Book picks similar to
The Bargain by Lisa Cardiff
mafia
dark
romance
new-adult
Play Along
T.L. Swan - 2017
I realize, to save my life I need to become valuable.My body is my only weapon.Pleasure and pain.28 days is a long time to Play Along with his perverted demands.He thinks I enjoy them.It disgusts me that I secretly do.I hate him.I crave him.When my captor becomes my savior, escape will be my reality.Publishers note....This is a full length, stand alone, romantic suspense. It is not a dark romance.
Tight
Alessandra Torre - 2015
In my life as a single, thirty-two year old woman. I had a good job, wonderful friends, my independence.I also hadn't got laid in three years. Hadn't been on a date in two. Had stopped counting calories and wearing makeup... a while ago.Then Brett Jacobs waltzed in. Caressed my thigh, dug rough fingers into my hair, lowered his soft mouth to my skin, took sexual control of my mind and stirred it all around with what he packed in his pants. He flipped my quiet life upside down and crawled into a place in my heart I thought was dead.The issue is his secret.The issue is her.The issue is that I don't even know she exists, and he thinks she's dead.The issue is that shit is about to hit the fan and I can't hold on to him tight enough.
Revenge
Dana Delamar - 2012
And I want Kate Andretti with a fire that burns me to ash.Carlo Andretti wants Kate too… and my fortune, my estate, my empire. Most of all, he wants my death. Just as I want his.The vendetta between our families is old and deep. Only one of us can win, and only one of us can have Kate. Carlo believes that he can take what’s mine, that he can break me and make me crawl.But I’m Enrico Lucchesi.And a Lucchesi always gets what he wants.KATE ANDRETTIMy mother always said my impulsiveness would get me into trouble. She was right. Marrying a man I barely knew, letting him take me to Italy… not my best decisions.Especially when I now know what the “family business” really is.I want out of this life, and I want out of Italy. But the only person willing to help me escape the Andrettis is Enrico Lucchesi. And he wants me to stay in this world that I can’t bear to be part of.The vows these men take talk about “blood and honor.”But I know what this life is: it’s blood and danger. It’s blood and death.And I’m not ready to be a Mafia don’s wife.
Dark Needs
T.M. Frazier - 2015
With blood literally still on his hands, the only thing on Jake's mind is making up for lost time with the woman he loves.Dark Needs is a companion novella to The Dark Light of Day.
Trust
Terry Towers - 2014
She comes from a great family and has a future at Stanford University to look forward to... until the night she is abducted by masked men with the intention of selling her to the highest bidder, leaving the people in her town heartbroken and desperate for answers on her disappearance. Lance Winters is the son of the man called “The Boss.” He's gradually being introduced to the “family business” with the intent of him becoming the right-hand man of his father's human trafficking organization. Little does his father know, Lance has his own agenda when it comes to the organization that has taken his father over a decade to build. When Lance is assigned to train Gwen, to make her the perfect slave for sale, he's hesitant. He can't become emotionally tied to the slaves or it could ruin his plans. Training new slaves isn't part of his agenda, but there is something about her sweet innocence that touches him and the thought of any of the monsters working for his father touching her is unthinkable. Is it possible for Lance to gain the young woman's trust and perhaps even save her life when he's one of the bad guys keeping her from everything she's ever known and loved? Can she ever understand that sometimes it takes an even bigger monster to stop a monster?
Keep
Kaye Blue - 2015
But when I looked at his hulking, tattooed body, the icy brutality in his eyes, I realized I was wrong. HIM: Familie. My clan. I’d fight for it, kill for it, die for it. It’s all that matters to me. But her innocence, only barely hidden by thick layers of makeup, the curves that her tight dress can’t hide, calls to me. So I’ve decided to keep her. No matter how deadly the consequences.
Screaming in the Silence
Lydia Kelly - 2010
While hitchhiking across the country, she and her companion are struck by a car. Her friend is killed but Raleigh survives and her life is thrown into the hands of the three men involved in the accident. Bruised and in shock, Raleigh is locked in the basement of their remote country house, unsure of her fate. Kaden, one of her captors, is handsome and at times protective, and he convinces his friends to spare Raleigh’s life to ransom her. But the safety he provides is only from his friends, and Raleigh must face his sinister intentions. Agreeing to become his lover in return for continued protection, she begins to see a tender and caring side of Kaden despite their short but violent history. As the ransom payment begins to unravel and Raleigh's life hangs in the balance, she wonders how much she can trust Kaden. Are the feelings she has developed for him genuine or a result of her situation? Does he truly care for her, as he claims, or does he just see her as a ransom payment?
Bad Saint
Monica James - 2019
But they didn’t realize I wasn’t a victim…not anymore.The open sea was my backdrop for nine torturous days. During that time, glimmers of my fate were revealed by a man with the mysterious chartreuse-colored eyes. He should have scared me, but he didn’t.He intrigued me. And I intrigued him.He punished me when I didn’t listen, which was every single day. But beneath his cruelty, I sensed he was guarding a grave secret.I was sold. And in a game of poker, no less. My buyer? A Russian mobster who likes to collect pretty things. Now that I know the truth, I only have one choice.Sink or swim.And when one fateful night presents me the opportunity, I take it. I just never anticipated my actions would leave me shipwrecked with my kidnapper.He needs me alive. I want him dead.But as days turn into weeks, one thing becomes clear—I should hate him…but I don’t.My name is Willow.His name is Saint.Ironic, isn’t it? He bears a name that denotes nothing but holiness yet delivers nothing but hell. However, if this is hell on earth…God, save my soul.
Masterson
Lisa Lang Blakeney - 2015
That was my first mistake…A dangerous professional fixer. A sweet computer nerd. A passion that borders on the possessive. An attraction that’s completely off limits to explore… After Elizabeth Hill is brutally attacked in her apartment by an intruder and then unceremoniously dumped by her ex-boyfriend, she moves in with family that she barely knows for protection. All she remembers about her aunt’s stepson, Roman, is that he was the moody, mean boy who played a cruel trick on her when she was just six years old; but soon learns that he is now a complex and multi-layered man who has the ability to protect her, ignite her, and challenge her like no one ever has before. Wealthy Roman Masterson makes his fortune by fixing celebrity problems for big money and by any means necessary. He is a foul-mouthed, bad-tempered, manwhore who doesn’t have the time or inclination to babysit a gullible little brat from the suburbs…until he unknowingly spots her in the middle of a crowded dance floor and decides right then and there to claim every one of her orgasms from that moment on. Little does he know that the woman he’s laid claim to is the same girl he’s been sworn to protect. Author Note: Please note that this book was previously published under the title of Cousins and ends on a cliffhanger.
A Harmless Little Game
Meli Raine - 2016
Of course it would. A Senator’s daughter on camera? Wouldn’t you click “share”? Besides, that’s what three of the four guys in the video did.Share.They shared me.But that fourth guy? The nondescript one in the background in the upper left corner of the screen, just sitting on the couch? The only one who did nothing?Not one single thing.That was my boyfriend, Drew.And that was the last time I saw him.Until today, when my father—now on a path to the White House—hired him as head of security for my new team as I return home after four years of “recovering” in an undisclosed location that involved white lab coats, needles, pills and damage control.You see, the other three guys never went to jail. Never had charges pressed.Never faced consequences.Until today.Game on.* * *A Harmless Little Game is the first in this political thriller/romantic suspense trilogy by USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine.
A Love of Vengeance
Nancy Haviland - 2014
Vasily needs someone he can trust in Seattle to protect his estranged daughter, Eva Jacobs, while he avenges the murder of the young woman’s mother. Gabriel is unstoppable in a fight, whether he’s using fists, blades, or bullets; but innocent, onyx-haired Eva may just be the most dangerous—and beautiful—thing he’s come up against.Intense sparks fly between the two, tempting Gabriel to mix business with pleasure while in the Emerald City. But once word gets around that Gabriel has shown up in New York, Stefano—his vengeful brother and the de facto head of the family—decides that Eva is the key to ending the feud between them…permanently.In this pulse-pounding romantic thriller set against the backdrop of New York City’s storied underworld, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be told, and mob justice will be served.
Beautifully Cruel
J.T. Geissinger - 2020
I didn’t know his name or where he was from. All I knew was that the only place I’d ever felt safe was in his arms. But safety is an illusion. And not every savior is a hero. And—as I’d soon find out—having an alpha save your life comes with a price. Liam Black wanted something from me in return.
Six
K.I. Lynn - 2016
It wasn’t my first, but it would be my last.A gun to the head.A trained killer.A deadly conspiracy.Kidnapped and on the run, my life and death is in the hands of a sadist captor who happens to be my one-night stand. Armed with countless weapons, money, and new identities, the man I call Six drags me around the world.The manhunt is on and Six is the next target. Can we find out who is killing off the Cleaners before they find us?Two down, seven to go.When it’s all over he’ll finish the job that dropped him into my life, and end it.Stockholm Syndrome meets bucket list, and the question of what would you do to live before you died. The questions aren’t always answered in black and white. Gray becomes the norm as my morals are tested.Death is a tragedy, and I’ll do anything to stay alive.Are you ready for the last ride of your life? Six has a gun to your head—what would you do?This isn’t a love story.It’s a death story.**Due to the dark and explicit nature of this book, it is recommended for mature audiences only as some scenes may be particularly disturbing.**
The Beast
Jaden Wilkes - 2014
From the rough streets of Moscow to the highest ranks in the Solntsevskaya Bratva, he has seen it all.An attack four years ago left him disfigured and in seclusion, hiding from reactions to his appearance and in safety from those who failed to kill him the first time.Comfortable in his penthouse, managing his billion dollar businesses, he's resigned himself to be alone, simply called The Beast among those who've dealt with him in the past.Columbia Grey is a pseudo-activist trying to save her neighbourhood from a developer intent on levelling it to build apartment towers. She goes along with a plan to confront the CEO of the company on his own turf, to force him to listen to her demands...all in a pathetic attempt to impress a man she barely likes.Little does she know, she's taken herself into the mouth of the beast, a man familiar with death and destruction, sex and seduction, a man used to getting exactly what he wants and a man with nothing left to lose.She's a beauty, but will that be enough to tame the beast and save her life?*** This is not a fairy tale, this is what happens when the music ends and life goes on after the credits roll. This is about simply existing until you find yourself and write your own happily ever after, no matter what form it takes.
Only for You
Genna Rulon - 2013
It also feels an awful lot like a kick to the stomach when you try to fight it!” All Everleigh Carsen wanted to do was complete her final semester at Hensley University and begin the life she carefully planned. When a wave of violent crime seizes campus, Everleigh is persuaded to attend a school sponsored self-defense seminar by her best friend, where she meets volunteer instructor, Hunter Charles. After Everleigh’s biting sarcasm induces Hunter to eject her from class, a tempestuous relationship is born. Everleigh is determined to forget the striking man, but fate—that fickle shrew—continuously intervenes. Unable to escape him, she declares Hunter an enemy combatant. The only complication…Hunter is resolutely pursuing vindication…by any means necessary. Verbal warfare ensues, and despite Everleigh’s ingenious efforts, in Hunter, she has finally found her equal.Only For You is a compelling tale of friendship, desire, and redemption—brimming with intelligent characters, witty dialogue, unexpected twists, profound sorrow, unfettered hope, and love’s unassailable perseverance.• This story is appropriate for readers 18+• Only For You is the first book in the For You series by Genna Rulon. Each book in the series can be read as a stand alone novel.