Beyond Buttons Series

They already killed him, so I know they won’t hesitate to do the same to me. With nowhere to run or hide, I buy a one-way ticket to Milan to audition for Barsetti Lingerie in the hope I can start a new life.

I belong to him exclusively, to fulfill every order he gives, personally and professionally. I’m more than just his muse now. I’m his in every sense of the word. I live a life of luxury in his mansion, but he treats me like a servant. I can’t deny my attraction for him, but I despise the kind of man he is. I should be grateful that Knuckles is gone and I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore, but now I'm indebted to another man—one just as cruel, just in a different way. It’s something I can’t outrun—because you can’t outrun your heart.

When Sapphire became my muse, it was supposed to be a business transaction. We both got what we wanted—until she wanted something more. If I don’t give it to her, give her all of me, she’ll walk out of my life. My father already granted his approval—so he would be disappointed if I let her slip through my fingers.

Conway threw me out like trash on the street—just because I had the balls to say I loved him. I return to New York and ask Andrew to give me the job I stupidly turned down. Thankfully, he’s not spiteful and vindictive like Conway and hires me. Now I have money in my pocket—and I’m not a prisoner to anyone. I buy myself an apartment and start a new life in an old place. Conway hasn’t called—and I suspect he never will.

My father wouldn’t approve of most of the men I’ve dated—but definitely not him. His name is Bones—and he’s an enemy to my family. I thought I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he planned this moment long ago. He’s taken me captive—and he wants the life that was stolen from him. Killing and torturing me is his best way to accomplish that. But the intensity between us is overpowering.

I’m supposed to be his prisoner—but I’m the one that won’t let him leave. Every time he has a new hit, the separation is unbearable. I wait for him to come home on pins and needles. I paint alone in the bedroom, and now my artwork has changed. I used to paint homes and landscapes…but now I’ve painted a person. A man standing on the bank of a lake surrounded by snow.

“I love you, Vanessa.” He said the words with ferocity in his eyes, declaring his love for me without a second thought. It was impossible to get a man like him to commit, but he did it freely. But that declaration only made me realize how wrong this relationship was. It could only end one way. My mother set me up on a blind date, with a family friend named Matteo. I show up and try to be good company, but Bones is the one that’s on my mind. I try to focus, but flashbacks of our nights together hit me like sweat on the skin.

Crow Barsetti knows about me—and he doesn’t like it. I know he’s paying his top guys to dig up every piece of dirt they can find, but I don’t care what he discovers. There’s nothing I’ve done that he hasn’t done himself. All that matters is I love his daughter—and he’s going to accept it. I get a call in the middle of the night while Vanessa is dead asleep—and it’s him. He asks to meet in the back of one of his clubs, where we can speak without his daughter’s interruption. It’s the first time I’ve ever been nervous. Not because of who I’m meeting—but why.

My father made his decision—and the answer is no. Griffin told him how our relationship started, and it sent my father into a blind rage. But in my heart, I know my father was never going to accept him, even when he promised he would try. This was how it would end all along. I choose Griffin anyway, but he rejects my decision. “I know how much your family means to you, baby. It’s over.” It’s the single most painful thing I’ve ever heard him say. I can’t imagine my life without him.

I tell Crow everything I know about the hit on his son. It’s a brief conversation, and I don’t waste my time trying to convince him of the facts. Whether he believes me or not, I couldn’t care less. I fulfilled my obligation to Vanessa. But once I realize Crow and Cane are outnumbered and they’re all going to die in this hit, I have to get involved. I have to risk my life because I know how devastated my baby will be if she loses the men she loves most.

I gave Crow Barsetti a piece of my mind—and I had no regrets. Now he’s the one trying to earn my approval, but it’ll never work. He put me through hell and back, almost made me lose Vanessa for good, so I don’t have to like him. Tolerate him, yes. But not like him. I try to make an effort for Vanessa, but it just blows up in my face. Sitting across from Crow at the dinner table, in the very chair where he handcuffed me and pointed a gun at my face…made me blow a fuse. All I want is Vanessa, and now that I have her, I have no obligation to her family.

Griffin and my father are finally getting along, and Griffin has decided to retire from the hitman business. We talked about our future, and I told him there’s no future for us without children, and thankfully he agreed. But that perfect life is shattered when strange men pull up to the gallery. I don’t have time to make more than one phone call, so I decide to call Griffin instead of the cops. He can’t get to me in time, but he promises that he’ll find me soon enough.

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and a group of thugs dragged me down an alleyway. I tried to invoke fear by telling them exactly who I was, Carmen Barsetti, the daughter of Cane Barsetti. But my name didn’t protect me—only his did. Just his presence made them scatter like rats in a sewer. Then he looks me up and down with those hard eyes—and he likes what he sees. “You want to thank me, sweetheart? I want a kiss.” In a tight leather jacket that hugs his thick arms and powerful shoulders, he backs me up into the wall and draws close. “That mouth. That’s what I want.”

Bosco Roth is the kind of man my father will never approve of, so I need an expiration date. He may be the man of my dreams, someone I could see as my husband and the father of my children, but the relationship with my family will never be the same and no man is worth that—not even Bosco. As the days pass, I dread the end before it even arrives. I can’t sleep without him beside me. Even if he’s out all night, I stay on the couch so I can hear his arrival the second he walks in the door. He’s on my mind and in my heart—always.

Bosco promised to give me everything I want to make me stay. Marriage. Four kids. A villa in Tuscany. But he won’t give up the one thing that matters most—his job. As long as he’s involved in the underworld, my unborn children will never be safe. When I finally have the strength to leave, disaster strikes. I cross a man I should have avoided, and now he’s intent on keeping me for himself. He’s got serial killer written all over him. But I know Bosco is always watching—together or apart.