My club became my empire of avoidance. Inside the ring millions are won and lost. The fight is confined to breaths, actions and reactions, fists and pain. Rules don’t exist. Only my opponent exists.
I’d been avoiding my needs for far too long when Remi stumbles into the Inferno and I’m hungry. The promise of a submissive with no attachment is far too tempting. I can’t resist him.
He was only supposed to be a distraction, but I know I’ll never get over him. There isn’t a chance in this clouded hell.
I trailed my fingers over the places Dante had left marks. I could almost taste them, even if the bruises had faded. I’d looked at them in the mirror over my bed and fucked my hand every night since I’d left. I groaned as I slipped my hand into my shorts.
I squeezed my shaft, digging my nails into the sensitive skin. I had to bite back a hiss of pain. Kai could easily walk out and see me. The rooms in the shop were three-quarter walls to divide the space with wide open doorways. Maybe I wanted to be caught. I kicked my feet out, watching a bead of sweat drip down Dante’s neck. When he threw a punch his muscles tightened, and it took me back to him swinging his belt. The sound of his fist hitting flesh was close, so close, to the way the leather sounded against mine.
I shouldn’t be imagining him touching me, but it was impossible not to. I wanted his hands on me. I wanted him to mark me with them. I was hit with the sudden realization he’d been acting when he was in the ring with me. He hadn’t even gone at half speed. He was a monster when he fought. It took every ounce of self-control I had to keep from getting up and into my Jeep to drive to the airport.
Clouded Hell by J.R. Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If I was giving this review audibly, you wouldn’t hear much right now…I feel like a fish out of water with my mouth opening and closing. I’m going to be completely honest and tell you that the cryptic behavior of Remi and Dante was hard to follow and pissed me off at the beginning of the book. I actually started reading this book on Saturday but didn’t finish until Thursday because I put it down for a couple of days and read something else when I got about 1/3 of the way through this book. I’m so f*cking glad I picked it back up to finish it.
I will admit that I don’t understand the need for pain so I have a hard time reading those scenes. I was also extremely frustrated with not finding out the full story behind both men until getting pretty far into the book. The cryptic conversations between them had me wanting to strangle them. But when everything was stripped away and we were able to see who they are and what they feel, I had a hard time not choking on my emotion. I typically like books with heavy feels and lots of sappy romance. This book isn’t that, although it does have very heavy emotions and at the end of the book I know without a shadow of a doubt how Dante and Remi feel for each other and everyone else in their lives. By the end of the book you will be as raw as Dante and Remi and you will be glad you made it to the end with them.
There were a few scenes that completely took my breath away. There were several scenes that made me mad or frustrated me and made me want to lash out at Gray for putting me through this. But I’m so, so glad I read this and can’t recommend it enough – even if like me, you don’t care for the pain and really prefer the sappy romance stories.
And even though we don’t really get the sappy romance here, Gray does give us this…
“In the smallest ways, in those early hours, I realized I loved you in a million different ways, and none of them for the face you put on. I love you for who you are when you’re stripped raw.”
When not staying up all night writing, J.R. Gray can be found at the gym where it’s half assumed he is a permanent resident to fulfill his self-inflicted masochism. A dominant and a pilot, Gray finds it hard to be in the passenger seat of any car. He frequently interrupts real life, including normal sleep patterns and conversations, to jot down notes or plot bunnies. Commas are the bane of his existence even though it’s been fully acknowledged they are necessary, they continue to baffle and bewilder. If Gray wasn’t writing…well, that’s not possible. The buildup of untold stories would haunt Gray into an early grave, insanity or both. The idea of haunting has always appealed to him. J.R. Gray is genderqueer and prefers he/him pronouns.