Charmaine Pauls – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Charmaine Pauls – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Wed, 13 May 2026 18:57:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Charmaine Pauls – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Callous Love (New York Underworld #5) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/callous-love-new-york-underworld-5-read-online-charmaine-pauls Wed, 13 May 2026 18:57:18 +0000 https://www.books2020.com/callous-love-new-york-underworld-5-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Chick Lit, Dark, Mafia Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: New York Underworld Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >132

He can never know about the life we created in a bed of lies, because the man I called my lover is the monster who killed my parents, and I’m next on the list.

From USA Today bestselling author Charmaine Pauls comes an intense and steamy emotional dark mafia romance with tropes including secret baby, second chance, forbidden love, forced marriage, betrayal, revenge and redemption, possessive alpha male, touch her and die, and a strong female lead.

I know what it’s like to be used. Dante ruined me for the sake of his revenge. He destroyed me for his selfish gain without thinking twice.

What he doesn’t know is that we created something pure and innocent in that bed of lies. We made a new life, one I have to hide from him at all costs, because the man I called my lover is the cold-hearted monster who killed my parents, and I’m next on the list. He left me with no choice but to run.

For five long years, I’ve been hiding, barely surviving, always outsmarting the men who hunt me while Dante’s ghost stalks my shadows and haunts my thoughts. And now that he’s caught a whiff of my scent, he’s like a bloodhound on my trail.

He’s out to finish what he started. I’m the last obstacle standing between him and the fortune he stole from my family. But this isn’t a fairy tale, and I’m not that girl anymore. I decide how my story ends.

Callous Love is the second book in the Callous Duet and concludes Tatiana and Dante's story. Callous Desire must be read first. The duet is part of the dark mafia romance New York Underworld series (Books 4 & 5). You don't have to read the other books in the series to follow this duet

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter

One

Tatiana, age nineteen

* * *

“You’ll marry

Joni Stein. I don’t want to hear another word about it. The contract is signed, so it’s as good as cast in stone.”

My father’s dismissive wave as he indicates my time is up makes me shrivel inside. He’s already returned his attention to his laptop, my presence in his study ignored or forgotten.

Angry tears stream down my cheeks. I’m shaking with the injustice of my father’s decision and my helplessness to change that fate.

All my life, I’ve been a good, obedient daughter, always doing what I’m told and what’s expected of me. I’ve been a cum laude student with straight As in all my subjects. I sit through tedious dinners and parties I have no interest in attending without complaining, wearing the dresses my parents deem appropriate. I say please and thank you. My parents’ friends tell them how lucky they are to have had it so easy with me during my adolescent years. But if I were hoping that my exemplary behavior and hard work would make my father proud or win his approval, I was mistaken.

He looks up from his screen, irritation written all over his face. “You’re still here.”

“Father, please.” My voice cracks. “Mr. Stein is fifty years old.”

And he’s fat and ugly, not to mention vulgar. He always looks down the front of my dress or pinches my backside when my mom isn’t looking. But I don’t say that.

“Exactly.” My father stabs a few keys on his keyboard. “That’s why he has no time to waste in producing an heir.”

“But he’s married,” I exclaim.

“His wife is dying. It’s only a matter of time.” My father hits enter a couple of times and squints behind his glasses. “Just as well, seeing that the useless wretch is barren.”

“But…” I swallow through my tears. “That’s improper.”

“We agreed to wait until your twenty-first birthday. The old hag should kick the bucket by next year if not sooner, and then he’ll mourn the customary year. Nothing about that is improper. It’s all done by the book.”

“Please, Father, I beg you.”

He slams a hand on the desk, rattling his teacup and the plate with his afternoon kolaczki cookies. “Begging is beneath you. You’re a Teszner. We do not beg.”

The violence makes me jump. “I just meant⁠—”

“That’s enough,” he barks out. “You’ll do your duty for this family like the rest of us. Now get out of my sight.”

Blinded by my tears, I stumble from the study.

“And close the door behind you,” my father calls after me. “I’ve had enough disruptions for one day.”

Suppressing the urge to slam the door, which will only earn me a punishment, I do as my father commands.

My mother waits on the other side. “Oh, Tiana.” Her soft blue eyes are brimming with tears. “I’m so sorry.”

It takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to melt down. “Did you know?”

Averting her eyes, she nods. “For a couple of months or so. I did my best to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen.”

She tries to hug me, but I dodge her embrace and rush across the foyer.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >132

Advertisement Callous Desire (New York Underworld #4) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/callous-desire-new-york-underworld-4-read-online-charmaine-pauls Wed, 13 May 2026 18:55:11 +0000 https://www.books2020.com/callous-desire-new-york-underworld-4-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Dark, Mafia Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: New York Underworld Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >111

His weapon is seduction, the battlefield between his sheets, and cruel betrayal the blade he plunges deep.

My mother raised me on knights in shining armor and happily-ever-afters. She groomed me to be the perfect mafia princess. It was only natural that I’d believe in fairy tales.

Only, I didn’t fall for the prince.
I fell in love with my father’s enemy.

I’ve never deluded myself about the man Dante is. Powerful. Cold. Ruthless. Brutal. Bad doesn’t come close to describing him. But when he held me in his arms in a rented room, he showed me that he could be good. Just for me. He always chained the monster when I was pinned beneath him, at my most vulnerable and exposed, in the most dangerous place I could be.

The darkness I glimpsed in him is embedded in his soul, coloring his heart and world black. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I lost myself to a callous man. I just couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that his seduction was only part of a cruel strategy and that I was nothing but the pawn he used for his revenge.

Callous Desire is the first book in the Callous Duet and ends on a cliffhanger. Tatiana and Dante's story concludes in Callous Love. The duet is part of the dark mafia romance New York Underworld series (Books 4 & 5). You don't have to read the other books in the series to follow this duet

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter

One

Tatiana

* * *

Unease creeps up on me as I peer through the window at the red truck parked on the opposite side of the street. The shiny bodywork and flashy wheel caps stand out in a neighborhood where people don’t polish their cars. It’s almost as if the owner wants to attract attention, which would be a good sign for me. If someone were on my tail, that person would’ve tried to blend in with the less fancy and not-so-expensive vehicles lining the curbs and driveways.

Still, I can’t help but steal a worried glance at Noah, who’s making fighter jet noises while flying a paper plane through the lounge.

Abandoning my task of packing chipped porcelain figurines into a box, I call to the back of the house.

“Jazz?”

I’m grateful for the sheer curtains that allow me to see outside but prevent others from seeing in. I hate that I’m like this, spooked by a vehicle simply because it seems out of place and the driver has shown up around the same time for the past two days. For all I know, the neighbor is having an affair, and the truck belongs to her lover. But being suspicious has become a part of my nature.

My best friend walks through the doorway that connects to the corridor, bogged down by the weight of the box in her arms. “Please tell me it’s knock off time.” She drops the box on top of the other ten or so stacked in the middle of the floor and dusts her hands on her jeans. “I’ve had my quota of sorting through messy papers for one day.” She twists a mass of cherry-brown curls into a bun on her head and secures it with a scrunchy that she pulls off her wrist. “Has your client never heard of filing or shredding? Some invoices date back twenty years. Don’t get me started on all those moth-eaten magazines from before I was born. Who keeps magazines for fifty years? At least the study is done. I’ll need a whole lot of caffeine before we tackle the basement, and I’m talking the good Colombian stuff and not that cheap replacement you call coffee.”

Noah runs a circle around my legs. “Whooossshhhh!”

He doesn’t seem to pay us attention, but I’ve learned that kids’ brains are like little computers that can store everything that comes out of your mouth, even when they’re watching Looney Tunes with a bad, tinny sound blasting from an old, fat-belly television, so I’m careful to lower my voice. “Have you seen the red truck parked out front?”

“Yeah.” She blows a stray curl from her forehead. “Don’t sweat it. I’ve already checked it out. Those snazzy wheels belong to a guy doing a handyman job for the neighbors.”

Alarm quickens my breathing. “Did you speak to the neighbor?”

She grimaces. “Not exactly.”

Hold on. I hope she didn’t do what I think she did.

My heart speeds up. “You spoke to him?”

“I just said hi when I took out the trash.”

I press a palm on my forehead. No. No way. “You asked what he was doing here?”

She props her hands on her hips. “I may have squeezed that question in between, ‘Hello. Nice ride,’ and⁠—”

“Jazz!” I exclaim under my breath. “You’re not supposed to talk to anyone. Please tell me you didn’t give him your name.”

Noah clambers onto a box, flying his plane higher. I step closer, ready to catch him if he loses his balance.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >111

Advertisement Dark Prince’s Mate – A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls Read Online Anna Zaires, Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/dark-princes-mate-a-realm-of-dragons-scrolls-read-online-anna-zaires-charmaine-pauls Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:08:55 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/dark-princes-mate-a-realm-of-dragons-scrolls-read-online-anna-zaires-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Dark, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Authors: Anna Zaires, Charmaine Pauls Advertisement

Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >93

I thought nothing was worse than dying. Then I discovered there are things that hurt an awful lot more than chemo—like getting your heart trampled on by the insanely powerful superhuman prince who claims you’re his mate. Right after we consummated the mating, no less.

Well, he can have a nice life. The moment an opportunity presents itself, I’m out of here.

I just need to locate someone who’ll portal me back to Earth before he finds me

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter 1

Elsie

The warmth of the soft sand beneath my back is welcome in the cool, dry air. The weather isn’t warm and humid like I’ve grown used to in Lona, and instead of smelling like moss and flowers, the breeze carries a stale, salty scent.

Goosebumps run over my arms under the light fabric of my shirt. I stretch out to better soak up the pleasant heat from the sunbaked beach. Squinting at the misty glare of the white sun, I study the colorless sky. There’s not a pterosaur or cloud in sight.

I’m lying on the shore of a small silver lake with gargantuan trees all around it. The star-shaped leaves are so delicate they’re almost transparent. They catch the pale light twinkling on the branches and sparkling in the reflection of the water. The fallen leaves glitter like a lacy carpet of cobwebs on the ground. The lake isn’t deep because the same trees dot the surface, standing up to their knobby roots in the water.

Betty, my quetzalcoatlus friend, sits close by in the shade of a palm tree, which is such a deep green it almost looks black. She watches me sulkily, her gaze flitting between my face and the weird tadpole-ish thing she’s plucked from the water and tossed next to me. It looks like a giant sperm with catfish barbels and two disproportionately miniscule lizard feet at the front.

“Nope,” I tell Betty. “I’m not going to eat that.”

She extends her giraffe-like neck and pokes the beige-brown, slimy glob with her beak. It wobbles like jelly.

Eww. And I’m definitely not eating it raw.

The tadpole hisses and slashes its tail viciously through the air, kicking up sand as it hits the ground.

“You’d better throw it back in the water.” At the almost dejected way in which Betty hangs her head, I add quickly, “But thanks for wanting to feed me. I appreciate it all the same.”

She lifts her long lashes, blinks innocently with those soft, big eyes, and unceremoniously gobbles up the tadpole.

Gross.

I suppress a shudder as she tucks her head beneath a wing to doze off in the hollow she’s scrubbed for herself in the sand. After a moment, I follow her example and interlink my fingers behind my head to make myself more comfortable and finally process what has happened.

I flew.

I freaking flew.

On a dinosaur’s back, no less.

The knowledge is so unreal and exhilarating that it still feels like a dream.

How much distance did we cover? I have no idea. I only know we were in the air for a long time. The landscape changed from stark iron-blue cliffs and foamy white-capped seas to rolling hills of succulent grass and tree-studded lakes. The vegetation slowly grew denser and darker until it turned into a jungle. We landed in a small clearing next to the water so that Betty could eat and drink. I sensed she was getting tired.

If anyone back home had told me I’d fly across a strange world on a quetzalcoatlus’s back, I would’ve laughed in their faces. How is this even possible? All I had to do to steer Betty in a specific direction was to think where I wanted her to go. Back at the palace, I only had to reach out to her with my mind, and there she was, landing on the balcony.

The strange power zapping like currents of electricity under my skin is responsible for this ability. It’s hard to believe that a short while ago, I lay in a hospital bed in Cleveland, Ohio, while my parents grieved in a corner as a doctor told me I was dying. Just as I was mourning my impending mortality, a circle of lights appeared, and I was sucked onto a different planet, an Earth-like world in what I figure must be a parallel universe. A world where lizard people would’ve gang-raped me and sold me as a slave if a darkly handsome prince with a terrible power hadn’t saved me, claiming that I was his mate.

I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. I’ve been too preoccupied with staying on Betty’s back to dwell on what happened with Aruan, but now I can’t help myself.

We had sex. He took my V-card, only to treat me with a cold, cruel indifference in the aftermath.

My chest tightens as I relive those terrible moments.

He must’ve hated the sex.

For all his claims that I’m fated to be his, we’re clearly not compatible as mates.

At the time, I was too overwhelmed to think clearly. I simply had to get away. What I’ve done only hits me now.

I escaped.

Holy fuck.

I actually did it.

This is what I wanted. This is what I set out to do from the moment I arrived on Zerra and doubly so when I found out that my presence could be dangerous for this strange, beautiful world. So why do I feel so down, so disturbingly… forlorn at the thought of putting distance between me and Aruan? Sure, we had sex. But it wasn’t like we made love. It was more like “let’s rip each other’s clothes off and just get it over with.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >93

Advertisement Dark Prince’s Captive (A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls #1) Read Online Anna Zaires, Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/dark-princes-captive-a-realm-of-dragons-scrolls-1-read-online-anna-zaires-charmaine-pauls Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:15:51 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/dark-princes-captive-a-realm-of-dragons-scrolls-1-read-online-anna-zaires-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Authors: Anna Zaires, Charmaine Pauls Series: A Realm of Dragons & Scrolls Series by Anna Zaires
Series: Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >74

One minute, I'm in a hospital, about to kick the bucket, and the next, I’m in a weird jungle teeming with ridiculously oversized bugs and demon-like lizard people determined to enslave me. Nope, I didn’t die. And no, sadly, it’s not a hallucination.

I'm pretty sure it's going to end badly, but then a darkly gorgeous, terrifying man steps through a portal and dissolves the lizard dudes where they stand before carrying me away.

Apparently, he's a prince with scary superpowers… and I'm his fated mate.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter 1

Elsie

“Ms. Barnikoff… I’m terribly sorry to tell you this, but your heart is failing.”

“Uh-huh.” I return my attention to my laptop, on which my Greek Lit paper is taunting me with its awkwardly worded third sentence. “Go on.”

Dr. Moore clears his throat. “Ms. Barnikoff—Elisa—I’m not sure if you heard me⁠—”

“Call me Elsie, please.”

I correct the sentence and look up in time to see the doctor throw a confused glance at my mom, who’s quietly wiping away tears in the corner. My dad, standing next to her, is stoic as always, but even he looks paler and stiffer than usual, which is already pretty pale and stiff.

I sigh and close my laptop, giving my full attention to the doctor—a slim, youngish man who looks like he’s desperately wishing he were anywhere but in this hospital room in Cleveland, delivering this news to us.

I feel bad for him. Almost as bad as I feel for my parents. Which is why I paste a smile on my face and say, “It’s okay. Just give it to me straight. Am I dying?”

He nods grimly. “Unfortunately, due to your medical history, you’re not a candidate for a transplant.”

That’s nothing I didn’t already know. “How long do I have?”

He winces. “Weeks. Possibly days.”

Mom lets out a sniffle, and Dad wraps an arm around her, pulling her closer.

“Gotcha,” I say and open my laptop. “I’d better hurry and get this paper done then. It’s due in two weeks.”

Dr. Moore looks like a guppy as he opens his mouth and closes it several times. “Ms. Barnikoff—Elsie—I’m not sure if you⁠—”

“Oh, no, I get it, really. I just have work to do, that’s all.” I turn my attention to the screen in front of me, ignoring the erratic rhythm of the dying organ in my chest and the fatigue threatening to fog up my brain.

There’s a long minute of silence, during which I correct another sentence in my paper while Mom sniffles some more. Finally, Dr. Moore says in a strained voice, “If you don’t have any questions, I’ll leave you three to talk it over.”

“Thank you! You were very helpful,” I call after him as he exits the room, closing the door behind him.

It’s important to be gentle with doctors. They suffer greatly when delivering bad news.

Mom’s sniffles grow louder as she approaches my hospital bed. She perches on the edge and reaches for my computer. “Elsie…” Her blue eyes are red-rimmed and swollen. “Darling, why don’t you let me take that and⁠—”

“No.” I snap the computer closed again and stuff it under my blanket. The slender laptop weighs a pound and a half at most, yet moving it tires me out—yet another sign that Dr. Moore isn’t lying. Not that I have any reason to think he is.

Between the never-ending cough, the dizziness, the nausea, the heart palpitations, and the swollen legs, I have all the symptoms of heart failure, and I’ve known it for a while, which is why I resisted coming to the hospital for so long.

“Darling, please…” Mom lays her hand over the blanket covering my laptop. “I know how dedicated you are to your studies, but that’s not what’s important right now. You should⁠—”

“What, travel? See the world? Eat all the food that makes me vomit?” My tone is sharper than I intend, but I can’t help it.

My parents have been on a mission to make me “live” ever since this all started, a.k.a. since I was in diapers. If they’d had their way, I wouldn’t have attended school or done anything other than frantically grasp at experiences that are, at best, uncomfortable and, at worst, fucking agonizing for someone with my physical limitations. They can’t seem to comprehend the fact that my body does not want me to have fun or enjoy life in any way, shape, or form. My best bet at a semblance of happiness is escaping into my mind, which is exactly what I do when I focus on my studies.

I may only have a few days left on this earth, but I’ll be damned if I spend them moping about my fate and gazing at the sunset or whatever. I have a fucking paper to finish.

Mom must realize she’s not going to win this fight, so she sniffles a bit more, kisses my forehead, and stands up. “Okay, darling, whatever you want.”

“You are the strongest girl we know,” Dad says gruffly, coming to stand next to Mom. “If there’s anything you need⁠—”

“I’ll be fine tonight.” I cough and pull out my laptop from under the blanket, doing my best not to show how much effort the movement entails. “Thank you, guys. I love you.”

“We love you too,” Mom says, wiping at her wet face. “So, so much. We’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay,” I say and blow them an air kiss. “Bye.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >74

Advertisement Coerced Queen (New York Underworld #3) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/coerced-queen-new-york-underworld-3-read-online-charmaine-pauls Thu, 19 Dec 2024 11:51:32 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/coerced-queen-new-york-underworld-3-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Crime, Dark, Mafia Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: New York Underworld Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >131

My husband will never love me, but I’m in this now until death do us part.

The man who threatened to carry me over his shoulder down the aisle and marry me at knifepoint is both my captor and my liberator. He makes me weak and strong at the same time.

Before, he didn’t give me an option. Now, there’s a choice. But he’s determined to push me away.

If I’m wise, I’ll take that freedom and run for my life. Because the heart of the man who captured and saved me will always belong to the woman who broke it. The man who calls himself my husband will never be mine.

Only, there is no choice for me any longer. It’s way too late to walk away.

I’m in this war now … until death do us part.

Coerced Queen is Book 3 in the dark mafia romance trilogy, New York Underworld, and concludes Anya and Saverio's story. Coerced Kiss (Book 1) and Coerced Wife (Book 2) must be read first.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Previously in Coerced Wife

New York Underworld, Book 2

At a wedding Anya attends with Saverio, she learns that he’s recently divorced, a fact he omitted to mention. She can only guess the reason he doesn’t talk about it is because his feelings for his ex-wife are still too raw.

In the meantime, Anya works hard to ensure a good future for her unborn baby. Saverio may pay her bills for now, but when their fake engagement comes to an end, she’d still be left alone in the world to take care of her baby and her mother. While doing filing in the vault, she discovers a strange key that her boss hid there minutes before Saverio killed him for stealing mafia money. She looks for similar keys to figure out what it unlocks but comes up empty-handed.

After the murder of Anya’s boss, his widow, who never liked her, takes over. She decides to cut costs in the firm and, when Anya’s probation period comes to an end, she doesn’t offer her a permanent position.

Saverio sees Anya’s unemployment as an opportunity to protect Anya from his boss, Luigi, by making her indispensable as their new bookkeeper. After all, they still haven’t appointed a new bookkeeper, and as he recently discovered, Anya is a genius with numbers. Anya doesn’t have a choice but to accept the role. In order to prove to Luigi that she’s loyal to Saverio, he forces her to marry him before her child is born, and he’s adamant about adopting her baby.

Anya digs in her heels, but nothing she can do will prevent the marriage from happening. To her dismay, her feelings for Saverio become muddled. On the one hand, he’s her captor, and on the other, he’s oddly sweet with her, doing everything in his power to make her happy. In public, he treats her like a queen. At home, he takes care of her every need.

Yet he makes it clear that he’ll carry her down the aisle and marry her at knifepoint if that’s what it takes. It’s confusing, and it doesn’t make sense. Yes, he needs an alibi, and yes, he wants her for sex, but then Anya discovers another secret that Saverio has been hiding from her, and suddenly she understands why he’s pushing so hard to marry her. Saverio is infertile, and their marriage is his only chance at having a child.

Devastated to learn the extent of Saverio’s deceit, that he went as far as he did not for her but to steal her baby, Anya prepares for a wedding she doesn’t want but is helpless to stop. Just after the priest declares them husband and wife, the church doors burst open, and attackers start firing into the crowd. Saverio uses his body as a shield to protect Anya. The bullets that tear into his back shake his body as if he’s caught in a hailstorm. They go down to the floor as a hand grenade rolls down the aisle and Saverio tells Anya that she’s going to be an amazing mother. The last thing she sees before the explosion is his devastatingly handsome face.

Chapter

One

Saverio

* * *

“Respiratory rate twenty per minute.”

“Pulse one hundred. Blood pressure eighty-five over fifty.”

Bright overhead lights roll by fast. My stomach roils. I retch, swallow blood.

Can’t breathe.

“What happened?”

“Hand grenade.”

“Fuck.”

“At his wedding.”

“Where’s the wife?”

“Took her to maternity. She’s pregnant. Eight months. Water broke.”

“Fuck.”

I try to flex my fingers, to reach for the guy running next to me, but my limbs are useless. Dead weight.

My wife.

I want to speak, to demand they fucking tell me she’s all right, but my lips won’t cooperate. Around those white moving lights, the edges of the picture bleed red. The ruby darkness creeps in with every laboring breath that rattles my lungs. It doesn’t help that I can’t see shit through my right eye. I fight that sea of blood that slowly washes in like a tide, but the vision in my left eye turns in and out of focus. Mostly out of focus.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >131

Advertisement Coerced Wife (New York Underworld #2) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/coerced-wife-new-york-underworld-2-read-online-charmaine-pauls Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:23:15 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/coerced-wife-new-york-underworld-2-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Erotic, Mafia Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: New York Underworld Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >83

He offers me protection, but the bed of a killer isn’t a safe place to be.

I got myself in a predicament. Powerful people on both sides of the law want me dead. A killer needs me alive for his own selfish reasons, reasons I never could’ve imagined in my wildest dreams.

I’m not safe in the bed of a cold–blooded murderer, but I don’t have a choice. On the one hand, he offers me protection, and on the other, he tightens the noose.

I’m caught in his web of lies and deceit. Every truth that’s uncovered destroys me a little more. But he’s already injected me with his venomous seduction.

Before I know it, he’ll swallow me whole.

Coerced Wife is Book 2 of the New York Underworld trilogy. Coerced Kiss (Book 1) must be read first. Anya and Saverio's story concludes in Coerced Queen (Book 3).

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER

ONE

Anya

The dress Saverio chose for the wedding we’re attending fits snugly over my curves. He told me it was perfect when I tried it on in the boutique, but I find it too tight.

I turn from side to side, studying my reflection in the dressing room mirror. The red silk shows off the roundness of my stomach. The halter neck exposes my shoulders while leaving my back bare. It’s impossible to wear a bra, and my nipples are clearly visible.

I don’t know the dress code for family weddings, but the gown definitely shows too much skin.

Saverio walks into the room, wearing a modern three-piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a silver tie. The jacket and slacks are the latest fashion, accentuating the bulk of his muscles. As always, his only jewelry is the small gold hoop in his ear and the smartwatch on his wrist.

My mouth goes dry as I take him in, how powerful and fearless of both life and death he seems as he stalks toward me, but the hunger that sparks in his eyes when he cuts a path over me with his gaze makes my belly flip. He can reduce big men to shivering puddles with one, cutting glance. Those icy blue eyes that he trains like weapons on others never melt for anyone. I’ve never seen him look at another person with kindness, admiration, or affection. When he interacts with people, his expression is either neutral or threatening.

Yet with me, it’s different.

When he walks to me with the purposeful stride of a hunter, the frost melts and the magnificent blue of those pools warms to the color of a summer sky.

It’s been like this ever since I admitted I won’t shoot him. He proved the point by fucking me with a gun laying right next to me, within my grasp. I won’t kill him even if he puts the weapon in my hands himself.

Why?

Because without him, I’m dead. He’s both my jailor and my protector.

I don’t speak when he stops in front of me. My brain is incapable of forming words. I’m too busy processing this new development—that my captor gives me something he gives no one else. It shouldn’t make me feel special, but my heart has been at war with my mind since the day Saverio crashed into my life. The most shocking part is that I like this feeling of being favored. God knows, I’ve never been favored, not even by my mother. The only person who treated me as if I weren’t trash was Livy.

He cups my hips between his broad palms and stares down at me like a man possessed by the sight in front of him. “You look like a goddess, tesoro.”

Any reservations I had about the dress fly out the window. My heartbeat picks up, keeping time in my temples. Saverio makes me feel many things. Fear, for starters. Uncertainty. Chaos. But he also makes me feel desirable and cherished. Powerful. Strong.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I belong, and despite the many wrongs of belonging to him, deep in my heart, it feels right too, like this is exactly where I want to be. A part of me wants to submit to this uncontrollable frenzy, no matter the consequences. He makes me so drunk on him that I don’t care about the price I’ll pay when this folly crashes and burns to ashes around us. All I want at this moment is him.

That’s why I don’t protest when he brushes his knuckles over a nipple, turning the tip into a hard point that changes the way the fabric drapes over my body. It turns from elegant to erotic, the shape of my naked breasts a portrait painted in red.

“Anya,” he says with a growl as he fixes his attention on the points that extend almost painfully.

My breasts are so sensitive even the soft caress of the silk sends a sharp arrow of desire straight to my core.

When he says, “Turn around and kneel on the bench,” I don’t argue.

I don’t waste time in denying the inevitable any longer. I’m as invested in this game as he is. I can walk away from it now as little as he can. We’re trapped in this insanity, and our only choice is to see it through to the end.

He spins me around when I don’t move immediately, his impatience raw and palpable. I need another minute because the moment is huge. It’s a turning point for me. Instead of fighting a losing battle, I embrace the new craziness of my life. I haven’t realized how inhibited and trapped I felt until now, until I’m soaring with power and freedom as I lift the skirt of the dress and climb onto the bench.

“Eyes forward,” he says.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >83

Advertisement Coerced Kiss (New York Underworld #1) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/coerced-kiss-new-york-underworld-1-read-online-charmaine-pauls Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:04:47 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/coerced-kiss-new-york-underworld-1-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Crime, Dark, Erotic, Mafia Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: New York Underworld Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >114

I’m an alibi for a killer, but he demands so much more than my testimony.

I stumbled across something I wasn’t supposed to discover. I saw something I wasn’t meant to see, and now I’m an alibi for a killer. He’s the most feared and powerful man in the New York underworld. I don’t have a choice but to do as he says.

But he commands so much more than just my testimony.

Anya and Saverio's story continues in Coerced Wife (Book 2) and concludes in Coerced Queen (Book 3).

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER

ONE

Anya

Come on, baby.

Give it to me.

There’s no point in playing hide and seek.

I’m going to find it.

You know I always do.

“You should go home,” someone says, cutting into the one-sided conversation I’m having with my computer in my head.

By the toneless inflection, I know who the owner of the voice is before I look up from my screen.

Mr. Lewis stands in the door frame with his briefcase in his hand. He’s donned his double-breasted summer coat and black Fedora hat. His neck is so short it appears as if his head is attached to his shoulders. Coupled with his ramrod straight pose, he reminds me of those boxy nutcracker dolls that stand at attention. The fact that his face never betrays a hint of emotion adds to the illusion. So does the beard, except that his isn’t white but brown. He doesn’t sport a single gray hair despite being close to sixty. Does he dye the whole works, eyebrows included?

“I’m clocking out.” He checks his watch with a brisk and precise lift of his arm, the movement almost mechanical. “It’s late.”

A glance at the hour on my menu bar confirms it’s close to midnight. The open-plan office I share with three other junior accountants is long since dark and deserted. The only light in the room comes from the bluish glow of the desktop computer.

“You should go,” Mr. Lewis repeats in his impassive manner.

I’ve been so absorbed in my work I didn’t keep track of time. Frowning, I turn my attention back to the spreadsheet on my screen. The credits and debits don’t balance, and I hate leaving a problem unsolved. I never let the numbers win.

“I’ll just be another minute,” I mutter as I do a quick mental calculation.

His reply is neutral, but it’s more distracted than disinterested. “Remember to switch off the lights when you go.”

“’Kay.”

I lift my head when he turns to leave. He carries his average height and thin frame with his habitual air of solemn dignity, but just before the dark hallway swallows his shape, his shoulders curl inward. The cardboard-like outline of his body stoops. The forlorn look is so foreign on him that it gives me pause.

He hasn’t been himself lately. Ever since the two men in their fancy suits walked unannounced into his office a couple of weeks ago, he’s been preoccupied and jittery.

“Mr. Lewis?”

He stops and looks back at me.

“Is everything all right?” I ask carefully, not wanting to overstep my boundaries.

Mr. Lewis is my boss, and he discourages familiarity at the office. He doesn’t share his personal life at work, let alone his problems. His dispassionate bearing makes him unpopular with both the staff and the managers, but I respect him for building this firm from the ground up. He’ll always have my gratitude for giving me an opportunity when no one else would. Fine, he only gave me the job because he owed Livy a favor, but he still took a chance on me.

“Sir?” I probe when he doesn’t answer.

His laugh sounds forced. “Of course.”

I get the message. He doesn’t want to talk about whatever is eating him. That doesn’t stop me from worrying. Besides, if the business is in trouble, it affects me too. I like this job. I need the money, now more than ever.

“If there’s anything I can help with—” I start, but he cuts me short.

“Just doing your job will do. That means nine to five, Ms. Brennan. I don’t pay overtime.”

I open my mouth to tell him I don’t mind, but he doesn’t give me the chance.

“You look tired,” he says.

Only, he’s not looking at me. He’s peering through the window behind me with a nervous twitch of his eyes.

What does he see that makes him so jumpy? I follow his gaze. The Meatpacking District of New York City stretches behind us under a blanket of lights. The top floor of the red-brick building that houses Frank Lewis’s accounting firm looks out over the High Line and the Hudson River in the distance. The prime location alone is proof of his hard-earned success.

His voice reaches me from farther away. “Don’t forget to check that the guard sets the alarm when you leave.”

When I face forward again, he’s crossing the reception area in the dim light of the desk lamp. The click of the door announces his exit.

I chew my nail as I contemplate his uncharacteristic behavior. Judging by the big clients on his books, the firm is thriving. Then again, anything can look good on paper. I know that better than anyone. I hope the business is secure. Without a diploma, I won’t find a similar job anywhere in the city, and I can’t live in Livy’s building without paying rent forever. My position in the firm is nothing but charity. That’s why I’m working three times harder than everyone else. I want to show Mr. Lewis how grateful I am for his faith in me as much as I want to prove that I’m capable. Plus, there’s my professional pride. I don’t like failing. Until my probation period is over, nothing is certain. Once Mr. Lewis has signed my permanent contract, I’ll breathe easier. I’ll make sure he never regrets employing me. I’m not afraid of long hours and hard work.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >114

Advertisement Kisses Like Rain (Corsican Crime Lord #4) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/kisses-like-rain-corsican-crime-lord-4-read-online-charmaine-pauls Fri, 15 Dec 2023 11:43:32 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/kisses-like-rain-corsican-crime-lord-4-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Crime, Dark, Mafia, Suspense Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: Corsican Crime Lord Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 118965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >123

>b>I gave him my innocence and my virtue. I gave him my love and my hate. Is there anything left to give?

Angelo Russo came like a storm into my life and left destruction in his trail. The man who hates me beyond measure is the man who put a ring on my finger and gave me his name. My husband is my worst enemy.

There’s nothing left to salvage from the wreckage of our lives. He married me to destroy me, and he did an outstanding job. He took my innocence and my virtue. I gave him my love and my hate. And just when I think there’s nothing else to give, I realize how wrong I am. What Angelo wants most is the promise of life I carry inside my body. When he’s taken that last piece of me, he’ll crush me with a smile on his beautiful face and wipe my existence from his memory forever.

Note: Kisses Like Rain is the 4th and final book in the Corsican Crime Lord series. You must read Love Like Poison (Book 1), Hate Like Honey (Book 2), and Tears Like Acid (Book 3) first.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Corsican Crime Lord, Book Three

Banished to a house Angelo’s family vandalized and abandoned at the far end of the property, Sabella finds herself isolated and alone in a country she doesn’t know. Heidi convinces Angelo to let her take food, clothes, and bed linen to Sabella. The kind housekeeper is Sabella’s only ally in her new hostile environment.

To her horror, Sabella wakes up with lice. Her only option is walking to the village at the bottom of the valley and asking the pharmacist for help. From the inhabitants’ reactions, she soon realizes that her husband is despised in the village.

On Angelo’s instruction, Heidi brings Sabella back to the old house while the new house is fumigated and cleaned. Angelo has Sabella locked in her room to prevent her from snooping and gathering information she can give to the police while he entertains guests at home. Unable to stay away from his wife, he visits her room after dinner. In the aftermath of the sex that follows, he tells her he wants an heir. When Sabella refuses to bring a child into their turbulent world, he tells her that he won’t give her a choice.

The following morning, Angelo leaves for Marseille to recruit an informant. He wants to know what transpired between Sabella and Lieutenant Lavigne when Lavigne arrested Sabella on false charges. While Angelo makes full use of his wife’s respected name to further his own business, the cuts on Sabella’s feet and knee heal.

Heidi takes Sabella back to the new house where she meets Fabien, Angelo’s personal shopper, who refurbished and decorated the house. They immediately take a liking to each other. When Angelo returns from France that night, Sabella greets him like he ordered—naked and on her knees. She decides to give him obedience and her body but never a child or her heart. Bitter about the fact that he told her she’s not worthy to say his name, she vows to never speak it again.

Sabella continues her secret excursions to the village, sneaking away during the day, and finds a few casual jobs. Her objective is to pay the pharmacist and to stash away a small emergency fund. Slowly but surely, she befriends the locals. When she returns from the village one day, Fabien is waiting with a gown for a fundraiser she has to attend with Angelo. Angelo gets the wrong idea when he walks in on Sabella and Fabien where she tries on the gown in her bedroom. His jealousy erupts. The only reason he doesn’t kill Fabien is because he knows his personal shopper prefers men to women.

After discovering signs of trespassing in and around the house, Sabella manages to lure the person who helped himself to her food from the woods. To her surprise, she discovers that the dirty boy dressed in rags is a girl. On top of that, she’s not just any girl but Angelo’s niece. Sophie tells Sabella that she and her brothers stayed behind when their ‘grandfather’ moved back to his camp in the valley. The children live in a cave and survive by stealing food from the village.

Angelo is shocked to discover Sophie with Sabella. He goes in search of her brothers and find them at the camp with Grandpa, his maternal grandfather. As their parents disappeared, the grandfather agrees to sign over custody to Angelo. Sabella and Angelo disagree about Sophie’s future. Angelo wants to send her to a boarding school in Marseille while Sabella believes it will be a mistake to send the little girl away. Sabella makes a deal with Angelo, promising to help him put an important deal to bed by using her name and influence if he’ll give the local school a try.

At the fundraiser dinner in Paris, Sabella achieves her aim. The shipping company owner agrees to the deal with Angelo. Angelo moves Sophie’s brothers in with him, but it’s not smooth sailing. The three boys are a handful and difficult to handle. It doesn’t help that Angelo feels the strain of constantly being on his guard around his wife. She remains a threat to the family, something his uncles remind him of at every opportunity.

As punishment for his uncles’ suggestion that Angelo kills his wife, he orders them to kneel and prove their loyalty to him as the head of the crime organization. He orders his cousins to guard the new house. The babysitting duty is a demotion designed to put them back in their place.

As Angelo’s cousins don’t inform him of Sophie’s presence at the new house, he realizes that they’re either not doing their jobs or purposefully emitting some facts. He orders his guards to watch his uncles as well as his cousins.

During a walk, Sabella and Sophie stumble upon a graveyard with three gravestones. Sabella instantly knows who were put there to rest. Angelo shows up with Heidi. The fact that Angelo knew where to find them tells Sabella her husband is having her watched.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >123

Advertisement Tears Like Acid (Corsican Crime Lord #3) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/tears-like-acid-corsican-crime-lord-3-read-online-charmaine-pauls Sun, 12 Nov 2023 07:05:21 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/tears-like-acid-corsican-crime-lord-3-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Crime, Dark, Mafia, Suspense Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: Corsican Crime Lord Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >97

We’re destined to destroy each other, but we’re going to finish this game, no matter how long or what it takes.

In my line of business, every day dawns with the smell of death in the air. But it’s not a bullet that’s going to slay me. It’s Sabella, the woman who was promised to me, the woman who betrayed me.

I hate and want her in equal measure, an agonizing situation of my own making. We’re heading down a path of destruction, but there’s no turning back. At the first chance she gets, she’ll stab me in the back again. She’s a dangerous risk and a threat to my family. If I were wise, I’d eliminate that risk and leave her funeral to the sharks. I must be an idiot, because I’m going to finish what I started, no matter the cost.

Note: Tears Like Acid is the 3rd book in the Corsican Crime Lord series. Love Like Poison (Book 1) and Hate Like Honey (Book 2) must be read first. Sabella and Angelo's story concludes in Kisses Like Rain (Book 4). The story contains scenes not recommended for sensitive readers. Reader discretion is advised.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Previously in Hate Like Honey

Corsican Crime Lord, Book Two

After the tragic car accident that claimed the lives of Angelo’s mother and sister, Angelo learns that Benjamin Edwards, Sabella’s father, paid their mechanic to cut the brake cables. Ben’s target was Angelo and his father, Santino. Santino and Angelo swear revenge.

Roch, the bodyguard Angelo employed to protect Sabella, shares the shocking news of the tragic deaths of Angelo’s family with Sabella. When she asks her brother, Ryan, about it, he tells her to mind her own business.

Growing increasingly concerned about her father’s withdrawal and absent-minded behavior, Sabella pays him a surprise visit at the office, only to walk in on a gruesome scene. Santino Russo stands over the body of her father, and Angelo is crouched next to him, holding a gun in his gloved hand.

After rendering her unconscious, Angelo informs Ryan of the turn of events. Sabella wakes up to find Ryan on the murder scene. When she urges him to call the authorities, he tells her that they can’t involve the police. Their father commissioned the hit on Santino and Angelo, which by an unforeseen turn of events claimed the lives of the mother and sister. They have to stage their father’s death as a suicide.

Sabella faints as a result of the shock. During the next two days, Ryan bribes a doctor to keep her in an induced coma for her body and brain to recover from the trauma. Santino returns to Corsica, but Angelo remains in South Africa in case damage control is necessary. When he learns that Sabella has been admitted to hospital, he slips into her room at night.

Angelo’s visits to take care of Sabella manifests in her dreams. When she wakes up, her family is present. Ryan confesses the true nature of their illegal business. Unable to share the terrible truth with anyone, the burden and guilt weigh her down. In an effort to expel the emotions torturing her, she swims out far to sea.

Roch saves her from almost drowning. In a fight that ensues, Angelo orders Roch to return to Corsica for verbally assaulting and pushing Sabella. The confrontation between Sabella and Angelo turns violent, and in the heated argument that follows, their passion gets out of hand.

Sabella hates herself for succumbing to her desire for Angelo again, especially after what had happened. While her family is arranging the funeral, they learn more devastating news. Sabella’s father had a second family that he kept secret from them. At the reading of his will, they meet his mistress and their half-sister. The betrayal cuts Sabella deep. She starts doubting her relationship with her father, not sure what was real.

Concern about Sabella’s near-drowning drives Angelo to seek her doctor’s advice. Could the incident be seen as an attempted suicide? The doctor advises Angelo not to submit Sabella to more stress. He declares that it won’t be conducive to her mental state to move her to Corsica so soon. Eager to finally claim his betrothed and marry her, Angelo is faced with a dilemma. In the midst of having to make a decision, his uncle calls with bad news. Santino had a heart attack. Angelo returns home, leaving Sabella behind once more.

Ryan takes over the business in George. He moves back into the big house with Celeste, his wife, and their son, Brad, to be close to his mother after the ordeal. As Sabella can no longer board with Ryan and Celeste while attending university in Cape Town, Ryan rents her a beautiful villa in Camps Bay.

In the meantime, Angelo is slowly unraveling. At his father’s funeral, he fires Roch for assaulting his future bride. The construction of the new house on his property is complete. He makes arrangements to have his late mother’s poor family moved into the luxurious dwelling. While biding his time to bring Sabella home, he ruthlessly grows the business into a global empire.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >97

Advertisement Hate Like Honey (Corsican Crime Lord #2) Read Online Charmaine Pauls http://www.books2020.com/hate-like-honey-corsican-crime-lord-2-read-online-charmaine-pauls Mon, 09 Oct 2023 12:39:53 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/hate-like-honey-corsican-crime-lord-2-read-online-charmaine-pauls Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, Mafia, Suspense Authors: Charmaine Pauls Series: Corsican Crime Lord Series by Charmaine Pauls
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >94

The price I paid to claim her cost me too dearly to ever let her go.

A deal sealed with a handshake promised she’d be mine. A broken vow ripped her from my future. I made unspeakable sacrifices to claim what rightfully belongs to me. After all the blood I shed in her name, the bond that ties us is hatred. The war cost us both dearly, but the price we paid won’t be in vain. I’ll never let her go.

If she thinks she can escape her destiny, she hasn’t seen the worst of me yet.
If she thinks she knows the devil in me, she’s about to meet the monster.

Hate Like Honey is the second book in the Corsican Crime Lord series and ends on a cliffhanger. Sabella and Angelo's story continues in Tears Like Acid, Book Three.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Corsican Crime Lord, Book One

On Sabella Edwards’s sixteenth birthday, she meets the enigmatic twenty-year-old Angelo Russo who shows up uninvited at her party. He’s dark and breathless like the ocean, the one thing she loves most in the world. Their attraction is instantaneous, but her father, Ben, orders her to stay away from Angelo. Ben claims that Angelo is from a bad family. Little does she know that her father promised to marry her to the powerful crime lord and that Angelo traveled across half of the world to meet his future bride.

Angelo manipulates Sabella’s mother into letting her keep a rescued cat. This gift means more to Sabella than the priceless gold and diamond bracelet the Russos offered her. During an intense farewell the following morning, Angelo tells Sabella that all her firsts are his. He orders her to wait for him, asking her to be patient, but refrains from telling her about the marriage contract.

When Ben refuses to acknowledge the oath he made, Angelo sets out to claim what’s owed to him, including not only a portion of the shares and voting rights in Ben’s company, but also the woman destined to be his. In order to bend Ben to his will, Angelo schemes to steal a book that contains evidence of bribes Ben made to high-ranking criminals and government officials.

Angelo gifts Sabella a phone that she keeps secret. During the next year, they have regular contact. A solid relationship develops over the distance. One year later, Angelo is back on the day of Sabella’s birthday. She lets him into the house when her family is asleep. In exchange for her first kiss, Angelo gives her his signet ring and instructs her to never remove it. When Sabella dozes off, Angelo uses the opportunity to steal the book.

Sabella is devastated when she learns the truth. She confronts Angelo at his hotel, only to discover that Angelo is having her watched. She throws his ring back at him, telling him she never wants to see him again, but he threatens to brand the insignia on her skin if she doesn’t wear the ring. No matter how hard she tries to escape the dangerous Corsican, her efforts are futile. Even though Angelo returns to his home thousands of kilometers across the sea, he effectively controls her life.

Deciding that Angelo was bluffing, Sabella flirts with an older boy at her friend’s birthday party, only for Roch, the man Angelo employed to keep an eye on Sabella, to throw the young man into the pool. The web spins tighter around her until she’s consumed with anxiety and fear.

On her eighteenth birthday, she suggests losing her virginity with her best friend and neighbor, Colin Taylor, but Colin and Sabella have grown apart since Colin hooked up with his girlfriend. Colin rejects the offer, informing Sabella he’s no longer a virgin. Her isolation from her friends and her slow withdrawal from the world is complete. A little intoxicated during her party, Sabella finally reaches a breaking point and flushes Angelo’s ring down the toilet.

The same night, Angelo shows up to claim another first. In a spiteful effort to even the score, Sabella lies about having given her virginity to someone else. The sex that follows is angry and vengeful but no less explosive. To punish her for removing his ring, Angelo renders her unconscious and brands her with his family emblem.

Sabella is woken to incredible sex and a permanent brand on her skin. Despite Angelo’s insistence to go public with their relationship, Sabella doesn’t want her family to know that she betrayed them not once but twice, first by allowing Angelo to steal her father’s book in order to blackmail him into signing over his shares, and then by sleeping with their enemy. She returns the Ferrari Angelo gives her for her birthday, inviting his irk.

While Angelo returns home and finalizes the planning of his marriage to Sabella in the European summer, Sabella enrolls into university to study marine biology, still unaware of Angelo’s intentions.

The Edwards family goes through an eventful period with the birth of Sabella’s nephew as well as her sister’s wedding. Sabella’s sister falls pregnant shortly after. Her family is far from perfect, but, despite the growing tension between her parents and her father’s preoccupied behavior, Sabella feels a sense of belonging when they gather for her brother’s birthday celebration. For once, everyone seems happy.

In the meantime, in the Russo household, the preparations for the summer wedding are in full swing. The garden has been transformed and the wedding dress delivered. On their way to sample the wedding cake, Angelo’s mother and his twin sister are killed in an accident when his mother loses control of the car and drives off a cliff. Angelo knows his enemies are behind the accident, their real target having been his father.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >94