Isabella's life was never easy. But how could it be when your father is head of the American mafia?
At seven years old, she watched as her mother almost died from the first assassination attempt.
At ten years old, she was injured in the same car "accident" that took her mother's life.
At twelve years old, she began her life of being alone and on the run.
Then, at sixteen years old, she found love. And despite being forced to use a fake name and disappear from time to time, within the time they shared, Isabella fell deeply for Alexi Romano. But of course, nothing can ever go right for Isabella. The night of her nineteenth birthday, she discovers he's the heir to the Italian mafia, meaning he's one of her father's greatest enemies. So she does what she's best at... she runs. And this time, she doesn't come back.
Until, at twenty-four years old, news breaks within the world of organized crime that Isabella Garcia didn't die with her mother in the car crash. Now she has to return home for the first time in twelve years. And she's doing it as a single mother to a five-year-old boy... one who inherited piercing green eyes from a certain Italian man.
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This book is written in dual point of view between Alexi and Isabella, alternating each chapter.
Warning: this book contains possible triggers. There is violence, cursing, and sexual content including bdsm such as honorifics, dom/sub roles, bondage, spanking and impact play, and a few other things. All sexual acts depicted are fully consensual between two consenting adults. I do not encourage the sexualizing nor romanticizing of abuse in any way. Please do not read this book if any of these things could be potentially triggering, or you are under 18 years old.
~>"I like to believe my thorns were once flowers."<~
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Arabella Karve has learned to keep everyone away. To lock them out, and make them believe that she is the heartless daughter of the worst man alive. No one has ever taught her what it is like to be loved. This is until she meets Eros Vandare.
A deadly assassin from Italy is hired to protect the heir to the throne of the mafia. He is a monster, and everyone knows it. He is incapable of love. Until he meets Arabella Karve, the girl he was hired to protect, and he realizes what it means to be alive. What it means to love.
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"You don't have to come up here every night if you don't want to." I mumble, my eyes fluttering shut. I never want to force him to come lay with me if he doesn't want to, if it makes him uncomfortable.
His arms tighten around me.
"I know I don't have to." His chest rumbles against me, the feeling vibrating within every bone in my body, "and I probably shouldn't."
Disappointment floods my senses and I take a shallow breath, "probably not."
"But I am."
"Why?" I whisper softly. I tilt my head to look up at him, my eyes meeting his. He gently brushes a a piece of hair out of my eyes.
"Because I'm fucking selfish and I need you, regardless of what I should or shouldn't do."
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**in the process of being edited<3**