Collateral Bride

He signed a contract. She's going to read the books.

They married her off to the man who had her brother killed.

On their wedding night, he undoes the forty-two buttons of her dress one at a time, with the patience of a watchmaker. His fingers brush her skin between her shoulder blades. He doesn't pull. He doesn't force anything. And that's what terrifies her: her body remembers every touch.

Luca Moretti never takes what isn't given.

And she has nothing to give. Nothing. He knows how to wait.

By day, Aria Vitale opens the family's ledgers and hunts for the number that shouldn't be there. By night, she listens to him breathe on the other side of the bed, a pistol lying between them, while her body remembers things her mind refuses.

Someone at that table smiles too widely when she asks her questions. Someone has already decided she won't survive the winter.

He is brutal with his enemies. With her, he is worse: patient.

Hatred, bites, silences that weigh more than a body pressed against hers. And the moment she understands it's no longer him she fears, but what she wants.

Arranged marriage. Enemies to lovers. A heroine with a head for numbers. A Brooklyn mafia family where every debt gets collected.

Read the first pages. You'll know very quickly whether you can let go of Aria.

Dark mafia romance with explicit scenes. Intended for adult readers (18+). Contains violence, a forced marriage, and dark themes.