Happpy Hump Day! 2019 is off to a killer start. I’ve seen so many resolutions and affirmations to kick ass and take 2019’s collective name- that I was inspired to share one of the most ass (and gut) kicking romances I’ve read in a long while. Those familiar with Tillie Cole know that this author’s style is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomachs. What I really like about Cole is her execution of the heavy, gut punchy stuff. The story, the characters are always bigger than just gratuitous abuse and violence. I’m not just horrified by terrors, I agonize, empathize and am reduced to a pulverized, barely beating heart on the tragically romantic journey. The Dark, thrillingly traumatic romance is totally my jam, and when I read Raze, I was, well…..razed.

This story isn’t for everyone. Men, women and children are abused, the bad men are the boogiest bastards to walk the earth and the HEA is unbelievably hard won. If you are into the dark and cringy, this will most definitely scratch that particular itch.

One man stripped of his freedom, his morals…his life.

Conditioned in captivity to maim, to kill and to slaughter, prisoner 818 becomes an unremorseful, unrivaled and unstoppable fighter in the ring. Violence is all he knows. Death and brutality are the masters of his fate. After years of incarceration in an underground hell, only one thought occupies his mind: revenge…bloody, slow and violent revenge.

Revenge on the man who condemned him and turned him into this: a rage-fueled killing machine. A monster void of humanity; a monster filled with hate.

One woman stripped of her freedom, her morals…her life.

Kisa Volkova is the only daughter of Kirill ‘The Silencer’ Volkov, head of the infamous ‘Triad’ bosses of New York’s Russian Bratva. Her life is protected. In reality, it’s a virtual prison. Her father’s savage treatment of his rivals and his lucrative and coveted underground gambling ring—The Dungeon—ensures too many enemies lurk at their door. 

While working for her church—the only reprieve in her constant surveillance—Kisa stumbles across a tattooed, scarred, but stunningly beautiful homeless man on the streets. Something about him stirs feelings deep within her; familiar yet impossibly forbidden desires. He doesn’t talk. Doesn’t communicate with anyone. He’s a man beyond saving, and a man she must quickly forget…for both their sakes.

Kisa becomes obsessed with him. Yearns for him. Craves his touch. Needs to possess this mysterious man…this man they call Raze.

Pure Love

Luka and I shared something special. From toddlers, we were best friends. Then as the years passed, I knew I had fallen in love with him. I may have only been a child, but I loved him completely. Heart-crushing love. Mama always said the stars aligned when we were born, that God made us a match. From the first time we saw each other, Luka took me in his arms and swore his protection over me to my mother. Mama used to say she caught him staring into my crib only hours after I was born. Then when she asked what he was doing, he asked her if he could have me. My mama joked and told him it would be my choice when I was old enough to crawl, and from the minute I was old enough to crawl, my mama told me I only ever crawled to one boy … Luka Tolstoi. I’d agreed to let him have me. After all, God had created us to match.

Heart Mending, Vulnerable Love

“Are you okay, baby?”

He shook his head indicating ‘no’, and I held him tighter. I couldn’t imagine the turmoil he was going through right now. The shock of being back here. The shock of realizing that he wasn’t alone in the world. Quite the opposite in fact. He was loved. He was loved so damn much.

“It will all be okay, you know,” I soothed. Luka lifted his head and his brown eyes met mine.

“I don’t know what to do now. I’ve spent so long with one goal, one drive, and now it is done with.” His eyebrows pulled down. “What now, solnyshko? What do I do now? What if I can’t do anything else but kill?”

I cupped his cheeks and laid my forehead against his. “You learn how to live again. And I’ll be there every step of the way with you.”

Luka’s eyes filled with tears and a single drop fell down his scarred face … and it was quite possibly the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever seen. “Baby, don’t cry,” I said, my throat clogged. “Everything is okay. I love you, I love you so much.”

Luka’s eyes met mine, his long dark lashes wet and he lifted a hand to lay over mine on his cheek. “I’m free … I’m finally free … I can’t … I can’t…” Heart exploding in my chest at the relief on his face, I held my soul mate as hard as I could against my chest. Moving my mouth to his ear, I asked, “Can I have you?”

Luka stilled for a moment. Then I felt a decade’s worth of pain and loss flee his body. “You can have me, solnyshko. You can have all of me. You always have, and you always will.”

Unadulterated Heat

Folding my arms above Kisa’s head, keeping her close, I said, “I want you to call me by my name … my real name.”

Kisa’s expression finally changed from worry to understanding, and with tears once again filling her eyes, she nodded.

“You … you want me to call you … Luka,” she whispered knowingly, and hearing that name slip from her lips as I held her in my arms just about undid me. My cock hardened even more, but it wasn’t enough.

“Say it again,” I demanded roughly, and Kisa swallowed hard, her legs widening, her thighs tightening around my waist, and she drew my cock in toward her pussy. As my tip pushed through the entrance, Kisa’s hands wrapped around my neck and she lowered my ear to her mouth. Both of us groaning, I sank in my dick inch by inch. Kisa stilled me with a squeeze of her thighs. Her warm breath blew past my ear.

“Luka,” she moaned, “make love to me … my Luka.” Like a door had been opened, I roared out loud and used all my strength to push forward, slamming into Kisa until I filled her completely, until she screamed my name. Luka. Until she screamed it over and over again. Luka, Luka, Luka … This time as I made her mine, there was no thinking, just feeling. For the first time ever I was actually feeling things. My throat choking with the amount of things I was feeling. I’d blocked out everything for so long, been numb for so long, that I didn’t know how to deal with it, so I focused on being inside my woman, on the moans and whimpers pouring from her mouth as I pressed against her swollen clit, as my cock brushed against that spot inside her that made her go crazy. Her hard nipples brushed against my damp chest, and every time I pushed forward, Kisa gasped at the friction, at the feeling of my dick filling her, telling her who she belonged to.

With every bit of strength I had and with all the power I could draw into my thighs, I rammed forward, my skin slapping against Kisa’s pussy, the sound of us joined together like this pushing me over the edge. My dick swelled, my mouth gaped, and hearing Kisa shrill out her orgasm, I reached forward and sank my hands in the warm sand beneath Kisa’s head and filled her with my cum as her cunt strangled my dick. My forehead fell on Kisa’s mussed up hair. I was catching my breath, minute by minute, trying to cope with this new beat to my heart, when Kisa whispered, “I love you, Luka. In all these years without you, I never stopped.”

Raze is book 1 of the Scarred Souls series and is available now- omggoreadit!