My Ex Called Me a Stand-In So I Married the Don

At the Costa family's spring dinner, Elena Rossi heard her boyfriend, Julian Costa, the young Don of Miami, talking about her through a half-open door. "Elena's beautiful. But the only reason I went after her was that she looked a little like Bianca. These three years, I've been looking for Bianca in her." Three years of giving him everything, and she had only ever been a stand-in. That night, she called the fiancé her father had chosen for her, the man she had sworn she would never marry. "I'll do it. I'll marry you." Weeks later, the most powerful Don in North America married the Rossi heiress. Julian stared at the bride's face on every screen in the city, the face he couldn't stop thinking about, and lost his mind. Everyone said Dante Valenti was ice-cold. Untouchable. A man who never kept a woman and never left an enemy breathing. Elena believed every word. Until the night he set her down in a deep velvet armchair. His hand slid up the inside of her knee, slow, and stopped just short of where she wanted him. "Once more," he said against her ear, his voice rough. "Be good for me, Elena. Just once more." In the kitchen. In his study. Once, in the back seat of the car before they'd even made it through the gates. He wanted to try everything. That was when she finally understood. Beneath the restrained, untouchable surface of the Don with blood on his hands was a hunger that left her breathless.