Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
From USA Today bestselling author Charmaine Pauls comes an intense and steamy emotional dark mafia romance with tropes including secret baby, second chance, forbidden love, forced marriage, betrayal, revenge and redemption, possessive alpha male, touch her and die, and a strong female lead.
I know what it’s like to be used. Dante ruined me for the sake of his revenge. He destroyed me for his selfish gain without thinking twice.
What he doesn’t know is that we created something pure and innocent in that bed of lies. We made a new life, one I have to hide from him at all costs, because the man I called my lover is the cold-hearted monster who killed my parents, and I’m next on the list. He left me with no choice but to run.
For five long years, I’ve been hiding, barely surviving, always outsmarting the men who hunt me while Dante’s ghost stalks my shadows and haunts my thoughts. And now that he’s caught a whiff of my scent, he’s like a bloodhound on my trail.
He’s out to finish what he started. I’m the last obstacle standing between him and the fortune he stole from my family. But this isn’t a fairy tale, and I’m not that girl anymore. I decide how my story ends.
Callous Love is the second book in the Callous Duet and concludes Tatiana and Dante's story. Callous Desire must be read first. The duet is part of the dark mafia romance New York Underworld series (Books 4 & 5). You don't have to read the other books in the series to follow this duet
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter
One
Tatiana, age nineteen
* * *
“You’ll marry
Joni Stein. I don’t want to hear another word about it. The contract is signed, so it’s as good as cast in stone.”
My father’s dismissive wave as he indicates my time is up makes me shrivel inside. He’s already returned his attention to his laptop, my presence in his study ignored or forgotten.
Angry tears stream down my cheeks. I’m shaking with the injustice of my father’s decision and my helplessness to change that fate.
All my life, I’ve been a good, obedient daughter, always doing what I’m told and what’s expected of me. I’ve been a cum laude student with straight As in all my subjects. I sit through tedious dinners and parties I have no interest in attending without complaining, wearing the dresses my parents deem appropriate. I say please and thank you. My parents’ friends tell them how lucky they are to have had it so easy with me during my adolescent years. But if I were hoping that my exemplary behavior and hard work would make my father proud or win his approval, I was mistaken.
He looks up from his screen, irritation written all over his face. “You’re still here.”
“Father, please.” My voice cracks. “Mr. Stein is fifty years old.”
And he’s fat and ugly, not to mention vulgar. He always looks down the front of my dress or pinches my backside when my mom isn’t looking. But I don’t say that.
“Exactly.” My father stabs a few keys on his keyboard. “That’s why he has no time to waste in producing an heir.”
“But he’s married,” I exclaim.
“His wife is dying. It’s only a matter of time.” My father hits enter a couple of times and squints behind his glasses. “Just as well, seeing that the useless wretch is barren.”
“But…” I swallow through my tears. “That’s improper.”
“We agreed to wait until your twenty-first birthday. The old hag should kick the bucket by next year if not sooner, and then he’ll mourn the customary year. Nothing about that is improper. It’s all done by the book.”
“Please, Father, I beg you.”
He slams a hand on the desk, rattling his teacup and the plate with his afternoon kolaczki cookies. “Begging is beneath you. You’re a Teszner. We do not beg.”
The violence makes me jump. “I just meant—”
“That’s enough,” he barks out. “You’ll do your duty for this family like the rest of us. Now get out of my sight.”
Blinded by my tears, I stumble from the study.
“And close the door behind you,” my father calls after me. “I’ve had enough disruptions for one day.”
Suppressing the urge to slam the door, which will only earn me a punishment, I do as my father commands.
My mother waits on the other side. “Oh, Tiana.” Her soft blue eyes are brimming with tears. “I’m so sorry.”
It takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to melt down. “Did you know?”
Averting her eyes, she nods. “For a couple of months or so. I did my best to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen.”
She tries to hug me, but I dodge her embrace and rush across the foyer.