By
C.R. Jane

“I’ll ruin us,” Jackson whispered to me in the dark.

Monsters exist. I’d seen that firsthand. Beautiful faces could hide the most tainted souls, that much I knew for sure.

I’d said goodbye to Jackson Parker, desperate to save myself once and for all, but old habits die hard. Every kiss, every touch, every word he’d given me felt imprinted on my skin.

But when a monster from the past comes back, I’ll have no choice but to reveal the secrets from our shared history.

I need Jackson to be my hero, but he has his own scars, and I don’t know if we can conquer the past.

Heartbreak Prince or lover? There’s a fine line between the two.

I once said I would love him forever, but at what price does forever cost?

Maybe my very soul…

If you haven’t read Heartbreak Prince, STOP, go read it first!

At the end of the last book, we learn that Caiden has awoken from the two-year coma. He appears to have no memory of the havoc and pain he caused. Not only with the accident itself but in the aftermath with Jackson. This book starts with a look back, with Caiden telling Jackson his version of what happened in the car before the accident.

In the previous book we learned what happened to Everly that night, so right now I’m so very angry at Caiden. The fact remains that he ended up in a coma after so maybe a bit of slack.

Jackson is determined to win Everly back, but she has distanced herself from him. She hasn’t seen him in three months and has started dating hockey player Landry Evans. However, the moment she sees Jackson all thoughts of distance disappear.

Her first encounter with Caiden appears to leave him confused and remorseful, but Everly will have none of it, or him. She ends up having dreams about not only the accident itself but of the confrontation with Jackson afterward.

As Landry’s girlfriend, his thought not hers, she had to go to the Championship after party. Unfortunately, while staying away from the football players hanging with Jackson and Caiden, she gets pushed down the stairs.

This is just one of my favorite scenes.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he muttered to himself.

I traced his features with my gaze, memorizing everything just in case this was the last time I ever got this close to him again. His hair looked more silver than gold in the moonlight, casting him more as the dark, mournful prince than the golden king he was by the light of day.

He turned to me all of a sudden. “Why were you so scared tonight?” he demanded.

“What do you mean?”

“Why was Caiden the first person you thought would push you down the stairs? Why were you so scared?”

I gaped at him, my mouth opening and closing, no words coming out. Not once in all these years had he ever come even close to asking me for my version of what happened. Not once had he ever asked me about Caiden.

“Did you feel like he would do something to get back at you because of that summer? Because Caiden’s not like that. He was asking about you as soon as he could. He misses the hell out of you.”

That feeling that had begun to wind its way through my veins, the one that felt suspiciously like hope…it evaporated in an instant, leaving nothing but ash and disappointment.

We looked at each other for a moment, and I registered the confusion in his gaze as he saw what must look like utter devastation in mine.

I fixed my clothes and then turned over so I could get away from that stare of his.

He didn’t say another word.

Despite what had just happened, the pain medicine and how heavy my head felt made it easy to fall back asleep.

The next time I woke up, it was to heat, a veritable inferno that covered every one of my limbs. Jackson surrounded me, his large legs and arms enclosing me tightly. I didn’t know how it was possible for me to feel so sheltered, so secure…even after everything…but I did.

“You didn’t think he would push you to get back at you, did you? You were just scared,” he said hollowly, and somehow, I knew that he hadn’t slept at all. I stiffened, and he pulled me against him so that I was lying against his chest, his steady heartbeat keeping me grounded in the moment.

“Because I’ve been thinking about it, going over the night of the accident and tonight over and over again these last few hours…and I can’t get that look you had out of my head. It was like you’d experienced evil. You were scared down to your soul.” He idly traced down my spine.

He sat us up abruptly, making me look at him as he held my face with both hands. “What haven’t you told me?” His tone was harsh and demanding. And it pissed me off.

How. Dare. He.

How dare he demand answers when he wouldn’t let me have even one answer all those years ago? How dare he demand answers when I had to recover from my injuries all alone? Memories of how excruciating PT was, how I had to relearn how to walk…how painful my surgeries were barreled through my mind. My head hurt so fucking bad right now, and once again, it was the Jackson show. It was all about what he wanted.

This night was giving me whiplash with how soft he was in the beginning. But this…this was the Jackson I knew.

I tried to lash out and slap his face, but the pain of moving was too much. Jackson was holding me in place anyway. He pulled me back against his chest, and it was a testament to how in pain I was that I didn’t even bother struggling.

His body was shaking as he held me tighter, as if he was having an internal debate.

This time, I didn’t fall back asleep.

By the time daylight cracked through the window, I felt even more like shit than I had the night before. And Jackson didn’t look any better. He had held me the rest of the night, not letting me move an inch. The intensity of his thoughts barreled against me. It was like he was trying to see inside my head and uncover my secrets.

Strangely, the urge to blurt everything out wasn’t there. There had been a time for Jackson to believe me.

And it had passed.

In the light of day, it was easy to remember why I’d said goodbye in the library stacks. Because there had been a time for Jackson to be my hero. And he had failed, a million times over.

I didn’t think it was possible for him to make that up to me.

“I need to get back,” I told him hoarsely when he still hadn’t let go, and I could tell by the light that was coming in from the window that it was getting later and later in the day. I didn’t have any intention of going to class, but I at least could get a little bit of sleep while Melanie was in class.

“Fine,” he said stiffly as he got out of bed. I carefully averted my eyes from his too beautiful form as he disappeared into the bathroom.

I grabbed my crutches that Jackson had brought in while I was asleep, and hobbled into the hallway, looking for another bathroom, found one, and then promptly gasped when I saw myself in the mirror. My eyes looked like a raccoon’s, and my hair looked like squirrels had taken up residence in it.

I can’t believe Jackson actually kissed me looking like this…

I felt around the back of my head and neck to see how it was faring, and winced when I happened upon a particularly sensitive area.

I felt pretty pathetic in that moment. The woman staring back at me in the mirror looked haunted, exhausted…hopeless.

Is this how it would be forever?

My thoughts drifted to that feeling of terror as I’d begun to fall down the stairs. In the light of day, it didn’t seem as clear that someone had pushed me on purpose as it had last night. Was I just being paranoid? The house had been crowded after all.

And what did it mean for me if it had been on purpose? Who was targeting me?

“Everly?!” Jackson’s voice sounded down the hallway. It was a little panicked.

I took a deep breath and crutched my way out of the bathroom. “I’m right here,” I called out, and he appeared around the corner, looking relieved to see me.

“You shouldn’t have gotten up without me,” he scolded me. I just rolled my eyes. I’d had to do a lot of hard things without him. This was easy compared to those things.

Jackson helped me back down the hallway, and I actually paid attention to his place this time. Everything was decorated in muted greys and blacks. It was austere…perfectly neat. Everything looked like it had been placed there on purpose.

It looked more like a museum than a home. Although saying that…what did I know about a home?

“Nice place,” I commented as he opened the garage door for us to leave.

“Yeah,” he grunted, evidently back to responding to me in monosyllables, even after what we’d shared last night.

He helped me into his truck, and then we were off, heading back to campus.

We went through a coffee shop drive-through, and before I could give him my order, he told the barista my exact drink.

It was so bad how happy it made me that he still remembered that detail. So bad.

The barista handed him our drinks, and he gave me mine nonchalantly, as if I wasn’t having a freak-out in the passenger seat next to him.

We continued to drive quietly.

“Do you still journal?” he suddenly asked.

It was a really random thing for him to say. “Um yeah, every day, just like always,” I responded quietly, thinking about the spot under my bed where I’d moved them to after keeping them in my car for the first part of the semester.

He nodded, evidently not having anything for follow-up.

We pulled to the front of my dorm, and he shut off the truck and proceeded to open his door.

“What are you doing?” I asked, panicking for some reason.

“Helping you inside of course.”

“I don’t need your help,” I spat at him, irrationally angry, even as I hung on to the coffee he’d just purchased for me so perfectly.

“Why are you fighting me so hard?” he snarled, turning towards me.

I gaped at him. “What part of ‘we’re done’ did you not hear?”

“We’re never going to be done. It doesn’t matter what you say. You’re poison, but even if I have to die to taste you, that’s what I’ll do.”

I laughed bitterly, even as his words did something crazy to my insides.
Jane, C.R.. Heartbreak Lover: A Bully Romance (Broken Hearts Academy Book 2) (Kindle Locations 945-1009). Kindle Edition.

While Jackson does take her journals, he is foiled in his attempt to read them. Caiden was at his home when he returned, and they spent the day playing video games and eating junk food.

The more Jackson thought about it the more things didn’t add up. Throw Landry into this mess and well things do get very interesting. Even more so with Everly’s roommate Melanie upping the stakes with her pranks.

This book is even darker than the first and I found myself wondering how anything could possibly resolve.

An emotional rollercoaster, filled with anxiety, darkness, romance and so much more!

5 Contented Purrs for C.R.!

I’m a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for a while, and I’m so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!

A loud banging on the door had me bolting upright, my heart beating a million miles a minute.

“Who the fuck is that?” groaned Melanie as she pulled her pillow over her head. I’d been sleeping with one eye open the whole night since she was in the room tonight, and the rude awakening was not welcome.

“Everrrrrrrly,” Jackson called through the door, and I didn’t know it was possible, but my heart started racing even faster, until I was sure that I was going to have a heart attack.

“Open up,” he sang. He was drunk.

The old Jackson was never drunk. He loathed losing control too much to have more than a few beers at a time.

He sounded trashed right now. I glanced at my phone, it was two in the morning.

I hurried to the door and opened it just a few inches.

“Little angel, let me in,” he whispered loudly and my traitorous heart clenched at the nickname I hadn’t heard since before the accident.

“Jackson, it’s two in the morning,” I said before reluctantly opening the door and letting him in.

“Is that Jackson Parker?” Melanie almost squealed as she sat up in bed looking far more alert than she had a second earlier. She immediately started to run her fingers through her hair like she had a chance of impressing him. I growled internally at the thought.

“Out, Loose Lips,” he snarled drunkenly at her as soon as he noticed her, and she gasped, affronted. The derogatory way he said it made me think that he wasn’t talking about the lips on her face when he called her that.

“Fuck you, Parker,” she said halfheartedly, since we all knew she would fuck him in an instant if she could. She grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it over her as she darted past us. Melanie gave me an appraising look as she walked out, a look that spelled trouble for me. She pounded on the door two doors down, and a girl I’d seen her walking with sleepily opened the door and let her in.

“That wasn’t nice, Jackson,” I said quietly as he walked in and immediately made himself at home on my bed. He had an adorable look on his face as he sighed against my pillow. I closed the door and locked it behind me before staring again at the intruder who’d taken over my bed.

“Come here, little angel,” he said seductively as he moved over to give me space on the bed.

Yes, he was drunk. Maybe drunk wasn’t the right word. Wasted was probably a more apt description. But I couldn’t stop myself from getting into that bed with him.

It was like a missing piece of myself slid into place as he pulled my back towards his chest and wrapped his arms around me. His chin fit perfectly tucked against the top of my head, and I had to take a deep breath to ward off the tears that were threatening from the familiar move.

“Why are you here, Jackson?” I finally asked quietly, and he groaned.

“Have you been thinking about that kiss since class too?” he slurred. And my heart stuttered.

“What kiss?” I pressed him, a terrible suspicion coming over me.

“When I kissed you at my birthday party. Your first kiss. It was the best kiss,” he commented in a singsong voice.

Fuck, my heart hurt. Had he really thought this whole time that he’d been my first kiss?

“Tell me it was the best kiss, Everly,” he ordered as his voice shifted into an almost dream-like state. His hands caressed my throat, and it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe.

“It was the best kiss, Jackson,” I answered softly.

But he was already snoring. So he couldn’t hear how badly he had broken my heart once again.

In a better world, he would have been my first kiss.

In a better world, I would have answered that text of his and never met Caiden under the bleachers.

In my dreams, that kiss at his sixteenth birthday party had been my first kiss.

I fell into a deep sleep despite my best efforts to stay awake.

And when I woke up, Jackson was gone.

And I’d never felt more alone.
Jane, C.R.. Heartbreak Prince: A Bully Romance (Broken Hearts Academy Book 1) (Kindle Locations 1151-1190). Kindle Edition.

From here we get to know more of what happened in the past and let me say it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Everly is subjected to more torture scenarios, and wonders if Jackson is behind them all, since he knows all her secrets. Still, she is drawn to Jackson like a moth to a flame.

There is so much emotion in this book, some misplaced but there just the same. So many ups and downs and I’m so glad Everly has a friend in Lake.

I really can’t wait to read the conclusion of this duet.

5 Contented Purrs for C.R.

I’m a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for a while, and I’m so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!

Since the dawn of time, waging war on those who have wronged us has been embedded in the very fiber of mankind’s true nature. The thirst for vengeance and retribution has always prevailed overturning the other cheek to one’s enemies. Creating chaos and bloodshed is preferable to being subjected to vapid dialogues of peaceful negotiation.

None hold this way of life more sacred than made men.

Honor.
Loyalty.
Courage.

These are the codes of conduct of every mafia family.

However, the same cannot be said when dealing with their enemies.

Throughout recent decades, in the midst of civil evolution, an ancient war was being fought. From both sides of the globe, blood was spilled in the name of honor, while the brutal carnage each family bestowed upon the other was anything but noble. Soldiers, kin, and innocent lives were lost on all sides, and the inevitable extinction of the mafioso way of life was fast approaching.

In the most unlikely scenarios, six families came together in an undisclosed location to negotiate a peace treaty. As the leaders of the most influential crime families in the world, they recognized that a ceasefire was the only way to guarantee their endurance. Should this attempt fail, then their annihilation was all but imminent.

The treaty was effectively simple.

Each family would offer up one of their daughters as a sacrifice to their enemies. Marriage was the only way to ensure that the families wouldn’t retaliate against one another. It would also guarantee that the following successor’s bloodline would be forever changed, creating an alliance that would continue throughout generations to come.

Not all in attendance were happy with the arrangement.

The deep scars gained from years of plight and hatred can’t be so easily healed or erased. However, even the cynical and leery knew that this pact was their best chance of survival. Although the uncertainty of the treaty’s success was felt by every mob boss there, one by one, the families swore an oath that would bind them to it forever.

And as the words spilled from their lips and the scent of blood hung in the air, they made sure innocent lives would yet again be deemed collateral damage to their mafia wars—one last time.

Their daughters would have to pay the price of peace.

Whether they wanted to or not.

By
C.R. Jane

I was sold to my enemies. And not just my enemies. I was sold to monsters.

I should know all about how to survive monsters though, I come from a family of them.

We aren’t Butchers in name only, and surely the Rossi family can’t be as bad as the devil that’s been destroying me since I was eight years old.

New York City, the powerful head of the Cosa Nostra, is my new home. Where Lucian, Raphael, and Gabriel Rossi now think they own me.

The thing they don’t realize is that I’m more than what I seem.

A dahlia has always bloomed best in the light, and even though everything about this place and these men is shrouded in darkness, I’m determined to thrive…to win.

They play a game for keeps, a game where the only rule is that there are no rules.

They want to ruin me. But what disturbs me most is that I just might like it.

It’s me against them, and only time will tell If I’ll be the winner or be destroyed in these cruel and merciless Mafia Wars.

NOTE:
This is a dark mafia reverse harem  standalone which means the main character will end up with multiple love interests. It may have triggers for some as it has intense angst, mention of previous non-consent, non-consent, dark love-hate themes, scenes of self harm, sexual scenes, and some violence,   and is not for the faint of heart.

Dahlia, from The Firm in England, is headed to New York where she will marry the Heir to the Cosa Nostra dynasty, Lucian Rossi. She’s angry with her brother and her clueless mother for springing this on her. They aren’t even flying her in a private plane, she’s flying first class but commercial. The busy Heathrow airport is crowded, and she ends up buying a tacky and too small T-shirt with a Union Jack to replace the blouse she spilled coffee down the front. It’s during that purchase she first sees the handsome man who would be in the adjoining pod on the plane.

The eight-hour flight to New York is an interesting one, exchanging only first names, Dahlia has a reaction to Raphael she’s never had to any other man before. This leads to a very intense, sensual scene, where she gives this stranger something that should have been given to Lucian, her virginity.

Arriving in New York, disheveled and resigned she’s walked to the luggage claim by Raphael, but he disappears before she’s escorted by two men, who obviously know who she is, outside to a Bentley with blacked out windows. This is when she gets her first look at Lucian, a dark angel the opposite of Raphael from the plane. As they take each other in, Lucian asked someone behind her about the flight. That’s when she finds out that Raphael is in fact Lucian’s half-brother. She gave her virginity to her future brother-in-law.

On the drive into Manhattan, Dahlia’s questions are answered with curt barely full sentences from Lucian. She’s literally dropped off at the curb in front of the building with her luggage. Her fiancé is obviously a jerk. One of the doormen pretty much dragged her out of the car before it drives away. Neither of the doormen bother to assist her with it, only when she gets inside the lobby does she get assistance and then left on her own in the penthouse apartment.

Waking to something breaking, Dahlia meets Lucian’s brother Gabriel under unusual circumstances. Gabriel has OCD and it extends to his relationships, falling in love at the drop of a hat and dropping them when someone new catches his eye. Now it seems he’s falling for Dahlia, something that can’t happen.

Gabriel is also appalled at Lucian’s behavior with Dahlia. He’s the one who does his best to make her feel at home.

This is one of many favorite scenes.

“You know, it’s funny. I’m not marrying you, but you’ve asked me more questions in the last fifteen minutes than my fiancé asked during the over-an-hour-long car ride.”

I held in my grin until I wasn’t facing her again. Lucian was such an asshole. It was perfect.

“Oh? Lucian didn’t have anything to say?”

“Apparently not,” she huffed. I heard her shift in her seat as I added some salted butter into another pan and began to melt it. “He— seemed unhappy about the situation,” she said tentatively.

I thought about what I should say. Lucian had been pretty quiet about the whole arranged marriage thing. Raphael and I hadn’t been present when the contract was signed. But once he’d come home, Lucian hadn’t so much as flinched when it had been revealed everyone would basically be trading their daughters in exchange for peace. I’d been horrified on behalf of Lucian… and my little sister.

I couldn’t imagine being forced to marry some random girl. What if she was hideous? But Lucian, he’d agreed to it immediately. As the oldest brother and the future boss of the Cosa Nostra, he took his role seriously. Too seriously, if you asked me.

But right now, I was more jealous than I’d ever thought possible that he was getting to marry Dahlia. He was the luckiest bastard in the world as far as I was concerned. But as long as her heart belonged to me, I could deal with him getting to marry her. She’d still carry the same last name as me.

“Gabriel?” she asked questioningly. I tossed the garlic and the shallots into the butter to soften and added some chilis and some salt and pepper before speaking.

“He’s very focused on his position,” I said carefully. “Right now, he’s the underboss for my father. Lucian has a lot of responsibility. I’m sure… things will warm up between you two,” I continued. Over my dead body.

And that was as much as I really wanted to talk about Lucian.

Her stomach all of a sudden let out the loudest growl I think I’d ever heard. I turned to look at her, and she had an appalled look on her face like she wanted to go run and hide.

It was fucking cute.

“Glad you’re hungry,” I said with a wink, and something inside of me growled in satisfaction when a beautiful blush appeared on her cheeks.

I made a mental note to add lots of winks to my game card in the battle to get Dahlia’s heart.

The pasta was almost perfect, so I gave it another hard stir before I grabbed some vodka from the cabinet and poured a shot in the sauce before adding heavy cream, tomato paste, and freshly grated parmesan. Then I took some of the pasta water, which anyone with Italian ancestry knew was the secret ingredient, and I poured some of it into the sauce.

Fucking perfect.

I heard the barstool move, and I quickly turned around, scared that she was leaving. Instead, I watched as she walked sexily over to where I was standing and looked at the sauce. Sexiest walk I’d ever seen.

This is what I meant by the high of falling in love. Except this high was nothing I’d ever experienced. It was like I was having an out-of-body experience, and I hadn’t even slept with her yet. I could only imagine how good that was going to be.

“This smells amazing,” she said breathily, and I got a little entranced watching her cute pink tongue peek out of her mouth and lick that fucking sinful bottom lip of hers.

I could think of a lot better uses for that tongue. And that mouth, for that matter. I groaned when she bent over to get closer to the sauce, showcasing the heart-shaped ass of my dreams.

I angled my body away and subtly adjusted myself, because this was fucking agony. Not able to help myself, I scooped up some of the sauce onto my wooden spoon and brought it to her mouth. Dahlia went to take the spoon, obviously uneasy about having me spoon feed her, but I decided to push her just a little bit more.

“Taste it,” I practically growled, and she blinked at me shyly before opening up her mouth and letting me slide the spoon in.

As soon as the sauce hit her tongue, her eyes were closing, and a little moan escaped her mouth.

That’s what I’d been going for. My sauce was fucking awesome.

She swallowed, and for just a second, I let myself have the image of her on her knees in front of me… swallowing something else.

“It’s incredible. Better than anything I’ve ever had, even in Italy,” she said, and I knew she meant it. I felt like preening like a fucking rooster at the praise. A million other recipes flashed through my mind, but of course that evolved into spreading her out on the island and eating her, and I had to cut off that line of thought.

I could tell it was going to be hard to keep focused around her.

“Go sit down and I’ll get us some bowls,” I said, unable to stop myself from patting her on that perfect ass.

She let out a little squeak that was beyond fucking adorable and practically sprinted back to her seat.

I hummed a little Taylor Swift as I drained the pasta and then mixed the noodles in with the sauce. Then I spooned huge heaps of it into bowls and sprinkled more grated parmesan and some crushed red pepper onto the top.

“Bon Appetit, my lady,” I crooned as I set down the steaming dish in front of her.

She swooned for a moment before carefully schooling her face. I wanted to tear off the calm mask she wore, because that’s what it was. I couldn’t wait to see what Dahlia was like underneath. And I meant I wanted underneath in all the different ways.

“I thought the Cosa Nostra was Italian,” she teased as she spooned a big bite of the rigatoni into her mouth and moaned again. I bit my lip as she continued to torture me. “I’m an equal opportunist when it comes to different cultures,” I responded, making sure to give her another wink just so I could see that blush again. It was the best dinner that I could ever remember. I poured her some Pinot Noir from Raphael’s collection, because he might have been a psycho, but his wine collection was next level. As soon as the alcohol kicked in, she relaxed and let down her defenses. She told me about her boarding school and a little bit about her life in London. I gobbled up every scrap she gave me like a dog begging under the table.
C.R. Jane. Ruining Dahlia ARC (Kindle Locations 996-1046).

All this happens before we even get to the engagement party, wedding and reception.

As for Lucian he doesn’t show up until the engagement party, but he’s all about possessing Dahlia. He’s got a lot on his mind with shipments disappearing and his father, Carlos, keeps showing up.

Dahlia has some secrets of her own, and those will come out in a couple different ways.

I couldn’t put this book down. Raphael and Gabriel have totally fallen in love with Dahlia, and Lucian just makes it easy for them to do that.

Many twists and turns, ups and downs, surprises galore and OMG the sizzle I’m surprised didn’t melt my kindle.

5 Contented Purrs for C.R.!

I’m a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me, and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for awhile, and I’m so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!