The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:01:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Cor Amare (The Luna Duet #2) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.books2020.com/cor-amare-the-luna-duet-2-read-online-pepper-winters Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:01:23 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/cor-amare-the-luna-duet-2-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Dark, Mafia Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 207002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1035(@200wpm)___ 828(@250wpm)___ 690(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >208

I made the worst mistake of my life when I was twenty-two.

I let love and fear destroy everything I ever wanted, and now I have a choice to make.

Run and hide, or stay and face the consequences.

I'd always known I wasn't allowed to love her.

I'd always accepted that I wasn't allowed to keep her.

But that didn't stop me.

I broke every rule and choked on every secret to have her.

The only problem is, those secrets aren't just hunting me anymore, they've found me.

I can't run.

I can't hide.

For a moment, I had it all. I had all my dreams and the girl I would kill for.

But now, I have to pay the price.

I have to pay...

And I won't survive.

A true coming-of-age story that spans a lifetime. This book deals with heavy subjects and is advised you check the Content Warnings on the Author's website.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

*

Nerida

*

(Love in Latin: Amare)

I’VE KNOWN PAIN.

Exquisite pain. Devastating pain. Ravaging pain.

But no matter the abuse on my body or the torment in my mind, nothing could’ve prepared me for the savaging of my heart.

They say a heart needs love to survive, and love needs a heart to exist.

But what if both are stolen?

What if both are broken?

What if, by the end of everything, all that’s left are fragments and pieces, hope and unhappiness...an emptiness that swallows everything?

Chapter One

*

Nerida

AGE: 17 YRS OLD

*

(Love in Welsh: Cariad)

I DIDN’T TURN AROUND AS THE TWO policemen tumbled into my room.

I didn’t look back at my unconscious father on my favourite cream rug. I had no interest in those men when the only man I wanted, the only boy I would live and die for, tripped and stumble-sprinted out of our garden and down the street.

The coral pink sunset etched Aslan in glowing warm splashes, staining the ridiculous Hawaiian shirt Dad had made us wear for Christmas. I’d worn a matching shirt, before the strain of the day’s festivities and the haunting in my mind made me lock myself in the bathroom.

I’d hurt myself.

I’d put on makeup to hide that hurt and tried to dress up my pain with a little black dress.

Both my attempts had failed at healing me.

But Aslan?

God, him?

He’d given me the perfect brand of medicine.

Not quite a cure but enough of an antidote that I felt stronger than I had in so very, very long. More myself. More brave. More accepting than ever before.

In an act of love wrapped up in violence, he’d proven to me that I didn’t have to be afraid of the world.

The world needs to be afraid of me.

I clung to that conviction as Aslan vanished into suburbia, running from the police my parents had called, bolting from a rape charge that wasn’t his to bear.

Balling my hands, I turned from the window with my teeth bared and fury flowing swiftly in my veins.

It burned so bright, so hot, so sharp that I pitied anyone who got in my way.

My attention fell on the two policemen.

The slender, leaner one with short brown hair tripped to my father. Speaking into the radio hooked to his chest pocket, he barked, “Unconscious male. Requesting ambulance immediately.”

Guilt panged. My hand still throbbed from the vibration of hitting my beloved dad over the head with the very same mermaid lamp he’d bought me for my thirteenth birthday.

Tears pricked but then my hackles rose as the other cop, the shorter, stockier one with black hair, marched into me and shoved me away from the window. “Where is he?” Folding himself over the windowsill, he peered at the garden with its ferns, boulders, and sandy-bottomed pool.

Using his radio, he barked, “Male running on foot. Requesting a unit to patrol the streets around Helmet and Reef.” His gaze lingered on the sala-bedroom where Aslan had hidden for almost six years.

With a huff, he pushed back into the room. “You let him go? After what he did to you?”

My chin tipped up. “He didn’t do anything to me.”

Crackle of radio chatter as the cop tending to my father checked his vitals.

My mother stepped into the room, wringing her delicate hands, her pretty pink dress dancing around her calves.

I stiffened as our eyes met.

The guilt inside me swarmed thicker.

And then she noticed why I was guilty as her dark blue gaze landed on my father.

“Jack?” Her eyes popped wide in horror. “Oh my God, Jack!” Running to his side, she dropped to her knees and grabbed my father’s suit lapels. “Jack. Honey. Wake up!”

“Mrs Taylor, I must request that you don’t shake him,” the taller officer muttered. “He might have spinal injuries that we’re unaware of—”

“What?” Tears streamed from her eyes. “Spinal injuries. W-What happened? H-How could Aslan do this? After everything we did for him!” Rage thickened her voice. Her fingers clawed at my father. “Get out there and find Aslan Avci, right now!”

I winced at the hate in her tone. At the awful, awful belief that the boy she’d welcomed into our family wasn’t the kind, loyal, and hardworking illegal immigrant she’d grown to love as her own, but was somehow a complete stranger. A stranger who’d become a daughter molester, father hitter, and criminal.

He’s none of those things.

How could she believe them when she knew him?

How could she question his loyalty after he’d given every part of himself to us?

Another gush of anger heated my blood, followed by panic rippling down my spine.

I’d ruined everything.

Every mistake and consequence was my fault, and I refused to let Aslan pay.

Not even for a second.

My kneecaps bounced as I stepped around the shorter cop. “It wasn’t Aslan, Mum.”

Her frantic stare ripped to mine. With her hands still on Dad’s chest, she narrowed her eyes. “Of course, it was him. He hurt you, and then he hurt Jack to get away. We had him so wrong.” More tears coursed over her cheeks. “We didn’t know him at all—”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >208

Advertisement Lunamare (The Luna Duet #1) Read Online Pepper Winters http://www.books2020.com/lunamare-the-luna-duet-1-read-online-pepper-winters Sun, 09 Jul 2023 00:33:22 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/lunamare-the-luna-duet-1-read-online-pepper-winters Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Dark, Forbidden, Suspense Authors: Pepper Winters Series: The Luna Duet Series by Pepper Winters
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 188966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 945(@200wpm)___ 756(@250wpm)___ 630(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >191

“Is it true…that you pulled a lion from the ocean and fell in love with him?”

ASLAN

The sixteen-year-old boy named after a lion.
A boy with his entire life ahead of him.
A boy running from a terrible secret.
All it takes is one awful night to change everything.
One secret, one smuggler, one boat, one storm.
And he wakes in an entirely different existence.
Staring into the ocean-blue eyes of his twelve-year-old rescuer.

NERIDA

The twelve-year-old girl named after a sea nymph.
A girl with lofty dreams and absolute faith that she’ll achieve them.
All it takes is a bright, sunny morning to change everything.
One boy clinging to wreckage, one sea cradling him close, one chance at keeping him safe.
He’s illegal and unwanted.
She’s stubborn and so sure.
He’s lost absolutely everything.
And she’s found the only thing she ever wanted.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

*

Nerida

*

(Sea in Latin: Mare)

“I SUPPOSE MY FIRST QUESTION HAS TO be the one that everyone is dying to know.” The reporter cast a shy look my way, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, hope clinging to every word for the story of her career.

I sighed, knowing this question would come but hoping it could have waited until after. After I spoke so eloquently of my life’s work. After I gave every piece of my legacy. Instead, my broken heart would have to bleed all over the rest of her questions because I wouldn’t be able to staunch the flow once she asked.

“Perhaps we should ask about Lunamare first?” Dylan said, shooting a reproachful stare at his colleague, all while adjusting the microphone in front of me.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Margot sat back on my comfy wicker furniture, the soft ocean breeze playing in her strawberry-blonde hair. She winced. “I’m sorry. I just...ever since I heard about you two, I can’t stop imagining your love story.”

I smiled softly.

Was I once like her? Diamond-eyed and untouched by time? So full of magic and wonder?

Yes.

The answer was yes.

Yes, I’d once been like her.

And I’d lived a life worth living.

A life worth telling.

Even now, with time carving relentless lines across my face and stamping its unforgettable memories into my weathered skin. Even now, with that very same clock tick-ticking in the back of my mind of what I faced once this interview was over...I still glowed with gratitude.

So, so much gratitude.

“You can ask,” I said softly. “I don’t mind.”

Dylan stiffened a little, a dark beard framing his mouth with harsh expectation. His article on my unparalleled creation seemed to be overshadowed by true love.

And wasn’t that always the way?

You could fashion the tallest building.

Build the fastest car.

But in the end...the greatest achievement of your life would always be what you loved the most, and what loved you the most in return.

“Is it true...” Margot scooted closer, her notepad and pen forgotten on her lap, her burnt-yellow sundress swaying around her knees. “That you pulled a lion from the ocean and fell in love with him?”

Tears pricked.

Heart swelled.

The sea called to me with its soft hish-hish-hish upon the crystalline sands.

“It’s true.” I smiled.

“And is it also true that you descend from a line of sirens? That your very name means nymph, and that your lion loved you back because you sang to him like all sirens do and captured his soul forever?”

“Jesus, I’m so sorry about her.” Dylan snorted, tossing his rakishly long hair off his forehead. “I swear she comes highly educated.” Pinching her in the side, he muttered, “This isn’t a fantasy, Margot. This is real. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview the greatest visionary of our time. A woman who not only gave her life to the sea but also made living beneath the waves a reality.”

Margot deflated a little, nodded sadly, and consulted her little notebook. “Nerida, how did you envision Lunamare? Did you always believe you could create a liveable undersea biosphere?”

“It’s not just a sphere anymore,” Dylan interrupted. “Over a thousand people now list their address as the Coral Sea.” His eager hazel eyes met mine. “How did you go from being a marine biologist to the architect of a new world?”

I looked back and forth between the two reporters.

I glanced down at my wrinkled hands, and the pangs in my bones spoke of time running out. I’d agreed to this interview because Lunamare was worthy of every publication possible, but...my heart was weary and nostalgic.

Tipping up my chin, I smiled at Margot and gave her the answer to the question she truly wanted. The question that followed me around every time I stepped on shore.

“It is true that I captured the heart of a lion. That I plucked him from the sea when I was just twelve. It’s true that I fell in love with him at first sight, all while he was stubbornly blind. And it’s true that he fell for me...eventually, not because I’m a nymph or siren or some other fantastical myth or legend. He fell because we belonged to each other.” I sighed wistfully. “All it took was for our eyes to touch and our hearts to beat, recalling the song we’d always known, slipping into sync where we belonged.”

“Wow.” Margot blinked. “That’s—”

“A wonderful tale. A romantic one to be sure.” Dylan sniffed. “But not the one we came to—”

“Is he here?” Margot scooted even closer, looking like she’d fall off her wicker chair with eagerness. “Do you think he’d share his side of the story while you shared yours?”

“Margot—” Dylan shot daggers at her, all while her eyes remained soft and dreamy.

I pitied this spritely thing. She hadn’t met the one who would change her life. Not yet. I wanted to tell her that when that love of a lifetime found her, she would know the deepest abysses of despair and the highest hills of joy.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >191