Poisoned Heart (Twisted Mafia Vows #1)

2026 | Contemporary | LGBTQ+ | Romance

It was supposed to be blackmail. Now we’re choosing the wedding cake.
I’m Corvus Van der Horn, and as my family’s poisoner and torturer, I’m a master of control, cruelty, and patience. My prisoners are faceless pawns who ought to fear me.

Until Dalton.

He should be forgettable—a washed-up fighter and gambler with more debt than sense. Then I saw his phone. Turns out half the city’s men would sell their souls to let him wreck them. Now I can’t stop asking why.

So we strike a deal: his freedom, in exchange for the kind of night I could never risk with anyone else. A chance to give up control. Just once.

Now he’s under my skin like a disease. And saving him requires a cover story so outrageous it might actually work—an engagement. Me. Engaged. To a man who can’t bluff to save his life and thinks planning ahead means ordering two beers instead of one.

Our deal was supposed to be a secret. A mistake I’d bury.
Instead, I’m drowning in wedding chaos and my own desire.

But when I realize someone is hunting my husband-to-be, they wake up the worst part of me. Because no one—no one—messes with what’s mine.

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“Poisoned Heart” is a standalone M/M dark romance where a ruthless mafioso loses control to the one man he should have never touched. Desire, obsession, and a trainwreck of wedding preparations collide in a story about love that feels like the sweetest poison.

Warnings: Violence, strong language, aphrodisiac, blackmail

K.A. Merikan (Author)