By Virtue I Fall by Cora Reilly
I confess I have a special love for teenage girls falling in love and/or lust with bodyguards so By Virtue I Fall by Cora Reilly was like catnip to me. I love it.
"As a father, I try to ignore certain developments, but I'm not blind to the fact that Anna has become a beautiful young woman who'll soon be of age, and you aren't committed to anyone. Living in such close quarters might make Anna or you forget certain boundaries."
...
"I've always been drawn to older women." That was the absolute truth. All of my affairs and even short-term girlfriends had been older. Arturo, in a rare moment of being funny, had called me the MILFinator once. I wasn't sure what it was about Anna that was different, that made me show even the slightest interest in her... "My Dad was more worried about me making the moves on your wife than Anna when I started working here," I said in a true foot-in-mouth moment.
Anna is the daughter and eldest child of Dante Cavallaro, the head of the mafia in Chicago, and his wife Valentina. She’s a total alpha female even as a teenager. Santino is the son of Enzo, one of Valentina’s bodyguards, but he has a much more irreverent personality than his dutiful father. Santino is an enforcer for Dante and he loves his job and his life.
But after the whole ‘Dante’s rival mob boss Remo Falcone kidnapped and [supposedly] raped and tortured Dante’s niece Serafina’ debacle, Valentina wants someone more badass than their regular bodyguards to watch over her and Dante’s daughter. Santino doesn’t want to be a bodyguard, much less a bodyguard - AKA glorified babysitter - to a young girl (and he doesn’t have the temperament for it) but he knows better than to refuse the honor granted to him by Dante.
Fast forward six years. 27/28 year old Santino still hates being a bodyguard and precocious 17/18 year old Anna loves provoking him because she thinks he looks even sexier when he’s angry. They are wildly attracted to each other and they both know it, though Santino does attempt to deny it (albeit not successfully).
She blackmails him into agreeing to accompany her to Paris for college because her parents would never agree to let her go without a bodyguard. And they both know that once they’re alone together and far from home, it’s only a matter of time before he gives in to her.
"As a father, I try to ignore certain developments, but I'm not blind to the fact that Anna has become a beautiful young woman who'll soon be of age, and you aren't committed to anyone. Living in such close quarters might make Anna or you forget certain boundaries."
...
"I've always been drawn to older women." That was the absolute truth. All of my affairs and even short-term girlfriends had been older. Arturo, in a rare moment of being funny, had called me the MILFinator once. I wasn't sure what it was about Anna that was different, that made me show even the slightest interest in her... "My Dad was more worried about me making the moves on your wife than Anna when I started working here," I said in a true foot-in-mouth moment.
Anna is the daughter and eldest child of Dante Cavallaro, the head of the mafia in Chicago, and his wife Valentina. She’s a total alpha female even as a teenager. Santino is the son of Enzo, one of Valentina’s bodyguards, but he has a much more irreverent personality than his dutiful father. Santino is an enforcer for Dante and he loves his job and his life.
But after the whole ‘Dante’s rival mob boss Remo Falcone kidnapped and [supposedly] raped and tortured Dante’s niece Serafina’ debacle, Valentina wants someone more badass than their regular bodyguards to watch over her and Dante’s daughter. Santino doesn’t want to be a bodyguard, much less a bodyguard - AKA glorified babysitter - to a young girl (and he doesn’t have the temperament for it) but he knows better than to refuse the honor granted to him by Dante.
Fast forward six years. 27/28 year old Santino still hates being a bodyguard and precocious 17/18 year old Anna loves provoking him because she thinks he looks even sexier when he’s angry. They are wildly attracted to each other and they both know it, though Santino does attempt to deny it (albeit not successfully).
She blackmails him into agreeing to accompany her to Paris for college because her parents would never agree to let her go without a bodyguard. And they both know that once they’re alone together and far from home, it’s only a matter of time before he gives in to her.