Cruel Obligation

Serafina Liriani: This morning I lost my home, my job, and the people who are the closest thing I have to family - all because somebody told a lie. I know I'm stupid for thinking life should be fair, but I'm only twenty so I can't just give up. I've got to figure out a way to look after myself and it seems like working for the Cirelli Family is how I'm going to do it. "Not mafia, not really," my new boss explains, "but... connected."



Remo Cirelli: I want her. She's freshly pretty, sweetly shy, and as curvy as a good cook should be. Too bad she has a boyfriend. Too bad so many of my family members are poisonous. Too bad everyone wants something from her, but not me... I want everything.



Dominic Ferragamo: They all want her but I'm the one who'll get her in the end and it will be the end, for her. She may be "pure as the driven snow" now, but I'll turn her into slush. I'm hungry for miserable, icy, and dirty, and I'll make a banquet out of Serafina.



This standalone has a hopefully-maybe-probably happy ending with no cliffhanger.