Last updated on 12/30/2025
A deep chuckle sent a bolt of pleasure through me. “Damn, you’re sweet. Lucky for you I’ve got a conscience and I’m gonna walk away.”
Wait, what? Walk away?
He reached out and took a lock of my hair, then twirled it around his finger before dropping it with a sigh.
“Why … why are you walking away?” I blurted, desperate to keep him here.
His eyes seemed to twinkle with something, but whether it was amusement or not, I couldn’t tell. There was a darkness there too. I’d seen it before. It felt a bit threatening, but then he’d smile, and it would vanish. All that was left was the clear blue.
“Because I don’t break pretty things,” he said before giving me one last look, then left me standing there, feeling as if he’d sucked every ounce of joy from my life.
Cressida
Kash Savelle hadn’t broken me, he’d shattered my world. I was alone, lost, and clawing to make it day to day. I should hate him and not a day passed that I wished I could. Seeing him again was the last thing I needed. Not when I almost had some form of security. But like the devil himself, there he was… standing on the street watching me. Still as painfully beautiful as he had always been.
Kash
Betrayal had never been something I’d experienced until Cressida Beck stole my soul, then ripped it from my body. My obsession with her had caused me to lose the life I’d been raised in, my family. I was exiled to Alabama to live with that branch of the southern mafia. No longer trusted in Mississippi, until now. This year, I was getting to come home for Christmas. Seeing the girl who had ruined me wouldn’t break me this time. I wouldn’t lose it all for her again. I just had to keep a firm grip on my sanity and stop seeking her out like the animal inside me that hadn’t stopped craving her.
Review:
Kash and Cressida’s story is a second chance romance with a touch of holiday magic via “Santa”
…along with the usual dark hero with a side of psycho that the Southern Mafia boys bring to everything, of course 😉
Cressida was a sweet girl who’s really had a hard life so far–it was easy to want the best of everything for her, she definitely deserved it. Kash was…complicated. Once we found out why they broke up the first time, it was hard not to blame their separation on him–if he had just had a conversation with her instead of making assumptions, things could have been cleared up immediately. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that he’s grown up in the meantime and will trust her going forward…fingers crossed!
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.