The Mistress

Book 2 in the ‘European’ series

Is it love or obsession? A contemporary romantic suspense novel…

Ella Reine

This was never how my life was supposed to go.

I was meant to meet my prince and live happily ever after with children, love and laughter.

But then I met Benito Rinaldi, a man so dangerous, people dare not utter what I am to him: the mistress.

Locked in his tower, isolated and trapped, I dream of rescue. But when even his wife wants me to keep his attentions away from her, I know I will never escape this captivity. Not without someone who is willing to risk his life for mine.

When he holds me in his arms, it feels like he’ll never let me go.

And he doesn’t.

He won’t.

His love is obsession, and obsession can be deadly.

Elio

My hunt for Benito Rinaldi has been a lifelong mission. Our form of cat and mouse extends far beyond the Detective-Mafia Don titles we possess. This is personal; it always has been.

After finding the remains of Rinaldi’s last mistress, I know the key to his downfall lies within his new lover – Ella Reine.

But to gain her trust, I know I must go undercover and earn it.

But what happens if trust turns into something else…something more?

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Sample:

“Thank you for taking me home, Mr Rinaldi,” I tell him with a forced smile, feeling more than a little foolish for having broken down in the bar, even though he’d instigated it. In fact, if I were to hazard a guess, I believe my fit of tears pleased him. “I’ll be fine from here.”

His smile is disarming – a friendly gesture being used as a weapon. A weapon that is designed to bring me to my knees with little say in the matter.

Mr Rinaldi had insisted he escort me back home, but I assumed he would drop me off at the gate and leave me be. Now, however, I am right at the front door and he’s still showing no sign of leaving. In fact, I can feel the back of the door up against my shoulder blades, to the point whereby I brace my hands against the solid wood. He leans in with his arm perched above my head and his spicy cologne wrapping an all-encompassing layer around my body. I want to both run from it and fall into it.

My breathing accelerates and my heart rate thunders so powerfully, it feels as if it’s in danger of bursting free from my chest. He can feel it too, and it pleases him.

“Ella, I would like to take you out for dinner tomorrow evening,” he says. A demand rather than a request. “I will pick you up at eight.”

“Ar-are you asking me?” I tremble when he smiles darkly and shakes his head with slow, controlled movements.  “I-I’m not sure that’s—”

“Please,” he says, sounding reluctant to offer even a hint of what could be mistaken for compliance, “indulge me. I will make it worth your while, and if by the end of the night you do not wish to see me again, I will leave you alone…completely.”

“Why are you so interested in me, Mr Rinaldi?” I barely manage to reply, for my throat has turned as dry as desert sand.

“Your lips,” he says, glancing at my mouth, then back into my eyes again.

“My lips?” I repeat with a slight frown of confusion, attempting to break through his distracting gaze.

“I want to know if they taste as good as they look,” he says matter of factly, as though he’s sampling fruit at a market stall. “But I am a gentleman and so I must take you out for dinner first.”

“But if I don’t feel the same way as you by the end of this…date, you will let me be?”

He stares back at me for a moment or two before conceding with a slow nod.

“Though I should warn you, Miss Reine, no one has ever come to that conclusion before,” he says, smiling as he leans in closer. “I know the art of seduction, Miss Reine, and I will place money on you wanting to see me again before the end of our date.”

Before I can even attempt to say anything, he places his lips on my cheek and kisses me so gently, yet also so intimately, my eyes close and I lose all breath. Perhaps it’s his cologne, perhaps it’s his arrogance, or perhaps it’s because there are at least five bodyguards waiting by his car outside of my godmother’s small house, but all of a sudden, I have a terrifying feeling that he’s right.  If I go to dinner with him, there will be no turning back.