Dangerous Temptation (Dark Dream 1)

If my family didn’t want me in the light, they were more than happy to have me control the shadows. In the dark, I ruled over New York City just as surely as my father and brothers did their own domains. I might have drawn the short straw in their eyes, but I loved the underbelly of the city, the violence and craftiness of criminals called out to my own scarred heart.

I understood their avarice and drive. I felt the same bitterness and hatred in my veins, but I used it to fuel my own success.

There was no line I was too afraid to cross, no limit to my greed for power and acceptance.

So, when Bianca Belcante’s sweet, young voice called to me for help, the words didn’t so much resonate in the empty chambers of my hollow heart as they did in the deep, dark center of my gut.

This was an opportunity.

I’d spent three excruciating months seducing Aida Belcante and I had been this fucking close to getting her to move to New York with me. To starting phase two of my plan to bring the Constantine family to their fucking knees for all of the crème de la crème of society to witness.

Because Aida wasn’t just some pretty, vapid little trinket I was playing around with for fun.

I didn’t have fun.

I had purpose.

And my purpose with the older woman was simple.

As soon as Ricardo Stavos, the private investigator on retainer with our law firm, Lombardi & Ghorbani, came back to me with evidence of her association to the Constantine family, I’d known what I would do.

Use Lane Constantine’s mistress against his widower, Caroline Constantine, and her entire pathetic brood. Because if there was one thing that bitch hated, it was public humiliation.

Aida’s death could have derailed my plans, but then there was her daughter, responsible, martyr-inclined, little Bianca begging me for help.

She was placing herself, wrapped up pretty with a bow like a fucking birthday present, in my lap.

So, I’d take it.

She was only seventeen and her brother only seven.

They had no next of kin so far as I could tell, so both children would go into foster care, probably separated because kids often were in those cases, especially with such a big age gap between them.

I’d sweep in on my white fucking steed and scoop them up for myself. It wouldn’t be hard. When you had more money than Croesus and connections in every corner of the police force, politics, and business, getting custodianship of two brats would be a piece of cake.

I had no fucking idea what I’d do with two kids, but I could worry about that later. They were pawns in a game that started before they were born. And I would control them. Time was of the essence if I was going to strike before the Constantines found out Lane’s dirty little secret and used her toward their own ends.

Caroline could sniff out potential family scandal from across the fucking country.

“Of course,” I told Bianca, already pulling up my lawyer’s info to text her about the situation. “I’ll help you, little girl. But you should know, I’ll expect to be paid back.”

There was a choked noise through the phone, a sound of pain and shock, but also indignation. A smile played at the edge of my mouth. I enjoyed making her sputter and flush, her olive tanned skin crimson at the cheeks and throat.

There was no artifice in Bianca. No grace or learned charms. She ate Lucky Charms cereal and read Marvel comics with her little brother on Friday nights. She argued passionately about climate change, nearly biting off my head for using a private jet and single-use plastics without understanding that environmentalism didn’t have enough economic merit to change the ways of the big dicks with big money who ran the world. She lost her train of thought looking at the way the dawn broke over the horizon and turned the clouds mottled pink and she sighed over the images of paintings she looked up in library art books. She wore oversized shirts that skimmed the tops of her thighs and chest-baring sports tops around a man who could eat her for breakfast as if she were safe in my company.

Clueless and naïve.

She would be even easier to manipulate than Aida.

Despite her youth and naiveté though, there was no doubt Bianca was strong-willed and smart. Aida bragged constantly about her daughter’s good grades, but it went beyond that. Bianca had gumption, something most women lacked when they were faced with my scarred face and cold demeanor.

She wouldn’t be as easy to manipulate as her mother, but something dark and hungry in my gut was excited about that. I wanted a challenge. I wanted to see Bianca’s stubborn chin wobble with tears and her eyes flash as I took her under my wing. Under my control.