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

"Emilia," his voice rang in the stifling gloom, filled with desperation and rage. "You must respond to me. Where are you?

His words seemed to me like a lifeline, dragging me from the brink of fear. As I tried to push myself, my hands dug at the moist, stony earth, but my whole body protested. Every breath I drew seemed weighty, tinged with the dust and trash still hanging in the air.

"I'm right here!" I rasped, speaking softly but deliberately. "Enzo, I'm here!"

Moments before I saw him, the faint glow of a flickering light reached me—his shadow defined against the fractured rocks and jagged walls of the cavern. His body slumped from the agony he was obviously attempting to disguise, his motions labored.

"Stay where you are!" he yelled, his austere voice hardly masking the terror in his eyes. "Don't start until I reach you."

BENEATH THE SHADOWS