Check out this exclusive excerpt from The Queen by Skye Warren, the final book in the Masterpiece Duet!

About ‘The Queen’ by Skye Warren:

I have one chance at a new life. A college education. A future outside of Tanglewood’s dark walls. For a breathless moment it seems like I might actually escape.

Then I get a phone call from home.

Damon Scott is my own personal dragon, the fight I’ve always lost, the secret hope of my heart. And he needs my help right now. Only my mind can solve the puzzle of his long-lost sister. Only my presence can keep him sane as the city fights against him.

Only my heart can unlock a man with such a tragic past.

This is my final gamble, with everything at stake. One last game to win a future for both of us.

And a love strong enough to break the city apart.

The Queen is the final novel in the bestselling Masterpiece Duet, about a game of lies and loyalty, of betrayal and power, and ascension to the city’s throne.

‘The Queen’ by Skye Warren exclusive excerpt:

“Don’t do that,” he says.

“What?”

“Don’t want me.”

Is that what this strange feeling is, like my arteries and veins are tied into knots, my body feverish? Is this desire? I don’t even have to wonder how he knows what I’m feeling. He always seems to know, like it’s written on my skin. Words like naive and hopeless. Words like virgin.

“I should go,” I whisper without moving.

I think if he took his hand off my back, I could have left. If he’d been the one to break contact. Instead he sat there, the warm press of his large hand a conduit for this strange electricity between us.

Dr. Stanhope had held me, and I felt warm and tingly.

It felt good.

Damon’s hand on my back doesn’t feel good. It feels like a warning and a prayer. It feels like a thousand volts of lust. There’s no breaking this connection. I can’t imagine wanting to.

And this is only one-sided, energy flowing from him to me.

I don’t know where to touch him or whether I should. Somehow my hand lifts, all on its own. The back of my hand brushes his arm. It’s the completion of the circuit, and it sends a surge of sensation through me strong enough to be pain. There’s no time to dwell on that, because Damon uses the momentum to drag me closer. I fall into him, his body catching mine. It’s too dark to see anything but the gloss of dark eyes, the flash of white teeth. The sparks behind my eyelids as his hand cups my cheek.

His breath touches my lips, a soft exhale that might have been a word.

Then his mouth closes over mine. A kiss, but that isn’t the right word. A claiming. A question. An unbearable relief after long years of drought. He drinks me down, taking more than he has a right to, but I learn something—that I have more to give.

A moan escapes me. My whole body leans toward him, wanting more, wanting to give him more. He takes it with greedy presumption, the king accepting his right. And me eager to serve.

“Penny,” he murmurs. “Sweet Penny.”

He slides his hand behind my neck, tilting my head back. His tongue nudges my mouth open. It’s a firm demand, one that I’m helpless against. Open. Vulnerable. A stroke against my tongue, that’s my reward. Merciless intimacy so raw it makes my chest ache.

I make a sound—frightened.

It seems to wake him up from some wild slumber. He pushes back from me, making the whole bed rock. Slam as the solid wood bed frame hits the wall. “Christ,” he mutters.

The reprieve bites into me like a cold wind, whistling and desolate. “Wait.”

“Get back to your room,” he says, his voice sharp.

Sometimes strength means standing up to your enemies. Sometimes it means standing with them. “I don’t want to go.”

His hand on my wrist feels completely different than before. Not comforting. Not electric. This is something else. Menacing. He leans over me, making my heart pound in solemn warning. “I’ll fuck you if you want me to, honey. And then push you out of my bed.”

There are castles inside me, built on hopes I didn’t know I had. Not until they crumble.

About Skye Warren:

Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance such as the Endgame trilogy. Her books have been featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle Magazine. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.

The Queen by Skye Warren is available now! Order it from Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and add it to your Goodreads!