Valentino

She spent ten years waiting for him to look. He spent ten years pretending he didn't.He had spent fifteen years moving across Europe without leaving a trace.He left one tonight.Valentino walked into a back room of a palazzo in Milan looking for a twenty-five-year-old American who had been gone too long from his side, and he found her on a red couch, drugged, half-dressed, three men with phones standing over her.He shot one.He killed the other with his hands.Amanda had come to Milan for the campaign of her life. A first-class flight. A suite at Casa Aurelia. Two years of work cashing in. She had known the man at the next table since she was fifteen - her best friend's cousin, the one who had never once looked at her, the one she had given up loving when she was nineteen.She had no plan for him being there.She had no plan for what he became when he saw her on that couch.Valentino has spent thirty-eight years not letting himself want anything that could be taken from him.He has carried his father's rosary in his pocket every day for twenty-four years.He has buried men for a living.He has never asked a woman to stay.He is going to ask her.And every man who put a hand on her in that palazzo is about to learn what the Sartori family's diplomat becomes when he stops being polite.*Valentino is a full-length mafia romance novel with no cheating and a guaranteed HEA. It is the seventh book in the Sartori Syndicate series. Each book features a different couple and can be read as a standalone.TropesAge GapSlow BurnBest Friend's CousinForced ProximityDark ProtectorHe Falls FirstOnly Soft for HerPossessive HeroDark ThemesHEA / Happily Ever After

She spent ten years waiting for him to look. He spent ten years pretending he didn't.He had spent fifteen years moving across Europe without leaving a trace.He left one tonight.Valentino walked into a back room of a palazzo in Milan looking for a twenty-five-year-old American who had been gone too long from his side, and he found her on a red couch, drugged, half-dressed, three men with phones standing over her.He shot one.He killed the other with his hands.Amanda had come to Milan for the campaign of her life. A first-class flight. A suite at Casa Aurelia. Two years of work cashing in. She had known the man at the next table since she was fifteen - her best friend's cousin, the one who had never once looked at her, the one she had given up loving when she was nineteen.She had no plan for him being there.She had no plan for what he became when he saw her on that couch.Valentino has spent thirty-eight years not letting himself want anything that could be taken from him.He has carried his father's rosary in his pocket every day for twenty-four years.He has buried men for a living.He has never asked a woman to stay.He is going to ask her.And every man who put a hand on her in that palazzo is about to learn what the Sartori family's diplomat becomes when he stops being polite.*Valentino is a full-length mafia romance novel with no cheating and a guaranteed HEA. It is the seventh book in the Sartori Syndicate series. Each book features a different couple and can be read as a standalone.TropesAge GapSlow BurnBest Friend's CousinForced ProximityDark ProtectorHe Falls FirstOnly Soft for HerPossessive HeroDark ThemesHEA / Happily Ever After