All Chapters of SUBSTITUTE BRIDE FOR THE MAFIA DON: Chapter 381 - Chapter 390

Andrea's POVI settled onto my bed with my laptop and opened up my novel, picking up right where I'd left off. The words had been coming so much more easily lately, ever since things with Luca had stabilized and the constant crushing weight of fear had finally lifted off all of us. My characters were finally getting somewhere good now—working through the misunderstandings that had kept them apart, finding their way back to each other. There was something deeply satisfying about writing toward a happy ending, even when my own real-life situation still felt so uncertain and complicated.I wrote for about an hour, completely losing myself in the story, before my phone pinged on the nightstand beside me.I picked it up. It was Dante.You okay?I felt myself smile at the screen before I'd even started typing.I'm fine. Mum and Dahlia are downstairs becoming best friends. I think my mum has officially adopted her.His reply came quickly.Good. Dahlia could use that.I noticed he didn't elab

Andrea's POV"Love is a beautiful thing, sweetheart," she said quietly. "It's one of the most beautiful things in the whole world. There's nothing like it. But the people we give our hearts to don't always feel the same way back. And that's one of the hardest truths there is to live with." She squeezed my hands gently. "I just don't want to see your heart get broken, Andrea. That's all. That's the only thing a mother ever really worries about, no matter how old her children get. We just want to keep you from hurting.""I know," I said softly. "I know, Mum.""It's not that I don't believe he cares for you. From the little I saw, the way he looked at you in that mirror—" She gave a small knowing smile. "A man doesn't look at a woman like that over nothing. But caring and being able to say it, to give it freely—those aren't always the same thing. And you deserve all of it. The caring and the words and everything in between."She leaned over and kissed my forehead, soft and warm, the way

Andrea's POVI pushed myself up on my elbows so I could see him better. “I missed you too,” I said. My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. “All day. Every time I looked up at the house I hoped I’d see you at one of the windows.”He leaned down, one knee on the mattress, and kissed me. It wasn’t soft. It was hard and hungry, his mouth opening over mine like he needed to taste me to breathe. His tongue slid against mine, deep and insistent. I kissed him back the same way, reaching up to fist the front of his shirt and pull him closer. One of his hands braced beside my head; the other came down to rest on my waist, fingers spreading wide over the damp bikini fabric. The kiss went on until my lips felt swollen and I was making small, needy sounds into his mouth.When he finally pulled back, his forehead stayed close to mine. “You look so hot in this swimsuit,” he said. His thumb stroked slowly along the edge of the bikini top, just above my breast. “I saw you from the mansion. From

Andrea's POV “I should go before someone comes looking,” he said against the back of my neck. His breath was warm. But he didn’t move. His thumb kept tracing small circles on my hip bone. “I know,” I whispered. My voice sounded small in the quiet room. Neither of us moved for another long minute. I listened to his breathing slow down behind me. His hand slid up from my hip to rest flat on my stomach, and for one stupid second I let myself imagine it there when my stomach was round instead of flat. The thought made my chest hurt in the best and worst way. He sighed, the sound heavy, and pressed one last kiss to the top of my head. Then he let go of me and sat up. I stayed on my side and watched him. The bed felt colder without his body covering mine. He stood and reached for his clothes on the floor. I watched the muscles in his back move as he pulled his shirt over his head. Watched him tuck himself back into his pants and zip up like nothing had happened. Watched his hands—tho

Andrea's POV"I don't need anyone else." The tears were running freely now and I let them. There was no point anymore. "I don't want someone else, Dante. Do you hear me? I don't want soft or whole or some man who says the right things. I want you. Just you. Difficult and closed-off and impossible and you. I have wanted you since I was eighteen years old and fell on my face at that airport and you called me Bambi like it was a joke. It's always just been you.""We both know it wasn't going to last." He said it so quietly. Like a door easing shut in another room. Final, but gentle, which was almost the cruelest part.And I stood there. In that dim library full of leather-bound books nobody ever read, with the man I loved standing six feet away telling me it was over, and I could not for the life of me make the two halves of him fit together. This afternoon he'd cupped my face in his hands like I was something precious. This afternoon he'd whispered against my hair. And now this. The war