We laugh together and some of my nervous energy clears up, but that doesn't last long, because another small crowd of made men enter in a rush, followed by a tall Greek girl in a white blouse with dark wide-legged pants and perilously high heels. She stands looking around like a goddess straight from Mt. Olympus until she spots me and smiles.Helen walks over and waves hello. Eros's sister looks like him, but not as big, and her features are softer and much more feminine. "Hello, Cara," she says and glances at Ophelia. "You're the owner's daughter, correct?""Uh, yeah, hi," Phel says. "You're Helen Khazan."Helen laughs lightly. "The one and only. Mind if I steal Cara here for a second?""Please do." Phel gives me a look that means I'll be talking about this with her later."Tell your dad I'll be back soon," I say even though I'm sure Demetrios would gladly let me close the entire diner down if I asked him to.I follow Helen toward the back where her security entourage cleared some ro

CaraI'm standing on the balcony looking out at the lake when Eros comes home. The sun's setting over the water and the colors sparkle with the waves, and I force myself to turn away and meet his gaze."Always beautiful," he says, staring at me and not at the water.I feel myself blush. "How was your day?""Uneventful." He joins me at the railing. "The Italians are making noise, but nothing I didn't expect.""Really? Are you okay?""We're fine. You worry more about yourself." He glances at me. "I haven't spoken to you much since dinner. Are you holding up okay?"I grimace slightly and stare down at my hands. I'm not sure how I'm feeling—it's really hard to piece it all together. He tried to warn me that things would be difficult, but I didn't really believe him, not until Anissa was standing there calling me a piece of trash to my face at least."Your sister visited me today at work."His eyebrows raise. "Really? She set foot in that little diner? Amazing."I give him a look. "Why do

CaraThe coffee is warm and strong. It tastes good as I step out into the alley behind the diner. There isn't exactly fresh air since the dumpsters make the whole place smell faintly like garbage, but at least back here I can sit down on the concrete and get my head together.I knew this was happening. Marrying Eros was always part of the plan.Now it's real.He protects me from Christopher. I provide him with some legitimacy in his family. It's mutually beneficial—and won't last forever. Someday, maybe someday soon, we'll go our separate ways.But I keep thinking about him, about his hands on my hips and his mouth against mine, his low laughter, the way he spreads my legs. I think of being with him, being with him for real—not for some short time, not for weeks or months, but years, an entire lifetime. Could I be the crime lord's wife? Could I give him children and live in this world?I don't know. It scares me, but it also fascinates me.The power and the drama, the terror and the e

ErosI pace across the basement beneath a recording studio we own on the south side of the city, snarling like a tiger.Hector Constantinou hangs by his wrists from a reinforced steel pipe, blood dripping from his beaten and mangled face, his shirtless torso turning purple from the bruises blotting his flesh.My muscles ache. My fists burn from where the flesh was scraped off, smashing Hector's ugly face over and over. I've been working him for the last hour, ignoring his pleas to stop, ignoring everything but his pain.Hate flows from me like a flood, and I don't know how to stop it.I don't know if I want to.I tilt Hector's chin up and make him look me in the eye. He's a big guy, older, in his early forties. The kind of Khazan family lifer that would've been happy sitting around a diner eating gyros until he died of a heart attack at fifty. Except he ended up here instead."Who ordered it?" I ask him, enunciating each word nice and slow."Zale," he whispers. "Zale set it up." He co

Cara"To marriage." Eros raises his glass and I raise mine."To the Khazan family," I say with a smile.He seems conflicted about that toast but nods and drinks. I sip my wine, eyeing him cautiously. Lycus, Helen, and Gareth left ten minutes ago, and now I'm alone in our room with Eros. He's sitting close, our thighs touching, the fireplace crackling with a low flame. I can feel the tension in his body."Can I ask you something?" I glance at him, feeling nervous.He nods. "It's our wedding night. You can ask me anything.""Why did you mother say she didn't think you'd ever get married?"His smile is soft. "She worries too much, but in this case, I can't blame her. I was never interested in marriage until I met you.""Are you worried our arrangement will—you know, hurt your mother?"He nods slowly. "I've thought about that. Although my mother puts on the facade of a grieving widow, she's a Khazan to her core. She understands these things can be necessary. Besides, even if our marriage