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.

I hate Dante Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and vicious. It’s no secret that he wiped out his former fiancée and her entire family on the eve of their wedding. He’s the kind of evil that makes even devils cry. But that’s not why I hate him.

Eleven years ago, I met him. A year later, I was betrothed to him. Now he’s come to claim me, slaughtering anyone standing in his way. My husband-to-be is a monster from a family as ruthless and powerful as mine, a man who deals in violence and destruction...a man terrifyingly like my father. For more than a decade, he’s stalked me, shadowing my life. I fear him. I hate him. Worst of all, I want him. My name is Alina Molotova, and Alexei Leonov is a fate I can’t escape.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

My fiancé is the anti-Prince Charming.... Mateo Villani is darkness wrapped in Armani. He's a six-foot-tall, ruggedly handsome savage, a notorious gangster who's bedded half of Manhattan...and now he's my fiancé. My father betrayed me, signing my life away to the cocky bastard whose personality is colder than a block of ice. Mateo crushed my ambitions when he slid his ring onto my finger. He stole my life away, and now he's determined to mold me into a dutiful mob wife. But I have news for him: I obey no one.

When Nikolai Romanov came looking for my brother, I emptied my savings hoping I could pay off his debt. But I didn't have even close to enough, so the bastard decided to take me instead. I didn't expect a Russian mafia boss like him to be gentle with me...and he wasn't. Not when he spanked me for daring to wear panties under the dress he chose for me, and certainly not when he stripped me out of that same dress and made me scream in his bed.

Mia Lorenzo wasn’t exactly my top choice for a wife. She is 14 years younger, a hopeless romantic, and in line to become the head of the family that just orchestrated my father’s murder. Too bad my father's dying wish was for me to marry Luca Lorenzo's daughter. I will unite the two families for my father’s sake, even if it’s just to find proof that they killed him. The only problem is my brand-new wife. That auburn hair, those bright blue eyes, and the way my gut twists whenever I see another man go near her.

Kieran Murphy is an Irish mob boss and one of the most powerful men in Boston. When he walks me home, people step aside out of respect for him. He could have any woman he wants. So why does he have eyes only for me? Is it how he has to lift my chin with his fingers to keep my eyes level with his when he scolds me and how I cover my bottom instinctively when he tells me that I've earned a spanking? Or is it how I quiver at the thought of everything I'm too ashamed to beg him to do to me? Maybe it's all of those, but I'm pretty sure there's something else too.

Running away from home at 17 wasn't easy. Let's face it, though, nothing before or in the ten years since has ever been easy for me. And I'm doing okay—sorta. I just need to keep scraping by, living under the radar. Staying out of people's way, off people's minds. When a man walks through my open patio door, stepping boldly into my home and my life, I should be scared, frightened, terrified. I must be more broken than I realized because I'm none of those things. I'm intrigued—and I'm wondering if the way to take control of my life is by giving in to him.

Everyone thought my wife was dead, but I never stopped searching for her. When I finally found her, the timid young woman I forced to marry me was all gone. In her place was a fiercely independent woman who hated my guts. I might have deserved it. But did it stop me from dragging her, her secret child and her best friend back to New York City with me?

I'll show everyone I'm a threat, and they will fear me. For my family. I have to protect them. The second I hear the name Damien Vetrov I know I'm in trouble. He's an arrogant Russian God. I have zero intention of bowing to him. Ever. Attractive and lethal—he's such an intoxicating mixture. Every second we spend together, the pull between us becomes stronger, and my fear grows. While my body wants him, my head knows better. He has the power to kill my family.

I never wanted a wife. No one is safe with me. No one is good enough for my daughter. But if I want to rule over the wealthiest crime family in New York City, I only have two weeks to find one. When Elsie broke into my home, I saw an opportunity, so I forced her into a marriage she didn't want. No one crosses me, not even someone as beautiful as Elsie. She may fight me with that smart mouth, but she will obey me–or return to the hell she came from. I told her she was mine for a year. Then she'd be free.

Charming, captivating, seductive—and a cold-blooded killer. I married the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva anyway. I had to, it was part of the deal. Now, I’m faking marital bliss as I tremble with fear, and I cannot wait to be out of the clutches of this ruthless man.

Forgive me. Those were the first words Santos Augustine spoke to me before we sealed an unbreakable oath. A contract signed in blood binding me to him as payment for my father’s sins. Wearing the mask of legitimacy, this powerful crime family has returned to Avarice to punish those who have wronged them and take what they’ve always been denied, a place among the elite. Forced to marry my enemy, I’m thrust into his world of secrets and betrayals. My husband is a dangerous man. And he has dangerous enemies. But it’s when I’m attacked that his fury is unleashed.

When I knocked on Kirill Sabatin's door, I didn't know he was the Kozlov Bratva's most feared enforcer. I didn't expect him to be the most terrifyingly sexy man I've ever laid eyes on either.. I told him off for making so much noise in the middle of the night, but if the crack of his palm against my bare bottom didn't wake everyone in the building my screams of climax certainly did. I shouldn't have let him spank me, let alone seduce me. He's a dangerous man, and I could easily end up in way over my head.

Tearing off the gilded veneer of elite privilege exposes the sordid scandals, dark secrets, and taboo desires of New York's jaded high society in this dark romance series from best friends and USAT bestselling authors Zoe Blake and Alta Hensley, writing under their new pen name, Blake Hensley.

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.

I wasn't prepared for her . . . She just got me to pay three times as much as I wanted for a company I'll buy and destroy. She knows who I am. The bratva doesn't scare her. Intelligent, brave, and unstoppable. I'll make her mine. She doesn't know it yet, but we're soulmates. I'll take her to her limits. Then give her all her heart desires.

When he invited me to join him for a drink, I thought Alessandro was an ordinary guest at my family's hotel. I didn't know I belonged to him until he told me right there in the restaurant. I thought I had a say in the matter. But when I stood up to leave, it just earned me a sore bottom for the plane ride to New York, where our wedding was already planned for the next day. But I was soaking wet for him before he even walked me down the aisle.

Like currency, I’ve become part of a transaction. Blade took me to pay off a debt. I try to tell myself, Eve, you should hate him. He’s a bad guy. But then again, I’m not a good girl. Blade’s the president of the Disciples, the notorious motorcycle club. I should be frightened, yet somehow, he doesn’t scare me. If anything, I think I scare him.

Roman Melnikov is a deadly man in an expensive suit. I know what lies beneath the façade—the scars and tattoos that hint at the man he really is. He came here to find his sister, and his search led him to my dad and his friends. We both want to take them down, and the only way to do that is together. I had no idea how dangerous it would be, or that by the end of it, we'd all be covered in blood. Loving Roman is dangerous, but I can't let him go. His path is leading him straight to hell, and it looks like I'm coming along for the ride.

Mikhail Dmitriyev is a beautiful devil with a villainous heart and a thirst for revenge. The choices he gave me when he stole me away from my home with an army of men were very clear—marry me or die. I chose to marry him and live. But there’s one small problem with his grand plan to rain Armageddon on the Mexican Cartel. I’m not the woman he thinks I am. I’m not the cartel princess he thinks he took to make his enemies bow to him. When my captor finds out my secret and realizes he married the wrong woman, love won’t be enough to save me. And neither will his obsession.

I learned very early on that every life matters—no life is insignificant, most especially not my own mother’s, whose life was cruelly slain. I vowed to do what I can so that no one has to feel as if they’re nothing at all when they lose their loved ones. So when I’m forced into a marriage with Dominic Luca—the man next in line to be the head of the biggest crime family in all of New York—the ring he puts on my finger is a gun to my head with his finger on the trigger.

Drowning in the murky waters of the mafia, I’m determined to find a way out. I have my sights set on becoming a film producer and won’t let anything or anyone stand in my way. Then my mother marries a retired Godfather, and I get the head of the Greek mafia as a stepbrother. Nikolas Stathoulis is set on ruining my well-laid plans. His ruthless reputation has me running for the safety of my apartment. But he’s always there. On campus. In my apartment. Expecting me to play by his rules.

Years ago, I fell in love with an angel. Only problem: her brother was in a rival MC. My prez gave me an ultimatum: her or my club. Fool that I was, I chose the club. Years later, I run into her when she moves back to town. She still hurts from the way I treated her back then. But this time, I'm not giving her up. Her brother's club and mine are still bitter enemies. And claiming Kat threatens to throw us into full-on war. But none of that matters. I'm going to win her back. This time, Kat is mine. No matter the cost.

When I was 16, a gypsy fortune-teller told me my future held darkness and death. She was right. But what she didn’t tell me was I’d lose all my memories and that I wouldn’t recognize the devil when he came to steal my life. Lucca Dyshekov - the Bratva assassin they call Merciless - rose from hell and turned my world upside down. On our wedding day, he taught me real monsters aren’t the ones who hide in the dark. They’re the ones who stare you in the face and steal your soul.

You know the story where the hero comes in and saves the day, rescuing the heroine right in the nick of time? This isn't that story. Instead of a knight in shining armor, he's a sexy, tatted-up Bratva boss with a reputation for being brutal and fierce. Vasily finds me after I've already been brought to my lowest—broken by cruel men until I barely recognize myself. He doesn't offer me salvation. He offers me protection and revenge. And I gladly take it. Because I don't need a knight in shining armor. I need a villain who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

It was supposed to be a joke: Give my best friend raunchy toys for her bridal shower and embarrass her in front of her family. But when my package is wrongly delivered to my gorgeous, mysterious neighbor, I'm the one who ends up mortified. I sneak over to his place to try stealing it back before he finds it. The problem is I get caught mid-heist... And then he makes me stay for dinner. Dinner leads to dessert, and dessert leads to... other dessert, if you get my drift. Several courses of sweet, sinful temptation.

I'll show everyone I'm a threat, and they will fear me. For my family. I have to protect them. The second I hear the name Damien Vetrov I know I'm in trouble. He's an arrogant Russian God. I have zero intention of bowing to him. Ever. Attractive and lethal—he's such an intoxicating mixture. Every second we spend together, the pull between us becomes stronger, and my fear grows. While my body wants him, my head knows better. He has the power to kill my family.

I was supposed to marry Viktor Volkova, heir to one of the most powerful families in the society. But his older brother stole me on our wedding day, just as we were about to take our vows. Like a hellish wild card, Desmier Volkova stormed into my life, seeking revenge for my father’s sins. He forced me to marry him, dragging me into his game of lies, revenge, and deceit.