Heart of Ruin - Stone and Fire #3 [17+]

They tell me love is a pretty lie. A cruel deception.

I wouldn't know-I've never been given the chance to believe in it.

A daughter of the Cosa Nostra, passed from one husband to the next like a prized possession, I have learned one thing: a woman's value is measured in obedience.

But then I come back, and he's there.

Enzo Mancini.

Silent. Ruthless. Untouchable.

Except... I have touched him.

Once, before the lies. Before the fire. Before he left me with nothing but ghosts of a boy who used to stare at me like I was his only sin.

Now, he looks at me like I'm his reckoning.

Like he's been starving.

Like he'll ruin me all over again.

The worst part?

I want him to.

Enzo Mancini

She was never supposed to know the truth of that night. The blood on my hands.

The fact that I let her believe I was the monster.

I told myself I could let her go. That I could watch her slip through my fingers, fall into the hands of men who never deserved her.

And I did.

She doesn't know what I've done for her. How many bodies I've buried. How many sins I've committed in her name.

She's everything I should stay away from. Soft where I am hard. Chaos where I am order. A temptation so dangerous, it should be a death sentence.

But I can't stop.

I can't stop watching her, wanting her, losing sleep over the way she lingers like a curse in the nightmares she inhabits.

She calls me heartless, and like everyone, I let her believe it.

She doesn't know that every step she takes away from me is another step toward a man who won't live long enough to touch what's mine.

I saved her from the fire long ago, the same one I caused.

And now, the flames are swallowing me whole.

17+ Mafia Dark Romance *Standalone*