A fateful shipwreck leaves the young and wealthy Lord Brandon presumed dead, and his estate in England lies abandoned and ripe for the picking. Years later, his step-cousin Justine finds him alive and drug-addicted, and against his family's wishes, boldly brings him home to reclaim his inheritance.
Dark surprises disturb Brandon at every turn-a ruined property, a traitorous, bitter family, his fiancee married to his rival. And Justine, the shy, quiet girl he grew up with is no longer a little girl, but an alluring and determined young woman. Can he trust her or is she a part of the intricate web of lies and half-truths?
As they work together to salvage what's left of Wolfsgate and their place in society, age-old jealousies and shadowy secrets threaten at every turn, but irresistible passions run wild and prove even more powerful.
Justine is his wife, after all.
Justine and Brandon have been bound in a marriage forced upon them by their family for their own deceitful purposes. But the deep, loyal bond that grows between husband and wife isn't part of their enemies' plan. In fact, it could destroy their plan.
No one counted on Brandon and Justine falling in love. Not even Brandon and Justine.
Contains mature themes.
“The velvet tongue”
That’s what they hear
“The silent fixer”
That’s what they whisper
“Turo DeMarco can slice you with that smile”
It’s been known to happen
But the one truth they don’t know could get me killed.
It’s already gotten me thrown into the fire.
I may be the rising dark star of Chicago’s criminal underworld, but I’ve been warned,
and I have one chance to make things right, flying halfway around the world to do it.
Until one hot AF heiress gets in my way with an unforgettable kiss and a blast of gunfire, hurling us both into the eye of a Mediterranean hurricane, snaring us in the ultimate high stakes games
Our impulsive escape to a Greek island exposes cruel lies, sour truths, explosive passion…and bares our bitter souls
I was always told that actions speak louder than words,
and Adriana proved it to me.
Yet there’s one thing that speaks even louder—
Blood
In my heart, on my hands.
Blood never lies, blood never plays games.
And neither do I.
*This Mafia Romantic Suspense novel is intended for mature readers only. It contains adult language, violence, and graphic sex*
"I still have the dreams, baby. Do you? In mine, I plead and wait for your touch to come like it always did. But it never does. I strain against the iron, but you're no longer there in the shadows. I'm alone. One single shard of deep dark hope was enough back then. Not now. My claws, your fangs have sunk deep. Follow my trail of blood, my trail of anger, desolation. Am I the same man? Soul dark, Heart dense, Blood fierce, Purpose raw. Flame burning. Unrelenting. Brewed on vengeance, laced with tenderness, my fury for you." Chained in brutal darkness, they fell in love. Free in the world, they were torn apart. Empires rise, empires fall, and still, she burns in his soul. But between them now runs a wild river of ambition, greed, and blood. So much blood. He'll do anything for revenge, and she'll do anything to protect him. Love and vengeance are the same kind of savage . . . Contains mature themes.
The bad boy. The fuck up. The thief. That was me. Once a king, now a wanderer. I'd thrown the best parts of me away, over and over again. I was reckless. Still am. I'd been exiled. Twice. I did my time. I've cleaned up. Well, sort of. I got plans. Yeah, good ones. Then I ran into her. A bolt of lightning-startling, unsettling, breathtaking, out of reach. The woman I once scorned years ago is now the woman I can't live without. I need what I didn't think I'd ever need again. I want and want and want. Torture. She's the epicenter of the war I've triggered, of the battle in my rusted heart. I may be as reckless as I ever was, but I'm determined as fuck. To hell with it. I want it all.
A knife that cut too deep, a slash that still burns, failures piled high and flammable. I held my losses at bay with knives, with guns, my hands, my bike, my brothers, my iron will. But not my heart. No, my heart was the flame that would light the match, ignite the blaze. I am the enforcer-the killer when called upon, the ruthless hound on demand, the one who cleans the mess left behind. I am the protector-I can make you bleed, smash you to pieces. But she smashed all my excuses, and I shattered hers. For a split second she was mine, but I will always be hers. Some things, really beautiful things, you can't hold onto forever.
I am that gash in her soul. Once I loved her, really loved her. And she loved me, and it was so fucking beautiful. Once. That pendulum swings to and fro. We're here, and then we're- No. How can that rare beauty be rendered irrelevant, intangible when I still feel so damn much? Does all that energy, that glory, that significance simply dissolve? Turn to smoke? To nothing? It can't. It just can't. Are the moments that shape us absolutely random? Is time not fluid? I made promises to them, to her. Especially to her. Promises I still burn to keep.
I suppose some of us have to get really dirty before we can become truly clean. I was allegedly South Dakota's most famous Old Lady. Sixteen years ago I had survived my Old Man's murder. Never again. Never again will I surrender my heart. Never again will I sacrifice to the Club. But that all changed in one night. I came home and crashed into him, and my past and present blew up in my face. Both of us lonely, running on empty, and unwilling to admit it. Until now. Now I feel things I'd forgotten about, want things I'd cut out of my insides. Love not only stings when you lose it, when it's ripped away. When it first sinks its teeth into you, it can cut just as raw and sting just as deep. I'd forgotten that. Who holds the keys to betrayal? To suspicion? To trust? To brotherhood? To family? To redemption and a bleeding heart? Right now, I just might.
