Daughters of Ruin Series by Cora J Riley

Elena Ferretti had a plan. It wasn’t a great plan — marry a man she didn’t love, wear a ring she never looked at, be the acceptable face of a life that didn’t fit — but it was hers. Until the night of her engagement party, when Nikolai Volkov decided she was the most useful thing in Dmitri Koval’s world. Now she’s in a stone cell in a compound north of Rome, leverage in a war she didn’t start, belonging to a man her fiancé calls a monster. The problem is that monsters don’t bring you coffee... moreElena Ferretti had a plan. It wasn’t a great plan — marry a man she didn’t love, wear a ring she never looked at, be the acceptable face of a life that didn’t fit — but it was hers. Until the night of her engagement party, when Nikolai Volkov decided she was the most useful thing in Dmitri Koval’s world. Now she’s in a stone cell in a compound north of Rome, leverage in a war she didn’t start, belonging to a man her fiancé calls a monster. The problem is that monsters don’t bring you coffee. They don’t leave books outside your door. They don’t say no in a room full of men who are suggesting something she’s trying very hard not to think about. Elena is trying very hard not to think about a lot of things. Mostly Nikolai. The Enemy’s Captive is a full-length dark mafia romance featuring a morally grey hero, a heroine who refuses to be afraid of him, a slow burn that takes its time and absolutely earns it, and a twist that changes everything she thought she knew about the life she was about to walk into. Contains explicit content. HEA guaranteed. less

She wasnt supposed to survive the car park. Sofia Ricci has been back in Milan for six months. Her life is ordinary again - her flat, her job, her Saturday market, her very specific anchovy shop. She has been successfully not thinking about Dimitri Sokolov for exactly that long. She has been eighty five percent successful. The other fifteen percent she manages. Then someone tries to grab her outside the office, and the first person she calls is Elena. The first person Elena sends is him... moreShe wasnt supposed to survive the car park. Sofia Ricci has been back in Milan for six months. Her life is ordinary again - her flat, her job, her Saturday market, her very specific anchovy shop. She has been successfully not thinking about Dimitri Sokolov for exactly that long. She has been eighty five percent successful. The other fifteen percent she manages. Then someone tries to grab her outside the office, and the first person she calls is Elena. The first person Elena sends is him. Dimitri Sokolov is Nikolai Volkovs head of silent, precise, professionally terrifying. He has had eleven cities in six years and nowhere he would call home. He arrives at Sofias door with a bag, a threat assessment, and absolutely no idea what to do with a woman who talks constantly, organises her bookshelf by colour, and feeds everyone who walks through her kitchen whether she likes them or not. The arrangement is temporary. The threat is real. The sofa is genuinely bad for his back. What follows is six weeks of two very different people discovering that proximity is a far more dangerous thing than a car park at night. He learns her mushroom woman and her anchovy shop. She learns his forests and his five o'clock runs and the specific Bach he listens to when he is thinking. She kisses him first. He has been waiting longer. Neither of them planned this. Both of them are choosing it anyway. Dark romance for readers who like their heroes quiet and their heroines completely incapable of shutting up. Forced proximity, slow burn, standalone with series connection. Part of the Daughters of Ruin series. less