A Potion of Locke’s Sales will be donated to the
Semper Fi Fund
Summary
Darkness is the only thing I see. Ever since the day my
life changed. The day that everything and everyone I held close to me ceased to
exist. The day I lost it all and the demons of my past consumed my every waking
moment.
I tried to keep others at arm’s length. Tried not to let my darkness taint
them. Ruin them. Harm them. And whether I want to admit it or not, as much as I
wish I could keep them locked out, they refuse to leave. Refuse to let me
suffer alone.
If I hadn’t been so focused on keeping those demons from flying free, I
wouldn’t have missed how one perfect angel was able to sneak her way under my
skin—refusing to let go. Making me want things I don’t deserve.
She consumes me. Her beauty knows no end. The love she promises tempts me every
time she’s near. But that pure heart that makes her MY Emmy is the one thing
I’m convinced I’ll destroy if I ever let her close.
I’m a broken man. A broken man with too much darkness in his soul to ever let
her light shine upon me. But even that doesn’t stop me from craving her with
every single breath in my body.
**This is the
final book in the Corps Security series. This book is not suitable for younger
readers. There is strong language, adult situations, and some violence.*
Review- 5 Stars!
Harper Sloan has out done herself with Locke. I
instantly fell in love with the characters Maddox and Emersyn. This is the
first book I have read in the series. I started backwards. Saying this, tells
you what an amazing author Harper is.
She captured me on page one.
Emmy has been through so much in her young life. It made
me wonder how many young girls are out there with such horrible families, like
hers. She remains so positive throughout the story that I can’t help but want
to be more like her. She is not only an optimistic person, she is also
passionate and never gives up on what she wants.
Maddox on the other hand can’t hate himself enough. I
think it’s his character that relates to us the most. Meaning, we are always
are own worst enemies.
Emmy and Maddox have so much in common with their
twisted families. Their chemistry is magnetic. I ran the gamut of feelings with
their relationship throughout the book. I cried, yelled and ahhh'd.
Last but not least, the family they chose are the
friends I dream of surrounding me. The support is amazing and the honesty amongst
them is humbling. Flowing all the way down to their children.
I truly recommend you follow the series but, it can
easily be read as a standalone too. I couldn’t help myself in choosing this
book first, from the cover alone. Love the man gracing the cover!
-Review by Books Need TLC reviewer- Andrea Cox
Prologue—Maddox
Six weeks. It’s
been over a goddamn month since Emmy ran from me.
Just gone.
It took me three days to find her—thanks to the
tracking device I had placed on her car—down in some small Podunk town in south
Florida. Even if she had been trying to
hide, she’d done a shit job of it. One
search for her parents would have brought me right to her.
It took me longer to actually get eyes on her than it
had to find her. She was holed up in
some cheap-ass hotel for three weeks.
She called in her meals and never left the room. And unfortunately, I had to leave and rush
home when things out of my control needed attention and I again had to pull
Asher’s head out of his ass. Now I’m
back and I’m not leaving until I get my hands on her.
She doesn’t want to be found. I know that, but damn if I’m going to let her
run off and get away for good. I’ve
pushed and pushed her away. Every bone
in my body has screamed at me to take what she’s been offering for years. I’ve seen her, I know what she wants, but I
won’t let my demons hurt her. Not my
Emmy.
Since day one, she’s been the greatest temptation, but
I refused to take everything innocent that is Emmy and let my blackness take
her. Because that’s what will
happen. It will wrap around her soul and
slowly choke the life out of her. Just
like every other person I’ve allowed in.
I’ll taint her.
I’ll ruin her. And in the end, it
will destroy her.
One smile from her made me fall. So I pushed her away. I told her that she would never be what I
need—that I would never want her. God, if
she only knew. I crave her and
everything she keeps trying to hand me.
I crave her and everything she could give me. My very being calls out to her, and I work
daily to refuse it.
So I pushed.
Until she ran.
But that ends right now.
Looking up at the gaudy neon lights thrown on the top
of this hellhole, I know that was my first mistake.
SYN.
A motherfucking strip club.
This is not a place where my angel belongs. Just the thought of her inside this club
makes my skin crawl. I can feel my anger
becoming a force of its own as the blackness in my soul threatens to burst
through. It’s burning inside my veins
and demanding blood. My nostrils flare,
making my breaths come in loud pants. My
fist clenches—demanding something to pound into, something to destroy. My skin feels tight. Every vein in my body is pulsing with each
wild beat of my heart.
I’m going to explode.
The bouncer doesn’t even give me a second thought. He gives me a brief glance as I pay the
twenty bucks to gain my access into the hellish place. I immediately rip my sunglasses off, taking
in every inch of the room. Black walls
with dim lighting, stereotypical red carpeting and leather booths lining the
room. They have the name right with the
smell of this place—sex and sin with a mixture of smoke and sweat. There are three stages set up around the
room, the center one being the largest and two smaller ones to the left and
right, with a bar against the back wall and one on the top floor.
The whole top-floor bar area is set up on a glass
floor, giving these douchebags around the room the perfect view between the
barely dressed servers’ legs. Taking my
eyes off the top floor, where the bartenders are clearly working the glass
floor to their advantage, I scan the room again, squinting my eyes to see through
the dim lighting and heavy smoke.
That’s when I spot her.
“What. The. Fuck,” I snarl under my breath.
The anger I felt earlier burning through my body starts
to boil. It’s almost as if my body
becomes a force of its own. The monsters
inside me wanting free.
There she stands, not even five feet away, looking
exhausted, wearing next to nothing. Her
skirt—if that’s what you want to call it—is more like a napkin someone cut in
half. From the way she stands—slightly
to the side—I can just make out the perfect roundness of her ass peeking out
the bottom of the hem. Her pert tits are
pushed together and held in a tight bikini top, the fabric so thin that I can
see the outline of her nipples clear as day.
My eyes take in every inch of her exposed skin and I
want to roar with rage.
No one should see her like this. No one but me. And even though I don’t have the right to
feel this way about her, there isn’t a damn thing that can stop me now.
She hasn’t seen me yet, so I stalk over to where she’s
standing. She turns right when I’m about
to reach out for her and her eyes go wide, shock and alarm clear in her
beautiful, honey-brown eyes.
“Wha—”
“What the fuck are you doing, Em?” I bite out.
She shrinks back at my tone before she catches herself
and goes stiff. I can tell instantly
that I’m not going to like anything she has to say.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, Emmy.
What in the hell are you doing in this place?”
She tilts her head slightly, taking me in. Her eyes leave mine and roam the room before
she gives a stiff nod. When she turns
her focus back to me, I go stock-still at her words.
“I’m exactly where I should be, Maddox. I’m home.”
Her tone is submissive, and that fury inside me goes from a boiling fire
to ice cold.
With that, she turns and stalks off towards the
bar. And I see that not only is her ass
hanging out, but so are her hot-pink boy shorts.
“Dude. She’s a
fine piece of ass, right?” The man she
was just talking to speaks in awe.
“Shut your fucking mouth,” I growl, feeling that rage
return like a switch has been flipped.
“Ah, you’re new here.
Just sit back, my friend, and get ready for the show.” He laughs, takes a deep pull from his beer,
and turns his attention back to the main stage, where the current entertainment
is doing her best to swallow the fucking pole with her pussy. She’s working so hard for it that she might
as well be fucking the damn thing.
I’m no stranger to strip clubs. Back when the guys were all single, we would
hit some local ones around California.
No better way to let off some steam from the shit that is constantly
swirling around in my head than to sit in a room full of naked woman. Where the music pounds into your body, the
drinks are always flowing, and the pussy is in abundance.
One thing’s for sure: This isn’t a place for Emmy. Hell no.
Without taking my eyes from Emmy, I drop my body into
the nearest booth. She’s in a heated
argument with the bartender and an older man who looks about as run-down as
this fucking town. She throws her hands
in the air, her head moving wildly, and if I had to guess, her stunning eyes
are burning bright. She points over to me
a few times, and all the older man does is shake his head, obviously not giving
her what she wants. I just scowl at them
from the booth, waiting for her to walk her ass back over here so I can explain
to her that it’s time to go.
“Hey there, handsome,” a raspy voice says to my
right. “Looking for some fun
tonight? I bet a big man like you would
be up for something wild.”
“No.” I don’t
even look at her. My eyes never leave
Emmy—who is now looking at me. A mix of
ire and hurt is written all over her face.
Even with the shit lighting in this place, I can see it…and I hate it.
Fucking hurt? Is
she serious right now? Pissed I can
understand. She didn’t want to be found
and I found her.
“I won’t bite, baby.
That is unless you want me to.”
Her hands snake around my neck and down my chest.
Turning my attention away from Emmy, I look at the
bleach-blonde hair, weathered skin, and fake tan of this bitch in front of
me. I’ll give her credit—she tries to
hide it with more than enough makeup for about ten women, but this piece of
work in front of me has to be pushing fifty.
“I said no, woman.
What part of that didn’t you understand?
And for the last time, do not touch me.”
I reach up and pull her hand off my stomach before she can go any
further.
Moving my eyes back to where I last saw Emmy has me
coming up empty. What the hell? I scan the room but she is still nowhere to
be found.
“Ah, sweet cheeks.
I know what you want. Good luck
with that one. Rose doesn’t play around,
and honey, why would you want her when you can have me? After all, I taught her everything she
knows.” She leans down and, before I can
guess her intent, licks my neck, clearly taking my distraction at her words to
her advantage.
I turn swiftly and move into her space, making sure she
doesn’t mix this shit up in her head to think that I would somehow ever want
her ass.
“Do. Not. Touch. Me.
You got that, sweet cheeks?”
She looks me in the eyes for a few beats before
throwing her head back and laughing. The
sound of it hits my ears like nails on a chalkboard.
“Your loss.”
When she walks off, I start my scan of the room
again. No Emmy in sight. I run my hand over my buzzed scalp before
settling in for the wait.
Thirty minutes later and I still haven’t found
her. The crowd is getting restless. The chicks taking turns on the stage now
haven’t been impressive and they undoubtedly want more. The pole humper has moved on to one of the
smaller stages. The last act on the main
stage was slightly better, but all she did was basically finger-fuck herself on
the stage before fumbling to get to her feet on her ridiculous heels.
Jesus Christ.
I wait, determined not to leave until I have her with
me. Another thirty minutes and two more
rotations on the stages have my frustration levels going up even higher. How the hell did she just disappear? I know she didn’t leave. The tracking device on her car, which is
sitting right next to my truck in the parking lot, hasn’t alerted me of any
movement. I’ll be damned if she takes
off on me again.
After signaling over another server, I order a beer and
check my phone again to make sure the tracker isn’t malfunctioning. I’m just putting my phone in my pocket when a
deep voice cuts over the music.
“Gentleman of Syn.
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for.
The one your dicks have been begging for all fucking night. The Princess of Syn herself. The one and only, Rose!”
The Princess of Syn?
What an idiot. I laugh to myself,
placing my beer to my lips for a long pull.
The music starts and the first few notes of Lollipop by Framing Hanley
fill the air. Got to give this chick
props—at least she picked a good song.
The house lights go down, plunging the room into
darkness, before a spotlight hits the main stage. The smoke clinging to the air gives the stage
an eerie glow. I take my eyes off the
action and attempt scan the darkness of the room again for Emmy. Movement by the back corner catches my
attention at the same time that the crowd goes electric. Idiots start throwing their money left and
right, calling to this Princess of Syn to take them.
What morons.
I focus on the corner again and see the blonde from
earlier smiling her wicked smile at me before pointing to the stage. Turning back to the stage, I watch as a
woman, who I assume is this so-called princess, spins effortlessly on the pole,
her movements all but blurring her body from the men wishing she were spinning
on their dicks. It doesn’t take me long
to see why the bitch from earlier is telling me to look.
With one quick spin, her hands are placed at the center
and her legs are spread wide and parallel to the pole, showing off her barely
there G-sting, I see my Emmy. It takes a
second for the shock to wear off, and in that second, she gracefully drops from
her spin with a guarded smile to the men crowding the stage. Lifting her small hands from her side, she
drags them up her flat stomach to take her tits in hand and jiggles them.
Fucking jiggles them.
I can’t control my body at this point. I’m focused on one thing—the best way to get
her off that stage and out of this place.
She reaches up and, in a move that is obviously
practiced, removes her top, throwing it in to the crowd. There she dances with her body on display,
caressing her naked tits until her nipples pebble. Turning her back to the room, she bends at
the waist and starts to slowly pull her G-sting down her long, toned legs.
This is when the reality of this situation hits
me. I’ll fucking kill all of these
motherfuckers in the room.
Then she drops to her knees before getting on all fours
and crawling towards the end of the stage.
Hell. No.
I’m on my feet in seconds, stalking through the crowd,
pushing any man who stands in the way of my woman and me. I don’t even lift my arms from my side. I just barrel through the bodies with one
goal in mind.
She doesn’t see me coming since she’s back on her feet
and walking to the pole again. With a
leap that would make my high school track coach proud, I’m on the stage, and a
second later, I have a naked Emmy thrown over my shoulders before I jump off
the stage. The sharp pain up my leg does
nothing to extinguish my determination.
I can see the bouncers coming, and with one hand on her
slick ass, I reach out and punch the first one in the face, taking great
pleasure watching him instantly buckle to the floor. The other one comes at me from the side, but
he doesn’t get far before I pick up the chair to my left one-handed and crack
it against his fucking head.
Emmy is struggling with such vigor that I’m forced to
put her down. She looks up, ready to
spit fire at me, before snapping her mouth shut when she sees the expression on
my face. I have no doubt that I look
just as feral as I feel.
“Don’t you open that sweet fucking mouth, Emersyn. I swear to Christ, now is not the time to
fucking piss me off any further.”
I rip my shirt off and roughly pull it over her
head. She struggles and puts up a fight,
momentarily distracting me from the third bouncer coming at full throttle. His fist takes me by surprise, but not for
long. Grabbing her wrist so she doesn’t
get away, I turn to the motherfucker stupid enough to get in my way.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I seethe.
He goes to punch me again, but I duck and pop up before
he realizes he failed. Bringing my head
forward, I head-butt him right between the eyes and almost smile when he falls
instantly.
I’m stopped at the door by the last bartender she was
speaking with earlier. He goes to make a
move but pulls up when he sees the look in my eyes. I’ll fucking kill and I’m sure it’s written
clear as day on my face.
“Do it. I dare
you.” My tone leaves no room for
argument. I’m leaving with her and there
isn’t a person on this Earth who can stop me.
Additional
books in the Corps Security Series
and Cooper will
be on sale throughout the tour!
ONLY $0.99
Axel (book 1)
Cage (book 2)
Beck (book 3)
Uncaged (book 3.5)
Cooper (book 4) ONLY $0.99
About the
Author:
Harper
lives in small town Georgia just a short drive from her hometown of Peachtree
City. She (and her 3 daughters) enjoy ruling the house they dubbed 'Estrogen
Ocean', much to her husbands chagrin. Harper has a borderline unhealthy
obsession with books; you can almost ALWAYS find her with her eReader attached.
She enjoys bad reality TV and cheesy romantic flicks. Her favorite kind of
hero--the super alpha kind!
Harper
started using writing as a way to unwind when the house went to sleep at night;
and with a house full of crazy it was the perfect way to just relax. It didn't
take long before a head full of very demanding alphas would stop at nothing to
have their story told.
