I've never met him.
Never even seen him.

But I've heard the whispers. The rumors. The stories about him being as cruel as his father. Maybe even worse.

They say his presence wraps around your throat the moment he enters a room.
And that's exactly what I feel when he walks into the diner where I work, when I hear people breathe out his name.

Alexius Del Rossa.

They call him the crown prince of the Dark Sovereign, a society of men who own everything in this town except the weather.

Men say he has ice in his veins.
Women talk about the corrupted heart in his chest.

He's the kind of man you pray never to cross paths with.
The kind of man a girl like me doesn't survive.

But when his eyes trap mine and his presence brushes against my skin, I freeze.

I don't fight when he backs me into a corner.
I don't breathe when he slips an envelope down the front of my dress.

"You have twenty-four hours," he says.

Then he leaves like he didn't just steal the air from my lungs.

Inside that envelope is an offer.
One I can't refuse.
Because girls like me don't get real choices.
We get survival disguised as opportunity.

And me? I have no one.
No family. No friends. No home.
I could disappear tomorrow and no one would come looking.

And that's exactly why he chose me.

Tropes you'll love:

- Fake / forced marriage
- Mafia / crime family
- Forced Proximity
- He falls first
- Obsessed, possessive hero ("My wife" vibes)
- Anti-hero / bad boy & good girl
- Virgin heroine
- He helps her through trauma
- Adult club elements
- Overprotective brothers / found family
- Interconnected series featuring each brother

• We started tracking this book on May 10, 2022.
• This book was $3.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 30 times in the past 1,450 days.
• The current price of this book is FREE last checked 5 hours ago.
• The lowest price to date was FREE last reached on April 28, 2026.
• This book has been FREE 6 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $4.99 last reached on December 3, 2023.
• This book has been $4.99 5 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• RomanceContemporary

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 362 Pages
• File Size: 30 KB