They tell me love is a pretty lie. A cruel deception. I wouldn't know-I've never been given the chance to believe in it. A daughter of the Cosa Nostra, passed from one husband to the next like a prized possession, I have learned one thing: a woman's value is measured in obedience. But then I come back, and he's there. Enzo Mancini. Silent. Ruthless. Untouchable. Except... I have touched him. Once, before the lies. Before the fire. Before he left me with nothing but ghosts of a boy who used to stare at me like I was his only sin. Now, he looks at me like I'm his reckoning. Like he's been starving. Like he'll ruin me all over again. The worst part? I want him to. Enzo Mancini She was never supposed to know the truth of that night. The blood on my hands. The fact that I let her believe I was the monster. I told myself I could let her go. That I could watch her slip through my fingers, fall into the hands of men who never deserved her. And I did. She doesn't know what I've done for her. How many bodies I've buried. How many sins I've committed in her name. She's everything I should stay away from. Soft where I am hard. Chaos where I am order. A temptation so dangerous, it should be a death sentence. But I can't stop. I can't stop watching her, wanting her, losing sleep over the way she lingers like a curse in the nightmares she inhabits. She calls me heartless, and like everyone, I let her believe it. She doesn't know that every step she takes away from me is another step toward a man who won't live long enough to touch what's mine. I saved her from the fire long ago, the same one I caused. And now, the flames are swallowing me whole. 17+ Mafia Dark Romance *Standalone*

He was the boy who left to save her and the man who came back ruined. Cold when he shouldn't be, silent when all she wants is for him to talk to her, Dominico Cruz learned young that loving someone means losing them. So he left first. He always leaves first. But her? Katerina Petrov was never someone you could leave behind. She was fire and fury and loyalty sharp enough to cut throats, she loved like a war and hated like a storm, and he was the only man who ever survived both. "You don't get to leave me again and call it love, Dominico. That's not love. That's cowardice." He would burn cities for her, kill kings for her, destroy himself for her, but the one thing he can't do is stay, because he believes loving him is a death sentence. She thinks he abandoned her. He thinks he's protecting her. And neither of them realizes they're destroying each other in the process. In whatever is between the world they've been born in, love isn't gentle. It's possession, sacrifice, blood and worst of all...Brutal. And the most dangerous thing in Dominico Cruz's life was never his enemies. It was always her.

*WAS DELETED AT 600K READS* Adriana Mancini I was raised to bite, not bow. So when they told me I was to marry Nikolas Volkov-heir to the Bratva, enemy to my blood-I didn't cry, I laughed. They thought they could tame me with diamonds and alliances. And for the first time in my life, I realized I didn't have a choice. As for him.. It's the eyes that speak to me. Blank but compulsive with secrets, empty yet dominating with control. Like stone. I wonder, is his heart made of it too? Nikolas Volkov After a bloody feud with the Cosa Nostra, I'm forced into an arranged marriage-to the one woman I can't control. Adriana Mancini. A hurricane in stilettos with venom in her smile. She tests my patience, taunts my power, and tempts my darkness. She thinks I won't ruin her just because she wears my ring. But this marriage was never meant to be peaceful. It was built for war.

[A dark mafia romance] She survived her mother's poison. She survived her father's murder. Now Rosa Nera must survive the crown he left behind. As the new Donna of Kansas City's most powerful crime family, Rosa rules with a steel fist wrapped in black velvet. But the wolves are circling-a rival Russian faction wants her territory, her own underboss wants her in his bed, and someone in her inner circle wants her dead. Then she catches him watching. Konstantin-a line cook in her restaurant, standing in the shadows as she executes a traitor. He should be a loose end. A problem to eliminate. But there's something in his eyes. Dark and utterly unafraid. And when she looks at him, she doesn't see a witness. She sees someone she wants to own. She doesn't kill him. She offers him a job as her personal chef. Brings him into her home. Keeps him close. Too close. What Rosa doesn't know is that the man in her kitchen isn't who he says he is. Konstantin has no memory, no past, and no name. Just hands that cook like a chef and move like a killer. And what Konstantin doesn't remember could destroy them both. Because someone killed her father. Someone is poisoning her Capos against her. And someone is watching from the shadows, waiting for the Donna to fall. In a world of betrayal and blood oaths, the only thing more dangerous than an enemy at your gate is the man sleeping in your bed. And Rosa Nera has never been good at playing safe. (Previously titled : Casino Queen) [Book 4 in the Sins of the City series.]

𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 ..... After Matteo Verrati kidnaps Aurora Moretto to save her life, they both agree that it would be safer for her to stay with him because of the threats to her life. Aurora didn't expect to find solace in him, Aurora didn't expect to fall for him and she surely didn't expect to go insane.

Vereena starts clocking on that her trusted dealer is messing her around by supplying her with fake drugs, and it is safe to say, she is pissed. And the only way to fix her irritation, is to go to the source of it. Demanding that she meets her dealer's supplier, she comes up with a plan to get her missing drugs back. However, that plans quickly go to bust when she walks into a heavy guarded dark room where scary looking men stare at her in awaiting. Little does she know, she has just walked herself straight into the devil's den.

Old memories haunt the mind of the young Aillia Moreau, but is she really the only one haunted?

Ever since she's been a child, Leila Rossetti's sole ambition has been to seize control of The Cosa Nostra and avenge the childhood she lost by the claws her father, The Don. When she inadvertently declares war on the Russians, who have long held a vice grip on the underground, her plans go right in the trash giving way to a far more dangerous threat. Yet the overconfidence of the Italian assassin is nothing more than a source of amusement to Nikolai Romanov, king of The Bratva. Known for his ruthlessness and absolute control over Russia, he views Leila's reckless move as merely an entertaining spectacle, like a predator who only toys with its prey before devouring it. So what happens when The Pakhan finally decides to strike his prey? ________________________ His thumb traced the sensitive skin of my wrist, a slow rhythm that felt like he was counting my heartbeats. Then he leaned in, his lips hovering near my ear, not touching, yet the heat was enough to sear. "You're so beautiful. Even when you lie to me." I rolled my eyes, tilting my head back against his shoulder just to show him I wasn't afraid of the proximity, even while my skin screamed at the contact. "And you're still an arrogant bastard who thinks he can keep a throne just by sitting on it." "I don't just sit on it, milaya. I bleed for it. And occasionally, I make sure others bleed a little more." The vibration of his throaty chuckle sent shivers down my spine. "Now, tell me another lie. I want to see if you can make your heart rate match your tongue."

╰┈➤ 𝑯𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌. ── ☾ 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑪𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒍 sees others as an interference in his life, making his interest in having any social interaction with humans at the bottom of his schedule. Until he met Carson, that is. Killian never planned to be involved with someone like Carson. He hates everything about her, and more importantly, he hates that she gets in the way of his plans. But...maybe a change of plans isn't so bad? ☼ 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒓 thinks that getting into Columbia University was nothing short of a miracle for her. But she's survived for three years just fine. Now in her senior year, she's paired up for an assignment with a man who's the exact opposite of her. Cold, uninterested, and a stickler for his own rules. Carson is used to capturing the hearts of whomever she meets, but her partner becomes a new challenge that will be hard to beat. ── The Sun and Moon are planets that are never supposed to meet. Complete opposites, and yet, the Sun tends to pull the Moon along with its every move. Now that the Sun has seen that the Moon can be brighter with just a little bit of encouragement, the Sun takes on the quest of making the Moon its friend.

𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. ✞ ✞ ✞ He wanted to use her. She was the mastermind who planned for that all along. ✞ ✞ ✞ Power. Power built them. Power is what will destroy them. From sworn enemies to reluctant allies, there is nothing 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐈𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐯 wouldn't do, nobody she wouldn't use to reach what her mind has been fixated on for years. Revenge. She's inhumane. Emotionless. Messed up in the head-a diagnosed ASPD mind turned into something precise, something dangerous. A machine. The underworld doesn't call her by name. They call her the flame behind the ghost don. The living requiem. Nyx. And when something like her sets her sights on a target? She takes. Uses. Burns everything necessary to get what she wants. And 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐨 became exactly that. There's nothing the Camorra king hates more than her-the ghost, the flame, the thorn in his side he's been chasing for years. The assassin behind the Russian don he wants nothing more than to take down. The one thing standing between him and full control over New York City. Blaze is forced to do the one thing he would rather die than do: Ally with the enemy. It was supposed to be simple. Temporary. Strategic. But temptation has always been a dangerous game, and Vera has never been the kind to walk away from a game. Especially one she knows she'll win. Because she's always ten steps ahead. She doesn't lose. She calculates. Plans. Decides. And this time, she chose to play.