A knock sounded at my door. I stirred the coals one last time, pushed up from the floorboards, and leaned the poker against the hearth. “Un momento,” I called.
I rubbed my hands together against the chill and headed for the front door. It was too early in the season for us to get snow, but I felt the chill in the air, and I wondered if I’d wake to a layer of white in the morning.
I tugged the front door open and went completely still.
“Surprise,” Felicity said, standing on my front porch wearing boots, slim jeans, a pink parka and knit hat.
For a heartbeat, I was sure I was imagining things, then Felicity said, “Um, it’s cold out here. Are you going to let me in or should I just continue to stand here shivering?”
The sound of her voice jerked me from my daze, and I stepped back to let her in. “Yeah. Sorry. I...” I closed the door as she stepped into my house and looked around. “I’m shocked to see you.“
“I can see that.” She glanced around the entryway and stepped into the living room. “Hm. My father said this place needs some work. He wasn’t kidding.”
The place needed a ton of work. The plaster on the walls was crumbling, the floors needed to be redone, and I had very little furniture. But I didn’t care about any of that right now. I stepped after her. “Your father? What are you talking about? And what are you doing here?”
She turned to face me. “After you came back here to Italy, I took a leave from my job. I have a friend who works at MI6 who made it possible for me to just disappear for awhile. Your friend Patrick helped.”
I had no idea where she was going with this.
“My dad was worried about me, though, and he came to see me a few weeks ago. He could tell I was unhappy. I didn’t know it until yesterday, but after he left me, he came here.”
“Here?”
“To Italy. He met with the head of House Salvatici.”
“Why?”
“To threaten him, I think. To make sure he knew my father was aware of what he’d done. Antonio Salvatici denied any knowledge of my uncle’s attempts to overthrow my father, of course, but we all know he was complicit. Then my father made a deal with him. He wouldn’t tell the leaders of the other Houses what had gone down so long as House Salvatici ensured my safety here in Italy.”
I was sure I had to have heard her wrong. I blinked. “Here in Italy.”
“Yep.” She stepped toward me, looking absolutely adorable in that hat and ski jacket. “Since you can’t be with me in England, and I can’t seem to live without you anywhere else, I figured it was time I joined you here. If, that is, you were telling the truth about the whole happily-ever-after thing.”
I could barely breathe. She was here. She was staying. This was real.
I moved into her and kissed her so fast, we both gasped. And when we were breathless, she smiled up at me and said, “I guess that means you’re happy to see me.”
“Oh, vita mia. You have no idea how happy I am to see you. I’ve been miserable without you.”
She wrapped her arms around my waist. “I’ve been miserable without you too.”
I kissed her again, softly. “Your father really made that deal? For you to live here with me and become a Romero?”
She chuckled. “Don’t get ahead of yourself just yet, handsome. He’s okay with me living here, but the marriage thing will have to wait until Luc takes charge of this House. My father’s still old fashioned enough not to let his only daughter live under House Salvatici rule while the madman Antonio Salvatici is in control.”
I could live with that. Once Luc took his father’s place and my uncle stepped aside as a Knight, I’d assume his position and have more sway in my House. I smiled and pressed my lips to the tip of her nose. “So he’s okay with us living in sin? I like your father already.”
“Well, your House is known as the House of Sin.” She lifted her lips to mine. “Seems kind of fitting, don’t you think?”
No, it seemed like a miracle. And I had never been so happy. There was one thing I was still curious about...
I eased back and looked down at her. “Just so we’re clear...in case it comes up down the line or something... Did you just surrender to me?”
She laughed and lifted to her toes to wrap her arms around my shoulders. “That’s what you got out of all this? You really do want the whole fairytale.”
“Nope. I just want you, Felicity Merrick. However I can get you.”
“Well, you have me, Marco Romero. For as long as you want. And guess what that means?”
“What?”
“It means...” She leaned close to my ear and breathed hot over my neck. “You have plenty of time to perfect all the different ways you think you can make this sassy British girl surrender.”
“Oh, amore...” My whole body tightened in anticipation of doing just that. “We are definitely getting started on that tonight.”
* * * *
Also from 1001 Dark Nights and Elisabeth Naughton, discover Hunted, Ravaged, and Unchained.
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Hunted
An Eternal Guardians Novella
By Elisabeth Naughton
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Erebus–Dark in every sense of the word, a sk
illed and lethal warrior, and sinfully sexy by design.
Since the dawn of modern man, Erebus was Hades’ secret weapon in the war between the immortal realms. Until Hades lost the minor god in a bet to his older brother Zeus. For the last hundred years, Erebus has trained Zeus’s Siren warriors in warfare and the sexual arts. But he’s never stopped longing for freedom. For a life filled with choice. And lately, he also longs for one Siren who entranced him during their steamy seduction sessions. A nymph he quickly became obsessed with and who was ripped from his grasp when her seduction training was complete. One he’s just learned Zeus has marked for death because she failed the last Siren test.
Before Erebus can intercede on the nymph’s behalf, she escapes Olympus and flees into the human realm. In a fit of rage, Zeus commands Erebus to hunt her down and kill her. Erebus sees his opportunity to finally go after what he wants, but he’s torn. Freedom means nothing if the Siren at the center of his fantasies doesn’t truly crave him back. Because defying the gods will unleash the fury of Olympus, and if he chooses her over his duty, whether she joins him in exile or not, the hunter will become the hunted.
* * * *
Ravaged
An Eternal Guardians Novella
By Elisabeth Naughton
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Ari — Once an Eternal Guardian, now he's nothing but a rogue mercenary with one singular focus: revenge. His guardian brothers all think he’s dead, but he is very much alive in the human realm, chipping away at Zeus’s Sirens every chance he can, reveling in his brutality and anonymity. Until, that is, he abducts the wrong female and his identity is finally exposed. It will take more than the Eternal Guardians, more even than the gods to rein Ari in after everything he’s done. It may just take the courage of one woman willing to stand up to a warrior who’s become a savage.
* * * *
Unchained
An Eternal Guardians Novella
By Elisabeth Naughton
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PROMETHEUS – One of the keenest Titans to ever walk the earth. Until, that is, his weakness for the human race resulted in his imprisonment.
For thousands of years, Prometheus’s only certainty was his daily torture at Zeus’s hand. Now, unchained by the Eternal Guardians, he spends his days in solitude, trying to forget the past. He’s vowed no allegiance in the war between mortal and immortal, but when a beautiful maiden seeks him out and begs for his help, he’s once again powerless to say no. Soon, Prometheus is drawn into the very conflict he swore to avoid, and, to save the maiden’s life, he must choose sides. But she has a secret of her own, and if Prometheus doesn’t discover what she’s hiding in time, the world won’t simply find itself embroiled in a battle between good and evil, it will fall in total domination to Prometheus’s greatest enemy.
FORBIDDEN
House of Sin Book One
By Elisabeth Naughton
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He is temptation. Forbidden fruit. A craving she couldn't resist.
When Natalie James leaves her small town for Manhattan, she hopes to find answers to her best friend's death. Instead, she finds him.
Luciano Salvatici.
Dark and commanding, Luc radiates power and heat, yet protects sinister secrets. Natalie knows she needs to keep her distance, but despite the danger, she can't help falling prey to his seductive looks, to his forceful touch. Can't stop aching for one sinful taste of his wicked lips.
Their desire is wild. Intoxicating. Dangerous. But before she can surrender to the fire smoldering between them, Natalie must discover what Luc's hiding behind the forbidden doors of the House of Sin...
* * * *
The force of his smile made him so devastatingly handsome, my irritation wobbled. But that word—kitten—set me on edge.
I didn’t like those cute little nicknames some men used. My stepfather called my mother princess, and I’d never liked it. Not because she didn’t deserve to be worshipped at that level by her spouse, but because he used it as a weapon against her. When he was happy with her he called her princess. When he wasn’t, he tossed out romantic terms of endearment like bitch and cunt.
Did I think Luc was like my controlling stepfather who had to know where my mother was at all times and who kept her isolated from her friends? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to think he could be like that, but the truth was, I honestly didn’t know that much about him aside from the fact he had a good heart buried beneath layers of something heavy and that he could make my body melt with just one touch.
Yes, he liked to be in control—he’d proved that last night when he’d told me to remove my dress and had commanded me to do things I hadn’t expected to want to do—but there was more to him than this façade of domination. I’d sensed it when I’d pulled him to me and kissed him last night. I’d seen it in the way he’d melted against me and gentled his touch. And I’d felt it when he’d slid deep inside me and we’d made love. Because that was exactly what we’d done. He hadn’t dominated me then. He hadn’t fucked me. He’d made love with me. Something he’d told me he never did.
“Something on your mind, gattina?”
I blinked, realizing I’d been staring at him, lost in thought. Lost in him. Shaking my head, I looked out the window. “No,” I lied. “I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. My heart was racing and my mind was spinning because somewhere inside, I knew I liked both sides of him. I liked the tender lover who made my body tremble with one simple touch, but my body also craved the domineering man who could make me nearly come just by ordering me to my knees.
Elena’s words suddenly popped into my head. “It’s like I’m two people. The innocent model from Montana everyone knows by day, and the seductive bad girl at night who says ‘yes, sir’ and is willing to do anything he commands.”
My stomach pitched, and I felt the blood drain from my face.
I wasn’t becoming Elena…was I?”
On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,
Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~
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Table of Contents
Book Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
Surrender: A House of Sin Novella Page 9