Alexius: A Fake Marriage Mafia Romance (Dark Sovereign Book 1)

What do you do when Chicago’s most dangerous man shows up at your crappy diner… and proposes?I’m 22, broke, and one unpaid bill away from boiling instant noodles with shower water.Alexius Del Rossa is heir to a criminal empire—and apparently in the market for a wife.His offer?A fake marriage.No feelings. No touching.Just a legal formality while he waits for his dying father to hand him the crown.In exchange?A lifetime of freedom—the kind that only comes with the Del Rossa name.I say yes.Because girls like me don’t get real choices.We get survival disguised as opportunity.Now I live in a mansion with locked doors and silk sheets.I wear a ring around my finger that’s more leash than jewelry.I do everything that’s expected of me.Dress in designer clothing.Smile for the photos.Pretend to laugh when he leans in close.I even remember which fork to use at dinner.And still—he watches me like I’m getting it wrong.Corrects the way I walk, talk, breathe.The harder I try, the more I seem to piss him off.Until I stop flinching at his every command.Until I prove to him a waitress can belong in his world, too.That’s when he starts teaching me what he really wants.How to kneel.How to ache.How to need.And with every lesson, he looks at me more like the lie he wants to make real.But nothing about this is real.It’s an arrangement stamped with an ending.Problem is... Alexius? He doesn't end things.He owns them.