Series: La Famiglia: Elias #2
Publication date: March 20th, 2021
Synopsis:
A crime boss. A meek accountant.
When she enters his world... will she be able to find her way out?
Will she ever want to?
Cassie Lockhart is alone in the world, save for her beautiful and troubled sister, Amber. When Amber gets in over her head in the world of organized crime, Cassie dives headfirst into the darkness to save her.
Dante diRuggiero rules his world by taking what he wants, uncaring who he may hurt in the process. He can't help but be intrigued by the shy, plain woman who comes to his club, pleading for the sake of someone else. He sees beneath her mousy exterior and finds a woman so loyal she would sacrifice herself for those she loves. It's that loyalty that draws him in at first, and then her passion makes him burn.
When Amber's poor choices force Cassie to choose between her sister and Dante, will she choose the person she has tried to protect all her life, or the man that would never betray her? Can Dante keep her safe from the war brewing in his dark world?
Dante is book two in the steamy diRuggiero Mafia Family Saga.
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Excerpt
"Cassie, come home with me," he breathed, eyes closed and forehead pressed against hers.
"Yes, Dante," she whispered, and he pulled away to look at her face, into her eyes, to gauge precisely how poised she was to flee. He'd have to precisely manage and time everything to keep her from taking flight like a startled doe. She was so lovely, and so innocent, for a woman her age. Part of him, a dark part, a part that he kept under iron control, jumped at the chance to corrupt that innocence.
Dante waved away the pimple-faced valet and opened the door of the car from Cassie himself. Once they were both enclosed within its sumptuous leather interior, he slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her body against his.
"My penthouse, Manny," Dante told the driver.
"You got it, boss."
The car pulled away from the restaurant and into the crowded streets of downtown Dallas. Dante didn't live far from the restaurant, but it would still take a good fifteen or twenty minutes before they arrived.
"You are so handsome," Cassie said after a few minutes, her voice somewhat dazed.
"Am I?" He asked, smiling, and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose against hers.
"Ugh, you know you are." She threaded her fingers through his hair as he peppered tiny kisses over along her jaw.
"Well, you're beautiful." He mouthed the shell of her ear, tugging on her earlobe with his teeth. Cassie rewarded him with a low moan, so he tugged a little harder. She moaned louder, fingers tightening in her hair.
"Do you like that?" he whispered.
She shuddered at his words. Slowly, Dante moved his hand up over her silk-covered midriff, until his hand clasped her breast. Its weight fit very pleasantly in the cup of his hand and this time, when he tugged on her earlobe with his teeth, he also pinched lightly at her already rigid nipple.
Cassie groaned. Dante smiled against her skin as she wriggled against him, burrowing deeper into his embrace. He understood that pressing need to be closer, closer, closer. The same compulsion was riding him, too, harder and harder as the seconds of touching and kissing passed.
She moaned her appreciation of everything he did to her; he whole heartedly approved of each of her caresses, the way she stroked his shoulders and raked fingers through his hair. It seemed like they were going to get along just as well in bed as they did out of it. Dante sealed his lips over hers and pressed his tongue into her mouth exultant when she greedily accepted it, met with her own for a sensual kiss.
He pushed her back into the seat, his body encroaching into her space without shame. She dragged him closer still, one hand in his hair, the other crumpling the lapel of his suit without care.
A crumpled suit was of no consequence; honestly, it only seemed right, that a passion such as what had risen between them would result in a bit of destruction. It didn't seem possible that there would be no consequences to the world around them in the wake of such a powerful force. When it was all over, when they lay in his bed, sated and sweaty and replete, he fully expected the curtains to be shredded, perhaps a window or two broken. Would be disappointed, perhaps, if that were not the case.
With that destructive force, or perhaps because of it, came corruption. His family was so thoroughly corrupted that there was no force in heaven or hell that could dig them free of it. And contact with him would only taint Cassie, as well, both in and out of his bed. If he were a different man, he would care. He would scruple that he was taking advantage of her naivete, of her clear desire for guidance and instruction, her hunger for acceptance and appreciation.
But he wasn't a different man. He was the eldest of four sons, the heir to a legacy of wealth and power at the expense of the weak. He was the monarch of a kingdom fuelled by drugs and sex, and he ruled it with a heavy hand. He was a man who got what he wanted and damn the cost to himself or anyone else.
He was Dante di Ruggiero.
And she would be his, body and soul.
I write steamy romances and the compelling, hot, sexy, heroes that dominate those pages and the heroines that fall in love with them.
My day-to-day is full of time at the beach, playing fetch with my dogs in my backyard, and often thinking up new ideas and worlds that help bring my books to life. I'm a small town Texas girl who likes to dream big and put those big dreams down on the page!
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