Behind the Surface
Rating: 🌶️ Steamy | At night, as London sleeps, something is stirring in the shadows. Not quite human, not quite beast, he’s protective, possessive, and undeniably arousing. He touches her without...
Behind the Surface
Copyright © 2025 Raven Rogue - All rights reserved
Cover Design © 2025 Linnea Lucifer/Äppelpaj
NSFW: Content warnings
Behind the Surface, Raven Rogue. (2025) | GENRE: Paranormal Erotica, Dark Romance | POV: Single (Tess) | RATING: 🌶️ Steamy | CONTENT: Supernatural elements, Grief/Loss, Phantom touch, Erotic Dreams, Solo play, Artistic awakening | LANGUAGE: UK English, graphic. | WORDS 8,010
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࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 DESCRIPTION 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
What if your greatest creation was never meant to hang on a wall, but to open a door?
Tess Urban is drowning in grief. Over the past two years, she watched Eleanor, her guardian, mentor, and the only family she’d ever known, slip away into dementia and death. When the art studio that was her sanctuary is lost, Tess finds herself surrounded by art supplies and the ghost of a life she can’t bear to let go of.
But at night, as London sleeps, something is stirring in the shadows. Not quite human, not quite beast, he’s protective, possessive, and undeniably arousing. He touches her without form, guides her without words, and awakens desires she never knew she possessed. With each stroke of her brush, each surrender to the creative fire that burns within her, the boundary between the physical and the mystical grows thinner.
When grief becomes transformation and art becomes magic, Tess needs to decide whether to cling to the safe, ordinary world she’s always known, or step through the stone arch she’s been painting and discover what waits for her in the shadows.
Behind the Surface is a haunting tale of supernatural seduction, artistic awakening, and the healing power of embracing the shadows that call to us.
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 EXCERPT 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
I blink and lean in closer. Are those stone arches? Weathered angels? No, dragons. Sightless dragons watching me. The edges of the canvas blur and my pulse skips a beat. I blink again and the shadows around me deepen, coalescing into a solid presence. My skin hums. My fingers tingle. Something powerful is calling to me, but not with words. It’s a pull, like gravity, deep in my belly.
The world behind me fades. The lovingly arranged clothes on their shrine vanish into soft white noise, and all that remains is the mirror and the ache building in my chest. The need to enter. To understand. To belong.
"What’s happening to me?" I try, pressing my palm to the stone cold surface.
The air shifts as the shadow moves so close I can feel the heat of it against my back. A soft touch raising goosebumps on my bare arms despite the warmth. I feel rather than hear the response. Recognition. It echoes in my mind and reverberates in my body.
"Who are you?" My voice is barely a whisper and the answer a flood of sensations. Desire, longing, approval. It’s overwhelming in its intensity, and I gasp as phantom fingers trail along my collarbone, up the side of my neck.
I tip my head back, closing my eyes as the touch moves lower, tracing the line of my spine through my thin shirt. The caress grows more insistent, more intimate, burning my skin and turning my breath into a ragged plea for more.
The heat pools low in my belly. A tightening coil of pleasure that builds with each painfully slow touch. My legs weaken as invisible hands explore curves and hollows no one has touched in far too long. The need intensifies, driving me toward an edge I desperately want to fall from.
࿐ ࿔*˖𓇼 BOOK REVIEWS 𓇼˖*࿔࿐
Have you read this book? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
★★★★★
Holy shadows and stone gargoyles! This book stirred things in me I didn't know existed. And the phantom touch scenes… More, please!
★★★★★
A gothic erotic dream of a book. Stunning, eerie, sexy as hell.
★★★★☆
Beautiful writing. I wanted more answers about the shadow figure, but maybe that’s the point. I’m still thinking about it days later.
★★★★☆
Not my usual genre, but the emotional depth surprised me. It’s a beautifully crafted exploration of loss, desire, and the magic that can be found when we're brave enough to look beyond the surface.
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