Forbidden Flaws

by Pepper Winters

  Cas groaned, reaching behind him to pick up the receiver by the bed. Somehow, he still managed to keep his cock inside me. "What?"

  Silence.

  "Okay. I’ll tell her."

  He hung up.

  Snuggling into the pillow created by his arm, I murmured, "My key is ready?"

  He took a while to answer, his breathing soft and warm on the nape of my neck. "Yes."

  My heart hurt at the desolation in his tone. "Do you want me to go?"

  His arms tightened before he forced himself to relax. "Do you want to go?"

  I stifled my smile, loving how this big scary man had changed. He’d softened and lost the edge of anger, from either being intimate or still inside me—he throbbed with tenderness rather than aggression.

  "No."

  He let out a soft breath. "Good. I don’t want you to go either." Pulling me tighter against his chest, he murmured, "I know what I said—about not wanting to know you. But, perhaps I don’t have to forget you so soon…this…it’s different."

  "More than just chemistry?"

  He sighed. "I don’t know. But I want…"

  When he didn’t continue, I murmured, "Want?"

  "I want you to stay. Spend the day with me tomorrow. Come and watch me fight."

  My heart leapt. I nodded without thinking. "I’d love to."

  "Good." Tension ebbed from his muscles and almost as if a switch turned off in his brain, he went instantly to sleep.

  My heart glowed while every inch of me burned from sexual use. My lips were sore, my body sticky and sweat-dewed. But I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been happier in six years.

  I lay there in his embrace, very aware of his cock growing flaccid inside me.

  What had just happened between us?

  Did this happen to everyone who met their perfect other? Did you justknow? Or was it merely a crazy infatuation between two lonely people who looked for more than what existed?

  I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out more than anything.

  My heart plummeted.

  More than anything?

  More than a career I’d fought for? A new life that I needed?

  Fear cannonballed through my system.

  I looked at the curtains, noticing for the first time a sliver of light as the sun welcomed the dawn.

  You’re leaving tomorrow.

  Forever.

  My heart shrivelled into cinders.

  I’d forgotten.

  Somehow, this singular man had made me forget. Made me forget my grief, my goals, my dreams—all in one night of passion.

  How had I forgotten?

  My skin went ice cold.

  His power over me was too strong. His allure far too dangerous.

  He could ruin my future. Ruin everything I’d run so blindly toward.

  I couldn’t stay.

  I couldn’t spend the day with him tomorrow.

  I had to follow my dreams.

  I have to leave Cas Smith behind.

  * * *

  That was the first time fate put him in my path.

  But not the last.

  Cas was right about one thing—he’d stolen a piece of me that night—a part I would never get back; something that would forever belong to him, binding us forever.

  So I ran.

  Did I choose the right path?

  Did I follow the right dream?

  I thought I had at the time.

  I thought I knew what I wanted.

  But in the end, the truth came out, revealing the road I’d chosen—the one glittering with fame and fortune—was the wrong one.

  I chose the road covered in filth and deception.

  I chose the road filled with treachery and treason.

  And by doing so, I made sure I would never deserve the one person who could’ve saved me.

  But fate wasn’t done with us.

  Cas wasn’t done with me.

  * * *

  The rest of Cas and Saffron’s story will be told in the full length book, Forbidden Flaws.

  About the Author

  Pepper Winters is a NYT and USA Today International Bestseller. She 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.

  She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends. She’s also honoured to wear the IndieReader Badge for being a Top 10 Indie Bestsellers, best BDSM series voted by the SmutClub, and recently signed a two-book deal with Grand Central. Her books are currently being translated into numerous languages and will be in bookstores in the near future.