Romantic, Dirty Books, House of Vetti, Read More Sleep Less, As The Pages Turn, Must Read Books, Swooning Over Books, Hook Me Up Book Blog, Jacqueline Reads, all the AMAZING ARC reviews—Alaina, Nishat, Nadie, Ing, Surjit, Tiffany, Susan, Amber, Tamara, Donna, Haloangel Reads, ItsyBitsy Book Blog, Stacey, Patricia, Kristina, Jennifer, Mara, and all you incredible bloggers who signed up to help spread the word. I can’t thank you enough so I’ll send you kisses. J
Thank you to the amazing ladies who organised the promo for Tears of Tess: Ing from As The Pages Turn—your generosity and support is priceless. Giselle from Xpresso Book Tours, I’m so, so happy you were in charge of the crazy amount of blogs that signed up J And, Laurynne from CBL Book Tours—you’re brilliant and thank you so much for all your hard work.
Thank you to Jenny from Totally Booked for answering all my questions about using lyrics in a book (apparently you can’t—hence why I got my music writing hat on and did it myself. But please see the playlist for songs that inspired.)
And lastly, thank you to Black Firefly for handling all the publishing requirements on this thing. You were a life-saver.
*Some songs that inspired Tears of Tess*
Demons by Imagine Dragons
Bring Me Back To Life by Evanescence
Arms by Christina Perri