It was an innocent mistake; she knocked on the wrong door. It was mine. If I were a better man, I would've just let her go. But I'm not. I'm a cruel bastard. I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own. It should've been enough but it wasn't. I needed more...I craved it. She became my obsession. Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul. The need to possess her nearly drove me mad. A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student. She didn't belong in my world. I would bring her only pain. But it was too late...she was mine and I was keeping her.

I took her innocence as payment. She was far too young and naïve to be betrothed to a monster like me. I would bring only pain and darkness into her sheltered world. That's why she ran. I should've just let her go. She never asked to marry into a powerful Russian mafia family. Unfortunately for her, I don't care. I own her, and after three years of searching, I've found her. My runaway bride was about to learn disobedience has consequences...punishing ones. Nothing was going to keep me from claiming her before the eyes of God and man. She's mine now, and I'm never letting her go.

Being attracted to her isn't wrong…but acting on it would be. As the patriarch of the powerful and wealthy Cavalieri family, my choices come with consequences for everyone around me. The roots of my ancestral, billionaire-dollar winery stretch deep into the rich Italian soil, as does our legacy of ruthlessness and scandal. It isn't the fact she is half my age that makes her off-limits. Nothing is off-limits for me. A wounded bird caught in a trap not of her own making, she poses no risk to me. My obsessive desire to possess her is the real problem—for both of us.

Kieran Murphy is an Irish mob boss and one of the most powerful men in Boston. When he walks me home, people step aside out of respect for him. He could have any woman he wants. So why does he have eyes only for me? Is it how he has to lift my chin with his fingers to keep my eyes level with his when he scolds me and how I cover my bottom instinctively when he tells me that I've earned a spanking? Or is it how I quiver at the thought of everything I'm too ashamed to beg him to do to me? Maybe it's all of those, but I'm pretty sure there's something else too.

I hate Dante Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and vicious. It’s no secret that he wiped out his former fiancée and her entire family on the eve of their wedding. He’s the kind of evil that makes even devils cry. But that’s not why I hate him.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

I can still remember the moment I first heard Cyrus Holt's deep, commanding voice. I didn't know who he was or about the life he'd left behind. I was just a trembling orphan on the run from a monster, and he was the man offering me shelter and not giving me a choice about it. This boss of bosses didn't assign someone else to watch over me. He slept on the floor next to my bed when I woke up scared, then spanked me like a naughty little girl when I lied to him. He could have claimed me that night, ravaging me without mercy or remorse. But he didn't.

Charming. Devastatingly handsome. Ridiculously rich. Kristoff Baldwin came without warning. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and before I could even realize the impact he was making, I was too far gone, despite knowing the consequences of falling. A future together was the impossible dream. My past haunted me and even he had ghosts of his own. Then everything changed when his past came after me and my daughters.

My fiancé is the anti-Prince Charming.... Mateo Villani is darkness wrapped in Armani. He's a six-foot-tall, ruggedly handsome savage, a notorious gangster who's bedded half of Manhattan...and now he's my fiancé. My father betrayed me, signing my life away to the cocky bastard whose personality is colder than a block of ice. Mateo crushed my ambitions when he slid his ring onto my finger. He stole my life away, and now he's determined to mold me into a dutiful mob wife. But I have news for him: I obey no one.

When Nikolai Romanov came looking for my brother, I emptied my savings hoping I could pay off his debt. But I didn't have even close to enough, so the bastard decided to take me instead. I didn't expect a Russian mafia boss like him to be gentle with me...and he wasn't. Not when he spanked me for daring to wear panties under the dress he chose for me, and certainly not when he stripped me out of that same dress and made me scream in his bed.

Belles and Mobsters were never meant to be together. And I still fell in love with him, only to be torn apart. Lesson learned. I escaped with nothing but the clothes on my back and my best friend at my side. We hid in plain sight, and started a new life. Just as life became normal again, we were found. Dragged back into the underworld. This time the stakes are much higher. Failing is not an option.

When I knocked on Kirill Sabatin's door, I didn't know he was the Kozlov Bratva's most feared enforcer. I didn't expect him to be the most terrifyingly sexy man I've ever laid eyes on either.. I told him off for making so much noise in the middle of the night, but if the crack of his palm against my bare bottom didn't wake everyone in the building my screams of climax certainly did. I shouldn't have let him spank me, let alone seduce me. He's a dangerous man, and I could easily end up in way over my head.

I never wanted a wife. No one is safe with me. No one is good enough for my daughter. But if I want to rule over the wealthiest crime family in New York City, I only have two weeks to find one. When Elsie broke into my home, I saw an opportunity, so I forced her into a marriage she didn't want. No one crosses me, not even someone as beautiful as Elsie. She may fight me with that smart mouth, but she will obey me–or return to the hell she came from. I told her she was mine for a year. Then she'd be free.

Sold to the mob. Four words I never thought I'd utter. Worse, it was my father who did the unthinkable. When the creditors come to collect, I'm handed over to the most ruthless man in New York City—Luca Valentino. The head of the notorious Kings is as gorgeous as he is lethal. Dark, possessive, and violent. Nothing like the boy I grew up with, my dead brother's best friend.

Charming, captivating, seductive—and a cold-blooded killer. I married the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva anyway. I had to, it was part of the deal. Now, I’m faking marital bliss as I tremble with fear, and I cannot wait to be out of the clutches of this ruthless man.

It was an innocent mistake; she knocked on the wrong door. It was mine. If I were a better man, I would've just let her go. But I'm not. I'm a cruel bastard. I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own. It should've been enough but it wasn't. I needed more...I craved it. She became my obsession. Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul. The need to possess her nearly drove me mad. A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student. She didn't belong in my world. I would bring her only pain. But it was too late...she was mine and I was keeping her.

I took her innocence as payment. She was far too young and naïve to be betrothed to a monster like me. I would bring only pain and darkness into her sheltered world. That's why she ran. I should've just let her go. She never asked to marry into a powerful Russian mafia family. Unfortunately for her, I don't care. I own her, and after three years of searching, I've found her. My runaway bride was about to learn disobedience has consequences...punishing ones. Nothing was going to keep me from claiming her before the eyes of God and man. She's mine now, and I'm never letting her go.

My entire life changed when he walked into my father’s café in Tuscany…Il Mostro. The monster. The devilishly handsome mafia don Dario Rosolini. He and his brothers run this region… and they take everything they want. Including me. Although Dario has made clear that I am his and ONLY his. But I’ll fight back, no matter how hard it is. Not just because I’m afraid of him (although I am)… But because, deep down, I WANT him… And I know that giving in to him will ruin me forever.

Tearing off the gilded veneer of elite privilege exposes the sordid scandals, dark secrets, and taboo desires of New York's jaded high society in this dark romance series from best friends and USAT bestselling authors Zoe Blake and Alta Hensley, writing under their new pen name, Blake Hensley.

Being attracted to her isn't wrong…but acting on it would be. As the patriarch of the powerful and wealthy Cavalieri family, my choices come with consequences for everyone around me. The roots of my ancestral, billionaire-dollar winery stretch deep into the rich Italian soil, as does our legacy of ruthlessness and scandal. It isn't the fact she is half my age that makes her off-limits. Nothing is off-limits for me. A wounded bird caught in a trap not of her own making, she poses no risk to me. My obsessive desire to possess her is the real problem—for both of us.

You know the story where the hero comes in and saves the day, rescuing the heroine right in the nick of time? This isn't that story. Instead of a knight in shining armor, he's a sexy, tatted-up Bratva boss with a reputation for being brutal and fierce. Vasily finds me after I've already been brought to my lowest—broken by cruel men until I barely recognize myself. He doesn't offer me salvation. He offers me protection and revenge. And I gladly take it. Because I don't need a knight in shining armor. I need a villain who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

Trapped in a twisted and dark courtship with a secret woman who needs my strength to survive, I will be wed. Walking the thin line between lunacy and reality, I am now the protector of my future captive bride. So I have no choice but to recite the vows: I take thee. In this arranged matrimony. Until we are parted by death.

An unlikely savior with large, possessive hands, a voice as deep and rich as dark chocolate, and a tongue as quick and hot as lightning. The second Avel tossed me over his broad shoulder, I knew I could never walk away. He made me feel small, safe, and protected, but only because there was no man as dangerous as him. He offered me protection, but not without consequences. Because once you join the mafia, you can never leave, and once you get pregnant with the boss's baby, you belong to him forever.

Powerful and merciless. Cunning and cruel. A monster wrapped in luxury and wealth. Mikhail Romanov is my opposite in every way… and my new husband.

We kidnapped her. A payment for a debt. A very personal one. With our father, “The Collector”, dead, we are the heirs to a twisted dynasty with nothing but revenge in our hearts, blood on our hands, and darkness in our souls. The Dancer we stole is our captive to play with, to possess, to ruin. And we will destroy her.

Mikhail Dmitriyev is a beautiful devil with a villainous heart and a thirst for revenge. The choices he gave me when he stole me away from my home with an army of men were very clear—marry me or die. I chose to marry him and live. But there’s one small problem with his grand plan to rain Armageddon on the Mexican Cartel. I’m not the woman he thinks I am. I’m not the cartel princess he thinks he took to make his enemies bow to him. When my captor finds out my secret and realizes he married the wrong woman, love won’t be enough to save me. And neither will his obsession.

Life isn't easy. Single mom, minimum wage, family drama. You know the story. I've come a long way in a short time, though, and it's all worth it. For Jimmy. My grumpy little guy. Then a hot biker charms his way into our lives, tempting me into wanting more. I want to go for it, but how can I trust myself when I've screwed up so badly in the past?

Cruelty is his middle name, and I'm at his mercy. My father has kept me locked away in an ivory tower. I thought he wanted to protect me, but he only wanted to protect his asset. An untouched, sheltered mob princess is worth a lot of money to the right buyer. My father's greed means Sicily is no longer big enough for him. I'm shipped across the Atlantic to Boston to marry a man I've never met, whose reputation for cruelty reaches as far as the shores of Sicily.

I was supposed to marry Viktor Volkova, heir to one of the most powerful families in the society. But his older brother stole me on our wedding day, just as we were about to take our vows. Like a hellish wild card, Desmier Volkova stormed into my life, seeking revenge for my father’s sins. He forced me to marry him, dragging me into his game of lies, revenge, and deceit.

Gabriel Corso is the stuff of nightmares and dirty dreams. He's a sinfully gorgeous mafia prince from a brutal rival family. In school, he was the bane of my existence. The dark villain to my sheltered princess. Then–poof–he disappeared. If only he’d stayed away. Turns out, our marriage is a term of his inheritance and now he’s returned to collect what’s his. That means ripping me from my gilded cage. It means locking me beneath his searing flesh. It means war. I’m not supposed to like it. To beg for more. To fall for him.