Satin Sinner - A Mafia Romance

I walked in on my fiancé sleeping with my maid of honor... On the day of our wedding. I did what anyone would do: Threw my ring in his face and found somewhere quiet to cry. But then something else happened. Something unexpected. In that quiet place... Someone found me. Anton Stepanov is like something out of a dream. Scratch that: out of a nightmare. He's rich as sin, arrogant as heck, and way too handsome for his own good. He's also way too handsome for mine. So when he offers me his hand and a way out of the worst day of my life, I do the only thing I can do: I say yes. That's how I ended up on his yacht. That's how I ended up in his bed. That's how I ended up pregnant with his baby.

Chapters

Chapter 4

"On my wedding day. Today."

She winces. "Fuck. I'm so sorry. That's rough."

My eyes flit back to the rectangular windows. Anton is sitting in the same spot he's been in all night. He's got one leg cocked at an angle over his other knee, arms spread out over the white cushioned sofa.

Only a certain kind of man can look quite so relaxed and on guard at the same time. Like he's fully aware that the entire world is at his fingertips for the taking.

"You deserve a medal for being here at all," the blonde says.

But what she really means is, What's wrong with you? She's looking at me as though I have some sort of terminal illness.

"Not really. Cooking always calms me down. I feel positively peaceful right now."

I notice the two women exchange a look, but their opinions barely touch me. No one can. I'm marooned on a desert island, emotionally-speaking.

Or at least, I'd like to be.

Probably why I've been ignoring my phone since the moment I set foot on The Medusa. It's resting on the corner of the spice shelf over the stove. I'm vaguely aware of the display light flashing with new notifications. But I have no interest in checking any of them.

"I'm changing the main course up a bit," I announce, taking advantage of their shock. "We're still going to use the fish, but I'm going to pan fry instead of sous vide. We don't have the time to waste."

"Whatever you want, chef."

"One more thing," I say, unable to avoid it any longer. "Can you repeat your names for me again?" "Molly," the brunette says.

"Lisa," answers the blonde.

Neither woman seems to take offense, thankfully.

I nod. "Lisa, I'm going to need you to watch the onions. Tell me when they turn golden brown. Molly, keep an eye on the sauce while I pinbone the fish."

I leave them to their tasks and move around the kitchen, checking to make sure all three courses are moving along. I was told dinner needed to be served at eight o'clock and we're already at half past seven, so I need to keep things moving.

Two of the other staff look up at me with interest-and some wariness mixed in, too-when I step over to their station.

"Can you chop those scallions a little finer, please?" I ask the skinny bald one. "Yes, chef."

"Andy, right?" I check.

"Anders."

"Right, sorry. Anders."

He points at the other man. "And this is Cory."

I nod towards the plump, older man. He seems to prefer quiet while cooking. I'm of the same mind.

"Cory," I say, "I've decided to make penne instead of ravioli. But don't worry, we're going to use the same dough."

He nods deferentially and opens his mouth to say something when we hear footsteps on the gleaming mahogany stairs that lead down to the kitchen.

Yulian stoops down and peers through the door. His eyes find me instantly. "Chef Jessa, you're wanted on the deck."

I blink in surprise. "Me?"

He nods. "You."

I want to refuse. There's too much to do and there's a lot of money on the line. But I don't want to disappoint anyone, either. Least of all Anton.

Something tells me he's not the kind of guy who likes being disappointed.

I move over to the stove and lift the lid on the stock pot. Steam pours out, followed by the delicious, brothy smell of the soup.

I turn down the fire and look at Molly. "Leave it to settle for ten minutes then ladle out two spoons into each soup bowl. Once those onions have caramelized, sprinkle one tablespoon over each of the soups. Got it?"

"Got it, chef," she says with a crisp nod. But her eyes keep drifting to Yulian.

I don't bother removing my chef's whites as I head upstairs behind Yulian. "Was there something wrong with the canapes?" I ask, feeling suddenly nervous.

I'd meant to only send up two different kinds of canapes, but I ended up making four. There was so much fresh seafood and so many choices. I have a tendency to overdo it. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew and compromised the quality.

"The canapes?" Yulian asks, throwing an amused look over his shoulder. "Hardly. Those were the best damn things I've ever put in my mouth."

"Oh. Right. Thanks."

Feeling slightly more confident after that brazen praise, I let him lead me through a darkened nook before we finally resurface.

The ocean looks eerily calm as I step up into the fresh air. A flat plane of dark glass. But it's not enough to hold my attention when I set eyes on Anton. He's leaning against the railing of the yacht now, holding a thin flute of champagne.

"Thanks, Yulian," Anton says, giving his brother a dismissive nod. "That'll be all."

"I'll be below deck if you need anything," Yulian says before immediately disappearing.

I look around, taking note of the fact that we seem to be alone. Then I remember the kitchen windows and look back.

Molly and Lisa are both openly staring at me through the slim pane of glass like we're on a reality TV show. When I turn back to Anton, he gives me a lazy smile and starts walking around to the other side of the yacht, away from the curious eyes that follow us.

"You have admirers below deck," I tell him, mostly to break the silence.

"Does that include you?"

I blink. Cat's got my tongue, apparently.

He saves me by laughing. "Your canapes were extraordinary, Jessa," he says. "The best I've ever eaten."

Warmth floods through my body instantly. "Thank you," I mumble, eyes downcast.

"Your talents are wasted doing corporate catering and one-time gigs. You should be the head chef of your own restaurant."

I rest my hand against the cool metal railing. "That's the dream. But it's not a realistic one, unfortunately."

"Money problems?"

"Isn't it always?"

"For some," he says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Less so for others." Then he offers me the flute of champagne in his hand. "Have a sip."

"Oh, it's fine, I-"

"Have a sip, Jessa." It's not a question.

Like I'm hypnotized-and hell, maybe I am-I find myself accepting the glass and placing my lips against the exact same spot his had rested only a few seconds ago.

I tilt it back. The rich liquid slides down my throat like silk.

"Whoa," I breathe, staring at the glass in my hand.

"1959 Dom Perignon. Good, isn't it?"

I nearly choke on my next breath. It takes everything I have not to bleat out, You must be fucking joking. Because if I remember my wines course from culinary school correctly, a 1959 Dom Perignon champagne runs a casual forty-something grand per bottle.

Who the hell is this guy?

Swallowing back my million and one questions, I just squeak, "Yeah. Incredible."

He nods. It seems like he blinks less than most normal humans. I find myself wishing he'd do it more, if only to give me a break from the piercing intensity of his stormy gray eyes.

"It gets claustrophobic down there sometimes," he remarks. "I thought you might need a little breather."

"Do you do that for everyone on your payroll?" I ask.

"Just the ones that interest me."

"Hate to disappoint, but I'm not that interesting," I say, trying to cover my blush with another sip of the champagne.

Continue to next part

Elena is a determined police officer whose life takes a dangerous turn when she is assigned to go undercover. Her mission is to infiltrate the inner circle of a ruthless and powerful mafia organization. However, the stakes rise as she finds herself entangled in a forbidden romance with the very man she is supposed to bring down. Caught between her professional duty and her growing passion, Elena must navigate a world of violence and betrayal.

Action Mafia Romance

7.5

Betrayed Wife: Saved By The Mafia King

7.5

I was sitting in the obstetrics clinic, rubbing my four-month bump, when a livestream popped up on my phone. It was my husband, Xander, exchanging vows with my illegitimate half-sister, Rissa. The caption read: "The Commission never ratified your marriage. You're just the incubator." My husband and my father had sworn they were at a critical mafia sit-down. But there they were on the screen, laughing. I called Xander. He answered, thinking he was slick, but he forgot to mute the room. "Two more years of acting like a saint," I heard him sneer to his men. "Fucking her is a chore. But she's worth fifty million in clean assets." My marriage was void. My child was considered a bastard by the Mafia code. When I confronted them later at the gala, Rissa threw herself to the ground, screaming that I attacked her. Xander shoved me. Hard. I hit the table, and as blood trickled down my legs, he didn't even look at me. He scooped Rissa up and stepped over my bleeding body like I was trash. They froze my accounts. They hunted me down to a cheap motel, planning to kill me once I signed over the trust fund. I was cornered by a mob in a dirty clinic, waiting for the final blow. But it never came. A hand caught the metal chair mid-air. Killian Qiro, the most dangerous man in Chicago, stood over me. "Who dares?" he growled, his eyes dark with lethal promise. "Who dares call a Qiro child a bastard?" He picked me up from the dirt. "Xander is a dead man walking," he whispered against my hair. "He just doesn't know it yet."

Mafia Modern Romance

7.1

Bound by the Mafia Lord's Gilded Chains

7.1

One look was all it took for the Golden Wolf to mark his prey. To the glittering elite of Milan, Dante Moretti is a god among men, a billionaire mogul whose Midas touch turns every gold future into an empire. But beneath the bespoke Italian suits and the cold, amber eyes lies a monster. Sworn in as the new Capo of the Moretti Syndicate over his father's open casket, Dante is a man who rules with an iron grip and a heart of stone. He doesn't ask for what he wants. He takes it. Then he saw Bianca. Bianca Rossi is a creature of light, an innocent art student who finds beauty in the shadows of Milan's back alleys. She lives for her canvas and her dreams, unaware that a chance encounter in a midnight storm has placed her in the sights of the city's most dangerous predator. Dante doesn't just want her. He is obsessed. Using his billions like a silken web, Dante orchestrates a "gilded cage" for Bianca. From anonymous scholarships to lavish "chance" encounters, he draws her into a world of blood-stained gold and lethal power plays. But Bianca is no porcelain doll. Behind her soft beauty lies a fierce, indomitable spirit that refuses to be bought-or broken. As a brutal war with the Ricci family threatens to burn Milan to the ground, Bianca must choose: flee the man who stalks her dreams, or stand beside the Wolf and become his Queen. In a world where loyalty is paid in blood and love is a lethal weakness, will Dante's possessiveness be their salvation... or their ultimate destruction?

Mafia Modern Romance

8.7

Bound to the Beast Mafia Boss

8.7

I make my living binding monsters to their promises. But Silas Malphas is the one monster I never should have touched. As a Thread-Binder, I can see the glowing, invisible strings of loyalty, debt, and lies connecting everyone in the city's supernatural underworld. It makes me the ultimate contract lawyer-and the perfect infiltrator. My mission is simple: secure a job in the inner circle of the House of Malphas, the city's most ruthless monster syndicate, and steal the Primal Ledger from their lethal heir. Silas Malphas commands the shadows themselves. He is arrogant, dominant, and terrifyingly elegant. But the most dangerous thing about him isn't his power-it's that when I look at him, I see *nothing*. He is a void in the magical spectrum. No debts. No loyalties. He is completely unreadable. I was supposed to betray him. But as I am dragged deeper into his golden cage of high-stakes negotiations and blood-soaked boardroom politics, the lines between my mission and my dark attraction to the Beast begin to blur. When a rival faction launches a deadly coup and my cover is blown, I am left with a terrifying choice. To survive the night, I must forge a blood-oath contract with the very monster I was sent to destroy. I'm no longer just his lawyer. I'm bound to the Beast.

Horror Mafia Modern

8.2

Healed By Another: Rejecting The Ruthless Don

8.2

I spent a year in a Swiss asylum, swallowing pills to cure a madness that didn’t exist. It turned out the medication was just sugar. My insanity was a script written by Jaxon Francis, the Don of New York, just so he could marry a Cartel princess without his ward getting in the way. When I finally escaped and tried to leave him, his new wife staged her own kidnapping and framed me. Jaxon didn’t ask for proof. He didn’t look at the evidence. Instead, he tied a rope around my ankles and dragged me behind a helicopter across the jagged rocks of the Wastelands. He held his wife close and watched as my skin was flayed and my bones shattered, believing he was executing a traitor. He left me for dead in the dirt, convinced he had cleansed his empire. I took the hush money his mother threw at me and vanished, letting Alina Phillips die in that field. Three years later, I returned to New York as "Echo," the elusive artist the world was obsessing over. At a charity auction, Jaxon bid one hundred million dollars for a painting of a woman’s scarred back, desperate to buy redemption for the ghost he thought he killed. He chased me into the rain, begging for a second chance, swearing he had destroyed his wife for me. I looked at the man who once held my heart and simply smiled. Then I turned to the man standing beside me. "Jaxon, meet Darwin," I said, linking my arm through his. "My husband."

Mafia Modern Romance

8.9

My Dead Husband Returned With Another Woman

8.9

Three years after I buried an empty casket for my husband, I found him alive in a grocery store parking lot. He was rubbing a stranger's pregnant belly, smiling a soft smile I had never seen in our years of marriage. My husband, the ruthless Don of Chicago, had become "Arthur," a gentle man with no memory of the empire he ruled or the wife he left behind. To protect his happiness, I swallowed my agony and lied. "I am his cousin," I told his pregnant fiancée, Mia. I brought them home to his estate, enduring the torture of watching him give her the tenderness that used to belong to me. But my mercy was rewarded with cruelty. Dante looked at me with cold, unfamiliar eyes and slapped divorce papers onto the table. "Sign them," he demanded, his voice devoid of emotion. "I want to marry Mia before the baby comes. I want a fresh start." He didn't know I was dying of a heart defect caused by the stress of grieving him. He didn't know I stalled for two weeks not for money, but because I wanted to be buried with his name. I died the morning the deadline arrived, taking the secret of my love to the grave. Ironically, that very night, a bullet grazed his temple during an ambush, unlocking the memories he had lost. He remembered the peach orchard. He remembered our blood oath. He remembered that I was his soulmate. He ran to my brother’s gates, screaming my name, blood pouring down his face, desperate to beg for forgiveness. But my brother just stood there, blocking the entrance to the cemetery with a cruel smile. "She waited for you every single day," he spat. "And you killed her."

Mafia Modern Romance

Satin Sinner - A Mafia Romance

Chapter 4

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