Her Irish Dark Knight: Dark Mafia Forced Proximity Romance

1. Ronan

After losing my father in a gunfight, I knew I had to step up. I alsoknew marriage was at the top of the list,but I was busy doing a lot of other things until my mother got in the fucking way.

“Do you really expect to marry for love?” My mother’s words the night she got me to agree to this, sealing my fate with the Ferreri as their son-in-law replay in my head.

“I know what I must do.” And I did. I’m on it.

My mother has driven me nuts in more ways than I care to remember. Going out of her way to play fucking matchmaker for me to marry Barbara Ferreri is just the cherry on top.

My father would be proud of my fiancée and irritated by my trying to dodge this wedding. He was my mentor. My mother is my nemesis, and my sister… well, my sister is my heartbeat.

I look at her in the rearview mirror, watching her look at something on her phone. She is wearing a simple denim skirt and a stylish bright blue blouse that compliments her gray eyes. Without her dark irises, she could easily pass for a ghost.

She lifts her eyes to meet mine, catching me watching her. She manages a small smile but I know her well enough to know something is making her uncomfortable.

I focus on the deep breath she takes, then her fidgeting, and then her pretending to be too involved in what she looks at on her phone. “Riley…”

“What do you think of this track, sweet pea?” Barbara slips herself into the moment as if her presence is not enough of a pain in the fucking ass.

I say nothing to her. I detest that stupid pet name. I have warned her more than once, but she’s decided to keep it since she thinks it’s getting under my skin.

“Babe?” She cocks her head to look at me from her seat next to me.

I don’t hate her. I hate the situation I’m in and the fact that she is using every opportunity she gets to aggravate me, spoiled brat that she is.

She knows she is in a powerful position and she knows why I’m doing this, we both do. But I stand to gain more, so she is taking advantage of that.

“I want to make a video so the publicist will have something to post.” She waits for me to answer, but all she gets is fucking silence. I’m everywhere in the media because of her. I’m sleeping, she takes pictures. I’m eating, she makes videos. Everything is for show. Once, Riley showed me the page, and even I almost believed we were in love.

Her team had planned everything to perfection. It was shocking.

“Ronan?” She snorts. “It was the pet name, wasn’t it?” She chuckles dryly. “Okay, what do you want me to call you, and what will you be calling me? Because we have to agree on something here.”

“Barbara, that’s what I will be calling you,” I reiterate like I have done every single time she brings up this issue. “Find something you want me to call you,” I breathe quietly as I feel her smiling beside me.

“I already have something I think will be the perfect…” Riley giggles from the backseat and I catch her staring at me through the rearview mirror. Every single thing is funny, amusing, and intriguing to her.

I screw my brows at her, and she shrugs.

“I never thought the day would come when I would see my big brother using a pet name for a lady,” she shakes her head, clamping her lower lips to tamp her smile.

“You owe me one then for making that day come,” Barbara lifts her phone, and my teeth clench when I realize she is making a video.

“Take the next turn,” Riley points at a turn, and I nod.

I’m trying to remember who convinced me to join them for this damn cake tasting. Barbara or my mother?

“That one,” Barbara stops recording and gestures toward a three-story pastry store, and I pull up in front of it.

I can taste the sweetness they whisk up in there simply by looking at the colorful building. I pull up next to a sedan, and a customer emerges, grinning and clutching a brown carry-home bag with the store”s logo printed on it.

However, Riley”s fidgeting again, so I corner her once she climbs out of the car.

“I’m fine,” she answers before I start, which means she is not.

“Who said I was going to ask that?” I slip one hand into the pocket of my jeans and puff my chest.

“You have that look, big brother,” she swings her eyes. “But I’m fine.”

“Riley, tell me why you are nervous,” I rest one hand on the car to trap her, and she folds her arms across her chest.

“It’s not me I am worried about,” she huffs. “It’s you.”

I know I live my life on the fucking edge, and I’ve heard her express her worry more times than I care to keep count of. But this time seems different.

“Why?” If she tells me it”s because of the marriage, I”ll know she”s lying. They should be worried for Barbara. I don”t give a fuckabout anything. When we get married, she won”t force me to do anything.

Barbara is still attempting to salvage her dream marriage from this ordeal. I feel sorry for her, which is why I sometimes let her. She just won”t let go.

I”ve given up on mine. I know that the people I lost will never return to me, and that”s okay.

Well, perhaps not okay. Living in such a harsh reality is difficult. A fucking painful wound to heal from, I will strive for the remainder of my life to stop it from spilling all the blood out of me. But I willgo ahead and do it for the benefit of everyone and everything involved.

“I’m waiting,” I snap my fingers in her face.

“It’s…”

“Don’t fuck around with me, Riley; tell me what is getting you this worked…”

She interrupts me by pointing withher eyes in Barbara”s direction. I grudgingly turn to glare at her, but as soon as I focus on the person next to my fiancée, I am taken aback.

Wearing a pair of blue jeans and a simple white blouse, bluish-blackhair flowing on her shoulders, cherry-colored pastel lips andfreckles splatteredacross her cheekbones, those onyx eyes... Olivia.

She meets my eyes, and the shock waves dart between the us.

“You should see your face,” Riley chuckles, then goes over to Olivia to drag her into an embrace.

“Riley,” Olivia stammers. Her voice still has the same hummingbird-like quality as it always did.

“Ollie,” Riley pulls away from the hug. “It’s been forever,” Riley chuckles. “You look so beautiful, so…”

“Huh, excuse me,” Barbara lifts a finger. “Am I missing something?”

“This is…”

“I know who she is.” Barbara sneers at them both.”Olivia Delgado, the chef in charge of my wedding catering. How are you two so friendly?”

“I know Olivia from way back,” Riley shrugs. “She is a family friend. I haven’t seen her since…” She swings her hands in the air to keep that information out. “Huh…” Riley gulps and then chuckles. “It’s been… It’s been a while.”

“Since we broke up,” I say.