Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Vanessa Baker is a temptation with a body made for seduction and secrets swirling in her violet eyes.
There’s no denying that she’s a stunning woman, but she’s a wild card.
Irresistible, unpredictable, and unexpected.
Exactly the kind of trouble I’ve vowed to stay away from.
So, imagine my shock when I wake up in the Bahamas with a ring on my finger and Vanessa in my bed—with no memory of how either got there.
She swears she had no choice. That marrying me was the only way to save herself from a dangerous deal she’d never agreed to.
And now I’m torn between protecting her and resenting her … doing the right thing and wishing I’d never met her.
I don’t trust easily. Not with my heart. Not with my son. And I definitely don’t trust her.
But I bring her home anyway—because her life is at risk. And even though she doesn’t deserve my protection, she has it.
Every day she’s here, charming my son, slipping past my walls, she reminds me of what love is supposed to feel like.
So, what happens when she doesn’t need me anymore … and I still want her anyway?
Please note: Secret Seduction is not a mafia romance. The book is a dark romance because of its content. Since dark romance can mean different things to different readers, please check the detailed content warnings on my website. Your mental health matters
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
SECRET SEDUCTION PLAYLIST
“Bed Chem” by Sabrina Carpenter
“Skyscraper” by Demi Lovato
“Sweet but Psycho” by Ava Max
“Sexy Love” by Ne-Yo
“Heart Attack” by Demi Lovato
“Fallin’ for You” by Colbie Caillat
“I’m a Mess” by Bebe Rexha
“Sabotage” by Bebe Rexha
“Lose Somebody” by Kygo and OneRepublic
“Bad at Love” by Halsey
Listen to this playlist as well as my other playlists on my website.
1
Lorenzo
One-point-two million.
That’s how much the mother of my son stole from me.
I was warned that she would fuck me over, but my bleeding heart didn’t listen.
So, when she showed up at my door with a baby in tow, I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Lorenzo, how do you want to go about handling this?” Eddy—the tech genius I keep on retainer—asks over the phone just as the woman in question flits through the door, dressed head to toe in Saint Laurent. Her hair is freshly dyed, and her nails and toes are a different color than they were when she left this morning.
“Leave it there—for now—and send me proof,” I tell him.
I hang up and glance at Hillary Sparks—the woman I was once upon a time engaged to. She showed up in Harbor Point, batted her long lashes, and convinced me that we were meant to be.
I didn’t think twice about moving her into my condo in downtown North Harbor Point.
Putting a massive ring on her finger—she’d picked it out, of course.
And when she offered to be my assistant after my previous one quit unexpectedly—who I later learned was paid off to leave—I was grateful to her.
But what I didn’t know was that she was working with my enemy, Enrique Rothschild, to take over and destroy my family’s multibillion-dollar real estate company.
Enrique was the son of Joseph Rothschild, my father’s childhood friend. Joseph slept with the woman my father was in love with years ago, resulting in her getting pregnant and causing a permanent rift in their friendship, which ended with my father killing Joseph and Enrique seeking revenge for his father’s death.
Hillary was paid by Enrique to extract information out of me.
And she succeeded.
Enrique had everything he needed at his fingertips to tear the company apart.
But he didn’t stop there.
He screwed over my sister, Dani, by claiming to love her.
Had me and my best friend and business partner, Matteo Antonov, arrested and thrown into jail.
He gained control of the company and almost destroyed it.
Thankfully, he failed.
Matteo handled the Hillary situation for me—while I was still in jail—ensuring she was out of my condo and the locks were changed.
Then he saved my sister from the asshole—while putting a bullet in his skull and ending his miserable excuse of a life.
Matteo and Dani fell in love, and when I got out from behind bars, I gained a brother-in-law and lost a fiancée.
“Lorenzo,” Hillary coos, bringing me back to the present, “is everything okay?”
I stifle a laugh at her loaded question and take a sip of my whiskey, craving the burn as it slides down my throat and calms me.
Everything was okay.
I might’ve been heartbroken and a bit jaded from Hillary fucking me over. But I was moving forward, focusing on the business and my sister, who was getting ready to give birth to my niece—until Hillary appeared back in my life.
I look over at my son, Leonardo Sparks—he doesn’t even have my last name because the bitch gave him hers or a middle name because she didn’t want to be bothered, both of which are already in the works to be rectified—but I can’t regret everything that happened because it led me to having my son. And I’ll never regret him.
But that doesn’t change the fact that once again, like the fucking chump I am, I allowed Hillary to come back into my life and fuck me over.
Only this time, it’s going to end a bit differently.
“Everything’s okay,” I tell her, forcing my tone to remain neutral when the sight of her alone makes me want to throw up. “Did you have a good day?”
She has several bags in her hands—all designer, of course, since she looks at me like I’m her personal ATM.
When she begged me to take her in, claiming she’d lost her job and apartment when she gave birth to our son and couldn’t go back to work right away, I let her in.
She told me she wanted to be a family.
Wanted to raise Leo together.
So, I gave her a roof over her head, a credit card with no limit, and a luxury SUV for her to drive around in, and what does she do? Steals one-point-two million dollars from me.
“I did.” She beams. “I bought Leo the cutest onesie.”
She saunters through the room without so much as a glance at our son. He’s merely an accessory. She claims she has postpartum depression, which prevents her from caring for our son. Yet I’ve never actually seen her depressed.