Antonio Her Italian Millionaire (BWWM Romance Book 1) Read online




  Antonio, Her Italian Millionaire

  A bad boy mafia romance - sexy yet dangerous!

  A sexy Mafia romance by J A Fielding of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.

  Zianna’s a tough Chicago girl from the bad side of town.

  But her dad made good, and now she runs his numerous businesses throughout the city.

  When she finds a building her father always wanted, she knows she just has to get it.

  But another bidder’s playing tough and soon she’s locked in a bidding war.

  Zianna decides to meet the other bidder face to face and meets Antonio Ricci, son of the Italian Mafia boss in Chicago.

  Soon they’re falling for one another, and they’re burning it up in the bedroom, too.

  He confides in her that he wants to leave the Mafia.

  She wants to leave Chicago, too - her father’s dying wish was that she moves to Florida.

  They begin to hatch a plan, but with his meddlesome ex, dangerous relatives, and ‘fixers’ on the scene, things are about to get real dangerous.

  Will Zianna and Antonio - and their love - manage to survive?

  Find out in this red hot and gripping romance by J A Fielding of BWWM Club.

  Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot, it’s criminal!

  Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.

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  Copyright © 2016 to J A Fielding and AfroRomanceBooks.com. No part of this book can be copied or distributed without written permission from the above copyright holders.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Free Book – Her Billionaire Ex

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

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  Chapter 1

  It was only midday on Thursday but as far as Zianna Webster was concerned, it might as well have been six in the evening. She had spent the whole morning with a real estate agent in one of the rundown buildings of Edgewood and she was not sure if it was the walk or the downright exasperating climb up the old stairs but she was exhausted by the time she walked into Cuts By Webster, one of the first barbershops her father Ezekiel Webster ever started.

  “Hey,” Lucas Keating said when he saw her. “I was not expecting you until later.”

  “Well, I was not expecting myself here until later either,” she said.

  She walked up to one of the chairs and sat down before she kicked off her shoes.

  “Damn it…that feels amazing,” she said as she threw her head back. “You know sometimes, I think I really do understand what a looney bin is like just by walking around.”

  Lucas looked up from the customer whose hair he was cutting.

  “Really? A looney bin?”

  She nodded.

  “It’s noisy and the sanitation is frankly…terrible for lack of a better word.” She leaned back and sighed loudly. “Every single time I come from one of the properties Gloria shows me, I am a little surprised that I don’t need a tetanus shot.”

  Lucas pulled the apron from the customer and smiled at him as he looked into the mirror.

  “This is great. Thanks,” the man said before handing him a bill. “Keep the change.”

  Lucas smiled even wider.

  “Thank you very much.”

  “So, lunch is sorted then?” Zianna asked when the customer walked out and Lucas looked at her, smiling.

  “Sure. Mark’s Diner is already open,” he said, making Zianna frown.

  Mark’s Diner was one of the few places that Zianna couldn’t really handle ever since they hired a new cook who never seemed to know the meaning of hygiene. She even doubted if he had ever been acquainted with a bar of soap.

  “I can take a hint. Thank you very much. Besides, if I need to add any more weight, I could always pick up some Cheetos, a four cheese whopper and a milkshake.”

  Lucas forced out a laugh.

  “So, two things,” he started as he walked up to where she was. “Life in the looney bin is terrible. It is not the screaming that gets to you. I’ve heard people say that it is the silence. The uncertainty…and the locked rooms, that goes without saying.”

  She frowned.

  “Still, this neighborhood is a looney bin but you said two things.”

  “Oh yeah.” Lucas took a long deep breath. “This place is…shitty to say the least. And your father always worked so hard to make sure you got out of here.”

  She shook her head.

  “We have talked about this before, Lucas.”

  He nodded.

  “I know we have but the truth is that you and I both know that your old man had only the best intentions for you,” he said. “Florida is where you should be. I mean, this place just registered its third gang related crime this month and it has only been three weeks.”

  She shrugged.

  “Yes, it is like we have a crime every week. Guaranteed,” she said. “But that is exactly why I cannot leave Chicago.”

  “That kind of sounds terrible…I mean, the reasoning of it all.”

  She shook her head.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Any normal person would have run for the hills by now given the opportunity rather than sleep with a hand gun at arm’s reach,” Lucas pointed out in a cynical tone. “Believe me I know a number of people who would have taken the high road.”

  “The high road being Florida, I’m guessing,” Zianna said and Lucas nodded.

  “Actually, yes.”

  Zianna took a long deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair.

  “You know why I don’t like thinking about leaving the neighborhood,” she said. “Leaving means walking out on every single thing daddy worked on.”

  “But leaving also means that you get to stay alive which was a big part of what your father had in mind when he asked you to leave this God forsaken place and move to some safer place.”

  Zianna gently combed her fingers through her hair and sighed.

  “Well, to be fair, this is not how I pictured this whole situation turning out. I thought I was going to have this place all turned around. Or at least on the road to a new beginning.”

  “Zianna,” Lucas started as he turned to look at her. “You are just one person and the work this place needs will require a whole lot of work. Work from a lot of people rather than just one person.”

  She nodded.

  “I know that.”

  “Then why do you fight this so hard?” Lucas asked.

  “Because if I leave, I fear that the grocery shops and barber shops that my father worked so hard for are just going to die, for lack of a better word.”
>
  “Why does it feel like you are trying to get out of doing the inevitable?” Lucas asked and she shrugged.

  “The inevitable,” she echoed.

  “Yes. The inevitable. There are only two Webster Cuts and salon and three Webster Grocery stores.”

  She shrugged again.

  “I’m still trying to figure out where you are going with this.”

  “Between me and your cousin, we can handle it just fine.”

  She forced out a laugh.

  “There is no way I am leaving for Florida and leaving my father’s legacy to Quan.” She shook her head. “He has his hands full with all the ‘cash businesses’ if you know what I mean,” she said as she put up finger quotes.

  “What are you talking about?” Lucas asked and she smiled.

  “Seriously? You really want me to get into that right now?” she asked and Lucas shrugged.

  “If it’s not too much to ask.”

  “Okay. We are kind of in the same business, Quan and I and somehow his turnover is in the hundreds of thousands and we are still struggling to make ends meet.”

  Lucas shook his head.

  “Don’t you think you are being a little judgmental?” he asked and she shrugged. “There is no proof of that and you know it.”

  “Webster Cuts are in a much better position as far as location is concerned and for every ten or fifteen customers that walk in, Quan’s place gets one or none thanks to him being in the harsher part of the neighborhood. And I know that because I have been there more than once. Those barber shops and laundry mats are just fronts to clean his dirty money,” she explained and Lucas sighed loudly. “You know it and I know it. Quan is most definitely not driving a thirty thousand dollar car because of the quality cuts he gives. That much I can tell you.”

  Lucas looked at her for a long time before he finally shook his head.

  “You know I am right,” she said as he took a long deep breath.

  “Damn it, you are. And it sucks. Really, really sucks that I know something like that.”

  She crossed a leg over the other.

  “Shouldn’t we say something in case of a situation like this? You know, see something. Say something?” she asked even though she already knew what Lucas was going to say.

  “Have you forgotten what part of town you are from, Zianna?” he asked. “Snitches somehow disappear. Or end up in some roadside ditch.”

  “Yeah, yeah. And I know the cases never really get solved.”

  “So, yeah. Drop it. Quan’s business is none of yours. And considering what your father knew about the other family business, maybe that is why he wanted you to move to Florida.”

  Zianna took a long deep breath and sighed loudly.

  “Are we still on this?” she asked. “I mean, I did move out of the old neighborhood and everything.”

  “Well, yeah. You did do that but you are always here. Always around here in your nice SUV,” Lucas said and she bit her lower lip. “Which reminds me, have you even gone to have it serviced yet?” he asked.

  “Well, to answer your questions, no I haven’t had it serviced yet and two, I come here because Webster Cuts and all the grocery stores are here. Not uptown,” she said. “And it is not like I have not thought about relocating to Florida or anything of the sort. I do think of getting myself out there. Maybe for a vacation or someday even have a home or something but doing that…” her voice trailed off and she shook her head.

  “What?” Lucas asked. “What were you going to say?”

  “Doing that makes me feel like I am giving up on what daddy wanted.”

  “Well, he wanted to keep you alive,” he said. “That much, I know.”

  “And I want to make sure that his dream of having a legitimate business in a neighborhood like this actually make it,” she said. “Leaving is kind of like giving up on it. Kind of like saying that I don’t see a way that this is ever going to turn around.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow over the other.

  “No one would think that of you. Besides, you already live on the other side of town so, there’s that,” he said and Zianna smiled.

  “Just how long have you been sitting on that?” she asked and he shrugged.

  “I won’t lie. It was like a severance check burning a hole in my pocket,” he said, smiling. “There is no way I was going to let this chance pass me by.”

  She forced out a laugh.

  “Clearly.”

  She looked at her phone and took a long deep breath.

  “Damn it,” she said. “I didn’t realize time had flown by this much.”

  “In a rush?” Lucas asked and she nodded.

  “Yeah, I wanted to stop by the other shops and grocery stores before I went back home.”

  “Go ahead. I’ve got this handled here.”

  She smiled and picked up her purse before she got up.

  “Anything you need me to bring back?” she asked.

  “We’re fine here but I would really feel better if you had that car serviced. It might look good but you have to treat it well if you want it to live out the lease.”

  “I was talking about the store.”

  He nodded.

  “I know that but I said it anyway and if anything comes up here, I will definitely let you know.”

  He smiled at her as she leaned in for a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “The SUV is fine. I just got it,” she said.

  “Yes, and not from a licensed dealer.”

  She shrugged.

  “Yeah, I got it from a broke college kid and got a really good deal.”

  “And that is one of the reasons you should get it serviced. Regularly. You never know what that kid did to that vehicle.”

  She smiled at him and then forced out a laugh.

  “You worry too much. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and walked out of the shop.

  When she got inside her car, she looked around and sighed. The old neighborhood had definitely changed. A lot. There used to be kids running up and down the street, riding their bikes and being happy but things were so different now than they were back when she was a kid. It was no longer the beautiful, happy neighborhood she knew. It had changed. Heck, everything had changed. The streets were meaner, the crimes were more violent and the moral deterioration had sky rocketed. She hated that as she stood there looking around, all she could see was signs of drug use. She secured her seatbelt and sighed again. She knew at the back of her mind that Lucas may have been right. About everything. For all she cared, he was the voice of her late father. But she really did believe in the fact that she could turn the neighborhood around. After all, what was that famous statement that motivational speakers always said?

  “The change you want begins with you, right,” she thought as she started the ignition.

  As she drove down the street, she hated that she had not told Lucas about a building down the block that she’d had her eye on for a long time. Considering how adamant he was about her doing the right thing for her father and leave the old neighborhood, she knew that he was never going to be alright with the fact that she had just put in a bid for the old building.

  An old building that was regarded to as a crack house because it had once housed more than the neighborhood’s fair share of junkies. And maybe it still did.

  She slowed down as she approached the building and a smile played on her lips. There was something about it that just made her feel hopeful about the whole neighborhood. It was one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood. It might have needed some work. Maybe a thorough paint job and some repairs here and there but at the back of her mind she knew that it was all worth it.

  She had just driven away from the building when her phone rang. She put her earpiece in and answered the call.

  “Zianna Webster.”

  “Zianna, hey. It’s Ray Phillips.”

  She smiled. She could not help but feel that her realtor was calling to give her good news.

  “Hey Ray. Good
news for me?” she asked.

  “Unfortunately Zianna, no,” he said. “There’s been another offer put in for the property.”

  “You mean the property in Edgewood? Are you serious?”

  She knew the agitation in her voice was apparent.

  “Yes, that very one. Someone put in an offer outbidding you.”

  “What?” she ran her fingers through her hair. “No…I’m working on a really tight budget.”

  “I know. You told me that but the truth is that I cannot ignore the other bid.”

  She took a long deep breath and sighed.

  “How much is this other person offering?” she asked.

  “Ninety grand.”

  She shook her head.

  “Why? That place is a piece of shit!”

  “Well, maybe he saw the same thing you saw in said piece of shit. Potential,” Ray said.

  “Fine. I’ll raise my offer to ninety five.”

  “Good. I’ll let him know,” he said.

  “I need this to work, Ray,” she said in a low but serious voice. She would have liked to say the same words as she looked into his eyes just so he could see how serious she was.

  “I know, Zianna,” he said in a soft voice. “I know.”

  When she hung up, her heart was racing. For her, this was about more than just a property acquisition. It was more than just about flipping a building. Getting that building meant everything to her because this was the one thing her father had always wanted. And for her, doing it was just another way to make her father proud even though he was not here to see it. She knew that as he looked down on her, he most definitely would have been proud.

  *****

  Antonio Ricci took one last bite of his spaghetti Bolognese and put his fork down. He had a satisfied smile on his lips as he took a sip of his red wine.

  “That was your best plate of spaghetti Bolognese yet, Fabio,” Antonio said before he took another sip of his wine. “You must tell me the secret.”

  “I tell you every time, Mr. Ricci. It is the same recipe I served you and your family all these years,” he said as he walked up to Antonio’s table holding two boxes in his hand. “I know you are always in a hurry. So I packed you dessert. Some cannoli and tiramisu.”