Cruel Paradise - A Mafia Romance
What’s more embarrassing than a butt dial?
Butt dialing your boss…
And leaving a dirty voicemail when you’re uhh… “thinking” about them.
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.
Tonight, fantasies of him are just what I need to push me over the edge.
But when I look down at my phone squished next to me,
There it is.
A voicemail for 7 minutes and 32 seconds…
Sent to Ruslan Oryolov.
I panic and throw my phone across the room.
But there is no undoing the damage done by my very vocal O.
So what can I do?
My plan was to just avoid him and act like it never happened.
Besides, no one that busy checks their voicemails, right?
But when he schedules a one-on-one meeting with me for exactly 7 minutes and 32 seconds,
One thing is for certain:
He.
Heard.
Everything.
Read
Chapter: 70EMMAThe morning sickness has officially hit with a vengeance.And boy, is it frigging awful. I can’t even keep down Nutella on toast. You know shit’s getting real when your system rejects gooey chocolate on warm, toasted bread.So I’ve been sprawled miserably on the sofa with a hot pack over my forehead, trying to get Rae to tell me why she’s been allergic to me all morning.“Can I get a hug at least?” I ask as she scampers past.“No!” she screams before running into her bedroom. A second later, I hear the door slam.I glance at Josh. “What’s up with her today?”Josh gives me a noncommittal shrug that makes me think there’s definitely something going on there.“She’s just scared, Aunt Em,” Caroline offers.“Scared?” I put the hot pack aside and sit up. “Scared about what?”Now, Caroline looks like she’s caught Reagan’s allergy to me. She backs away slowly, her eyes skidding from one side to the other. “Um… I dunno…”Then she leapfrogs over one of the footstools and follows Reagan to
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 69EMMAThat evening, I get a thick brown envelope addressed to me from Kirill. It contains my new phone, a slip of paper with several numbers on it, a restraining order against Ben, and the most important thing of all: official court documents granting me temporary physical and legal custody of all three children.There’s a handwritten note, too. I’ve spoken to a cop that we work with closely. He can make the missing persons reports go away. We’re gonna work on proving that Ben is an unfit guardian. Until then, you’ve got custody of the kids. –Kirill.I’m reading through the note for the fourth time when the kids tumble into the kitchen clamoring for dinner.“Auntie Em? You okay?” Josh asks as he slows to a walk.“Yeah, honey. Just got some good news.”“What is it? What is it?” Reagan chirps as Josh helps her up onto one of the high chairs around the island.“Well, for right now, I have guardianship of you guys.”Rae wrinkles her nose up. “What does that mean?”“It means that I get to l
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 68EMMAHOW LONG HAS HE BEEN STANDING THERE?The answer is clearly “too fucking long.”He walks in and sits down on the edge of the new bed that I haven’t broken in yet. For someone who’s potentially just heard all my secrets, he looks pretty damn composed.Maybe, by some miracle, he didn’t hear the part where—“Don’t look so scared, Emma. I already knew.”Since I’ve given away enough already, I decide to make him say it. “Knew what?”He smirks and crosses his leg in a figure-four. “I know you’re pregnant. I know you’re carrying Ruslan’s baby.”That’s it then. It’s all over.I drop the pretense. “Are you gonna tell him?”Kirill strokes his chin. “I did try. But he’s not real open to talking about you these days.”There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence but I focus on the most troubling. “Y-you tried to tell him already?”“Like I said, I already knew you were pregnant.”“How?”“I pulled your medical files,” he explains unapologetically. “The day you landed in the hospital with cuts all o
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 67EMMAI wake up at nine the next morning. Sunlight is streaming in through the open windows.I fell asleep on the couch, which was intentional on my part. I did not want to go back into the master bedroom. I wasn’t prepared to face the memories that waited for me there.Not yet, anyway.I check my phone to find a text waiting for me.PHOEBE: Please tell me you and the kids are okay?EMMA: We’re okay. Not at the motel anymore. I’ll explain when I process everything.I check in on the kids, who are still fast asleep in the guest room. Yesterday was probably more chaos than their little bodies could take. I’m heading into the kitchen when I hear the elevator doors ping open.How pathetic is it that my very first thought is, Ruslan? And it’s not like that thought is combined with dread or nerves or nausea. Honestly, I’d welcome any of the three. It’s preferable to feeling like the idiot who can’t help pining after a man who clearly doesn’t give a shit about her.“Morning,” Kirill says bree
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 66EMMASome silences are dangerous.Like the one we’re in right now. Ruslan at the wheel, driving carefully so that he doesn’t wake the three sleeping children in the back. Me, picking at my nails and trying to fight the stupid, stubborn hope that’s resurfacing slowly no matter how many times I try to drown it.That hope keeps saying stupid, stubborn things. Like, If we have to spend this month together, maybe, just maybe it will change something between us.Maybe he’ll hear me out.Maybe he’ll believe me.And if he does those things, then maybe there doesn’t have to be a goodbye at the end of this month. Maybe there’s a chance I can tell him about this baby and we can raise it together like we planned.Then again, you know what they say—the best-laid plans…I’m not just blowing smoke here. I’m not creating a narrative out of nothing. He was the one who kissed me in the motel parking lot. You can’t fake passion like that.Whenever I think Ruslan isn’t paying attention, I sneak a peek at
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 65RUSLANThe tall one goes down like a toy soldier.I might as well have flicked him down with my fingers. He tumbles over, face-first, into the ground without emitting so much as a gasp. His companion doesn’t even notice until his question goes unanswered.“… Jannik? How do you wanna do this…? Jannik?”I’m already halfway to him when he turns and notices that Jannik’s eating cement in a pool of his own blood. As soon as he sees me coming, he pales, twisting around while he fumbles for his gun.“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He freezes with his hands suspended in mid-air. “Hands up where I can see them.”“W-who are you?”“The better question is, who are you?”“I-I-I…”I roll my eyes. “He hired the very best, didn’t he?” I mutter under my breath.Clearly, Adrik didn’t think he needed to send his best men to deal with a woman and three children. His fucking mistake. This poor bastard’s price to pay.“Listen…”“No, you listen,” I snarl. “You have five seconds to tell me who hired you
Last Updated: 2026-07-07
Chapter: 5YULIANMy offer has her head spinning.I’ll tell you what I need and why you’re perfect for it, and when you tell me yes, I’m going to put a large amount of cash in your hand, and you’re going to thank me for the easiest money you’ve ever made in your life.Her face goes through all the colors of the rainbow. I can practically see the gears in her brain working overtime. Cataloging bills to be paid. Clothes to be bought. Dreaming of a vacation, maybe, for once in her overworked life.It’s like everything she is has been splayed out before me. I can taste her despairing midnight tears, the ones she doesn’t dare show anyone. I can feel the heartbroken clench of her fists as the world frustrates her again and again.She’s been beaten down by it.This is a leg up she taught herself long ago never to expect.“I need a plus-one,” I tell her succinctly. “My date is… indisposed, on short notice. You’ll take her place.”“I’m not a whore,” she hisses, cheeks bright red.“And I don’t pay for sex
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 43YULIANTHIRTY MINUTES EARLIER“Blyat’!”I barely restrain myself from hurling my phone across the street.Maksim’s update has been nothing but shitty news: Nikita still hasn’t been found. Not at her apartment, not at her usual haunts, not even at HQ.Maks is my best friend and second-in-command, but he’s still getting my full wrath right now. Mostly because I have nowhere else to vent.“Boss—”“Did I fucking stutter?” I interrupt. “Find her.”“I’ve got all our men on it,” Maksim sighs. “Did you find out why her GPS signal died in Brownsville?”“Hey!” someone pipes up down the sidewalk.I ignore that voice behind me.“No,” I mutter to Maksim. The truth is, I don’t have a goddamn clue why Nikita’s GPS would lead here at all.She lives in Manhattan, for fuck’s sake. There’s nothing in this armpit of New York that could have lured her here—Unless…Unless she found a lead.“Excuse me? Sir?” The voice behind me is closer now. More insistent. “Your car is—”“Shh.” I hold up a finger to
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 32MIASuit Guy looms under the streetlight, all sharp angles and simmering rage. His tie is undone, jacket discarded somewhere, sleeves rolled up to reveal tattoos snaking down his forearms.Up close, he’s younger than I thought—late twenties? early thirties at most—with the kind of face that belongs on either a billboard or a wanted poster.And right now, he looks like he wants to put my face on a Missing poster.“Did you get my fucking car towed?” he snarls at me in a rasping, feral baritone.I tilt my head. “I did try to tell you.”“You had no right.” His jaw tics.“Actually, if you had bothered to listen to me for even one second, I could’ve told you that was my driveway, and I actually have every right.” I unlock my door. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got vaginas to steam.”He blocks my path. “Do you think this is a joke?”“I think you’re in my way.”“You made this much harder than it had to be.”I laugh right in his face. Buddy here doesn’t know the first thing about how hard
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 2I hang up and stride into my building. I don’t bother looking back.Eli’s laughter hits me the second I open the door—high, bright, the sound of ice cream trucks and sidewalk chalk.He launches off the couch in a blur of Spider-Man pajamas and hugs me around the middle. “Mommy!”Just like that, my day gets better.“Whoa, bud!” I catch him mid-leap, staggering back. “Since when do you weigh a thousand pounds?”“I do not!”“Could’ve fooled me.” I nuzzle his neck, breathing in baby shampoo and Cheez-It dust. No perfume has ever smelled so good. “You’re turning into a dinosaur. A Tyrannosaurus flex.”“Rex,” Eli corrects, pulling back to frown at me. “And I’m not a dinosaur—I’m a boy.”“Could’ve fooled me,” my best friend Kallie chimes in from the kitchenette, where she’s microwaving popcorn. “I found scales in your bed this morning.”“They were Goldfish!” Eli yelps in horror. But he still starts checking his forearms for signs of scaliness.I set him down. But as I do, something snags my
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 1WICKED PROPOSALWould you sleep with a villain to give your son a good life?I'm a single mama.And since the day my son was born, I've made one promise:Never, ever miss a bedtime.Then the devil offered me a million dollars to change my mind.I said no.Actually, I said hell no.But then I started thinking about the holes in my son's shoes... the growl in his empty belly on the nights I couldn't even afford ramen...... and I started to wonder what would happen if I took the deal.One night.One night on the arm of Yulian Lozhkin, the most arrogant, beautiful, condescending, filthy rich S.O.B. that the city of New York has ever spat out.In return, all my troubles would go away.Or so he said.But one night with Yulian wasn't the end of my troubles—it was just the beginning of them.WICKED PROPOSAL is Book 1 of the Lozhkin Bratva duet. Yulian and Mia’s story continues in Book 2, WICKED REFUSAL.1MIABrooklyn in July is a war crime on my nostrils.Hot asphalt, rotting garbage, and t
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 5The most ironic thing about all of this? Fate has me knocked up with Dmitri Egorov’s baby and we skipped right over what would have been the fun part. Which is what I’m sure would have been hot, sweaty, passionate sex. The kind of sex that involved his teeth marks on parts of my body. My claw marks on parts of his.I meet that severe scowl of his with an unblinking gaze of my own. “Yeah, well, ditto.”In Egorov Industries, he’s my boss and I’m his subordinate. But right here, right now? We’re on equal footing. I’m not about to let him intimidate or manipulate me into letting him have all the control.I guess coparenting has already begun.I want to vomit at the sheer thought of it.His lips press together in a hard line and he glances at his Patek Philippe as though this meeting has been a gigantic waste of his time.“So we find ourselves at an impasse.”I shrug. “Guess so.”“First thing’s first: we need to make sure.”Frowning, I start tapping at the table with my nails just like Dmi
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 4When I get to Lifelines Bistro, I order a margarita immediately. If I don’t, I’m gonna have a nuclear meltdown. My nerves are frayed beyond belief and I can’t stop my hands from shaking.Alcohol usually does the trick in these kinds of situations.Unfortunately, no sooner have the words “make it strong” come to the tip of my tongue than do I remember that the entire reason I’m here in the first place precludes me from getting drunk at all.So with a sigh, I amend to say, “Make it… virgin.”I pick a table in the corner with a vantage point of the front door and sit down. It’s quiet in here tonight, which is a little weird for a Chicago Business District bar on a Wednesday at happy hour, but that’s one of the reasons I picked it.I want as few onlookers as possible to witness what might be the most awkward conversation of my life.Uh, yeah, so we don’t know each other, sir, but it seems like we’re about to have a baby together.Cue cringe vomiting.The virgin margarita disappears down t
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 3Because he’s my boss.Because he doesn’t actually give a shit, even if he’s doing an awfully good job of pretending like he does right now.Because he’s rich and dangerous and too handsome to waste his breath asking after the problems of the feeble little mortals like me who flit around and do his bidding.So I take a deep breath and give him the only reasonable answer I can afford to give: “No,” I murmur. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”He surveys me for another long minute, that perceptiveness lingering in his silver eyes. He sees more than he lets on, I think. Or at least, it feels that way.I feel naked. Exposed. Trussed up like a butterfly on a pinboard, completely at his mercy.And that softness… that tiny, almost-imperceptible tenderness in his face that says maybe there’s a human with a beating, bleeding heart buried somewhere beneath the flawlessly symmetrical bone structure… it stays for just one moment too long.I turn away. I can’t let him look at me anymore. “If you need any
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 2“… you understand, Ms. Turner?” Dr. Saeder finishes. “Ms. Turner?”I sigh and open my eyes again. There are three of him in my field of vision, blurred and split up by the unshed tears. When I blink, they coalesce back into one.And at the sight of him, I get mad.I don’t get mad often. For all that Rose was the princess of us two Turner girls, she was also the one more likely to melt down into a temper tantrum. And when she did, it was fierce.“Hurricane Rosie,” my mom used to call it. “The forecast is rain and thunder—lots of it.”Sure enough, she’d cry and scream like a storm cooked up by the devil himself. Hands pounding the ground, cheeks red and wet, the whole nine yards. She’d let her rage out like that—and when it was gone, it was like it had never even happened. She’d just smile again and go right back to her dolls.Me, though… I turned my storms inwards. I kept ‘em close and buried ‘em deep. It felt safer that way.But Hurricane Rosie isn’t ever coming back, is she? And afte
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 1TANGLED INNOCENCE“What do you mean, ‘You gave me the wrong sperm sample’?!”But the doctor says he isn’t joking.Instead of being my sister's surrogate...I'm accidentally carrying my boss's baby.A few months ago, I agreed to be my sister's surrogate.Then she died in an unsolved accident.I swore I'd keep her child and raise it on my own.But as it turns out, there was a mix-up at the clinic.Instead of carrying my future nephew...I learned I'm pregnant with my boss’s child.But Dmitri isn't just my boss.He's also the one who killed my sister in the first place.TANGLED INNOCENCE is Book 1 of the Egorov Bratva duet. Dmitri and Wren’s story concludes in Book 2, TANGLED DECADENCE.1WREN“What do you mean, ‘You gave me the wrong sperm sample?’”I can’t quite believe what I’m hearing. I take a look around the room to check my surroundings and confirm that this is in fact reality and not just some terrible, twisted, Häagen-Dazs-fueled nightmare.Unfortunately for me, everything seems
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Midnight Purgatory - A Mafia Romance
My gorgeous neighbor just found my box of "personal toys."
And my mission to steal them back...
Ended in his bed.
It was supposed to be a joke:
Give my best friend raunchy toys for her bridal shower and embarrass her in front of her family.
But when my package is wrongly delivered to my gorgeous, mysterious neighbor,
I’m the one who ends up mortified.
I sneak over to his place to try stealing it back before he finds it.
The problem is, I get caught mid-heist...
And then he makes me stay for dinner.
Dinner leads to dessert and dessert leads to... other dessert, if you get my drift.
Several courses of sweet, sinful temptation.
In my defense, he's even more gorgeous up close than he is from my bedroom window.
When I finally get back home the next morning, I open my stolen prize.
But it seems I grabbed the wrong package.
And the violent mess I find inside will change my life forever.
Turns out my hot neighbor is a Russian Bratva boss, with some deep, dark secrets.
Turns out he got me pregnant, too.
Read
Chapter: 5Right after the dessert plates are cleared away, I get to my feet. My head spins but I push through the dizziness. “I really should get, er, going… Thanks for dinner. And for the first-aid. It was really delicious.” Wait, that’s not right. “I mean, the food was delicious. The first-aid was… well, you know. I’ll just help you clear the table and then I’ll be on my way.”Cringe. Why the hell can’t I stop talking? Is it maybe because he’s super close to me right now and the smell of scotch and cinnamon coming off him is giving me a major lady boner?“What makes you think you can leave?”When did Uri even stand up? How did he manage to get so close without me even noticing?He’s staring down at me, not a trace of a smile on his face anymore. Those cheekbones really are something. So are his eyes.“You’re not going to let me go?” I ask numbly. The shivers are back, rippling up and down my spine, leaving goosebumps and dread in their wake.“Not without giving me something in return.” His to
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 44ALYSSAIt’s official: dinner was a bad idea.Watching Uri chew his food is strangely sensual. Even the way he picks up his wine glass and gives the ruby red liquid a confident whirl is sexy somehow.The guys I’ve dated drank lukewarm Coors Light and burped between every sip. They ate Cheetos and frozen dinners, not foie gras and seared salmon.It all puts one thing into glaring focus—I am way, way out of my depth here.I have no idea how to talk to or deal with a man like Uri. He’s just such a… grownup. And he’s confident. And scary, although I can’t exactly put my finger on how. Maybe it’s all those rumors about his reputation swirling around in my head.Mob ties and bad men striking corrupt deals in smoky backrooms.Bodies stacked on bodies, gangland-style executions, bloody bones dissolving in vats of acid.And money. Money coming out of every pore, every nook and cranny.But the man just cleaned up my wound after I trespassed on his property. He can’t be all that bad, right?… R
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 33ALYSSAI opt to walk.One, because I don’t want him to think I want him to carry me.And two, because if he so much as tries, I’m gonna blush so bad that astronauts flying through space will be able to see my red cheeks. Uri will feel me radiating nuclear-level embarrassed heat and will assume the obvious: that I’m completely and utterly infatuated with him.Which I’m most definitely not. Apart from having a healthy appreciation for his rock-hard physique and symmetrical bone structure, that is. I mean, physical attraction is only skin-deep, right? Practically meaningless.I mean, sure, I have been known to ogle him in the past from the reading nook in my bedroom. But I ogle Henry Cavill, too. Doesn’t mean I’m in love with him.It’s a long, silent trek across the lawn back to the mansion. He leads me inside without any sense of pride or even the slightest hint that he knows he lives in the fucking Taj Mahal of L.A. I do my best not to gawk as we pass by double-height floor-to-ceilin
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 22URIThere’s a half-naked girl hanging from my fence.I pause a few feet away from her and stop to survey the scene. She’s dangling helplessly. One hand on the top of the boards, so close to freedom and yet so very fucking far away. There’s some kind of orange cartoon cat printed on her ass. The tattered material of her leggings flaps in the wind.She doesn’t look like any assassin who’s ever tried to kill me before.But there’s a first time for everything, so I keep my distance for now.“What the hell are you doing on my property?” I snarl.She flops where she’s hanging, enough for the curtain of hair to flow back from her face. I vaguely recognize her as the girl who lives next door, in that little shack the city zoning board refused to let me bulldoze.“Most people would offer a girl some help down,” she gasps. She kicks again and sucks in a sharp wince.My eyes track downward to see blood on her skin. There’s a loose nail responsible for cutting her open. She needs medical care a
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
Chapter: 1MIDNIGHT PURGATORYBOOK 1 OF THE BUGROV BRATVA DUETMy gorgeous neighbor just found my box of "personal toys."And my mission to steal them back...Ended in his bed.It was supposed to be a joke:Give my best friend raunchy toys for her bridal shower and embarrass her in front of her family.But when my package is wrongly delivered to my gorgeous, mysterious neighbor,I’m the one who ends up mortified.I sneak over to his place to try stealing it back before he finds it.The problem is, I get caught mid-heist...And then he makes me stay for dinner.Dinner leads to dessert and dessert leads to... other dessert, if you get my drift.Several courses of sweet, sinful temptation.In my defense, he's even more gorgeous up close than he is from my bedroom window.When I finally get back home the next morning, I open my stolen prize.But it seems I grabbed the wrong package.And the violent mess I find inside will change my life forever.Turns out my hot neighbor is a Russian Bratva boss, wi
Last Updated: 2026-07-06
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