Sandra Fuller

The Italian and Russian mafias are at war, and it is brutal. We’re both ruthless, relentless, and unforgiving. But then the decision is made to merge our worlds—a marriage between the two sides: the most beautiful woman of the Italian mafia and the Bratva's most feared monster. I loved her from afar for so long, and I finally get to have her as my own. But will she run away when she realizes who I really am?

My name is Lorenzo Moretti. Born to be head of the Cosa Nostra, except that I chose love over my birthright. On our wedding day, my father cursed our union, swearing on his own blood that my wife and I would never live out our days in happiness. I guess he was right, because fate stole her from me and I’m left to live an empty life without her, with a shattered heart and only half a soul. On the day my wife died, I swore I’d never love anyone like that again, and it’s a promise I kept for two years.

I was a murderer. One of the cruelest, wealthiest men in New York City. Dante Salvatore, capo of capos. Yet I had one weakness. Elena Lombardi. Cold as ice, sharp as the edge of broken glass, and more beautiful than any woman should have the right to be, she stormed my defenses and razed my life as I knew it to the ground. For her, I would once again play the hero and prove myself worthy of her unconquerable heart. For her, I would change everything. I could have left her to the enemies hounding me, but instead, I made the unforgivable decision to take her with me to the old country.

I didn't come to her apartment planning to tie her to her bed and ravage her. A Russian arms dealer has no need for an innocent schoolteacher. I would have done what I came to do and left, but when she opened those gorgeous red lips and threatened to scream I knew she would be screaming long before I was finished with her.

When you are a son and one of the heirs to the legacy of the Cavalieri name, you need to be more vicious than your enemies. Sometimes, the lines get blurred. Years ago, they tried to use her as a pawn in a revenge scheme against me. Even though I cared about her, I let them treat her as if she were nothing. I was too arrogant and self-involved to protect her then. But I'm here now. Ready to risk my life tracking down every single one of them. They'll pay for what they've done as surely as I'll pay for my sins against her.

I was a good girl. I ate my vegetables, volunteered at the local autism centre, and sat in the front pew of church every Sunday. Then, I got cancer. What the hell kind of reward was that for a boring life well lived? I was a 17-year-old paradigm of virtue, and I was tired of it. So, when I finally ran into the man I'd been writing to since he saved my life as a little girl and he offered to show me the dark side of life before I left it for good, I said yes.

I’ve never had a life. I’m not talking about the freedom money can buy because I have that in spades. I’m talking about the freedom a girl gets from growing up with four overprotective Del Rossa men…which is zero. Zero freedom to have a social life. Zero freedom to date. Men in this city know better than to look my way. I’m Dark Sovereign property, and everyone knows you don’t touch what belongs to the Del Rossas. To the brothers, I’m the little sister they never had. Except for Nicoli.

When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. She's too smart for her own good, and it's going to get her killed. Against my better judgement, I put her under the protection of my powerful Russian mafia family. So imagine my anger when the little minx ran. For three long years I've been on her trail, always one step behind. Finding and claiming her had become an obsession. It was getting harder to rein in my driving need to possess her... to own her. But now the chase is over. I've found her. Soon she will be mine.

I was settin’ up to live a good life, the kinda life I’d fought hard to deserve. With a good woman - the best woman - at my side, a degree under my belt, and the whole world at my feet, I was livin’ the kinda happily ever after usually denied the rebellious and the criminal. I’d turned my back on that kinda life, thinkin’ I needed that clean, wholesome kinda happy. Then the devil came dressed in the wings of an angel and took someone from me. And I realized I was wrong. There was no clean and wholesome for a man like me with poetry in his heart and outlaw in his blood.

Being attracted to her isn't wrong…but acting on it would be. As the patriarch of the powerful and wealthy Cavalieri family, my choices come with consequences for everyone around me. The roots of my ancestral, billionaire-dollar winery stretch deep into the rich Italian soil, as does our legacy of ruthlessness and scandal. It isn't the fact she is half my age that makes her off-limits. Nothing is off-limits for me. A wounded bird caught in a trap not of her own making, she poses no risk to me. My obsessive desire to possess her is the real problem—for both of us.