Always, A Legacy Novel
Cross + Catherine, #1
by Bethany-Kris
Publication Date: October 2, 2017
Genres: Adult, Contemporary Romance, Coming of Age, Mafia
Now Available!
Synopsis
A Legacy Novel
A wild boy.
A sly girl.
A sly girl.
Cross Donati defines trouble. He does what he wants because he’s never known anything different. He’s unapologetic, and he owns it.
Catherine Marcello is every bit a good girl … on the outside. Her entire world is a legacy, and she lives it. She’s curious, and she’s exploring it.
She chases bad things.
He never learned to be good.
He never learned to be good.
They’re late nights, stolen cars, first times, fist fights, leather jackets, beaches, bloody smiles, and life.
They’re vicious and precious, dangerous and harmless, innocence and sin. They are love.
They’re vicious and precious, dangerous and harmless, innocence and sin. They are love.
Love is killing for someone.
Love is living for someone.
Love is living for someone.
Sometimes, you can’t keep saving your heart when it means sacrificing it, too.
Sometimes, you have to learn to save yourself.
Sometimes, love has to fall, crash, and burn.
Sometimes, you have to learn to save yourself.
Sometimes, love has to fall, crash, and burn.
This is what love is like when you’re a principe and principessa della mafia.
This is what love is like when you’re Cross Donati and Catherine Marcello.
This is what love is like when you’re Cross Donati and Catherine Marcello.
***
Always is a Legacy Novel, and while it is standalone, it can also act as a prequel for Revere. Each Legacy Novel stands alone from any other book, series, or collection.
Excerpt
Catherine giggled. Her amusement faded fast. Like the second Hugh grabbed her arm in a tight grip, and stopped her from walking further.
“Last name?” he asked again.
She tugged her arm to free it from his grasp, but he didn’t let go. She looked down at his hand pointedly. “That’s a no.”
“Shit, what’s your problem? I’m just asking who the hell—”
“Let me go,” Catherine said.
She was polite.
It was the only warning he was going to get.
“Tell me your name, then.”
“This isn’t a tit for tat,” Catherine replied. “I said no, and that means—”
Catherine didn’t even see the fist coming before it smashed into Hugh’s face. Hugh let go of Catherine’s arm with a holler, and she almost tripped over her gladiator-style sandals in an effort to jump back.
“Means fucking no,” the guy Catherine had been admiring earlier said, as he stood over a now bleeding Hugh. “Coach said to move your ass, so move, Hugh. Stop bothering girls—didn’t you get enough of that shit last year?”
“Donati!” someone yelled from the field.
“Jesus Christ, Cross,” Liliana muttered.
“Prick!”
That was all Hugh got out before he kicked out a leg and dropped Cross to the ground. In full football gear, but for the helmets, the two boys started laying into one another. Each fist smacking into a body or gear made Catherine cringe. She was pretty sure someone was bleeding, too, in between cursing and name calling. The players and coaches on the field started heading their way fast.
“Okay, time to go,” Liliana said, making sure to tug Catherine along.
She kept up with her cousin easily enough.
First day, and already starting fights.
Yeah, she really missed her old school.
“Donati did you a favor there,” Liliana said as they came closer to the school.
“Who?” Catherine asked, peering back over her shoulder.
“Donati. Cross Donati.”
That surname seemed familiar to Catherine, but she couldn’t quite pull out why.
“Hugh is a creep,” Liliana said, oblivious to Catherine’s confusion. “He doesn’t understand the word no, and if you ask the right girls, they’ll all tell you not to leave a drink unattended when he’s around. Seriously, Cross did you a favor.”
She couldn’t help but look back over her shoulder.
Catherine found a pair of dark eyes looking in her direction before they locked onto hers.
Cross.
Cross Donati.
His fist crashed down into Hugh’s bloody face one more time before the coach reached the fighting boys, and pulled them apart. He was still staring after Catherine, though.
Cross smiled at her, then, showing off white teeth stained red by his bloody mouth. He didn’t seem a bit bothered by it, really. She smiled back.
Catherine thought, years from then, when people asked…
She would say that was when she fell in love with Cross.
Black hair.
Dark eyes.
Bruised knuckles.
Bloody mouth.
All the while, he smiled at her.
And she smiled back.
That was when she fell in love with Cross Donati.
Even if she hadn’t known it then.
About Bethany-Kris
“Last name?” he asked again.
She tugged her arm to free it from his grasp, but he didn’t let go. She looked down at his hand pointedly. “That’s a no.”
“Shit, what’s your problem? I’m just asking who the hell—”
“Let me go,” Catherine said.
She was polite.
It was the only warning he was going to get.
“Tell me your name, then.”
“This isn’t a tit for tat,” Catherine replied. “I said no, and that means—”
Catherine didn’t even see the fist coming before it smashed into Hugh’s face. Hugh let go of Catherine’s arm with a holler, and she almost tripped over her gladiator-style sandals in an effort to jump back.
“Means fucking no,” the guy Catherine had been admiring earlier said, as he stood over a now bleeding Hugh. “Coach said to move your ass, so move, Hugh. Stop bothering girls—didn’t you get enough of that shit last year?”
“Donati!” someone yelled from the field.
“Jesus Christ, Cross,” Liliana muttered.
“Prick!”
That was all Hugh got out before he kicked out a leg and dropped Cross to the ground. In full football gear, but for the helmets, the two boys started laying into one another. Each fist smacking into a body or gear made Catherine cringe. She was pretty sure someone was bleeding, too, in between cursing and name calling. The players and coaches on the field started heading their way fast.
“Okay, time to go,” Liliana said, making sure to tug Catherine along.
She kept up with her cousin easily enough.
First day, and already starting fights.
Yeah, she really missed her old school.
“Donati did you a favor there,” Liliana said as they came closer to the school.
“Who?” Catherine asked, peering back over her shoulder.
“Donati. Cross Donati.”
That surname seemed familiar to Catherine, but she couldn’t quite pull out why.
“Hugh is a creep,” Liliana said, oblivious to Catherine’s confusion. “He doesn’t understand the word no, and if you ask the right girls, they’ll all tell you not to leave a drink unattended when he’s around. Seriously, Cross did you a favor.”
She couldn’t help but look back over her shoulder.
Catherine found a pair of dark eyes looking in her direction before they locked onto hers.
Cross.
Cross Donati.
His fist crashed down into Hugh’s bloody face one more time before the coach reached the fighting boys, and pulled them apart. He was still staring after Catherine, though.
Cross smiled at her, then, showing off white teeth stained red by his bloody mouth. He didn’t seem a bit bothered by it, really. She smiled back.
Catherine thought, years from then, when people asked…
She would say that was when she fell in love with Cross.
Black hair.
Dark eyes.
Bruised knuckles.
Bloody mouth.
All the while, he smiled at her.
And she smiled back.
That was when she fell in love with Cross Donati.
Even if she hadn’t known it then.
About Bethany-Kris
Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to three young sons, one cat, and two dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a hubby calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something … when she can find the time.
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