edwardsauthorsally

Sold to the highest bidder to pay off a blood feud, I never imagined I would be the pawn in my father's fatal game. Still, here I am before Enzo De Luca, the most vicious mafia leader in the city. Though appealing, he is cold, deliberate, and as lethal. Though my heart races just from his proximity, it is his touch that ignites me. My body betrays me and reacts to him in ways I am powerless over. And I melt as he softly, commandingly says my name.

Enzo loves neither me nor another. In his deadly kingdom, I am only another bargain, another transaction. But every time we are alone, the conflict between us snaps—desire becomes a terrible addiction. Although I detest him for everything he stands for, I yearn for the way he consumes me, body and soul.

He has made it quite evident—our marriage is more about power than love. Still, every angry gaze and every snatched moment in the shadow reveals something different. Benevolent underneath his icy façade lies something broken that appeals to the darkest sides of me. But depending on a man like Enzo may mean losing everything.

Bound to him now, for better or worse, I am caught in a world where loyalty is brittle and treachery carries a bullet. Our friendship gets more perilous the more truths about his empire I find. And as the past calls for us, I have to question myself: will our passion be the thing that ruins us both or can I survive loving a guy like Enzo De Luca?

Burning in his arms is me. But in his universe, I could roast alive.

OWNED BY MR MAFIA

Tension permeates the air, every breath I take an effort. Enzo's relentless hold on my arm grounds me in this time of anarchy. Though in here it seems as though the world has stopped around us, the sound of sirens booms across the streets outside. Cold and cruel betrayal pours into my bloodstream. I fix my gaze on the known face I trusted waiting at the doorway.

"How could you?" I murmur, my voice quivering with incredulity. You were one of us, you know.

One of Enzo's most devoted guys, Vincent, seems to me as having a nasty gleam in his eyes. "Loyalty is a variable concept, Emilia. You among all others should be aware of this.

Enzo advances, sandwiched between Vincent and myself. He has a tense, coiled, angry stance. He snarls, low and deadly, "You betrayed your own." "Do you understand what that implies?"

SHADOWS OF DECEPTION