Free Ebook Giveaway!
Hello, my loves!
To celebrate the start of the New Year and to celebrate Never Tell Vows coming out soon, I wanted to spread a little joy, so until the 14th January 2026, Never Tell Lies will be available for FREE on Kindle!
If you’re new to the Never Tell world, check out the blurb and a snippet below <3
Blurb:
“Fear is a wave, O’Connell, you need to learn to ride it…”
Billionaire hotel mogul Alfie Tell loves a challenge, and Lola O’Connell puts up one hell of a fight. Cold and conceited, Alfie is everything down-to-Earth Lola despises, but he’s a determined man. Bruised from a lifetime of loss, Lola does everything she can to keep her feelings at bay but glimpses of a dark past behind Alfie’s steely exterior intrigue her.
An aspiring garden designer, Lola’s work thrusts her into Alfie Tell’s presence as she takes on a project at his newest hotel. Unable to escape his seductions, she finds herself falling hard and fast, despite every warning that this man can’t be trusted with her heart.
Afraid of losing the one woman who has ever meant anything to him, Alfie employs every tactic he can to keep her. Manipulation, control, possession and lies consume them. Soon, their heated romance becomes a toxic infatuation that drags both of their demons to the surface and threatens to shatter them both.
Never Tell Lies is a dark romance novel and is the first book in the Never Tell Trilogy.
Snippet:
Reluctantly, I took Alfie’s outstretched hand. As soon as my skin touched his, I was instantly alert, more awake, more alive. All thoughts of the board member disappeared.
He led me away through the sea of Rolex watches and red bottomed shoes, past the doors to the gardens where the bright red ribbon was still waiting to be cut, and on towards a side door that led out onto a small balcony. Two waiters were there already having a sneaky cigarette.
“Leave,” he snapped at them and I cringed as they shuffled off. He rounded on me, his eyes sharp. “What’re you doing here?”
“We were the suppliers on this project. Mark was supposed to be here but I’m filling in for him. Why are you here?”
“I’m a donor.”
My mind flitted back through the masses of paperwork I’d dealt with for the Serenity project and it suddenly clicked. His name was all over it, along with the list of other donors. I gave myself a mental slap for not remembering that.
“Oh.” I suddenly found myself exhausted, the roller coaster of the last two weeks catching up with me in a rush. I rubbed my forehead, trying to will away an impending headache. “What do you want, Alfie?”
“I want so much from you, O’Connell, I don’t even know where to start.” He paced in front of me, to the edge of the balcony, then back again.“I don’t know whether to kiss you gently or bend you over that balcony and fuck you raw.” My insides convulsed at his words. He paced back to me, towering over me in that way that dominated my space, my very oxygen. “But first, I think I might start with asking why you brought another man here with you.” His words had me plummeting back to earth and stoked the fires in my belly. Anger was good. If I was angry with him I could keep him away. It was his tenderness, his sensuality, that undid me. Be angry, Lola. Be mad as hell.
“He’s a colleague, Alfie. The invitation had a plus one and Rosie made me bring him.”
“He was touching you.”
“So? You brought a date too,” I snapped, folding my arms over my chest.
“Angie? She’s my PA and not of any relevance.” His tone was dismissive but the double standard infuriated me.
“Right. What kind of PA asks their boss to get them a drink?”
He cocked his head and his mouth did that smug tilt that made me want to scream. “I like jealousy on you, O’Connell.”
“Oh fuck off, Alfie.” His brows raised, amused by me. “Why are you doing this? I told you last week that I didn’t want you—”
“And I told you, you were a liar.”
“This is pointless. We both know that you’ll get bored of me, that the only reason you want me is because I’ve resisted you and as soon as you do, the shine will wear off.”
“That might be true,” he said, oblivious to the way his words had cracked my chest open. It was one thing to suspect this was a game he would get bored of, but it was another for him to acknowledge it out loud. “But then again, maybe not. I’ve never been jealous before, not over a woman anyway.”
“That’s not reassuring, Alfie. This is all just a game to you.”
“Isn’t every relationship a game? Whether we play for a night or a lifetime, it’s still just a game.” His gaze pierced mine but I refused to look away. I gulped and his eyes caught the bob in my throat. He knew he was affecting me.
“The stakes are too high in this one.” A pause stretched between us as I watched him study me, watched the cogs in his brain turn as he figured out how to get to me. He took a step closer, invading my space. I stood my ground, refusing to relinquish an inch.
“The stakes are irrelevant. Your fear is the problem. You’re afraid that my controlling nature is too much like Adam’s. That I’ll damage you the same way he did. You’re also afraid that I’m not like Adam and that you’ll fall for me, that I’ll leave you like your father did, and you don’t know if you can survive another loss.”
I shook my head. “How do you do that?”
“Reading people is my bread and butter. I especially enjoy reading women but I usually finish their book in a night or two. But you, you’re an endless sea of pages written in a language I don’t understand.” He took another step towards me and this time I did relinquish my space. I took a small step back. If he touched me, I’d be done for.
“Why me, Alfie?”
“I don’t know. You don’t know why either, do you? But you feel it anyway, this pull between us.” It wasn’t a question. He knew I felt it. A hand reached up slowly, his fingertips hovering over my cheek, and my breath caught. I couldn’t let him touch me. “Fear is just a wave, O’Connell. You need to learn to ride it.”
He was going to touch me. His skin would sear mine, then his mouth would find me, I’d fall into him, and then I’d lose him. Then pain. So much pain. I couldn’t let him touch me. I jerked away. Anxiety bubbled up in my chest, and my throat felt tight. My head swam. He had to be some kind of higher power. No mortal man could affect me like this. I turned away, moving to the balcony’s edge, and rested my hands on the cool metal railing. I needed some distance. I needed to breathe.
I felt like I was falling. Falling. Is this what it was like? I wondered if my mum had fallen for my father this way. If she had, I wondered how she’d survived when he’d abandoned her.
I took in deep, collecting breaths that did nothing to calm me. The breeze blew the light material of my dress around my ankles and lifted a lock of hair over my shoulder. I shivered at the chill.
I was scared to step forward into the unknown, yet scared to step back to safe predictability.
The city lights twinkled before me. A carpet of stars, beckoning me to step off this balcony and tread along their electricity.
That cool breeze blew again but I embraced it this time, hoping it would seep into my skin and cool my blood. A harsh shiver wracked my body. I wrapped my arms around myself but that did little to warm me.
A warm hand snaked around my body and pressed firmly against my stomach. My grip tightened on the railing and I leaned my body over it as if I could escape his touch. But he had me trapped between the railing and his body, giving me no choice but to accept him. To ride the wave.
He drew me back against him, pressing his body flush with mine, enveloping me in his warmth so completely that the naughty spring wind couldn’t get to me at all.
I wanted to turn and bury my face in his chest but I couldn’t. Alfie Tell was too much of a risk for me to take. When I looked at him, I didn’t see a future. I just saw me, broken and devastated when he got bored of me and moved on, which he inevitably would. How could he not? How could I possibly keep up with him? We just weren’t cut from the same cloth.
I steeled myself, stiffening my body against him as I prepared to pull away. As if he could sense my last vestige of resistance, his arm around me tightened and he buried his face in my neck, planting a trail of kisses to my shoulder. His free hand encircled my arm and I felt trapped, swallowed up. Seduced. He was seducing me and I was giving in. Slowly but surely I was losing the battle with myself. I was drowning in him. He was pulling me down, down further to the depths of depravity, and all I could see was my sanity vanishing like the sunlight beyond the water’s surface.
“Breathe,” he whispered. “You need to breathe, O’Connell.”
I took in a gasp of air. My body felt weak and I slumped against him, my grip on the rail loosening. As easily as that, my walls came tumbling down and Alfie Tell walked right in. The challenge was won, the rare beast had been caught. I couldn’t keep him out any longer and whatever damage he brought my way, I’d just have to suffer it.
I whimpered when he took my ear lobe between his teeth and tugged at it, demanding a spoken acquiescence from me. It wasn’t enough for him to know he’d won. He needed to hear it. Alfie Tell needed it all.
“Alright,” I whispered, my voice sounding so distant I wasn’t sure it was still mine. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe all my words were his now. His low growl of triumph told me he wasn’t at all surprised. He nipped my neck and I gasped.
I heard the far away sound of glasses clinking inside and someone calling the guests to attention. “I need to get back in there.” He pressed tighter against me in response, constricting around me until I panted.
“Fuck them. They can cut the ribbon without us.”
“They’ll be thanking us in their speech. I need to be there. As a representative.”
“Your date can do it for you.” His hand travelled up my body to my throat, and he turned my face up to his. My eyes locked on his and in the night, with the moonlight over his shoulder, he was ethereal.
“He’s not my—” My words were cut off by his mouth. It was ecstasy. There was no other way to describe it.
He turned me, pulling me away from the danger of the railing and backing me up against the wall. He thrust himself up against me with crushing force, his erection pressing into me. I drank in the taste of him, sweet and strong. His scent was an aphrodisiac and I knew that no matter what happened between us, his cologne would haunt me for the rest of my life. He had imprinted on me, branded me, scarred me, and yet he’d done barely more than kiss me.
I was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed.
There was a round of applause inside as the ribbon was cut but I didn’t give a damn that I’d missed it. My core was aching desperately for him and I tightened my grip, pulling him closer.
“Alfie,” I moaned against his mouth.
“I know, baby.” He tugged at my dress, lifting it up to my waist, his hand drifting to my underwear. My stomach knotted suddenly.
“Wait!” I hissed, pushing his hand away. I couldn’t do this here, not with an audience inside and an unlocked door between us and them.
“Don’t.” His voice was urgent as I tried to break free of him. Strong hands encircled my wrists and pinned them above my head. The breeze blew by us again and we stilled in freeze frame. I gazed up at this man who was the epitome of aloof arrogance. Except for his eyes, where uncertainty shone like the moon in the dead of night. “Don’t run again.” It was a plea that tugged on my heart. I saw in his face the pain of rejection. I’d done that. I’d put those feelings there.
“I’m not.” My voice was broken, and hoarse with desire. “But I can’t do this here. All those people inside…”
He searched my face, then slowly released my wrists as if I was a wild horse that might bolt. “You’re right. We’re not doing it like this.”
He stepped away from me with visible effort, straightening my dress before fixing his own clothes. His eyes didn’t leave me for a moment. At the back of my mind I knew I’d just stepped off the edge I’d teetered on since we met and now my heart and sanity were both completely in his hands.
“Come.” He held his hand out for me to take and after a moment’s hesitation, I did. Now that he had me, he seemed calmer. Like all he’d needed was me.



Read this book more times than I can count on raddish over the years. So happy I get to own both and that a third is coming out!