“Do that again, and I may have to fuck this ass, and I know you are sore.”
She laughed. “Tempted.”
“I have a present for you tonight. Look at what is under the kindling. Look closely.”
She stiffened. “Is that the…”
“It is the suitcase, yes. I decided I have enough ways to screw with your head. It’s done, burning.” The flames crackled and licked over it as we watched. I’d broken it up small, but it was recognizable. “Also, I am gifting you with a scene name so I don’t have to worry about Red getting mixed up with red hard limits.”
“Ohmigod. What? We can always use another word like tentacles, for hard limits.”
“I’ve decided. How do you like Isabella?”
My heart seemed to stall, as I waited for her answer.
“Isabella. That sounds nice, Isak. It feels good on my tongue. Like, maybe, my parents should have thought of that?”
“I’m glad you like it. Isabella you shall be whenever we scene, from this day forward.”
I knew why it felt right to her.
It was her real name. And I would never tell her why and how this had happened.
Once upon a time, I had compelled her to forget her real name.
So much of what I had done in the past had been forgotten by others, but I would always know. I still had an itch now and then, and my sadistic impulses had driven me to excess on occasion. I had learned to channel it into good choices. It was actually fun.
That last one…
He had screamed well, even after we gagged him with his own dick.
Killing murderers, rapists, and the odd murdering rapist, was a beautiful outlet. Tracking them down was a lot easier for me than any law officer. Figuring out ways to make them wish they were dead before they died – it was really satisfying. And my accomplices were silent partners. I made them forget their deeds.
No evidence was left. No loose tongues. I made the cops happy. Win, win.
“Red?”
“Yes?” she asked, sleepily.
“One day soon, we should have a wedding.”
I hadn’t planned to say that, not exactly. I guess I am a little crazy.
“Isak! Wow. You know you are supposed to ask me first?”
“Sure. Think about it.” I inhaled, smelling her hair, and watching the scarlet of her locks shine where the firelight haloed through. “Say yes or I spank your ass black and blue and red.”
Her laughing shook the blanket covering us. Banjo arrived a second later and tried to burrow in with us – partly succeeding but mostly dragging the blanket off us. He wrecked the intimacy, what with Red shrieking and giggling and me laughing at everything, while we fended off the hairy addition to our twosome.
Finally, he snorted and snuggled in between us with his warm weight partly on top of our feet.
The perfect end to a day.
Vigilante justice, a content and slobbery pet, and a wedding on preorder.
“How are you feeling?” I whispered. “No nightmares?”
“Huh? No. None.”
“Good.” I drew her hand to me and kissed the palm. The missing finger sparked a faded remnant of my ire, reminding me of my reasons for anonymity and a fairly staid life.
“Why?”
“Forget it. I thought you’d said something.”
“Hmph.” She sighed and bumped her head on my arm as she found a better place to rest it on me.
It had been a while since the last time, since she’d grown restless. She always said yes when asked if she wanted the nightmares gone. The burning tower never quite left her, but I could fix her. I could help her.
It was a small correction.
As she drifted into sleep her body relaxed against mine, the tension in her muscles ebbed, and her breathing grew quieter. I resisted the need to stroke her hair and merely watched Red. I lay with her head in the crook of my arm and her hair a muddled mess on the quilt, my arm, and my chest.
This is peace. Surely, this is love? That word was important to her.
I’d burned the suitcase, returned her precious name, and I was making good choices.
I drew a deep breath. My chest movement must have disturbed her. Her forehead creased and her lips moved in silent protest.
I would kill anyone who tried to hurt my soft little creature, my ex-CIA analyst, Red.
The same fate was due for anyone who hurt the dog.
I could mull on this forever, or I could sleep. I settled lower and closed my eyes.
What do you create… what do you add to the human existence? That is what matters. Eddie Izzard was right. At the very least, I figured I’d done something good. I’d made a happy Red, a happy me, and a very happy dog.
The End
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An Excerpt from
CLOCKWORK STALKER follows
What if the storybook hero becomes the villain?
She is my arch enemy’s niece.
I’m an arrogant, controlling bastard, an excellent detective, and women are turning up dead and bound, with strange marks on their bodies.
This is the least appropriate time for me to fall in lust with the enemy.
Obsession is the sign of a man who is losing control.
Be punctual for this appointment Miss Moriarty.
I have things I need to do. Filthy, perverted things.
This is an erotic Sherlock Holmes romance with a hint of Cthulhu and horror.
With his shoes barely making any sound as he placed them on each tread of the stairs, Sherlock descended the last two steps. From the top, he’d seen what was down here—Willa, nude, blindfolded with red cloth, and bound to a rectangular table. Her hands were tied together at the wrists and above her head, while the ropes leading from her ankles pulled apart her thighs, for they were tied to separate table legs.
This threatened to take his breath away, to leave him swimming in lust like some uncontrolled beast. He was a man, not an animal, and a better example of a man than most of those outside on the streets.
Yet her presence had swallowed him and the room.
Nothing existed except her and the warning drumbeat of his heart, and so he made himself stop and look.
The house above was safe. He should be deliberate and precise, he had plenty of time.
No one would be coming to disturb him.
He made himself take in everything here, as if this were an average crime scene: the stains and moisture on the plastered walls, the small, waist-high table, the healthy pinkness of her feet and hands…
The coolness of the air that made her nipples jut upward in the center of her areolas.
The neat triangle of her scarlet pubic hair, and the line of her slit where even now moisture glistened… and the smallness of her toes.
Sherlock inhaled, exhaled, and shut his eyes. Listen to the beat of the blood. Make the body obey. Turn the eyes elsewhere.
He pressed his lips together.
Except this was not an average crime scene. He had her naked, helpless, and alone.
The room was dominated by this massive elephant of a table that you’d need a lorry or four men to shift. The floor beneath was stained where the stone tiles met. Sherlock knelt and scraped a dark red substance from the grout into a bottle and stoppered it. If human blood, the Uhlenhuth Test would detect it.
On the table between her spread legs was a large wooden dildo and for a second he was angry—at the men and what they must have contemplated doing to her, and at himself for how tempted he was. He moved on.
The small, round table held a tray with a hypodermic syringe and a vial. He paused to read the label, check the level of fluid, and to collect himself. The languid rise and fall of her breasts said she was under the influence of the drug, as did the bl
eb of blood at her inner elbow. With the blindfold on, she couldn’t know how intently he stared, nevertheless this was a beginning, and he refused to begin in any way except perfection.
With a gentle touch, he rolled down the blindfold, enough to let him lift an eyelid and see her pupil. It was constricted more than normal considering her eyes had been covered. He loosened the cloth, slid it aside, and still she barely stirred.
A chair waited in a shadowed corner. He carried it closer, beneath the dangling electric light then untied both her feet but left her hands bound. It should not take long for her to rouse. Already she moved, showing signs the sedation was lessening. In that respect, her laudanum habit was to her advantage.
The edge of the table was cool under his palms as he leaned over her body.
Such lush beauty. The swell of her breasts and sweep of her hips and waist stirred him carnally.
He would not touch her.
He would not.
CLOCKWORK STALKER on AMAZON
About Cari Silverwood
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Cari Silverwood is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer of kinky darkness or sometimes of dark kinkiness, depending on her moods and the amount of time she’s spent staring into the night.
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Recent releases
ISAK & Red
DARK MATH JESUS – a satire about how Sacrificed to the Sea ended up in Religion and Math categories. *not in KU.
SACRIFICED TO THE SEA
CLOCKWORK STALKER – a dark, twisted, Sherlock Holmes and Miss Moriarty romance
THE PRINCESS TIED – a kinky fantasy romance. Inspired by The Princess Bride
RULED – Dark Sci-fi romance
CONDEMNED – Dark Reverse Harem Sci-fi Romance
BEAST HORDE TRILOGY BOXSET
Pierced Hearts Series – contemporary BDSM and dubcon/ noncon series
TAKE ME, BREAK ME
KLAUS – A NOVELLA
BIND AND KEEP ME
MAKE ME YOURS EVERMORE
SEIZE ME FROM DARKNESS
YIELD
THE COMPLETE PIERCED HEARTS BOXSET – all six books in one volume
Dark Hearts Trilogy – dark romances. Contemporary BDSM and dubcon/ noncon series
WICKED WAYS
WICKED WEAPON
WICKED HUNT
DARK HEARTS BOXSET – contains Wicked Ways, Wicked Weapon, Wicked Hunt
WOLFE – a spin-off novel from the Dark Hearts trilogy
USED – an erotic horror spinoff from Dark Hearts (not a romance)
ISAK & Red
MESMER – a dark romance cowritten with Jennifer Bene and based on my Dark Hearts series
Dark Monster Fantasy Series
PREY
STEEL
BLADE
DARK MONSTER FANTASY BOXSET – pansy-dark scifi romances
Preyfinders Series (alien invasion scifi)
PRECIOUS SACRIFICE
INTIMIDATOR
DEFILER
PREYFINDERS: THE TRILOGY BOXSET
Preyfinders spinoff novel CYBERELLA
The Machinery of Desire Series – dystopian slaveworld series with kink and dubcon/ noncon
ACQUIRED POSSESSION
CLAIMED POSSESSION
FATED POSSESSION – a novella first published in the alien alphas boxset
BRANDED POSSESSION
EXQUISITE POSSESSION
MACHINERY OF DESIRE – THE COMPLETE BOXSET
The Steamwork Chronicles Series
Iron Dominance
Lust Plague
Steel Dominance
THE STEAMWORK CHRONICLES BOXSET – all three books in one volume
The Beast Horde Trilogy – dystopian sci-fi warrior romance
VARGR
RUTGER
CYN
BEAST HORDE TRILOGY BOXSET
Squirm Files Series – tentacle sex spoofs of erotic romance and monster stories
SQUIRM
STRUM
THE WELL-HUNG GUN
SQUIRM FILES SERIES BOXSET
CATACLYSM BLUES
(A free kinky scifi novella)
Others
ROUGH SURRENDER – a BDSM-themed, historical romance set in Cairo in 1910
MY ROMANCE CURSE (erotic romcom)
FAN ANONYMOUS
SANTA WITH A K – A Naughty Xmas Fairy Tale
31 FLAVORS OF KINK (based on a true story)
THREE DAYS OF DOMINANCE
NIGHTMARE RISING – a dark contemporary paranormal story cowritten with Nicolette Hugo
Magience series – epic fantasy
MAGIENCE
NEEDLE RAIN
The Badass Brats Series (contemporary BDSM romances with Mff)
THE DOM WITH A SAFEWORD
THE DOM ON THE NAUGHTY LIST
THE DOM WITH THE PERFECT BRATS
THE DOM WITH THE CLEVER TONGUE
Acknowledgements & Copyright
COPYRIGHT
The Book of Red Copyright © 2021 Cari Silverwood
Isak & Red Copyright © 2021 Cari Silverwood
Used Copyright © 2018 Cari Silverwood
Editor: Nerine Dorman
Cover Artist: Cari Silverwood
www.carisilverwood.net
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book only. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials.
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An eternal thank you to my beta readers, Louise Hallet, Emma Rose, and Crystal Partin.
The Book of Red: ISAK & Red and bonus prequel Used Page 23