ROWANThe Akopov Industries corporate headquarters always gives me the creeps.It’s sixty-five floors of glass and steel designed to make peasants like me feel exactly that—tiny, insignificant, and easily replaceable.Unfortunately, it’s very good at what it does.I shift my heavy folder from one arm to the other, trying to pretend like there aren’t sweat stains forming under the armpits of my thrifted blazer. It’s not even hot—I’m just a nervous sweater. One of my many genetic gifts. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad.But why am I sweating? That’s dumb. This is a very easy task. Robots could do it. Monkeys could do it. Robot monkeys could almost certainly do it.Probably with less sweat, too.“Just deliver the quarterly reports,” I mutter to myself, mimicking my best friend Natalie’s voice. “Super easy. In and out in five minutes.”Right. Easy for her to say when she isn’t the one being sent into the lion’s den.Technically, this should be her job. But Nat is so obscenely pregnant that I’ve

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

Because the reception desk is empty. Vanessa is a ghost. My little booty is stuck.“Hello?” I call out, my voice echoing in the cavernous office.No response. It feels like I’m on the surface of Mars. No signs of life anywhere in sight.I glance at my watch. It’s 7:42 P.M. Most normal employees went home hours ago.But not me. Not Rowan St. Clair, perpetual overachiever and Olympic gold medalist in people-pleasing. A leftover trait from growing up fatherless and becoming Mom’s emotional support child when her diagnosis landed at the ripe old age of eleven.I sigh and make my way down the hall. “Hello?” I call again. “Is anyone here?”Radio silence once more. Vanessa, if she even exists, is not within earshot.“Perfect,” I grumble. “Just perfect.”I look at the imposing double doors that lead to Vincent’s personal office. Maybe I could just slip in and leave the folder on his desk? If he isn’t there, no harm done. If he is, I’ll stammer out an apology and scurry away like the meek corp

Last Updated : 2026-01-30

ROWANVincent Akopov, the man who has starred in my most private fantasies for five years, is looming tall over his desk.His dark hair falls in perfect disarray across his forehead, those distinctive silver streaks catching the overhead glare like lightning trapped in midnight. His jaw—that impossible sculpture of angles and shadows—clenches beneath the trimmed precision of his beard. The sleeves of his charcoal button-down are rolled to the elbow, revealing forearms mapped with veins that branch under his skin.His presence devours the room. Consumes the oxygen. Consumes my oxygen.It’s the reason—well, one of many—that Vincent is always the one I go to in my lonely, late night imaginings. Ol’ Reliable to get me to the metaphorical mountain peak.The man doesn’t occupy space—he owns it, warps it, makes you forget there was ever anything else here before him.But there is something before him.Something bent over before him, rather.To be specific, that something is a woman.The woma

Last Updated : 2026-01-30

Then I laugh, a hysterical sound that bounces off the elevator walls and returns to my ears magnified, intensified, worse and more terrifying in every way.He winked. I can’t stop asking myself the same question: What could that mean? In what universe was that wink an invitation?The universe where my mother hadn’t gotten sick, maybe. Where we hadn’t lost our house paying for her treatments. Where I’d been able to take that design internship in Paris instead of the first steady job with health insurance I could find.A universe where Vincent Akopov would see past the quiet marketing associate who blends into the wallpaper and notice the real me instead.The elevator dings as it mercifully descends below the thirtieth floor. It’s like the journey I took to get here, but played backwards. Déjà vu all over again, but in reverse.By the time the elevator kisses the ground, I do what I’ve always done: left the hope behind me.It’s safer than asking what if.3VINCEThe door clicks shut. I

Last Updated : 2026-01-30

That’s all well and good. But it’s not the promotion I’m most excited for.It’s when Andrei hands me his other crown that I’ll truly be salivating at everything that’s finally mine.That coronation will take place in the dark. It won’t make any headlines. No news station will breathlessly cover the transition of power. No Wall Street motherfucker in a Loro Piana suit will speculate about what it means for the company’s stock price.Because when the Akopov Bratva takes a new king, the only ones who know about it are the ones who matter.“—Christ, son, how many times do I have to repeat myself?”I blink back to reality. My father has been yammering in my ear for longer than I realized.“Had to answer an important message,” I lie to him smoothly. “What was your question?”I can practically hear his infamous scowl. It used to make weaker men wet themselves.But I’ve been on the receiving end of Andrei Akopov’s ire plenty of times in my life. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.“The qua

Last Updated : 2026-01-30

Her body, finally revealed, would surprise me—curves hidden beneath those boxy, beige, lifeless, corporate-approved clothes. Skin paler than porcelain where the sun never touches.I’d circle her like a predator. Touching myself because I’d be too fucking hard to resist. But not touching her. Not yet. Just letting her feel my gaze burning into every inch.The small of her back.The constellation of freckles on her shoulder blade.The goosebumps rising in my wake.Tell me something, I’d murmur against the nape of her neck. How often have you imagined this?Her voice would crack when she says, Every day for five years.Perfect fucking answer.I’d seat her back on the desk. I like her there—perched, poised, right where I can see all of her. I’d push those knees wide again.And she would let me. Oh, she would fucking let me. Her thighs would part beneath my hands, white skin blooming pink where my fingers press. I’d position myself between them, the head of my cock nudging against her entr

Last Updated : 2026-01-30

All Chapters of Filthy Promises - Mafia Romance: Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

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