All Chapters of The Butcher - A Mafia romance : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I was a bartender at Silencio, a bar that was a thirty-minute walk from my apartment. I never took a taxi, even when I got off work at almost three in the morning, because it was just too expensive. And there was nothing more peaceful than walking Paris at night—especially in the rain.It was a busy night at the bar, lots of people in the main room and dispersed throughout the other lounges. Waitresses would wait on those people and bring them drinks and small bites. I stayed at the bar and helped the people waiting for a table. At the beginning of the night, it was usually young people who’d just gotten off work and needed a drink after a stressful day. As the night passed, it turned into romantic dates. And then around midnight, different characters came in, rich men who wanted a place to drink in peace.I’d adopted a habit of constantly scanning down the bar to see if anyone else needed a drink, and while my gaze wandered, I spotted him come through the door.I gripped a bottle by

The bar closed and the police came. They asked Bastien a couple of questions, but it seemed like they already knew him because they didn’t ask who he was. In fact, they treated him like a superior.I stepped outside into the cold, the air wet from a drizzle that had just passed through. The pavement was wet from the recent rainfall, and a few people were on the street because no one ever slept in this city.Bastien came outside a moment later and looked me over. “You alright?”“A little frazzled, but I’m fine.”He continued to stare me down with those piercing blue eyes. “It’s okay not to be fine.”My eyes flicked away, touched by the softness he was showing when he had been so ruthless a moment ago. “I know it is.”“Where’s your apartment?”I normally wouldn’t give out my address to a stranger, but he somehow felt like anything but a stranger even though I only knew his first name. “Rue Coquilliere. By the Louvre.”“I’ll walk you.”“I’m okay⁠—”“Come on.” He took the lead, stepping i

I could still breathe, but barely.I finally touched him, felt just how hard that chest was, touched the ink all over his skin, the heat that burned from his flesh. I gripped his wrist and squeezed as he fucked me into the pillows, as his strong physique tightened and shifted, his physicality so unrealistic it seemed fake.He moved his thumb up my throat to the corner of my mouth. He squeezed again before he let me go, before his hand found a home in my messy hair.I cupped the side of his face as I planted my other hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat through his mass. “Fuck, Bastien…” This man was a complete stranger, but I moaned his name like he was my long-term lover, like I’d loved him for a lifetime, had already given him sons and daughters. I should feel guilty for being with someone new while technically still being married, but I felt nothing of the sort. I just enjoyed it—thoroughly.He pounded me into the bed, one arm pinned behind my knee, while the other remained dee

Chapter 3BastienIt was almost midnight.I sat in the council chamber, upon a throne that Louis XIII had sat upon himself, in Luxembourg Palace, a sprawling estate claimed by the French Republic in the late seventeen hundreds. It was the place where the Senate gathered, where the president of the Senate lived in one of the pavilions on the property.My knife was on the pedestal in front of me, the hilt carved into the seal of the Republic.I sat there and waited, Antoine and Luca on my left and Gabriel and Mael on my right, me in the dead center.One of my hands stepped into the room. “They await your judgment, Butcher.”I gave a slight nod, ushering them to come inside.Their wrists zip-tied behind their backs, they were dragged into the council room, a place where King Louis had once held court. The windowsills were made of gold, the ceiling was seventy feet high, painted champagne pink with a chandelier in the center.Two of them didn’t fight, but the one in the middle did, as if

“Sure.”She made me a drink, a double scotch on the rocks, and placed it on the counter in front of me. “Didn’t expect to see you in here.”“Didn’t expect you to ignore my texts.”“I didn’t ignore them. Just didn’t have anything to say.”I took a drink as I stared at her, wondering if she’d been thinking about me as much as I’d been thinking about her. Beautiful women were a dime a dozen, but this woman had something special. I wasn’t sure if it was the I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, the sass, or just her incredible tits—or all of the above.“You said you had a meeting. Where do you work?”I didn’t answer the question, not wanting my reply to be overheard by anyone who may be listening.She knew I ignored her, but she didn’t repeat the question or pry into my silence. She worked on her cleanup in front of me, pouring out glasses and tossing old limes for the drinks. When her hair fell in her face, she would move it across one shoulder and expose one side of her neck, and I remembered h