“Dark, perverse, and unbearably erotic, Pretty When You Cry is
Skye Warren at her gritty best.”
~ Anna Zaires, USA Today bestselling author of Twist Me
A new dark romance novel from the New York Times bestselling
author of Wanderlust and Prisoner…
I came from a place of dirt floors and holy scriptures. They
told me the world outside was full of sin, and the first night I escape, I find
out it’s true. Ivan saves me, but he does more than that. He takes me. He makes
me his own girl.
My conditioning runs too deep. Ivan sees what I am.
That’s
the thing about showing a mouse to a cat. He wants to play. And it’s
terrifying, even for me. Because the only thing darker than my past is his.
“Candace,”
he says in the same deep voice of my dream.
And
there’s a look in his eyes, the same look Leader Allen gives Mama. The same
look he started giving me. That look is the reason Mama sent me away.
“You’ll
stay here,” he says softly. “I don’t want you to dance, but you can stay.”
The
allure of it beats through me, a heart of its own, thumping away to a dream
that isn’t mine. Safety. Home. I want
those things, but I want freedom more. I want the flash of lights and of skin.
I want the power those women had onstage.
Ivan
wants to put me in a cage, but what I really want is to fly.
“Okay,”
I lie, because one sin becomes many. Leader Allen taught me that, and he was
right. I’ll convince Ivan, though. One day I’ll dance on that stage, and Ivan
will watch me.
One
day he’ll teach me everything there is to know.
“Good
girl.”
The
praise washes over me, undeserved and darkly pleasurable, a stroke along my
spine. It feels good, but I know what it is. A trap. A chain around my ankle to
keep me on the ground. In this moment, it locks me so tight that I’d accept
anything he did to me. If he were to touch
me the way the woman with the kind eyes meant. The way Leader Allen touches
Mama during prayer.
Ivan
leans down, and I hold my breath. Large hands take hold of the blanket, lift slightly.
I feel everything between us—anticipation and denial, lust and fear corded
together. We feel them together, breathe them in through the air, pulse them
with each beat of our hearts. It’s a kind of knowledge, this feeling,
connecting a thousand nerve points to the core of my body. This is what he
meant by teaching me. This and so much more.
Then
he pulls the blanket higher, tucking it around me. “Good night,” he says, eyes
glittering in the dark.
He
is silver and light, made even brighter by the shadows behind him. It’s
strange, the disappointment I feel that he isn’t going to touch me. He isn’t
going to teach me. Not tonight. “Good
night,” I whisper back.
Then
he’s gone, shutting the door against the dark, locking me in. And I slide away
into sleep, without dreams, without color, with only the shameless black of
contentedness, knowing I am safe for the night.
Other books in the series
Tough Love (Stripped #0.5)
Love the way you Lie (Stripped #1)
Better when it Hurts (Stripped #2)
Skye Warren is
the New York Times bestselling author of dark romance such as Wanderlust and
Prisoner. Praised as a “true mistress of dark erotica”, her books have been
featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle
Magazine. She makes her home in Houston, Texas, with her loving family, three
dogs, and one evil cat.
Author links
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