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Sofia

My life fractured when I was only five years old.

I thought I’d never be whole again, but a boy helped put me back together, one piece at a time. Nico Conti became my world—ten years later, he shattered my heart.

He took away the light, so I learned to see in the dark.

Now he’s come back, trying to explain away his absence and pick up where we left off. He doesn’t understand everything’s changed. I’m not the same girl he left behind, but he doesn’t seem to care. He wants all of me. That’s more than I’m willing to give.

Nico

They say you don’t know what you’ve lost until it’s gone, but that wasn’t true. I knew exactly how devastating it would be to lose Sofia, and I did it anyway. I thought our separation would be permanent, but now I’ve been forced back into her life. Walking away once was hard enough, I’m not strong enough to stay away again. Now that I’ve seen her, tasted her, I have to make her mine.

Seven years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I plan to do everything in my power to correct that mistake, even if it means coming clean about the past. There’s a chance the secrets I carry will push her further away, but that’s a risk I’ll have to take. Sofia Genovese was made for me, and I’m determined to win her back.

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This was my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. I love mafia books and I really enjoy them when they concentrate on the family and romance which this one does. Sofia and Nico were best friends at kids but when Nico turned 16, that all ended. Years later Sofia’s family needs help keeping him safe and he asks Nico to watch his daughter. Through flashbacks we find out what really happened all those years ago. We also find out that Sofia has just as many secrets as Nico. Very enjoyable, I went on to purchase the first book in the series and will definitely watch for the next.

Aside from shock, I couldn’t even pinpoint how I felt about seeing him. All my emotions seemed to collide and cancel each other out until there was nothing but shock and numbness, which was one small grace. It helped me pull myself together and pretend I wasn’t falling apart inside.

“You’ll have to excuse my rudeness; I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” I clasped my hands tightly in my lap, attempting not to fidget, my eyes cast anywhere but at him.

“It’s good to see you, Ladybug,” he murmured casually as if it had been weeks and not years since we’d met.

His voice had matured and was now a gravelly rumble that filled my stomach with a swarm of butterflies taking flight, but I hardly noticed. I was too focused on the fiery rage that heated me from the inside out. How dare he use that name after everything he’d done. After all those years. Hot, angry tears burned at the back of my throat.

“Don’t you dare call me that,” I hissed. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t want any part of it.” I threw my napkin onto the table, but before I could stand, his hand came down on mine.

“Easy, Sofia,” he soothed in a calm tone. “I’m not here to upset you.”

“What other reason could you possibly have?” I scoured his features over the flickering votive candle, trying to decipher what was going on but came up empty.

“Maybe I missed you.” His words were sweet and almost sounded earnest, which is why they made me laugh.

I leaned back in my chair, yanking my hand away from his and feeling my shattered armor repairing itself in record time. “Yeah, right. After seven years, you expect me to believe you woke up this morning and decided to see what I was up to?”

“Not at all. I expect you to believe that I wake up every morning thinking about you. You don’t just cross my mind, you live in it.” He held my eyes with such burning intensity that my gaze fused to his.

What was he implying? How could he say such a thing after he’d cast me away like so much garbage? I took in a shaky breath when my lungs screamed for air, then found the strength to drop my gaze. Every hour and every day of the interminable pain I felt after he left crashed over me, washing away the numbness. There was no question how seeing him made me feel—it was the excruciating refracturing of a wound I’d thought long healed.

“Please, leave.” It was only a whisper, and all I could muster past the aching lump in my throat. I couldn’t even lift my gaze as he stood.

He lowered himself and placed an unexpectedly soft kiss on my forehead, his rough fingertips cupping my cheek. “I’m sorry, Sof.”

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Read the First Chapter HERE !

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Within a year of self-publishing her first book, Jill Ramsower quit her job as an attorney and dedicated her days to churning out romantic adventures. She likes to think of her books as contemporary romance with a touch of fantasy—at its core, her writing is about the connection between two people. Sometimes that connection involves a little magic…

With Jill’s books, you can count on confident heroines, plenty of steamy tension, and deliciously assertive leading men. There are no guarantees in life, but with her books, you know everything will work out in the end. However, a perfect ending would not be nearly as satisfying without a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Jill loves to add plenty of adversity in her stories, creating unforgettably dynamic characters and sneaky plot twists you will never see coming.

Jill is a Texan, born and raised. She manages the hectic social calendars for her three active children and occasionally spends an evening with her dashing husband. Aside from being an author and a mom, she’s a travel junkie and loves to read when she is not lost in her own stories.

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Savio Falcone has a few non-negotiable rules when it comes to girls.

They need to be hot as f*ck.

Spread their legs without much prompting.

And leave as soon as the fun is over. Preferably minus any bitching or tears.

With his easy-going bad boy attitude, a last name that rules over Las Vegas and a body to die for, girls have always been at Savio’s disposal.

Unfortunately, the hottest girl in Vegas comes with a price Savio isn’t willing to pay. For Savio to get Gemma he’d need to seal the deal and put a ring on her finger. Settling down is out of the question, no matter how hot a piece of ass waits at the altar.

Gemma Bazzoli has had a crush on Savio from the first moment she came face to face with his arrogant smile, but for him she was always his best friend’s annoying little sister—until her hard-earned curves catch even his attention.

But Savio likes it easy, and Gemma is anything but. When she’s promised to another man, Gemma resigns herself to the fact that the man she’s wanted all her life, doesn’t want her badly enough.

Savio has to decide how much work he’s willing to invest, because bending the rules in his usual style might not be enough to get the girl that haunts his wet dreams.

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Read the First Chapter HERE !

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Gemma looked up at me. “I’m not one of your other girls, Savio. I’ve been brought up traditionally by my family. My mother raised me with strict values. I believe in the sacred bond of marriage. I believe in giving myself to my husband, and no one else. Nothing will change that. And even a Falcone can’t.”

Surprise washed over me at the vehemence in her voice and the fierceness in her eyes. She meant it. There was not the hint of doubt in her expression. Her crush had made me believe that she might be open to a bit of playing outside of the rules. Now, I realized I might have misjudged her.

“I’ll be your husband soon, and then everything is mine.”

“But you aren’t yet,” she said firmly. “And until then I won’t give you anything. My family will seek retribution if you take something. They won’t care that you are a Falcone. They will protect my honor.”

Diego’s words from last night flashed in my head, and my anger spiked once more. “They would die.”

She swallowed. “Maybe.”

I leaned down, regarding her olive eyes, resolute and anxious. “They won’t have to seek retribution, Gem. If you want to wait until marriage, I won’t push you.”

Suspicion filled her face. “You won’t? That’s not your usual style.”

My smile widened. She was right. I loved to push her buttons, and it would be difficult not to keep doing so, but this was different. While my brothers and I weren’t traditionalists, we respected our men and their families, and that included their old-fashioned values. Remo kept reminding me of that fact repeatedly.

Besides, it gave me a thrill knowing that Gemma would only be mine alone, even if the wait until our marriage would prove tricky. But I had other girls for fucking and sucking until then. Maybe the wait would add even more thrill to our wedding night. I tilted my head, bringing our faces closer. Gemma was the full package. Choir girl and sex bomb, a lethal combination of heaven and hell. Being around her you couldn’t help but want to be sinner and saint, only so you could be closer to her.

“Savio…” Gemma said in warning, bringing her palms up against my chest.

I got that she didn’t want to have sex before our wedding night but why deprive herself of all the other fun things I could show her? “Is a kiss really so bad? Your mouth is so fucking kissable.”

“Well, your mouth is coming around too much for my taste. You’ve probably kissed more lady parts than most toilet seats.”

My arms gave in from the force of my laughter. Fuck, Gemma, was one of a kind. Resting my forehead against the wall, my body pressed into Gemma. “Lady parts?” I repeated between chuckles as I tilted my head down.

Gemma raised her head. We were so fucking close, her lips were begging for me to bridge the few inches between us. “How about you call them what everyone does? Pussy.”

Her cheeks turned red. “I’m not going to take that word into my mouth.” She pushed harder against my chest but I didn’t budge.

“I’d love to have your pussy in my mouth,” I growled, and doing my usual routine without even thinking about it, I ground myself against the woman in front of me to show her what she was doing to me.

Gemma tensed, her eyes widening in shock. She jerked her knee up and hit my balls. Pain shot through my body and I groaned. She quickly slipped out under my arm and stormed away. “That’s called Bull’s eye!”

Fuck. Anger surged through me. I chased her despite the fucking throbbing in my balls, and I grabbed her wrist. She whirled on me. “Don’t do that ever again,” I growled.

She narrowed her eyes. “How about this then?” She swung her fist at me, aiming straight for my nose. My arm shot up, blocking her assault. I’d been fighting in the cage for years now against guys weighing twice as much as Gemma. She was a good fighter, for a small girl, but that was it. I gripped her other wrist and jerked her against me, holding her fast. Her hair had come undone from her ponytail and framed her face in wild curls. “Apologize,” she seethed.

My eyebrows shot up. “I’m not the one who smashed his knee into your lady parts.”

“Apologize for disrespecting me.”

I regarded her. She was dead serious.

“If anyone else treated me the way you just did…”

“I’d cut his dick off and let him bleed out,” I finished.

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Cora Reilly is the author of the Born in Blood Mafia Series, The Camorra Chronicles and many other books, most of them featuring dangerously sexy bad boys. Before she found her passion in romance books, she was a traditionally published author of young adult literature.

Cora lives in Germany with a cute but crazy Bearded Collie, as well as the cute but crazy man at her side. When she doesn’t spend her days dreaming up sexy books, she plans her next travel adventure or cooks too spicy dishes from all over the world.

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