Roselyn Vega -

When Gabriel De Luca waltzed into the nightclub where I was bartending, looking like he'd just stepped out of the pages of GQ Magazine: Wall Street Edition, it felt like fate.

I hadn't seen him in ten years, but it felt like no time had passed between us. He'd been my first boyfriend, and I trusted him, so when he asked me how I ended up bartending for one of the most feared crime bosses, I told him everything. After that night, he went MIA, and suddenly, I'm very concerned for both our safety.

When he finally shows up, a week later, he's acting different, walking different, and even looks a little different, but I'm so relieved that he's okay that I barely register those things.

A couple of nights later, when he breaks into my apartment in the middle of the night I realize that it wasn't Gabriel who'd walked into the club the other night, but his brother. His infuriating, domineering, dangerous brother, who, unlike Gabriel, followed their father's footsteps into the world of organized crime. He demands that I pack my bags and go with him. I refuse, fight and argue, but the thing about Dominic De Luca is that one way or another, he always gets his way.

Dominic De Luca -

There's a code between brothers. I should know. I have a lot of them.

Don't lie.

Don't steal from each other.

Don't f each other's women *without permission*.

This particular situation made that last one a little less black and white because my brother, my first best friend, the guy who shared a womb with me, failed to tell me that the bartender he'd been seeing was Roselyn Vega. Of course, he wouldn't tell me. Now the voice message he left before he completely disappeared makes sense. "Take care of her. Don't f her."

Usually, that wouldn't be a problem (read: the code), but it's a little tricky this time. You see, Rosie was mine before he took her from me ten years ago, and many things have changed during that time. I've changed, my circumstances have changed, but my confounding, obnoxious crush on Rosie? Yeah, that's still the same. He left her in my care and warned me not to do anything, but I'm not making any promises.

**Because I Want You is a complete standalone novel set in the same world as Because You're Mine and Because I Need You