Emily McIntire

From international bestselling author, Emily McIntire, comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining ofThe Wizard of Oz.

A woman can be great, and terrible too.

Evelina Westerly has always been the bad guy. As the brains, brawn, and botanist behind her family's drug empire, she's her father's ruthless secret weapon. With her days divided between perfecting her greenhouse, seeking revenge for her sister's murder, and putting a gun to the head of anyone in her way, Evelina doesn't have time for anything else. Especially not for love. After a one-night stand with a gorgeous man at a nightclub, she's sated her urges and is back to her criminal ways. That is, until that same man shows up as the new Westerly lackey...under a totally different name.

But Nicholas Woodsworth's real secret is much more dangerous than an alias. He's an undercover DEA agent, and he's hell-bent on destroying the drug trade that devastated his family. When he realizes the youngest daughter of the Westerly empire is the same woman he's been fantasizing about since that night at the club, attraction wars violently with disgust. Evelina embodies everything he's against, and he's been sent here to be her downfall. Yet the more they learn about the darkness in each other's hearts, the more alike they seem, and when hatred turns to something more, Nicholas will have to decide whether he can love a wretched woman, even if it means bringing both of their lives to ruin.

Wretched is a dark contemporary romance and the third complete standalone in The Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales inspired by our favorite villains. It is not fantasy and it is not a retelling. Reader discretion is advised. For all content warnings, check the author's website.

Never After #3

Wretched

Jade 

“I don't love Evelina in spite of her flaws. I love her because of them.”

nanafark

“I don’t want to stalk you, pretty girl.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I want to f*ck you.” 

“Just because you think something doesn’t make it true.”

“But it looks flawless.” She tilts her head.

“And real emeralds have flaws, sweetheart. Just like the rest of us.”

I laugh at his sarcasm and let him lead me to the booth, ignoring the way my 

 heart speeds when I look up and meet a pair of jade-green eyes.

[…] she’s under my skin; the energy wafting off her, even now, is heavy enough to make me teeter on the edge of sanity.

There’s never been anyone who’s affected me like this. It’s the reason I approached her at the club, and it’s definitely the reason why I f*cked her against the dirty bathroom tile while she screamed into my mouth.

She cranes her neck to meet my gaze, and I suck in a deep breath when she does. 

I thought at first that I missed the striking blue of her eyes from the night we met, but this close, the dark browns swirl with yellow and a dash of green creating a kaleidoscope of color so deep and f*cking beautiful they suck me in and drag me under like quicksand.

She hums, bringing up her fingers and smoothing them down the opening of my jacket. I stare at the movement, my hands clenching into fists to keep from reaching out and dragging her into me. To remind her just how much she 

She straightens, but she doesn’t say a word, just keeps watching me with those lethal f*cking eyes of hers.

 her to remember every second of our time, the same way it’s been burned into my brain ever since it happened.

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