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I knew right then and there that happily ever after was real, and I had found mine.
Taken
Blurb
Alessio
Thanks to that nosy brunette bitch, Beth, I served six months in Rikers Island for violating parole and cocaine possession. I spent every single day of those six months cursing her. I couldn’t wait to get out of jail – then I’d be able to really make that bitch sorry.
I hadn’t counted on her being so sexy. I hadn’t thought someone like Beth would be capable of arousing someone like me. But somehow, her innocence and naiveté turned me on more than ever before. Soon, the nosy little cunt was all I could think about.
Fucking her didn’t get her out of my system. But she’d be the one fucking me if I didn’t convince her to change her mind and refuse to testify against me.
And there was no way I could let that happen.
Beth
I never thought I’d sleep with the man who murdered my fiancé, Michael Bennett. But Alessio Amoruso wasn’t just a one-night-stand…I was starting to realize that he was more than just a crime boss with a sick sense of humor. He was strong and tough, the kind of passionate man I’d always wanted.
Too bad there was the little problem of Alessio murdering my fiancé. If I didn’t testify against Alessio, I’d never have revenge against the man who’d first asked me to marry him. Alessio told me that he’d changed. He swore up and down that he’d do wh
atever it took to prove that he was a different man.
But I never expected my heart to change. What was going to happen now that I was falling in love with the man who murdered my fiancé?
Chapter One
Alessio
I smiled as I sat down in the leather executive chair behind my desk. The morning papers were spread across the desk surface, along with my breakfast – freshly squeezed orange juice, a bran English muffin with peanut butter, and half of an apple, sliced neatly into wedges.
Picking up the paper, I stared at the headline on the first page.
“AFTER A TRAGIC YEAR, AMORUSO FAMILY REBUILDS”
Damn straight we’re rebuilding, I thought with a smirk as I opened the paper to the article and began skimming down the page. The photo accompanying the headline showed our flagship restaurant, Amoruso’s, with all of the wait staff standing out front and smiling. I grinned at the sight of the hostesses and waitresses in their short black skirts with tiny white aprons. When my father, Gianni, had founded the local chain, he’d decided that he was only going to hire the prettiest girls and make them wear the sluttiest uniforms possible. Forty years later, it was seen as a little jab against the nature of the politically correct world. But I enjoyed it. I’d fucked a lot of those girls in my day, and I didn’t plan on stopping. Just because I was thirty-eight didn’t mean that I was slowing down.
If anything, I was starting to move faster than ever before.
My father, Gianni, had been killed. Ten months ago, to the exact date, he’d been in a car driving to Jersey for a business meeting with the restaurant partners. He’d been killed instantly when a tractor-trailer crossed the highway median and hit his car, head on.
I’d been devastated. At thirty-seven, I’d thought that I had years and years before taking over as the head of the Amoruso family business. But instead, I’d been catapulted into the spotlight and I was still recovering. I missed my father, but to tell the truth, I hadn’t had very much time to grieve. Death stops for everyone, and business can’t stop for death. While some people said it was shameful the way I’d moved on, the truth was that I couldn’t have stopped. If I’d even slowed down, the business would have tanked.
And god knows, I couldn’t have that.
I sighed, stretching as I reached forward for a piece of muffin. It had already cooled, but I didn’t mind. There was something satisfying and savory about the taste of salted butter on top of the crunchy surface. I closed my eyes and chewed for a long time, thinking of everything I’d have to wrap up later in the day. First, I had a meeting with my best friend, Silvio – my advice man. Then, I was going to drive out to Jersey and check out two of the restaurants.
I smirked. There was a girl working at one of them – Cara, or Carina, or whatever the fuck she called herself – who was damn cute, and she’d been making cow eyes at me ever since we first saw each other. I’d been too distracted to try getting her alone, but today, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be content until I left with her spit still clinging to my dick. I hadn’t had sex in weeks, and I was achingly horny. Most of the time, I called in girls to my home whenever I needed…release. But lately, I’d been so busy that I’d resorted to porn, stroking myself to the sight of three naked blondes licking each other’s pussies and moaning theatrically. It wasn’t as good as the real thing, but it had been a decent substitute.
Taking a long drink of juice, I unfolded the rest of the paper and skimmed the article. I wasn’t worried about any negative press – the local paper was on our side, and I knew they wouldn’t print anything sordid or inflammatory unless we were in on it.
The truth was, I wasn’t just a local business owner. Amoruso’s had done better than anyone in my family had ever expected – including my father. But while we slung pasta and “Italian” dishes at sloppy families, that wasn’t the only goal. The original restaurant had started as a place to launder money. We’d been a cheap takeout (cash only, of course) and my father Gianni hadn’t expected the venture to last more than six months. But to everyone’s shock, Amoruso’s chicken parmesan was such a crowd pleaser that in less than two years, my father and Silvio opened two more restaurants. The year after that, we opened four. Now, we had ten restaurants in New York and New Jersey combined, and we pulled in a solid sixteen million per quarter.
Of course, all of that money didn’t come from chicken parmesan. But no one had to know that – even if some suspected. New York was full of crime family activity, and it was my job to make sure the Amoruso family did our part and kept our heads down. Most of our revenue came from dealing with shipping firms under the table. But there was a big problem right now, and it was starting to give me a headache.
I hadn’t thought that I’d be tested this much in my first year of running the family business. Things hadn’t ever been easy. All ten restaurants had done poorly over the winter, because of snowstorms that kept people inside, and I was dealing with a real pig over at Magnate Shipping. Magnate had been our partner for years. The owner, Douglas, and my father Gianni had even been friends. But now, the owner’s son Michael was making a real big stink and I was going to have to think of something radical if I wanted to stay on top.
I stood up and walked across the plush carpeting of my office. A small mirror by the door showed that my dark hair was beginning to grey at the temples. I frowned – I knew some women liked the idea of a silver fox, but I wasn’t even forty years old yet. I made a mental note to visit a hair stylist and have her do something before I went out to Jersey. If I wanted to get inside little Carina’s panties, I was going to put my best foot forward.
