Copyright 2019 © Dee Garcia
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, real people, and real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the Author’s imagination and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, organizations or places is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the reader of this ebook ONLY. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the express written permission of the Author. All songs, song titles and lyrics contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
Photographer: Danny Woodstock
Cover Models: Jord Liddell and Lusy Logan
Cover Design: Decadent Designs by Dee
Contents
Note from the Author
Warning
Dedication
Playlist
Prologue
1. The Queen of Miami
2. Welcome to the 305
3. Same Shit, Different Day
4. Corrupt
5. Serpentine
6. Let the Games Begin
7. Waging War
8. Red Hot Rage
9. Boats and Hoes
10. Enemy Lines
11. Celebrating the World’s Idiots
12. Fatal Attraction
13. Til the Last Drop
14. Whiskey and Red Flags
15. Late Night Monsters
16. Harley VS The Joker
17. Groveling
18. Special Delivery
19. I Dare You
20. Intervention
21. Down the Rabbit Hole
22. Twenty-One Questions
23. It’s All Fun and Games Until…
24. Hurricane Force Winds
25. Blackout
26. Inevitable
27. Silent Observations
28. Vybe
29. I Can’t Stop
30. Trick or Treat
31. Warmer
32. Rookie Cough, Smoke Rings, and Shot Guns
33. After Hours
34. Tales of the Past: Part One
35. Tales of the Past: Part Two
36. Magic
37. All I Want for Christmas
38. Aligned Forces
39. Fight or Flight
40. Man on a Mission
41. Left for Dead
42. Cuts of the Truth
43. Implosion
44. Torn, Tattered, and Shattered
45. Time’s Up
46. Oblivious
47. Playthings
48. In the Name of Love
49. The Devil is Female
50. Long Live the King
Epilogue
Sneak Peek
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Dee Garcia
—Please Read Me—
Dear readers,
Some of you have been waiting for this book for quite some time. You’ve waited through various delays and many different schedule changes, so I want to thank you—from the bottom of my heart—for sticking it out with me and still choosing to read this book despite it all.
I hope it’s everything you’ve been waiting for.
Happy Reading!
XO,
P.S: if you’re able to listen to music while you read, you should 100% listen to the tracks provided at the beginning of each chapter as you go. It adds so much more to the experience. <3
Volatile Obsessions is a complete standalone.
It contains a variety of dark elements, some of which may cause triggers for those who have had such personal experiences. There’s also a plethora of profanity, thanks to Rome and Lux’s give-no-fucks attitudes, scorchingly hot—detailed and explicit—sexual situations that will absolutely melt your kindle, detailed displays of graphic violence, and some drug use/references.
Proceed with caution.
This one is for you, wifey.
Without you, I’d still be sitting on this book.
Everything leading up to this release
was one hell of a ride, and throughout it all,
you were by my side without falter.
My number one cheerleader. My soul twin.
The ying to my yang.
I love you, bitch—forever and always.
Medieval Warefare - Grimes
Chandelier - Sia
Sucker for Pain - Lil’ Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons, X Ambassadors, Logic & Ty Dolla $ign
you should see me in a crown -
Billie Eilish
Heathens - Twenty One Pilots
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Lorde
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead - Set It Off
Wild for the Night - A$AP Rocky, Skrillex, Birdy Nam Nam, and Lord Flacko
Gasoline - Halsey
Mi Gente - J Balvin & Willy Willam
Wreak Havoc - Skylar Grey
Superman - Eminem
Kill Everyone - Hollywood Undead
Tag, you’re it - Melanie Martinez
Courtesy Call - Thousand Foot Krutch
Every Breath You Take - Chase Holfelder
Bodies - Drowning Pool
Monster - Skillet
Dollhouse - Melanie Martinez
Lucky You - Eminem
Gangsta - Kehlani
I Can’t Stop - Flux Pavilion
Never Be the Same - Camila Cabello
Carousel - Melanie Martinez
Party Favors - Tinashe
Like Water - Flume ft. MNDR
Collide - Justine Skye feat. Tyga
My Demons - Starset
Pills & Automobiles - Chris Brown and Yo Gotti
Sex with Me - Rihanna
Spazzn - Decap and Gyrefunk
This is Halloween - Marilyn Manson
Be Together - Major Lazer and Wild Belle
Him & I - G Eazy and Halsey
Issues - Julia Michaels
Netflixxx - Brytiago and Bad Bunny
Bring Me To Life - Evanescence
Twisted - MISSIO
Acquainted - The Weeknd
All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
Partners in Crime - Set It Off feat. Ash Costello
Madness - Ruelle
Higher - Rihanna
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Mine - Bazzi
Circus For A Psycho - Skillet
Love The Way You Lie - Eminem & Rihanna
End Of Me - Ashes Remain
Elastic Heart - Sia
Venom - Eminem
Sarcasm - Get Scared
The Devil Within - Digital Daggers
In the Name of Love - Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha
Secret - The Pierces
Die For You - The Weeknd
Nothing Without You - The Weeknd
♫ Medieval Warefare - Grimes ♫
It all happened so fast, I didn't have time to process what was happening, much less react.
Roman's little hussies, however, were very much reacting behind us. They weren’t happy, and he didn't seem to give a single fuck.
"But Rome, what about—”
Slam!
The harsh sound echoed through the office, rattling the walls and likely carrying through to the adjacent rooms. The lock seemed to echo, too, as he clicked it in place to keep them out.
A quick swivel and we were off despite their angered banging on the door.
Each step forward came with a grunt, his clasp on my arm a forceful vise. He didn't l
ook back at me or speak a word either, just stalked further into the room with determination coloring his aura.
A baffled protest was building on my tongue when suddenly, my back hit the black felt of the custom pool table.
And I mean hit the felt.
Roman deposited me on it like he planned to eat me alive.
He wedged his way almost effortlessly between my legs, and in the time I merely gasped, he'd already thrown my arms above my head and locked my wrists in his grip.
I was trapped beneath this man once again with nowhere to go.
Still no words were exchanged.
He looked me over once, just once, stare lingering on my eyes for a second longer, and then the domino effect went off like a bomb.
Lips collided.
Teeth crashed.
It was frantic, intense.
Unexpected.
Explosive.
I was scorching under his touch, reeling at the feel of his mouth on me again, and he was a ball of pent-up desperation, running a million miles per hour. He moved so fast, I literally couldn't keep up, panting wildly as he tore his lips away from my mouth and started down the column of my neck.
Kissing.
Licking.
Biting.
It was heaven and hell, so right and yet so fucking wrong. I knew I shouldn't be doing this with him, but I couldn't stop either.
The taste of bourbon on his lips was addicting.
He was addicting.
And I wanted more.
So much more.
Throwing all caution to the wind just to have it, even if for but a moment.
My body fell lax in desperation of finding a rhythm. Pliant beneath him, I let him explore, let him consume me, let him lead.
Only idly—and momentarily—did I realize alarm bells would normally have been blaring by now.
But I wasn’t remotely afraid.
If anything, the acute tempo of my breathing stemmed purely from carnal desire as he kissed me senseless.
He wasn’t far behind either.
His chest heaved with such ferocity, the air around us quivered.
It reverberated through me, lanced right through my being until I was trembling.
Aching.
Zoning out from everything but right here, right now.
My heat throbbed as his erection probed me, teasing me through all the layers separating us.
The veil of lust so was thick, whatever he’d asked had gone right over my head. “What?”
Draping himself over me, he met my stare. “Tell me. Why you ran from me. When I put my lips on you.”
His breath was hot on my skin, drenched in bourbon. And his eyes, they swam in it, too, unfocused and reflective.
He was so pissed I honestly wondered how he was still standing up right.
The thought instantly sobered me, reminding me he’d been outside those doors just five minutes ago, balls deep in two women.
“It doesn’t matter.” I tried pushing him off me. “We have to stop, though.”
“Why?”
“Why?” I croaked incredulously. “For starters, you’re drunk—way past the limit. And did you happen to forget you were just out there in the hallway, getting your cock sucked by one female, while you played with an entirely different cunt?”
Roman fell silent.
He pulled back to full height and watched me beneath curious brows, taking me in spread out before him on the pool table. His gaze was so utterly penetrating, I could feel it searing through me like a laser.
Down my neck, over my breasts, along my stomach...
When he reached the barely contained space between my thighs, I swallowed down the whimper caught in my throat and snapped my legs closed, feeling unbearably vulnerable under his scrutiny.
The growl that thundered in his chest was feral. My reaction to his perusal obviously wasn’t to his liking.
Fist clenching the very middle of my tank top, he yanked me up toward him in a flash, my legs naturally spreading to accommodate his hips.
“They’re distractions,” he grated into my ear, the tip of his nose buried in my hair.
“From what?”
“From you and everything you stand for.”
“Which would be?” I asked on a shaky breath, my hands subconsciously gripping his tee, too.
“Everything I shouldn’t want.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
His words were agonizing.
They’re not what I wanted to hear, what I could bear to hear.
I’d fallen weak enough to him already, had submitted in ways every man in my life only wished I’d given up so freely.
I needed to be stronger. Self-preservation begged me so.
I couldn’t do this with him.
“That’s why we have to stop,” I whispered, trying and failing to push him away once more. “We can’t be doing this. You know we can’t.”
Solid as a rock, he gripped me tighter. “Then tell me. Tell me you don’t feel this and I’ll never put my hands on you again.”
One second.
Two.
Three.
What was I supposed to say?
When I didn’t respond, or rather, couldn’t respond, he pushed me away and looked me dead in the eye, breaths ragged, unsteady.
“Exactly—let that sink in. I know you feel it too, Lux. That’s why you ran, why you’re trying to fight it,” he snarled, waiting a beat or two before he continued. “So go on, run. Run as fast as you can, but we both know the bomb will detonate sooner or later. And when it does, when you finally find yourself beneath me, begging me to wreck havoc on your body, I’m going to remind you of this moment right here. I’m going to remind you that you thought you could run from the King.”
♫ Chandelier - Sia ♫
June
Miami, FL
Ah, Jack, my old friend, I thought to myself with a blissfully inebriated smile as I pressed my lips to the bottle and took another long sip. I’d drunk so much already, the welcome burn didn’t even burn anymore. Probably why Scotty-boy, the good ‘ol bartender, passed me the bottle over half hour ago. He’d been pouring tumbler after tumbler while still serving the rest of the Blackbird Ordinary regulars.
But then the motherfucker started slacking, and I wasn’t having it.
I was, however, absolutely okay with serving myself, hence why he found me halfway over the bar from the corner of his eyes when he’d turned his back to distribute a few beers. I would’ve knocked the unamused glare he shot me off his face had he not been such a good friend, and a better client. Scott wasn’t stupid, though, and a quick reminder I had certain rights as the birthday girl, lead him to setting down the bottle in front of me without a glance back. I almost patted his graying head and praised him with a purred ‘good boy’ in tow, but figured a quick smack on the cheek and an additional black baggy would suffice.
“So, any calls from the folks?” Vic asked suddenly from his perch on the stool between my inked legs.
I stilled momentarily, eyeing him closely. “Nope,” I answered, popping the P. “You should know this.”
“I know, but it’s your birthday. Don’t you think they miss you?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. If they missed me, they’d have tracked me down a decade ago when I first left Leeds.”
“True.” He nodded awkwardly. “I just can’t believe they haven’t—”
“Can we not talk about this?” I growled, cutting him off. “They’re dead to me, end of story.”
“Okay, okay, my bad. I was just curious is all. So are you gonna share the rest or what?” he questioned, motioning the bottle lodged firmly in my grasp.
“By share, you mean a sip, right?” I retorted.
“No, I mean like, let me kill it,” he clarified.
I scoffed throug
h my nose and raked a hand through my emerald green tresses. “Negative. That last lil’ bit is mine.”
“C’mon, L!” He protested, warm palms slithering up my thighs. “You’ve drank the entire bottle already. Let me have the rest.”
His touch kinda made my skin crawl. I shooed him off and narrowed my eyes. “It’s my birthday, dickhead. I’ll have however much I fucking want. You thirsty? Get your ass up and buy your own drink.”
Vic scowled, dark brows furrowed and all, to which I rolled my eyes. God, he was a pain in my ass. But as my righthand man, he—unfortunately—went almost everywhere with me, mostly because he played multiple roles; business confidant, assistant, security.
He’d like a permanent role in my bed, too, after what spiraled out of control the other night, but that was never gonna happen. The mere thought could throw me into a manic fit of laughter.
Don’t get me wrong, Vic somehow turned out to be a great lay, I guess, but that’s as far as it would ever go for me. I didn’t do relationships. Never had, never would. I’d learned at a very young age that the only person I could truly trust was me, myself, and I.
“You’re a mean ass drunk, you know that,” he added with a snarl.
“And you’re wrong, on two different accounts,” I countered, downing the last bit of whiskey he so desperately wanted.
“How I am wrong? You are mean as fuck.”