BLACK SHEEP
Series: Dark Desires #2
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Author: Zara Cox
Release Date: August 8, 2017 (Paperback)
**Now Available in Print for the First Time!**
In a family of cold-hearted black sheep,
I, Axel Rutherford, am the blackest.My father has hated me since the day I was born. The feeling was mutual. In the shady underworld that was my legacy, Cleo McCarthy became my light. She was beautiful, passionate, and my whole world. So naturally my father had to destroy us. First he sent me away. Next he claimed Cleo as his own. But now I’ve returned, and nothing will stop me from taking back everything that is rightfully mine.
He was the love of my life – when my life was still my own.
We were young enough to believe we would last forever, Axel and I. But neither of us realized how cruel life – and our families – could be. Now I’m trapped in a gilded cage: desired by Axel, who must never know the full truth, and controlled by his father, who would sooner see me dead than free. And I wouldn’t even care, except that it’s no longer only my life at stake
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I trust no one. But like I do with Quinn Blackwood, the Black Widow and I share a special bond. Not one I would swear life or death on by a long shot. But there’s an…understanding. She’s the only one who’s been allowed into my special room, the only one who knows the ingredients of my sweet poison. The only one who’s seen what this room does to me. The longest I’ve been able to withstand is five hours.Her concern is warranted.
I see her swallow before she reaches into her pocket. The small remote is directly linked to the chains. She sets the time but hesitates before pressing the requisite button.
Boldly she steps up to me, and she slides her hands through the hair at my nape. I jerk away but cannot escape her touch because of the cuffs. She stops, staring down at me with narrowed eyes.
I’m on the edge. Hell, who the fuck am I kidding? I was born on the edge. But tonight I’m a whisper away from annihilation and we both know it.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Fuck no. Hell yes.”
She opens her mouth.
“No,” I preempt her.
“I don’t have to stay here with you, but I can be outside.”
“No. Press the button. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Axel…”
I close my eyes and shudder as my fists ball. I want to hear my name, but I don’t want the voice to be The Black Widow’s. There’s only one voice I want to hear right now. One face I want to see. Cleo’s.
“Do it and leave. Now.”
“I will, but at least let me come back and check on you—”
“Say another word and I’ll fire you.”
Her eyes harden to ice chips. “Fuck you. Have your six hours if you want. But I’m coming back in three hours to check on you. Fire me then if you want.”
With a defiant flick of her wrist, she sets the timer down between my feet, within touching distance.
The moment her back is turned, I kick the remote. It bounces against the last step and skids sideways halfway across the room. She hesitates, her back stiff, but she doesn’t turn back around. In silence, she leaves.
The moment the door shuts, twenty projectors on the dark gray walls flicker to life. Large, small, and in-between, they take up every inch of the circular wall. If space allowed I would have had more screens put in, but I work with what I have.
Each one is set on a half-hour loop at full volume with a different video. With barely an inch between them, they could be one jumbled-up picture but I know each screen like I know the length of my cock.
I take a deep breath as the first reel plays on the middle screen. The chair moves, the wheels beneath the floor spinning it slowly around.
Fading sunlight dapples over a lake before the camera swings to the figure in the tiny white bikini fleeing a large wave.
The wave catches her, splashes up to mid-thigh. She shrieks. “Omigod, you’re such a liar. The water is collllldd—What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
She approaches. Her hands come up to block the lens. “Stop filming me. I look fat.”
A different set of hands reaches out to grasp hers, gently nudging hers aside. “You don’t look fat, Cleo. You’re perfect.”
Feminine hands curl around a masculine one. Together they slowly lower until long-lashed, deep blue knowing eyes stare into the camera. “You’re only saying that because you’re in love with me.” Sultry words whispered from between kiss-swollen lips.
“Yes, I’m saying that because I’m in love with you.” Gruff, hopelessly young, newly broken voice, thick with seething emotion. “I’m also saying it because I have fucking eyes in my fucking head.”
A naughty, goes-straight-to-an-eager-cock giggle. “You’re so bad swearing all the time. Daddy says he’ll paddle my behind if he catches me swearing.”
A wobble of the camera before it steadies. “If he lays a fucking hand on you, I’ll tear his fucking head off.” A voice no longer gruff, hard with rigid purpose. Harsh breathing. “I mean it, Cleo. I see so much as a scratch on you, someone will fucking die.”
A gasp. “You can’t say things like that!”
“I can. I fucking am. Because you belong to me. I don’t care who created you. You are mine. No one else is fucking allowed to touch you. No one is allowed to take you away from me, do you hear me?”
A bite of her lip as her nostrils flutter in a shaky inhale. “You’re scaring me.”
Deep, harsh breath. “Am I? Really? Tell the truth. Are you scared, Cleo?” Camera poised with intent, recording every flutter of her lashes.
A pause. A firming of plump lips. Then a shake of the head. Thick, vibrant locks frame her stunning face.
“Say it. I want to hear you say how it makes you feel when I say this to you.”
“It…it excites me.”
“That I claim you as mine?”
A shy nod.
“What else excites you?”
A flick of her gaze between the lens and the face behind it. “Come on. I can’t say it on camera.” She reaches out.
The camera angles away from her but remains on her. Focused. Rabid. “Tell me.” The voice that will one day command hell itself.
“It excites me when you say that you’ll do…all of that for me.”
“All of what?”
“That you’ll…tear his head off.”
“I fucking will.” A solemn promise. A brief pause. “You think I’m a sick psycho?”
“I think you’re…you’re…”
“What?”
“I think you’re effing amazing.”
“Effing?”
Pink color stains her cheeks. “Don’t tease me.”
“I won’t if you say the word. The actual word, Cleo.”
“I won’t.”
“Right. Then I’m not as amazing as you want me to think, am I?”
Blue eyes, opened wide. “You are.”
“Then say it. You’re not going to burn for it. It’s just a word.”
“I hate you when you’re like this.”
“You don’t hate me, but fine. Don’t say it.”
The camera swings out to the lake, to the setting sun that’s almost swallowed up by the orange water.
In a family of cold-hearted black sheep, I, Axel Rutherford, am the blackest. Abundantly despised by my three brothers, actively hated by my father. She was the golden princess. Put on earth to test every single one of my hardened edges. And I happily burned away every last one for her.
If I said that I was an insta-fan of this author after I finished I, Porn Star, this book solidified it. Damn. Just damn. Zara Cox knows how to weave one complex and erotic tale that’s equally spine tingling and toe curling. It’s addicting and twisty and downright intense.
If you like a good second chance romance with a healthy dose of hate lust mixed in to blur the edges, all wrapped in a story with dark undertones and enough twists and suspense to keep you glued to the pages from start to finish, you’ve found your next read.
Being born to a cruel and abusive father intent on hardening his sons enough to help run his mafia empire has hardened Axel. He’s the black sheep of the family, the son that wants nothing of his father; not his name and not his infamy in the dark underbelly of organized crime. He dreams of escaping the life with the only person that makes his heart beat and gives him hope. But that hope gets ripped away from him with a jarring betrayal that now years later still continues to haunt him. Losing everything and the one person he always thought he could trust is enough to change a man and change the course of his life forever. Now Axel lives and breathes vengeance. His father will pay, and if the woman that’s now back in his life after costing him everything is the pawn that he’ll have to use in this brutal game, so be it.
As a young girl, Cleo loved Axel with everything she was worth. He was her everything…until he wasn’t. Forced back into his orbit by an arrangement in which she’s nothing but a puppet on a string of a cruel master that dangles the one thing she wants in exchange for her cooperation isn’t what she wants, but she’ll do it. Even if it forces her to own up that while she hates the man he is now and doesn’t see a remainder of the boy she once loved in him, the carnal effect his mere presence has on her hasn’t changed even a little.
Black Sheep delivers on another twisty story full of betrayal and revenge. Zara Cox is truly a master of her craft and I’m absolutely captivated by her writing style and the characters she creates. I couldn’t put this book down for even a second. I walked the edge between hating and loving Axel. But between all the secrets and twists that kept unearthing, my mind was too busy spinning to focus on any singular emotion.
Axel was perfection. He was a dirty talking, angsty, domineering and deliciously sexy perfection. My heart broke for him and what he’d been through. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for all the secrets to finally get revealed so the puzzle pieces can click together. And let me just tell you, when they did? Mind. Blowing. Yet another addicting installment in what’s now become a favorite series of mine. I absolutely can’t wait for more!
Each book in the Dark Desires series is a standalone in an interconnecting world. So if you’ve read the first book, you’ll appreciate Quinn’s cameo in this one 🙂
DON’T MISS THE FIST BOOK IN THIS SIZZLING SERIES!
BEAUTIFUL LIAR (Previously published as I, Porn Star)
BEAUTIFUL LIAR | BLACK SHEEP | WICKED S.O.B. | ARROGANT BASTARD
Zara Cox has been writing for almost twenty-five years but it wasn’t until nine years ago that she decided to share her love of writing sexy, gritty stories with anyone outside her close family (the over 18s anyway!).
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POUND OF FLESH
2. Ex-Con.
4. “Daddy.”
SHATTERED KING
First of all, don’t let my rating fool you, because I enjoyed this book. Quite a bit. And while there were a few things that happened that ultimately brought my rating down, I’m hooked on this series and have discovered a new to me author that I’m eager for more books from.
The second half is where the story began to fizzle a bit for me. While the sex was hot, it began to feel a bit more like filler. The story began to drag a bit and my interest began to wane. And while there is a lot that happens in the second half, I felt like most of it wasn’t really necessary to drive the plot forward.
CROSSHAIRS
Now it’s been a hot minute since I first read 
It’s rare that I read about a heroine that truly owns her sexuality and Taylor was the epitome of power and sex. This is a woman that didn’t just fight to the top; she almost sold her soul for it. She makes no bones about who she is. She doesn’t feel bad for herself. She knows who she is and she owns it. While her heart was broken by life and lovers past, no one has truly made it beat quite as much as a man that’s even more untouchable to her today as he was before. A threat to everything she holds dear; his secrets may just cost her everything.
Everything truly comes to a head here. I swear I could feel my pulse pounding through my fingers with every page I turned. It was impossible to put down. I was starving for more details of Daniello. Who is he? What does he do? This man is cloaked in danger and oozes sex from his every pore. He’s utterly magnetic and I couldn’t get enough of him.
LUCA
DEGREES OF CONTROL
Charlotte. She is the tiny, vegan yoga instructor with big eyes and big boobs, and James digs everything part of her right away. I loved that she wasn’t afraid to tell him exactly what she wanted. I really enjoyed her character, especially the witty dialogue with her friends. I usually don’t care for “girlfriend chat” in romance books, but this was different from the typical and I found myself smiling that this small group of friends that watch each other’s backs.
I’m just gonna be honest. Most of this book was hot, dirty sex (no complaints here), but the last quarter did not disappoint with bringing the feels. I loved how James redeemed himself. I couldn’t resist James during this whole book.
TORRID
If it’s dark, depraved, and with a splash of kinky…this girl is ALL over it. What? Why are you looking at me like that? It just so happens that I have a serious reader hard-on for the fucked up ones. And prince of the Serbian mafia, Vasilije Markovic? Oh he’s every single kind of fucked up. *pervy shudder*
Pretending to be the pawn in the game of a devil is a dangerous game, but it’s exactly where circumstances find Oksana. Hiding a secret that can cost her her life and on a mission that just as may save it, she’s playing with a man that shouldn’t be toyed with. Vasilije is cold, ruthless, and for some depraved reason in the very dark part of her mind, draws her in. There’s nothing between them but power play and kinky sex, until something more begins to develop. But can either of them survive when all the secrets finally get revealed?
BEAUTIFUL LIAR
HOLY. SHIT.
Q is a man of wealth and power. He’s a man skirting the fine edge of revenge and depravity and he makes no excuses or apologies. Every single move is calculated to achieve his end goal. His revenge. To right a wrong of years past, to punish those responsible, even if he doesn’t survive to bask in the glory of the fallout. It’s not time to make his most calculated move yet. Everything he’s been doing has been leading up to this…his grand plan. And the key to it is a woman with haunted eyes and a closet full of skeletons who may be hiding more baggage then even him. Lucky.
A voice cleverly disguised by state of the art technology and a face hidden behind a steel mask is all she sees of Q. The rest is a veil of blindfolds, mind games, and sex so mind-blowing that she struggles to hold on to the fact that none of it is real…and it doesn’t take long for the lines to begin to blur… for both of them.
This story is so much more than a romance. It’s a story of survival and revenge. It’s a sizzling romance wrapped around a captivating mystery. It’s a splash of dark and suspense. And while the book is long, the pacing was perfect.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to immediately dive into book 2!
HARD LIMITS
WARNING If you haven’t yet read 
Dirty Filthy Rich Men
Sweet. Baby. Jesus.
USA Today and New York Times Bestselling Author Laurelin Paige is a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, or dreaming of Michael Fassbender. She’s also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn’t do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman.
