Dark Deceits

Dark DeceitsA Devious Series Novel'In a world ruled by secrets, love is the deadliest weapon.'Sergey Arkim once believed in friendship. He believed in Anya, Amelia, and Ivan, the three people he trusted more than family. Then Ivan slept with Sergey’s sister Polina, and everything shattered. Sergey declared war. Anya and Amelia were forced to choose sides. The bond that had held them together for years dissolved into ash.Now Sergey is married to Rick Voronov, the grandson of a mafia patriarch, and he has never told Rick the full truth about his past. Not about the affair with his high school professor when he was nineteen. Not about the betrayal that still makes him stare at old photographs in the middle of the night.Rick has been patient. He has watched Sergey from across bars, waited for him to be ready, and loved him through silences that should have broken them. But when Eliseo the hacker uncovers the truth about Sergey’s past, Rick must decide if he can love a man who has been lying to him since the day they met.Dark Deceits follows Sergey as he confronts the ghosts of his past, the professor who groomed him, the friends who abandoned him, and the sister he could not protect. It follows Rick as he learns that loving someone means accepting every part of them, even the parts that are still bleeding.In the end, Sergey forgives Anya. He cannot forgive Ivan. But he learns to stop carrying the weight alone.Triggers & WarningsThis book is a dark romance with mature themes. Reader discretion is advised for:Childhood sexual abuse and grooming by a high school professor when the hero was nineteenBetrayal by close friends including infidelity with the hero’s sisterMafia violence including gun violence, assassinations, and tortureExplicit sexual content in a male same sex relationship including anal sex, oral sex, fingering, and use of lubricantBDSM dynamics with both characters switching between dominant and submissive rolesThemes of fractured friendship and reconciliationPast death of parentsEmotional manipulation and psychological trauma