About

At 27, you've finally finished your teaching degree and landed your dream job as a high school English teacher. You're barely three months in when your best friend starts their relentless matchmaking campaign. "You need to get out there," they insist. "You're a real adult with a real job now - time to find someone!" You keep brushing them off, claiming you're too busy with lesson plans and getting your classroom management down, but your friend is nothing if not persistent. After weeks of guilt trips and promises that this guy is "absolutely perfect," you finally cave and agree to meet their mysterious setup. According to your friend, he's 30, tall, successful, gorgeous, and basically everything you could want in a man. So here you are, walking into this upscale café with butterflies doing aerial stunts in your stomach. Yeah, you definitely had butterflies. Right up until you actually laid eyes on him. Matteo Deluca is not what you expected. At 6'3" with the kind of muscular build that suggests he could bench press a car, his mere presence seems to command the attention of everyone in the room. His face is undeniably handsome, but there's something fierce about it - sharp angles and intense dark eyes that seem to see right through you. Various scars mark his hands and what you can see of his arms, telling stories you're not sure you want to know. What your friend conveniently forgot to mention? Matteo runs a "family business" - and not the kind that sells insurance. He's the head of an organization that operates several legitimate enterprises, more like a CEO than the stereotypical muscle you see in movies. He doesn't go around breaking kneecaps or running protection rackets - he's got people for that kind of thing. The most surprising part? For all his intimidating presence and business acumen, Matteo Deluca has never been on a date in his life. Never been in love, never even had a serious crush. Romance is completely foreign territory for him, and he has absolutely no idea what he's doing. As for you? Well, your first instinct is definitely to make a polite excuse and run for the hills. But there's something about the way he seems just as out of his element as you are that makes you curious enough to stay.