They already killed him, so I know they won’t hesitate to do the same to me. With nowhere to run or hide, I buy a one-way ticket to Milan to audition for Barsetti Lingerie in the hope I can start a new life.

Tyler Collins has always been the object of my affection. I've spent years admiring him, fantasizing about him, but never once making a move. That is until I see him across the room, already a few beers in and drunkenly decide to press my lips to his. Now I'm trapped at a beautiful resort with the man I so desperately want to avoid, to celebrate the nuptials of our dear friends. The fear of rejection is too strong for me to mention the kiss. That night is on constant replay in my mind. I often wonder how he would react if I could confess that to me, our kiss was not a drunken mistake.

Maximo and I, we were definitely a fairy tale. Not the cleaned-up, sanitized ones where life’s problems are solved with a smile and a song. We were the old-school kind. A twisted tales packed with murder, violence, and tragic beginnings. Okay, so maybe we weren’t a traditional fairy tale. After all, Maximo was more villain than prince. He was scarily sexy. Devilishly charming. Controlling, possessive, and dangerous. Especially when it came to me. His little dove. And heaven help anyone who tried to free me from my gilded cage.

Griffin and my father are finally getting along, and Griffin has decided to retire from the hitman business. We talked about our future, and I told him there’s no future for us without children, and thankfully he agreed. But that perfect life is shattered when strange men pull up to the gallery. I don’t have time to make more than one phone call, so I decide to call Griffin instead of the cops. He can’t get to me in time, but he promises that he’ll find me soon enough.

I gave Crow Barsetti a piece of my mind—and I had no regrets. Now he’s the one trying to earn my approval, but it’ll never work. He put me through hell and back, almost made me lose Vanessa for good, so I don’t have to like him. Tolerate him, yes. But not like him. I try to make an effort for Vanessa, but it just blows up in my face. Sitting across from Crow at the dinner table, in the very chair where he handcuffed me and pointed a gun at my face…made me blow a fuse. All I want is Vanessa, and now that I have her, I have no obligation to her family.

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and a group of thugs dragged me down an alleyway. I tried to invoke fear by telling them exactly who I was, Carmen Barsetti, the daughter of Cane Barsetti. But my name didn’t protect me—only his did. Just his presence made them scatter like rats in a sewer. Then he looks me up and down with those hard eyes—and he likes what he sees. “You want to thank me, sweetheart? I want a kiss.” In a tight leather jacket that hugs his thick arms and powerful shoulders, he backs me up into the wall and draws close. “That mouth. That’s what I want.”

Bosco Roth is the kind of man my father will never approve of, so I need an expiration date. He may be the man of my dreams, someone I could see as my husband and the father of my children, but the relationship with my family will never be the same and no man is worth that—not even Bosco. As the days pass, I dread the end before it even arrives. I can’t sleep without him beside me. Even if he’s out all night, I stay on the couch so I can hear his arrival the second he walks in the door. He’s on my mind and in my heart—always.

I owe him a debt. A big one. The payment can't be settled with money or favors. He only wants one thing. Me. Every action gets a reward. A button. Once I fill his jar with 365 buttons, he'll let me go. He'll let me walk away. But I have to earn every single one. By submitting to the darkest, cruelest, and most beautiful man I've ever known.

My father has chosen me to succeed him in the family business. But if I want the job, it comes with stipulations. And one of those stipulations is to never mix business with pleasure. AKA, don't sleep with anyone on the job. My father leads by example, and not once have I ever seen him get involved with anyone, not even his beautiful assistant. That was an easy rule to follow...until Axel.

I used to fantasize about meeting a masked madman who would love me endlessly and obsessively. He would look after me in a world where no one else did. He would manipulate all the strings that held up my life until I had exactly the one I wanted. And then one night, I met him. Only he wasn't the hero I always imagined he would be. When we left the forest together that night, I thought I'd escaped the villains relatively unscathed, but my true villain was the man whose arms I felt safest in.