Caramel Lowlights

**This book is the second book in the Billionaire series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but it is highly suggested that you read The Billionaire’s First Glance prior to this novel.** I, Zander Cavanaugh, the all-American football quarterback, have done something that could get me killed. I fell in love with the brilliant, curvy mafia princess Isabella Aventini at first sight. Everything about Isabella called to me: her captivating blue eyes, her soft caramel skin, every dip and curve of her voluptuous body was just the start. Isabella was smart, kind, and funny. The kind of girl you can’t help but fall in love with. I know she felt the same way as I did. We were drawn together like magnets, but that’s not how the mafia works. Isabella is a commodity to be sold or brokered for the sake of alliances and has been promised to the ruthless and cutthroat DeMarco family since birth — a fate she neither wants nor needs. Isabella’s father, Mafia Don Salvatore Aventini, has managed to keep us apart by sending Isabella away to finish high school. However, when fates aligned, Isabella not only ended up attending the same university as me, but she’s also my college-assigned tutor. I know there is no chance for us, and still I fell in love with her, knowing it could mean my death.

I felt his lips brush against my earlobe, a soft brush that suddenly made my toes curl. His breath lingered on my neck before he finally whispered, "I own you Crystal. The sooner you get to accept that the better for you. I'll make sure you submit yourself to me, be it the hard way or the easy way. And I'll break this ego of yours. I promise you" * * * * * * He was her beast and she was his beauty. He was addicted and she was his favourite drug. He was a sinner and she was his sin. In the blink of an eye, Crystal sees her entire life crumble with the death of her parents and she is forced to take a job that she would never have thought off to make ends meet for her and her sister and pay of her gambling father's debt to a crime boss-- being a stripper. Just a glance on the doe-eyed caramel skin beauty swinging her hips seductively on the pole and Leonardo already knew he had to have her as his. He had to claim her for himself. But he was everything she hated. She despised him and loathed his existence for the pain and anguish he had caused her and her sister. She swore never to succumb to him but what she didn't know was that he was also determined to show her that he would earn a place in her heart and life.

When my body is engulfed in flames, my firefighter father is watching a new movie with my sister. My mother is baking them a cake. I hear laughter in the living room, and I can smell the caramel popcorn in the kitchen. Today is my family's weekly family day—it's a day for my sister and parents to be with each other. The doorbell rings, and the perpetrator gives me a chance to ask for help. My limbs are bound, and stones fill my mouth. I stand at the door and desperately wait for my parents to open it. They don't get up. Instead, they sit on either side of my sister and hug her. "We promised you we'll only be with you on our family days. No one can disturb us." "What if it's Danica?" Ravenna Sutton, my sister, asks. "Her? She hasn't answered her phone in days—who knows where she's off being wild? I'll think of her as dead if she still doesn't return tomorrow!" Ravenna giggles. Mom feeds her some popcorn, and Dad discusses the movie's plot with her. The perpetrator drags me back upstairs and laughs mockingly in my ear. "Looks like I did something unnecessary. They genuinely don't care about you." Smoke permeates every corner upstairs, and the flames start to lick at my body. Mom and Dad protect Ravenna as they run downstairs. They have no idea their birth daughter is screaming in pain amid the blazing fire.

Aurora is a twenty-one-year-old wolf shifter who recently graduated with a master's degree in business and landed a prestigious manager's position at Xanders Financial, the largest financial company owned by her pack. Driven and focused on her new career, finding a mate is the last thing on her mind. However, her carefully planned life takes an unexpected turn when Maverick, the Alpha's son and notorious playboy who has been studying abroad for five years, returns to town. ​Maverick arrives at the company headquarters intending to inform his father, Alpha Alexander, that he is abandoning his future Alpha duties to marry his fiancée, Scarlett, and live in Paris. But the moment Maverick and Aurora cross paths, they are hit by the overwhelming scents of caramel apples and pine, and their wolves instantly recognize each other as fated mates. ​Despite the powerful pull of the mate bond, Aurora tries to push Maverick away, frustrated that he is already engaged and determined to protect her heart and her career. Meanwhile, Maverick's world is thrown into turmoil. He postpones his wedding to figure out how to handle the mate bond, much to his father's demand that he reject Scarlett immediately. ​Unbeknownst to Maverick, his fiancée Scarlett is a manipulative, status-obsessed Delta wolf who secretly rejected her own true mate just to secure Maverick's wealth and power. Realizing her plans to take over the company are threatened, Scarlett begins plotting to uncover the identity of Maverick's fated mate so she can eliminate Aurora as competition once and for all. Caught between a scheming fiancée, an Alpha's expectations, and a stubborn but beautiful mate, Maverick must decide if he is finally ready to leave his playboy ways behind and fight for Aurora.