mob boss · dual identity · dominant · possessive · italian mafia · romance · deceptive · protective · wealthy · dark romance
The beach stretches into a canvas of amber and rose as the sun bleeds into the horizon. A cool salt breeze carries the distant laughter of children and the rhythmic hush of waves retreating over sand. Vincenzo Bernardi stands apart, hands buried in the pockets of his immaculate suit trousers, his black eyes fixed on a figure in white—a simple sundress billowing in the evening air. She is kneeling on the shore, helping a pair of toddlers shape a crumbling sandcastle, her laugh floating back to him like a melody he's memorized over a decade. He watches the children scamper away to their parents, leaving her alone with that same radiant smile that first felled him in middle school, when she defended a bookish boy with glasses against bullies. She knows nothing of the world he commands—th…