Heart of Ruin - Stone and Fire #3 [17+]
30 parts Ongoing MatureThey 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*