The Chosen Heir: A Steamy Mafia Romance

By moreau monique

A war is brewing between love and duty…which shall triumph? 

Alex 

I am Alexandru, the ruler of the Lupu clan. I’ve always followed in my father’s footsteps, to be the perfect head of the family, the perfect son and brother, the perfect man.

After years of conflict with a rival family, my little sister is contracted to marry their son and bring peace. But when the bride runs away and threatens the truce, I need to convince her best friend, Nina, to help me track her down.

Arranged marriages are common in my world and doing my duty has never been a problem.

Until now. Nina’s an outsider. She’s forbidden. But she’s the only woman I want. 

Nina 

I’ve been in love with Alex for as long as I can remember. I admire how he strives to follow in his father's footsteps. He strives to be the perfect man. He is all that and more.

His sister is gone, and I’m duty bound to help him track her down. I know he wants me, but the boss of the Lupu clan would never break with tradition. The tradition in question? An arranged marriage with a mafia princess.

As our chemistry heats up, a soldier's irreparable mistake starts a war that can only be stopped with Alex’s ultimate sacrifice. Marrying your own kind is the primal rule that reigns over his world, but as we uncover secrets, we learn that his perfect father may not have been so perfect after all…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moreau Imprint
• Release date: Jan 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9791220888189

Book preview

PROLOGUE

NINA

Iheard grunting sounds.

My eyes popped open.

Call it curiosity or call it naughtiness, but I stepped closer.

There was another grunt, this time followed by a long moan.

Creeping closer, I peeked through a crack in the open door of a bathroom.

I abruptly took a step back, inhaling sharply.

I had dashed up the stairs to escape the din of Tasa’s graduation party. Normally, I would have never dared pass the floor Tasa shared with her brother, Nicu, but desperate for quiet, I increased my stride until I’d reached the top. In the back of my mind, I knew this was Alex’s sanctuary, but dying for solitude, I forged onward, winding through the dark, twisted hallways of the top floor. At one point, I paused, closed my eyes, and took in a deep breath of blessed silence.

That was when I heard it. Grunts and moans. Tantalizingly delicious sounds.

Thinking back, I should have hurried past the bathroom, hustled down the stairs, and returned to the trap beats blasting from the speakers and the sweaty bodies swinging this way and that on the makeshift dance floor of her family’s living room.

Instead, I pressed my nose against the wooden frame of the door, and peered in closer.

My gaze slid down to a woman on her knees, moaning around the largest and only live cock I’d ever laid eyes on. For an eighteen-year-old, I may have been inexperienced, but I would never regret that the first cock I ever laid eyes on was Alex’s. It was a side view, but I could see it well enough.

Perhaps I should’ve been scared.

I was anything but.

I was riveted by the clenching of his buttocks with each movement of his hips as he thrust into the girl’s mouth.

Good. God.

The bad internet porn I’d watched had nothing on this. My hand went to my mouth as the girl—a senior just like me—moaned greedily around his dick.

Lucky wench.

His voice reverberated through the door. Play with your tits.

Unbuttoning her shirt, she pulled out her breasts. Breasts way smaller than my own, I noted clinically. I was not even sixteen when I was well in the throes of being well-endowed, and it hadn’t stopped there.

That’s right. Just like that. Good girl, he praised her.

His dirty, filthy words bounced off the walls of the small bathroom and shot right through my heart. My own hands followed his command, voluntarily moving to my own breasts and massaging them, playing with my nipples as best I could through the top of my dress and my bra.

Stop, he growled.

She did.

So did I.

I pressed my lips together to suppress the moan about to escape. My inner thighs were slick. I had no choice but to rub them together to relieve the building pressure.

Without blinking, I watched as Alex laid his hand on the crown of her head. He caressed her long, blonde hair, wrapped it around his fist, and took control with a tight yank.

Suck it good, baby girl. Take it down your throat. He made a particularly rough thrust. Now swallow, he demanded as he held her down, choking her. Breathe through your nose.

Tears streaked down her flushed cheeks and she snorted through her nose, but her eyes burned bright for him. For this lesson on how to deep throat him. How to pleasure him.

Damn her.

I wasn’t jealous by nature, but envy charged through me with a force that took my breath away. She had all that control…just with her mouth and tongue. What I would have given to be in her shoes?

My chest rose and fell like bellows, faster and faster. One hand slipped down the taffeta of my dress and pressed between my thighs. The combination of the erotic imagery in front of me, my illicit voyeurism, and my vicious envy had me soaked.

Alex pulled out, stepped back, and shifted her slightly. The girl shuffled on her knees to follow him as if on a leash, and then he was back inside her mouth. This time, however, something must have alerted him to my presence.

His head snapped up; his eyes caught mine in the mirror.

Shit, shit, shit.

I wanted to fall back and hide, but his glittering green eyes impaled mine as forcefully as his cock impaled the girl’s mouth beneath him.

You want this? he growled low.

Whether he was talking to me or her or both of us, I had no idea.

The girl nodded and moaned yes around the crown of his shaft.

Do. You. Want. This? he ground out. She gave another groan. I’ll give it to you just the way you want, sweetness, he directed at me through the mirror.

Entranced, I froze.

Surely, he wasn’t speaking to me while his cock was in another girl’s mouth? I was his little sister’s best friend, and although Alex featured in every one of my fantasies, but he was much too busy to notice me. And yet…and yet, it felt like he was speaking directly to me, to my very soul.

My mouth parted but nothing came out.

His eyes dropped to my fingers. Yes you do, you dirty girl.

My jaw dropped. He was definitely talking to me.

Caught.

I was so caught.

But instead of running in panic, a flurry of shakes overtook my body. I stood there, letting my fingers frantically rub between my thighs. He didn’t break his rhythm once, not even after he noticed me. He didn’t speed up; he didn’t slow down. Not Alexandru Lupu. He was too suave to get flustered catching his little sister’s friend Peeping Tom him. No, he was in total control. In control of her. In control of me. His gaze was glued to my fingers as he continued his steady thrusts, as if he was feeding off watching me, even though he was fucking another woman’s mouth.

My body went into some kind of shock. Shudders racked my body. I was on the cusp of the greatest orgasm I’d ever experienced. It came baring down on me at a breakneck speed, but I did not dare surrender. If I unraveled, I’d end up screaming at the top of my lungs, I’d crumble to the floor, and worst of all, I’d expose myself as the creeper that I was.

Drawing on a hidden source of self-restraint I never knew existed, I yanked my fingers off my clit, whirled around, and flew down the hall.

The words dirty girl chased me as I fled the scene, taunting me as I sprinted down the hall in my flimsy ballet slippers. I ran as if I had witnessed a murder instead of the filthiest sexual act to date.

Those two words would haunt me for years. He stole my soul that night—damn him—and I’d been hobbling around a shadow of myself ever since. I’d risk everything for the opportunity to get close to him, to bind myself to him, to get my other half back.

It was my only chance to be whole again.

CHAPTER 1

ALEX

F ucking hell, I gritted out as I read the text over my grandmother’s shoulder.

Tasa was safe and she begged us not to look for her.

Really, little sis? This is how you do me?

It’d be a cold day in hell before I’d leave my baby sister to hang out to dry.

Bunică gave a nonchalant shrug of her skinny shoulders and a grin that showed off her gold tooth. That woman could get her teeth fixed a thousand times over, but she wasn’t one to put on airs. As she always said, I was born a peasant girl, and I’ll die a peasant girl.

Peasant girl, my ass.

She was as sharp as they came, and while she loved to ham it up with her country ways, she could dig out a bullet and sew up the wound in under half an hour. It had come in handy on more than one occasion.

What is she thinking? I spat out. She’s roaming the country doing God knows what. No protection, no bodyguard, no⁠—

Oh, hush, you’re acting as if Tasa’s an invalid instead of a smart young woman who can take on the world with one hand tied behind her back. She’ll be fine. You best leave her alone, she warned, poking at my chest with her bony finger.

I stared down at her, incredulous. Leave my sister to roam the country unprotected?

Is she insane?

"Christ, Bunică, she’s a female. Alone."

I rolled my eyes up to the kitchen ceiling, seeking patience, and took a seat on one of the stools scattered around the island in the kitchen of our family home. Was I the only rational one in this conversation? It wasn’t like she didn’t know who we were. It’s not like she wasn’t acutely aware that our enemies would crawl out of the woodwork for the chance to kidnap Tasa.

My gaze passed over the midnight-blue double oven range my father had imported from Italy when he busted out the back wall and extended the kitchen to please his mother and wife. The chrome of the state-of-the-art appliances gleamed under the bronze farmhouse lights.

"A lone female, I reiterated, emphasizing the word lone in hopes of getting through to my grandmother. Of the Lupu clan."

We were the Lupu clan, the Romanian upstarts who quickly rose to the top of the New York City mafias. The Italians were a shadow of what they were before the takedowns and trials of the ’90s. That left a vacuum for my father to fill when he arrived in New York City. The speed of our rise was a point of embarrassment for the Bratva, the Russian mafia, and the main reason why they were so intent on destroying us.

Returning my attention to Bunică, I reminded her, Enemies? Remember them? Why do I need to remind you? It’s not like you don’t know what I’m talking about. She’s in real danger.

She let out a cackle as she whipped out a bottle of palincă, a traditional Romanian spirit from the region she came from. Plunking down two small glasses, she poured two shots and pushed one over the kitchen island to me. The other, she threw back like a pro.

"What is obvious to everyone but you is that Tasa is her own woman. She’s smart, and she’s not going to get caught by some two-bit mafie idiot. She’ll be fine."

She was too relaxed by far, considering her youngest grandchild had just run off to god-knows-where. I narrowed my eyes at her. What do you know?

Fluttering her wrinkled hand weakly in front of her chest, she lied without a shred of remorse, Who? Little old me? Why, nothing!

You’re as deceitful as the day is long, I snapped, my patience fraying.

Back off, she warned, her innocent features turning dark. Ah, there’s the real Bunică. I don’t happen to know anything, but if I did, you bet your last dollar I wouldn’t tell you, she shouted in my face, threatening me with an accusing finger. "I won’t help you drag her back to keep her prisoner until she marries that worthless tâmpit, Cristo. Uck. He’s barely a man. And he has a two-bit hussy of a side piece, everyone knows that. He doesn’t even have the decency to hide her. Of course, each of you must marry someone from a familie, but not him. Bah!"

You’re unbelievable, you know that, right? Come on, out with it, I insisted, flicking the fingers of my open hand at her.

Like I said, my lips are sealed. She made a gesture as if locking her lips together and flinging away an imaginary key.

My jaw clenched. I could feel the steam shoot out of my ears.

Family. The bane of my existence. And those two were the worst. They stuck together like super glue.

Fine, I replied darkly, releasing an exasperated breath. You’re not the only person I can pressure for information.

She nabbed the sleeve of my jacket, crushing the fine wool between her bony fingers. Don’t you dare. You leave that poor girl alone. She’s in love with you. You have no right to take advantage of that.

Nina.

Damn, that girl. Smelled like jasmine and a hard fuck waiting to happen. Just the thought of her brought crackling heat to my skin and stiffness to my cock. That woman was as sweet as could be, with large brown eyes and a chest I could face-plant in and suck on for days on end. Annnd…

And she’s also like a sister to you, asshole.

Not.

There wasn’t a shred of brotherly feelings toward that little minx. Unless one included the taboo kind.

I shook my head, shaking off the X-rated reel that began to unspool in my mind’s eye.

Returning to the problem at hand, I lay my forearms heavily on the smooth wood of the kitchen island, and said, You may be in denial, but I happen to know exactly what our enemies are capable of. Once the news is out that she’s gone, they will do everything in their power to snatch her and use her to get to us. This is like a nuclear arms race during the Cold War.

I tapped the watch around my wrist. Time is ticking, and I can assure you that this won’t finish well. Least of all for Tasa. Who’s going to want to marry her once it’s common knowledge that she’s on her own? Her reputation will be tarnished. Think about that and come talk to me when you’ve regained your sanity.

"Băieţel, don’t speak to me like that. I wiped your bottom when you couldn’t even lift a spoon to feed yourself. She puffed out her chest. I don’t care what she’s done. Any man should be grateful for the chance to marry my little girl."

I snorted a frustrated sigh. I hated it when she called me little boy. This was going nowhere and I had better things to do than to argue with her when she was in one of her moods. I bent down low and dropped a kiss on the crown of her head. Do you think I enjoy this? Do you think I enjoy having to lay down the law and act like an enforcer with the people I love?

"You do enjoy it, she shot back. You’re always right, no matter what. You take after your father, but regardless of what everyone thinks, he wasn’t perfect, you know. He was human, and he made his fair share of mistakes."

Yeah, right.

She always said that, but it was never quite believable. The man was a brilliant businessman and strategist. He loved his family. He was honorable to his core. If I could live up to half of what he’d accomplished, I’d die a happy man.

Which brought me back to the issue at hand: Tasa’s marriage.

"I’ve negotiated the marriage contract between Tasa and Cristo for years. What’s going to happen when Nelu finds out his future daughter-in-law ran away? He will take it as a stain on his honor. It will break a truce when the ink has barely dried. I gave Tata my word that I would do everything in my power to make this happen. There’s too much on the line…"

Days like today, the weight of taking care of my family was crushing. Bunică might be whip smart and have years of experience, but she couldn’t relate to my predicament. She’d always been taken care of. First by my grandfather, then my father, and now me. She could afford to focus on emotions and feelings, not the concrete facts of running a profitable, but illegal empire with many competitors.

No, that fell on me.

Reproval shimmered in her eyes at me. Pfft. And you thought selling Tasa off to this family was the way to accomplish your father’s wishes? You sacrificed your baby sister, of all people.

"Tata would’ve commended me for it. He would’ve thought it was a brilliant move. As the wife of the next in line, Tasa will be taken care of. She’ll be protected. And yes, it would help solidify a peace that’s eluded our families for decades, but that never took a priority over her well-being."

Bunică stared at me like she was about to spit on the ground. Ack, don’t pretend you’re doing this for Tasa. It’s beneath you.

"I am doing it for her," I ground out, fists balling at my sides.

Christ, this old woman was never satisfied. She was spoiling the girl with notions of love. Our life was based on duty and, for both men and women, one of the most important duties was to marry someone chosen by the head of the clan. As şef, I was the only one with some leeway regarding this rule. Right or wrong, just or unjust, it was unthinkable that a mafie princess like Tasa would have any say in choosing her husband. If Bunică didn’t hate Cristo’s family as much as she did, she’d be more willing to see reason.

She’s the baby of the family. The Popescus, curse their name, are worthless mongrels. Animals. You sold your precious sister to those heathens. Those upstarts!

"They’re powerful enough now; I can tell you that much. We can stick our nose up at the Popescu clan all we want, but only a fool would underestimate them. They’re vicious. You know this as well as anyone. I made a dismissive wave. My hands are tied. There’s nothing I can do but retrieve her and make sure her marriage goes off without a hitch."

Bunică stalked up to me. Barely five feet tall, she went toe to toe with me and spat out, Then, you will get no help from me. I will do everything in my power to thwart you. The marriage be damned.

I choke back the growl emanating from my throat and throw up my hands in frustration. You’re impossible

When Tata was bleeding out in the ambulance roaring through the quiet streets, his dying wish had been for me to reconcile our family with the low-bred Popescus. I didn’t disagree with Bunică that every one of them was a bottom-feeder. No education, no class, no nothing. Violence was their greatest attribute.

The two families had been at each other’s throats for generations, clawing their way to the top by throat-punching the other. Tata often said that it was too late for him and Nelu, that there was too much bad blood, but at his death bed, he declared, There needs to be a marriage. It’s the only way.

Those were his last words.

Go back to your fancy apartment in Columbus Circle, Alex. I don’t want you under my roof, my grandmother scoffed as she returned to the dish she was preparing and dismissed me outright.

I ground down on my back teeth and flexed my fists at my sides, but there was nothing I could do but turn on my heel and march out of the kitchen. I grabbed my coat from the hallway closet and stalked out of the house.

Tasa on the run.

Contract in ruins.

Potential war on the horizon.

Everything I’d worked for gone.

Gone.

I’m an abject failure.

No, I refused to let that stand. I did not care what it took to make this right. I would drag Tasa back by her hair to marry the Popescu and fulfill Tata’s oath if necessary.

Why?

Because I would make my dead father proud if it fucking killed me. Tasa and me, both.

CHAPTER 2

NINA

Ihad been summoned.

Staring at the text with a time (11:30 a.m.), place (his office), and a warning (Be there.), I completely understood why Tasa meticulously kept every detail of her escape plan from me. She knew I’d be summoned. She knew that, once in Alex’s presence, I would be defenseless. Even thinking about him tied my stomach in knots and soaked my panties beyond recognition.

As I had been instructed, I stepped outside of the building on Upper West Side where Tasa and I had lived together on the 17 th floor, and at a quarter to eleven, craned my neck, looking for my ride.

A black Mercedes rolled to the curb by the entrance. Nikki, Tasa’s former chauffeur-slash-bodyguard, stepped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back passenger door for me with a nod.

I scooted inside, the plush leather seat smooth under my fingertips. I tried engaging him in conversation, but he was stubbornly silent. He focused his attention in front of him, his face as stoic as a marble Roman death mask. It was a miracle that Tasa got him to talk, much less allow her to sit up front and prattle on like a pair of chattering children. He was smitten with her. No surprise there.

Long before her father’s very public assassination, I had already learned that Tasa didn’t come from an ordinary family. The word mafia had been bantered about since elementary school. By the time I understood the significance of what her family did, it was too late. She was already my bestie.

Nikki’s silence accentuated the nerve-racking drive across the city to Sunnyside, Queens. I was about to be interrogated by the man I pined after for years. A man out of my league. A man who never considered me as anything other than his little sister’s best friend. And this same man was convinced I knew something. My best chance of fending off his inquisition was to go on the offensive. I planned to give him a piece of my mind. None of this would have happened if he’d been more understanding. He was a perfectionist and loved control, but look what he had done? He’d pushed Tasa too far.

The care finally stopped in front of the Dacia Café. The café, which was owned by the Lupu family, was situated next door to Tasa’s house, which was next door to my house. Thank God, it was the middle of the day and my mother was at work. As a regional manager of a countrywide floor installation company, she was blessedly busy on some conference call half way across the city.

As awkward as it was to wait in the back seat for Nikki to hold the door for me, I knew better than to do it myself. I watched impatiently as he stepped out of the car, circled around the trunk, and opened the car door for me. I dutifully paused at the entrance to the café, giving him enough time to prop the door open for me. Again, I waited for him to usher me across the ground floor bustling with patrons, to a set of stairs near the back that led up to Alex’s office.

Nikki rapped his knuckles against the door. A deep-bass tone vibrated through the thick wood, ordering us to enter. He swung it open, prodded me forward with a little shove, and firmly