LOGIN"I don't play games, Miss Moretti. I end them." Celine Moretti has a plan after catching her boyfriend with the new beautiful transfer student. It’s simple, really. Step one: Don't cry. Get even. Step two: Seduce the transfer student’s uncle—the icy, terrifyingly handsome Professor Reed—and destroy his niece’s perfect little life. It was supposed to be a game. A little revenge to soothe a broken heart. Celine thought she was the player. She thought Professor Reed was just a target, a rigid academic with a god complex and a stick up his ass. She was wrong. Professor Reed isn't just a teacher. He is Caelum Morano, the ruthlessly efficient Don of the Morano Crime Family. A man who hides in the halls of academia to hunt the shadow organization that butchered his fiancée. He has spent years perfecting his mask of indifference, living a life of cold solitude, surrounded by a loving but dangerous family he keeps at arm's length. Until Celine walks in. She is chaos in red lipstick. She is defiance wrapped in a short skirt. And she looks exactly like the ghost haunting his dreams. He tries to reject her. He tries to scare her away. "You’re playing with fire, little star," Caelum warned, his hand closing around her throat, not tight enough to hurt, but firm enough to own. "And I burned down the world a long time ago." "Then burn me," Celine whispered, trembling not with fear, but with a dark, twisted need. "I’d rather burn with you than freeze alone."
View MoreCeline's POVThe sound of the new boat engines grew louder, cutting across the water like a warning. Multiple vessels, moving fast. I felt the shift in the air immediately — the way everyone on that beach tensed at once. Sergei’s men swung their rifles toward the bay. Vivienne’s thumb stayed frozen over the detonator, her face pale and slick with sweat despite the cooling evening. Caelum stood like a wall in front of us, his body coiled tight, ready to move the second anything broke.Hope’s question still hung there, sharp as broken glass.“If you really loved us… why are you willing to kill us to keep us?”Vivienne’s eyes flicked to her granddaughter. For a heartbeat, something raw and almost human moved across her face — pain, maybe, or the closest thing she could feel to it. Her hand trembled. The blood at the corner of her mouth had dried into a dark crust, but fresh droplets appeared with every shallow breath.“I’m not killing you,” Vivienne said, voice hoarse and thin. “I’m givi
Caelum's POVThe words left my mouth before I could weigh them properly, before I could dress them up or soften the edges.“The first time I killed a man, I was nineteen…”The beach went still. Even the wind seemed to pause, as if the Adriatic itself was listening. I felt Celine’s eyes on me, sharp and worried. Victor’s small hand tightened in hers. Grace stood frozen beside her mother, and Hope — my oldest, the one who had always watched everything too closely — looked at me like she was bracing for impact.Vivienne sat back down on the driftwood log, one hand pressed to her chest, watching me with something between curiosity and satisfaction. Sergei and his men had retreated to the edge of the tree line, but they were still close enough to hear every word. Their presence made the confession feel like a performance I hadn’t auditioned for.I kept my voice low and steady, the way you speak when you know lies have already done enough damage.“His name was Pavel. He owed my mother money
Celine's POVThe boat cut through the bay like a blade, its hull painted in those unmistakable Bratva markings — deep crimson and black, the kind of colors that announced ownership before anyone even stepped off the deck. Men in tactical vests stood along the rail, rifles held loose but ready. No shouting. No dramatic gestures. Just the low, steady growl of the engine slowing as it nosed toward the rocky shallows.Vivienne’s composure cracked.It wasn’t much — a tightening at the corners of her mouth, the way her fingers curled tighter around the edge of the driftwood she sat on — but I saw it. For the first time since we’d arrived on this island, she looked genuinely unsettled.Victor’s arms were still locked around my waist, his face buried against my shirt. Grace had pulled back just enough to wipe at her eyes, but she stayed close, one hand fisted in the fabric of my jacket like she was afraid the wind might carry me away. Hope hadn’t moved from her spot in the sand, knees drawn u
Celine's POVA shaft of light and heat consumed the stronghold, inscribing the Alpine night in daylight.We were two hundred meters down the slope when it happened, Kent dragging Caelum by the arm with very deliberate force, a person who was now sure that whoever he pulled along was not going to make this decision without his assistance. I was running and Ryker had his hand on my back and Victoria was behind us somewhere, and then came the sound, a pressure that moved through the air but also through the ground at once, so I dropped to one knee and put up my arm against the heat and saw the building transmute into something else entirely.Looking back Caelum had come to a halt.He was standing in the snow as the light of the fire touched his face and Kent’s hand remained on his arm and he was looking at where the building had been and his expression wasn’t one I had a name for.I reached and I said next to him and stared at the fire and felt the heat from that distance and thought abo
CAELUM'S POVTime dilated to the beating of hearts. I could see Vivienne’s finger on the trigger, I could see the gentle pressure as she started pressing it. I got a view of Celine’s eyes, wide with fear but maybe something else too. Trust. She trusted me to save her.I calculated distances, angles
CELINE'S POVThe party was a stifling affair from the moment we had arrived. All those faces, fake smiles stretched end to end, and inside everyone measuring whom they should or could betray next. I’d done just like Caelum wanted, stayed near Kent, Maddie – what I did was hang back like the good li
CAELUM'S POVThe first sensation I experienced, when awareness hauled me back into the land of the living was pain. Intense, searing pain that swept through my ribs as fire. My skull pounded with a low ache that somehow even seemed to make thinking more of an effort. I attempted to shift and insta
Caelum's POVVivienne was attempting to disconnect me. Change public opinion, make Celine seem like an innocent victim. If I died in the “rescue” of her from my wicked clutches, no one would think twice about it. She'd be a hero. I'd be a monster.It was brilliant strategy. Exactly the type of mane






Welcome to GoodNovel world of fiction. If you like this novel, or you are an idealist hoping to explore a perfect world, and also want to become an original novel author online to increase income, you can join our family to read or create various types of books, such as romance novel, epic reading, werewolf novel, fantasy novel, history novel and so on. If you are a reader, high quality novels can be selected here. If you are an author, you can obtain more inspiration from others to create more brilliant works, what's more, your works on our platform will catch more attention and win more admiration from readers.