Debts & Desires

A Dark Mafia Romance

Everyone warns me about the scarred man in the corner booth. I bring him cake anyway.

Dmitri Ivanov is the Bratva's enforcer. Silent. Brutal. The kind of man people cross the street to avoid.

He comes to my bakery every morning at the same time, orders the same black coffee, with the same haunted eyes. My employees are terrified. I ask him how his day is going.

When trouble finds me one night, he makes it disappear. Violently. Without hesitation. I should be afraid. Instead, I hand him a towel and ask if he's okay.

He says he's a monster. Says I shouldn't want him. But when he touches me like I'm something precious, I believe less in monsters, and more in the man beneath the scars.

He thinks he'll destroy me. I think I might be the one thing that saves him.

Tropes: beauty and the beast • grumpy/sunshine • opposites attract • scarred hero • she softens him