By Way of Pain - Criminal Delights: Assassins


J.M. Dabney - 2019
    By day I was a man with a reputation above reproach. Even assassins needed backup plans. For fifteen years, life was going without a hitch until I had to take out a witness. When it was time to kill him, beautiful eyes filled with fear urged me to do something else. Yet, in order to do that, I had to break him, and by way of pain, my captive would experience pleasure he'd never dreamed. This book is part of CRIMINAL DELIGHTS. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark M/M romance. Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.

The Prisoner


Kol Anderson - 2013
    Just when life seems to have gotten better and he is beginning to think that he has a grasp of this line of work, his handler sends him to a new client. Vincent Greene looks like he might just be Aaron’s best client yet but he doesn't know the extent of Vincent's cruelty.

Enemies like You


Annika Martin - 2017
    Absolute enemies. And totally hot for each other.Will has never met anyone like Kit. He’s arrogant. Gorgeous. Lethal. The most expensive bodyguard money can buy. And Will can’t seem to resist him. A simple command in Kit's cut-glass accent makes Will want things he’s never wanted, do things he’s never done. Their red-hot chemistry is off the charts. Just one problem: Will has vowed to kill the billionaire that Kit is hell-bent on protecting.And Kit has secrets, too—his own reasons for sacrificing his soul, piece by painful piece, to keep one of the worst men on earth alive.This is a stand-alone hot contemporary M/M bodyguard/spy romance.

Bloodraven


P.L. Nunn - 2007
    Only grim tales of the barbaric giants had reached the forest, but Yhalen soon learns that even the darkest fireside story only hinted at the brutality of these Northern warriors. He discovers the meaning of true fear at their hands, and only the awakening of ancient magic saves him from destruction.Surviving ogre viciousness, he finds himself given to Bloodraven, the half ogre, half human war leader as a slave. Yhalen, refusing to bend, soon pays the price for offending prickly ogre pride.But Bloodraven is no mindless, violent ogrish beast. Bloodraven has an agenda and Yhalen finds himself drawn in the wake into human and ogre politics, into bloodshed and cruelty and into the forbidden magic that is damnation in the eyes of his own people, but which might mean the difference between death and salvation.Note: Lulu's page count of 287 is for the PB (and PDF) versions. But 220,735 words equates to approx 663 pages.

Claustrophilia


Ezra Blake - 2018
     He spent too much time studying the Providence Butcher's victims and not enough talking to living people. He was erotically obsessed with the idea of murdering Dr. Ivan Skinner, his medical school advisor. It was only a matter of time before he killed someone, possibly himself—but the Providence Butcher had other ideas. After all, the first time should be special, and Christopher was going about it all wrong. Now those life-or-death decisions are out of his hands. He's breaking. What's worse, Chris has a lot in common with the Butcher. Nobody else has truly cared about him before. When he's not being tortured, he's being cherished. If Stockholm syndrome feels like love, then in practice, what’s the difference? Chris can’t maintain his dignity, but can still cling to his shattered moral compass. Or he can let go, submit, and become the unspeakable. At least then he wouldn’t be alone. Prepare to become an accomplice. Claustrophilia draws you in, ties you up, and asks some uncomfortable questions: are there taboos you'd never break, no matter how far you were pushed? Is it better to be tortured or ignored? More pressing: if you had to choose, which limb could you live without?

R.I.P.


Charity B. - 2019
    Part One: Rest In Peace ~ Malakai ~ On the outside, we look normal, like an all-American Christian family, but behind the walls of this church basement, we are far from it. My mother says it's her calling, my father says it's our blessing, and my sister says it's fun. I say we're fucked. I dont know if what we're doing is really what God wants us to do, I just know that the more we do it, the more natural it feels. Natural. What we're doing and the reason behind it is far from natural. In my family, love blends with hate, duty with torment, and blood with water. We are the Courtenay family and this is the story about how it all went wrong. R.I.P. Part Two: Rot In Pieces ~ Adriel ~ Her actions shattered my family, leaving it half alive. And I hate her for it. My brother is broken. His torment suffocates him as he claws his way through the aftermath of her decisions. Despite it all, he remains by my side. The life we knew has been gutted, rotting into a million pieces. We have no home, nowhere to go, but I don’t care because we still have each other. He’s the only one that can see beneath my flesh to touch me in my darkest places. Our choices have taken us on a new path. A shimmering sea of blood trails behind us on our search for purpose and reason. No matter what happens, I refuse to let anything or anyone keep us apart. I’ll burn the world to ash before I’ll let him go. *Trigger Warning: This book contains many triggers. If you are not comfortable reading about taboo subject matter, gore, explicit/graphic situations and disturbing content, this book may not be for you.

The Five


Lily White - 2019
    Having lived a life of sex, drugs and manipulation, she is a temptation with far too many secrets.When psychologist, Justin Redding, is assigned to Rainey's case, he has no way of knowing the tale of debauchery he will encounter.On a twisted path of love, loss and murder, Rainey leads Justin through the events of her life.Death follows Rainey...Justin fights to discover her secrets...But will he discover the secret of THE FIVE in time to resist Rainey's ultimate seduction?***DISCLAIMER: This book deals with sensitive subject matters that may be upsetting for some readers.

Shai


H.L. Night - 2021
    Stay off the feuding crime-lords’ radar for long enough to make a quick buck in the city, and then get out. He couldn’t have been more naïve. Captured and beaten by McIntyre, he escapes death, only to find himself in the hands of McIntyre’s opponent. Shai is an enigma, a man as charming as he is twisted. And he’s set his sights on possessing Elijah—body and soul.Shai will stop at nothing until he’s ousted McIntyre. In the meantime, fate has provided him with an interesting distraction in the shape of the stubborn and rebellious Elijah. Elijah’s lips may say one thing, but his body says something else entirely. Elijah might think he has what it takes to go up against a man like Shai, but he’s wrong. He’s nothing but a fly in Shai’s web, and Shai will always be two steps ahead.A game ensues. One that Elijah may not even realize he’s playing, or just how big a pawn he is. Everything is at stake. Possibly even his heart and mind. By the time Shai has finished with him, there might not be anything left of the man he used to be.Let the games begin.A dark mm romantic suspense featuring snakes as a weapon, a manipulative main character, and a few twists and turns along the way.

Married to the Mobster


Leighton Greene - 2020
    Now this bad boy's all grown up, and living a dangerous life. But when his Family decides to send a message to my father, it's my life on the line.Only he can't bring himself to do it when he realizes who I am.He bargains for my life.He argues to keep me as a hostage instead of killing me.He even agrees to marry me, but not for love.Marrying me is the only way he can repay the debt he owes me.He tells me he'll keep me alive only as long as his Boss allows it.What he doesn't know is that I've loved him since the first moment I laid eyes on him. I'll take him any way I can get him. Sleeping with the enemy never felt so good...But is there someone else who wants me dead?

Last Stop


Lou Harper - 2012
    Quiet, uneventful, safe from his shadowy past. The breezy young drifter who answers his help-wanted ad makes him uneasy in ways he dare not examine too closely. Except he can't help but be pulled in by Jay Colby's spunky attitude, endless stories, and undeniable sex appeal.Fresh off yet another romantic disaster, Jay doesn't understand his attraction to the taciturn line cook, but there's no fighting the chemistry that lands them in bed together. Where Sam's subtly dominant streak takes command, and Jay delights in discovering the pleasures of his submissive side.Safe in the assumption their relationship is temporary, neither lover holds back when the heat is on. Until Sam's deadly past catches up with them with a vengeance, forcing him to drop the life he's built, pick up his lover, and run. As danger cuts closer to the bone, Sam and Jay are forced to face the truth. About themselves, about the depth of their love-and the newly forged bonds that are about to be tested to the limit.Warning: Contains enough sparks to ignite a sexual fire, ably fanned by the judicious use of some interesting props, as well as some butt-warming spanking. Sizzzzle.

Mind Fuck


Manna Francis - 2007
    There are only better guys and worse guys.One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates.One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a "sim" system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success.Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of "corporate sabotage," uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them.Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds.

Dual Destruction


Kate Hawthorne - 2021
    But distracted by memories of a hedonistic weekend he wishes he could forget, his next assignment brings him face to face with the one man he cannot--the mysterious and sadistic Sage Rosetti.Never a hero, and not quite the villain.Sage Rosetti is no stranger to the shady side of the world. Throughout his life, he’s searched out the deepest corners of the darkest places in the pursuit of his business and his pleasure. When a wink from a stranger leaves him bleeding out in an alley, Sage doesn’t know where to go. He ends up in last place he should be, the arms of the very man who wants him dead, Foster Golden.You’re mine to own, mine to end.Against his better judgement, Foster nurses Sage back to health, the two of them rekindling feelings better left buried in the past. Sage and Foster could be unstoppable, but after shots are fired and plans are put into motion, Sage becomes a man obsessed with a desire so powerful it threatens to destroy not just their future, but their lives.

Measure of Devotion


C. Faron - 2012
    Leaving behind his father's cattle ranch in favor of the posh, gaslit streets of Perdana, Jason is determined to climb the social ladder and forget his country roots. If only his father had gifted him with a more upscale slave.Kale's been a country slave his whole life. All he wants is to keep his head down and live as comfortable an existence as possible. Unfortunately, his dramatic master despises him and makes life difficult at every turn.Humbled by his first breakup, Jason grows to appreciate his ever-faithful slave and soon discovers that Kale is everything he's ever wanted. Now he needs to prove to Kale that his love is genuine.Kale, meanwhile, tries to convince himself that he simply feels the devotion of a slave to his master, but his actions prove what his mind is unwilling to accept: he's falling in love. When Jason's future happiness is in jeopardy, Kale sets himself on a course to make Jason's dreams come true, even if it means facing up to the fact that, for the first time in his life, he loves someone else more than he loves himself.Measure of Devotion is a bittersweet love story set in an alternate world and contains sexual content and adult language.

Taken Boy


Loki Renard - 2018
     Bobby likes to think he's the boss. A brutal twenty-two year old gangster prodigy with a vendetta against an heir to billions, he's about to wipe his biggest enemy off the map. But Bobby's been making some powerful enemies himself, and he just landed on the radar of a man it's better not to know. Angelo Vitali is the real deal, a dyed in the wool Sicilian who knows exactly how to deal with a wannabe mafioso. He'll take Bobby, break Bobby - and love every minute of it. TAKEN BOY is a very dark gay romance, and a parallel stand alone to events which take place in bestselling books Shamefully Broken, and Broken Boy.

Take Me with You


Nina G. Jones - 2016
    A set of rules for myself. I don't take unnecessary risks. That's how I've been able to evade capture all these years.But there's something about this girl that is different than the others. When I finally meet her, the rules become a blur. And I break the most important one of all--I take her with me.-----It's just my imagination--that feeling of being watched. That those icy eyes-- a vivid turquoise with a distinct golden fleck--aren't watching me.It's just stress. I am the person everyone relies on. Maybe that's why I haven't been feeling so content with my life lately. Why I dream those eyes belong to someone who can tear me away from all of my responsibilities.But these are just shameful fantasies, never meant to breach reality.Then one night, the dream comes true, only it's a horrific nightmare.Now, I only have one task: survival.Trigger warning: If you need one, this is really not the book for you.