Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN WHO THREW FLOUR AT A MAFIA BOSS
Clare Bennett had owned Honey & Rye Bakery long enough to know that rich men generally fell into two categories: the ones who believed money could solve every inconvenience, and the ones who had never been told they were inconvenient.
Roman Duca somehow managed to be both.
Within an hour of meeting Chicago’s most feared Mafia boss, Clare watched him try to buy every pastry in her display case simply because he did not want to stand in line. His aunt Sophia then made things worse by announcing that Clare was Roman’s girlfriend, apparently as a way to stop relatives from trying to arrange dates for him.
Roman could have corrected her.
Instead, he calmly claimed they had been together for three months.
Clare’s patience snapped.
Roman proposed that she continue pretending for three weeks in exchange for an enormous amount of money. Clare answered by throwing a bag of flour directly at his chest.
He came back the next morning anyway.
And the morning after that.
Each time, he bought only coffee, paid the exact price, and left without making another outrageous proposal.
On the third morning, Roman walked into Honey & Rye with a sixteen-year-old girl named Lily.
His niece.
Clare expected another argument.
Instead, she watched the terrifying man beside her transform.
Roman’s voice softened around Lily. His shoulders relaxed. He watched every tiny change in the teenager’s expression as though her smile mattered more than every business empire he controlled.
When Lily looked at Clare and joked that she must be the famous girlfriend, Clare immediately denied it.
Lily smiled.
Only for a second.
But Roman saw it.
And Clare saw the relief on his face.
Suddenly she understood that whatever reason had kept bringing Roman Duca back to Honey & Rye, it had stopped being about a fake girlfriend arrangement.
May you like
Lily stepped toward the display case and pointed through the glass.
“What’s that?”
