Ranking

“You know something, little rabbit?” Theron muttered darkly, as he neared me. “I want you.”
My breath hitched in my throat because in a way I knew it was true. There was meaning behind those cold silver eyes that watched me intently every time.
“You can’t want me,” I whispered, backing into the desk. “I’m your—”
“My brother’s girlfriend?” He finished for me; his upper lips curved into a smirk. “Isn’t that the same boyfriend you’re crying over, right now?”
Hurriedly, I wiped my tears.
“He cheated on you, didn’t he?” He asked mockingly.
His eyes were wicked, the kind that watch something die and feel nothing.
“It’s none of your business,” I hissed, shoving past him.
“A pretty little thing like you shouldn’t waste tears on garbage like my brother.” I froze when his voice came again.
I felt a cold shudder run down my spine as I gripped the door tightly.
“I can help you,” Heavy footsteps rattling behind me as he stepped closer.
I froze, Theron is bad news, everyone knows it, no one talks to him—I know I should leave, but I couldn’t.
Interested in his offer, I turned back slightly.
“How?” The words were barely a whisper as they escaped my lips.
“Use me.” He leaned in my face. "Hurt him back by using me."


What do you think Theron would want in exchange for his help?

The morning of our wedding, Dante Russo led the hit that wiped out my family.
Branded a traitor, stripped of my name, I spent three years scrubbing blood from dog kennels at the docks. I lost my hands, my music, and three babies I never got to hold.
Then I learned the truth: there was no hit. My parents and the man I loved staged it all—to teach me a lesson, because my adopted sister Isabella cried that I’d hurt her.
Now Dante is marrying Isabella. And he wants me there on my knees, pouring her champagne.
I said yes.
But I bled out on the concrete the night before.
They think I’m sulking. They smash everything I ever gave them to punish me for not showing up.
And when my body is finally wheeled into their wedding in a black bag, the most dangerous men in Gotham City will learn what they’ve done.
Too late.

She was supposed to marry a polished mafia prince and save her dying family. Instead, her father offered her to the one man he feared most—the outlaw king who rules the roads in leather and blood. Raven Kane, known as "Ghost," is the president of the Black Vultures MC, a club that controls the smuggling routes the Italian families need to survive. He takes the mafia princess as settlement for an old blood debt, claims her under club law, and pins a property patch to her chest like a brand.

She hates him on sight.
He decides she belongs to him the moment she spits in his face.
Forced to live in his compound, ride at his back, and wear his claim in public, Isabella Moretti learns that Ghost is not just a criminal—he is a force of nature who will burn the world for what is his. Hate turns to something far more dangerous. And when the people closest to her prove they were never on her side, the outlaw king will show the entire underworld what happens when you touch what belongs to the Black Vultures.

“Don’t call me your brother.”

I froze the first time Sebastian said those words.

After my father’s death, I had no choice but to move into my mother’s wealthy new husband’s mansion, where everyone treated me like an unwanted country girl.

Especially Sebastian—the cold, ruthless heir who hated my mother… and hated me for being her daughter.

I thought marrying the charming heir Alistair would be my escape.

Then Sebastian started interfering.

He mocked my country upbringing, sabotaged my chances, and acted like he couldn't stand having me anywhere near him.

But everything changed when he saw me on horseback.

The timid girl in the mansion disappeared. On a horse, I was fearless, wild, and impossible to control.

And somehow, the man who hated me most became the one who couldn't take his eyes off me.

When family secrets tore apart my chance at a normal marriage, Sebastian offered me a deal I couldn't refuse—a fake marriage to save his family, pay my grandmother's medical bills, and destroy the people who had betrayed us.

It was supposed to be an act.

So why did my forbidden stepbrother look at me on our wedding night like he had finally lost the last bit of control?

I have three rules.
See nothing. Say nothing. Stay invisible.
For three years, I’ve poured drinks at the Golden Chalice, hiding behind cheap makeup and a quiet smile. In the most dangerous bar in St. Jude, being forgettable is the only way a girl like me survives.
Then Vincenzo Corsetti walked in.
The feared Mafia Don and heir to the Corsetti empire, he put a bullet through a man’s skull—and caught me watching.
I expected him to kill me.
Instead, he stepped closer, looked straight through my disguise, and whispered,
“You smell like trouble, little Jinx.”
From that night on, the most powerful man in St. Jude became obsessed with me.
He sends black datura to my bar. Watches me from across crowded rooms. And when another man gets too close, Vincenzo makes one thing clear:
“She’s mine.”
But Vincenzo isn’t the only dangerous man who thinks he owns me.
Dante Moretti, my adoptive father and the Corsetti family’s ruthless Underboss, has controlled my life since he bought me out of a cage eleven years ago.
He gave me a home, a name, and everything money could buy.
He also made sure I could never leave.
Two Mafia men.
One built my cage.
The other wants to tear it apart—and claim me for himself.

WARNING:This is an 18+ novel containing explicit male/male sexual content and mature themes.

“If this marriage means nothing to you, then let me go when the contract ends.”

I said those words to Ryan, even though they nearly broke my heart.

I had loved him since I was nineteen.

Now I was his husband—but only because a contract said I could be.

I knew Ryan never promised me love. I knew our marriage was nothing more than a business arrangement between an Alpha billionaire and a male Omega who needed his help.

So I stopped dreaming.

I stopped asking.

I stopped hoping that the way he protected me, cared for my mother, and became increasingly possessive meant something more.

Then I made the only decision that could save my heart.

I would leave when our contract expired.

But somehow, the moment I stopped chasing Ryan…

He started chasing me.

The man who once said our marriage was only business suddenly couldn't stand my distance.

And now I have one terrifying question:

What happens when the Alpha who never wanted my love realizes he can't live without it?

For three long years, my husband Richard has refused to touch me. All because of one tragic accident that stole our three-month-old baby… an accident that wasn’t even my fault.

I tried everything to win him back. I begged, I cried, I seduced. Nothing worked.

Desperate and burning with unmet desire, I found myself drawn to my new boss, Teddy. With one smoldering look, he awakens the fire I thought had died inside me. I crave him. I need him. But I’m still married… and I still love Richard with all my heart.

Then came the business trip that shattered everything.

In a single night, I discovered Richard’s secret—he’s been cheating on me all along.

Rage and years of pent-up hunger collided. That night, I finally unleashed.

But after the trip what becomes of me, my husband and my boss, even his lover.

I volunteer to save my little sister from the selection and end up trapped in Dragonhold, assigned to serve the notorious dragon king. By some miracle, I gain the ability to hear his thoughts. I plan to use it to stay alive, but I never expected to hear a second voice inside his head, hungry and possessive: the dragon that surfaces at night...

Seraphina is just a baker's daughter. Aldric is a king who kills without warning. She should keep her distance. But when his thoughts betray needs no one else can satisfy, she becomes the only one who can please him, and that pulls a maid and a dragon king, who were never meant to be connected, closer and closer together...
How will Seraphina use her ability to protect herself, earn his favor, and maybe even tame the dragon king? How many secrets are hidden inside Aldric's other self? And what will a king do to a maid he's been sharing his nightlife with but doesn't remember it when he finds out everything?

I thought I had the perfect love story—until I caught my boyfriend with his arms wrapped around my best friend.

But the betrayal went even deeper. Convinced I had stolen her identity, he drugged me and threw me to a pack of monsters.

Desperate to survive, I clung to the only lifeline left to me—his adoptive father, Blackwood.

A man of unimaginable power and ice-cold cruelty, he became my last chance at escaping hell.

After one night with him, I ran for my life, swearing to forget the nightmare forever.

But when I saw him again, he only smirked and drawled,

“Sleep with me and run, Chloe? Who taught you your manners?”

He rules Italy through fear and blood.
But the only thing he craves... is her.

Salvatore Morello gets whatever he wants. Power. Money. Total control. As the most dangerous Don in the country, his word is law.

Then he walked into an American diner and saw Carmella Russo.

Carmella was a girl running from guilt. Her father had died alone while she was chasing a mother who never wanted her. She had no idea the man ordering coffee was a monster in a tailored suit.

For two years, Salvatore tracked her every move, from the streets of Brooklyn to the dark clubs of Sicily.

When he finally takes her, he expects submission.

Instead, she fights.

She spits in his face. Swears she'll kill him in his sleep. Tries to burn his empire down around him.

The more she fights, the more he wants her.

She wants to escape. He wants to keep her.
She hates him. He doesn't care.
She says she'll never love him. He says she doesn't have to.

Because in his world, love is a weakness.

But obsession?
Obsession is forever.

On our wedding day, my fiancé died in a terrible car accident on his way to pick me up.

I was left a widow, carrying a child who would never know its father.

The shock left me severely depressed. I wanted to end my life more times than I could count. Everyone told me to keep going for the baby.

On the day of his funeral, his older brother returned from Africa with his wife to pay their respects.

He looked so much like the man I'd lost that I kept forgetting myself when I saw him.

Then I happened to overhear them talking in his mother's bedroom.

“You faked your death to get out of your wedding for that Black woman? Claire is carrying your baby. You went through all this just to bring that dark-skinned tramp home?”

For a long time, there was no answer. Then the man I knew as my brother-in-law spoke quietly.

“Vivian is dying. Her doctors say she has six months at most. When that's over, Claire will be nearly ready to give birth. Everything will go back to the way it was. We'll be a happy family of three.”

Only then did I understand. My husband had never died. This supposed older brother was Ethan Hale himself.

Struggling to control my shaking hands, I sent a message to my brother, who worked in intelligence overseas.

“Help me stage an accident. If Ethan can fake his death, so can I. I want him to feel exactly what he put me through.”

“Your place has always been beside me.”

Mara believed those words until she realized she was the only one still fighting for their marriage.

Betrayed by her Alpha husband Damon and abandoned during the moment she needed him most, Mara loses her child, her trust, and the future she once dreamed of.

But the fire that destroyed her old life also awakened a new one.

Saved by Ronan Vale, the mysterious and commanding Lycan King, Mara discovers a world where she doesn’t have to beg for love or prove her worth.

Ronan protects her, respects her, and sees the power she has always carried inside.

Now Damon wants back the Luna he once ignored.

But some wounds cannot be healed with apologies.

And when the truth behind that tragic night begins to surface, Mara must decide whether she will remain the abandoned Luna of the past...

Or become the queen she was always meant to be.

Julia grew up on the other side of the world, raised by her mother's best friend, built into a businesswoman, and certain she was an orphan with no blood family left anywhere. One phone call breaks that story in three sentences: she has a twin sister, her name is Juliana, she's in a coma in a clinic, and somebody tried to kill her.

When Julia reaches the hospital and sees her own face on the pillow, head bandaged and hands covered in old scars, she makes a decision she can't take back. She moves her sister out of the hospital, hides her in a nursing home, and lies down in that bed to take her place.

Two hours later she walks into the mansion on the arm of Alejandro Villegas, the husband Juliana had been married to for exactly two days, the man who was at the house the night of the fall, and the first name on her list. Waiting inside are his stepmother, who treats her like a servant, and the cousin who has spent years trying to take her place in that bed.

Julia's plan is simple: find out who pushed her sister, and collect. The problem is that the Juliana who fell down those stairs was quiet and obedient, and the woman who woke from the coma talks back, takes the seat at the head of the table, and doesn't lower her eyes. Everyone in that house starts noticing the change. And there's something worse: the man she has to sleep beside every night is the only one who hasn't yet said out loud what he knows.

Eight years after Lucan Altieri left Chicago, he finally came home as the new Don—and to get married.
That same day, I received my final verdict. After eight years of endless dialysis and a rejected kidney, my doctor took my mother aside and told her there was nothing left to try. All the hospital could do now was buy me a little more time.
Mom was helping me out of a cab and into my wheelchair when a black car pulled up next door. Lucan stepped out with his fiancée.
He stopped when he saw me. His gaze dropped to the wheelchair, and his mouth curled into a smirk.
"Well, Quinlan. Eight years, and this is what you're reduced to?"
I tugged my sleeve down over the bruised, ruined veins of my dialysis fistula. "I broke my leg on the ice."
He laughed and pulled his fiancée closer. "Perfect timing, then. I'm getting married. You should be a bridesmaid."
I smiled back at him. "I can't. I won't be here to see it."
Then I patted my mother's hand. Without a word, she turned my wheelchair and pushed me inside.

“Tell me the truth, Juno. Why are you really here?”

Juno has survived by becoming exactly what powerful men want—a beautiful, obedient mistress. Her only goal is to collect enough money from fifty-year-old billionaire Leo Cavendish to escape her family’s debts.

She never expected his sons to become her biggest problem.

Caleb is the dangerous one: cold, proud, and fiercely possessive. He treats Juno like an enemy, yet his eyes reveal a secret he refuses to admit.

Orion is softer, haunted by the loss of his mother and drawn to Juno’s kindness. The more she comforts him, the harder it becomes to remember that she is only supposed to be passing through.

Then Leo discovers the tension between his sons and his mistress.

The Cavendish family is about to tear itself apart.

And when Juno learns she is carrying a child, three men suddenly have a reason to claim her.

But only one of them can be the father.

"I saved you. Now you're mine."

Five years ago, Matteo De Luca took a bullet for me. Ever since, I willingly stayed hidden as the secret lover of New York's most ruthless Mafia heir.

He claimed the shadows were the only way to protect me from rival families. I believed him—right up until his former flame, Serena, returned to the city.

Suddenly, his protective instincts shifted. He left me alone with an IV in my arm just to rush to her side for a mild stomachache.

But the real wake-up call came when I accidentally opened the locked attic he never let me enter. It wasn't full of syndicate weapons or secrets. It was covered wall-to-wall with intimate photographs of him and Serena.

Staring at the shrine he kept for her, my five years of devotion felt like a pathetic joke.

I didn't scream or cry. I just pulled out my phone and dialed Sicily.

"Papa," I said steadily, staring at the empty room. "Tell the Ferraro family I've changed my mind. Set the wedding date."

“Stay away from my uncle.”

Edward’s warning should have been enough.

But the moment I met William Spencer—the cold, powerful Duke of Merton—I felt something I couldn’t explain.

He was my husband’s uncle. The most feared man in the Spencer family. A decorated duke with an unreadable gaze, a ruthless reputation… and a strange fascination with me.

Unlike everyone else, William never mocked my humble beginnings. He watched me quietly, protected me when danger came, and always seemed to appear whenever I was alone.

Yet there was something terrifying about him.

His skin was unnaturally cold.

His eyes seemed to see straight through me.

And sometimes, when he stood close, I could smell something that reminded me of blood and wine.

I thought William merely disliked my marriage to Edward.

I was wrong.

One night, he whispered my name against my neck and told me something that shattered everything I believed about him.

He wasn’t Edward’s uncle.

He was something much older.

Something immortal.

And according to him… I had already belonged to him once.

Four hundred years ago.

Now he has decided he will never lose me again.

He wanted her brother.He took her instead.Aria Vale has spent her entire life staying away from her brother’s dangerous world.Until the night he betrays the most feared biker king in the city.Ethan Vale steals millions from Dante Blackwood, destroys one of his operations, and disappears without a trace.Dante doesn’t forgive betrayal.He hunts Ethan through the city, leaving blood and broken alliances in his wake.But when Ethan vanishes, Dante discovers something far more valuable than the money he stole.His sister.Aria.She has nothing to do with her brother’s betrayal, but Dante doesn’t care.He storms into her life, tears her away from everything she knows, and takes her into the Black Hounds’ territory.There, surrounded by ruthless bikers, illegal deals, deadly enemies, and rules written in blood, Aria becomes Dante’s leverage.
His prisoner.His responsibility.His claim.
Dante gives Ethan one choice:

Come back and face him…or watch his sister remain in the biker king’s territory forever.Aria hates Dante for stealing her freedom.She swears she will never bend to the ruthless man who believes he owns her.But Dante has no intention of letting her go.Because what begins as revenge slowly becomes something far more dangerous.Obsession.And when Ethan finally returns, bringing a betrayal that threatens to destroy the Black Hounds from within, Aria discovers the truth about her brother—and realizes Dante may not be the monster she thought he was.Now the streets are preparing for war.Enemies are closing in.Blood will be spilled.And Aria must make the most dangerous choice of her life:

Escape the biker king who claimed her…or become the only woman powerful enough to stand beside him.

"I left my bedroom window unlocked tonight, hoping the monster in the dark would finally come inside to ruin me."

I should be terrified of the shadow looming over my bed, but all I want is for his rough, heavy hands to slide beneath my cream sweater and ruin me in the dark. He’s a silent monster in a mask. He knows I have a boyfriend sleeping next to me, and he knows exactly what kind of filth hides behind my innocent, pink cheer skirts. He breaks into my room after midnight to punish me for my sins, whispering a warning without ever speaking a single word.

He’s a ghost with dark hair and a towering physique and a mask. There is no logical way he could be him—the boy whose trust I shattered, the one I personally lured into a trap last year while my friends watched him stop breathing. We buried our mistake deep in the mud, but every night, my mind still screams with the guilt of watching him die.

Now, weeks before graduation, my friends want to play the same game again. They think the past is dead and buried.

But a game is only fun until the first body drops. And we receive a threat to keep playing the game or what we did last year will be exposed.

We have exactly six weeks left until graduation, and the rules are wickedly simple, confess your deepest sins, or you won't live to survive the next round. As the countdown ticks away, my friends are panicking and turning on each other to hide their lies. But as the danger closes in, I realize my own darkest secret is already out.

I’ve stopped locking my window.

Three years ago, Alicia Brown walked away from the only man who had ever made her feel undone.
After a reckless one-night stand with a powerful stranger, she slipped out of his hotel suite, convinced that disappearing was the only way to protect her heart.
No names or contact information were exchanged—only a connection so consuming it frightened her.
She never imagined fate would bring her back to him.
Until she steps into her best friend’s home for the holidays… and comes face-to-face with Rhys Connell.
Her best friend’s father. The same man who gave her the most unforgettable night of her life.
Wealthy. Controlled. Devastatingly composed.
Rhys is a widowed billionaire with a reputation for discipline and emotional restraint, a man who would do anything to protect his daughter.
The moment their eyes meet, the past ignites.
He remembers the girl who trembled beneath his touch, the girl who vanished without a trace. And the only woman who has haunted him for three years.
Now she is under his roof, laughing beside his daughter, and staying in the same house with him.
Wanting her once was a secret. Wanting her now is betrayal. But Rhys has never been a man who forgets what belongs to him.
And Alicia is about to learn that walking away from him once does not mean she was ever truly free.

“If Mr. M wants a perfect little fiancée, he can marry someone else.”

I said that before cutting my hair, binding my chest, and enrolling at Kingston Academy for Boys under a fake identity.

My plan was simple: find my mysterious fiancé, ruin his reputation, and make him call off our engagement.

Instead, I was assigned to a Student Villa with three boys I should have avoided at all costs.

Derek Sterling is Kingston’s top student—cold, brilliant, and terrifyingly observant.

Vaughn Sterling runs the disciplinary committee and seems to enjoy finding new ways to make me nervous.

And Ellis, another scholarship student, watches me with a quiet intensity I can’t quite understand.

Living with three wealthy heirs while pretending to be a boy would already be dangerous enough.

But then Derek starts tutoring me after midnight.

Vaughn begins testing boundaries he shouldn’t even know exist.

And the way Ellis looks at me is starting to make me nervous.

Then one day, someone leaves a note outside my door.

It contains only one sentence:

“Stop looking for me.”

“You’re already closer to me than you think.”

I have no idea who left the note.

And I have no idea…

how many people in this villa already know who I really am.

I spent months falling in love with a man who knew everything about me; I thought we were perfect for each other. Turns out, he'd spent months learning my every secret before I even knew his name. While I dreamed of his smile and his touch, he was watching me from the shadows.
Now I have a choice to make; either let him take me, body and soul, or ruin his life completely.
I thought I wanted to be someone's everything, until I became the wrong man's entirety.
Excerpt
With Caz, sex and threats are always the same sentence, always a cocktail of risk and reward. I am a fully grown adult who pays her own mortgage, but I'm also the kind of girl who gets off on being told what to do by a man who could break my arm with two fingers. We all contain multitudes.
“Alright. I promise to only ghost you if I’m hit by a train.”
He grunts approval, then rests a hand on my neck, squeezing just enough to get his threat across. He held me still, his hand like a leash. “Say it.”
It's so embarrassing. But I do it, because that's the game. The game where I spent half an hour on my hands and knees with his hand around my throat and his cock in my a**, feeling owned and stretched and completely at his mercy. Where he made me say "I won't ghost you" again and again, and then spanked me hard when I was too slow to get the words out, until I was babbling them like a prayer. I like the game. I want to play it again.
"I won't ghost you."
“Again,” he demands.
“I won’t ghost you,” I say, and I know I actually mean it.

He was supposed to be my saviour.

Julian Blackwood was the golden boy of high society. The billionaire saint who pulled me out of debt.

I owed him my life.

Until he decided he actually wanted it.

He asked for three things.

A single signature.
Six months of submission.
A forced move into his penthouse to play the role of his perfect, devoted prize.

"Julian" thinks he cornered a helpless girl who will just smile and obey.

He is about to find out I bite back.

So I crossed his threshold with a plan: to tear an arrogant rich man apart.

But I was dead wrong.

The man waiting for me behind those closed doors is ruthless.

He is dangerously possessive.

And the saint I thought I signed my life over to is nothing but a brilliant illusion.

DARK ROMANCE
"From today onwards, I will take every decision of your life. What you will eat, where will you go, when will you speak, what you will wear it will be all as I wish. And if you dare to defy me then till now it must have been crystal clear to you how far I can go to keep my words," his voice unsympathetic and cold, causing a shiver down her spine.
Out of fear she was not even able to raise her head and kept her eyes casted down.
He lifted her head up with his forefinger, underneath her chin and stared directly into her mesmerizing hazel eyes.
"Understood?"
Her throat was parched and her mouth was dry. Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. The seam of her lips was cracked and pasted with each other and she couldn't find enough courage in herself to say anything using her tongue, so she just nodded and casted down her eyes again.
He raised her chin more now with his forefinger and thumb, indicating her to look in his eyes and she did so.
"Understood?" He asked again and raised both his eyebrows, warning her.
"Yy....ye..ss" she croaked out. Her eyes were widened with fear and hands were fisting the bedsheet. Her cheeks were imprinted with red finger marks.
"Good. Now take of your clothes and fulfill your duty" he ordered.
She only pleaded him with her eyes. Clearly, she did'nt want her wedding night to turn out like this.

All Mia Bell wanted was to make her third-year relationship anniversary with her boyfriend unforgettable.

After months of being ignored by her perpetually busy boyfriend, Ethan, Mia decides enough is enough. She plans a surprise getaway, sneaks into his house, drugs his favorite drink, and waits for him to pass out so she can drag him into the car.

It’s ridiculous.

It’s reckless.

And, according to her best friend, probably illegal.

But Mia doesn’t care. She just wants her boyfriend to herself for one weekend.

Unfortunately, the man who collapses after drinking her drugged cocktail isn’t Ethan.

He’s his identical twin.

Adrian Vale.

Elena thought escaping her toxic ex—a ruthless member of a rival motorcycle club—was the hardest part. But when a brutal betrayal leaves her stranded and running for her life, she accidentally crashes straight into Leo’s world.
Leo is a high-ranking, merciless enforcer for the most dangerous MC in the state. He doesn't do damsels, and he definitely doesn't do charity. Elena is loud, sharp-tongued, and everything he doesn't need cluttering up his turf. They clash instantly, trading sharp words and pure irritation from the moment they meet.
But when Elena’s ex and his rival club discover she has taken refuge with Leo, the war lines are drawn. What starts as a fierce grudge quickly morphs into an explosive, undeniable pull. Leo didn't plan on keeping her, but now that she’s under his roof, anyone who tries to touch her will have to burn his club to the ground first.
He was supposed to be her worst mistake. Now, he's the only thing standing between her and a shallow grave.

What does the underboss of an infamous crime family have in common with a spirited primary school teacher? Absolutely nothing—except a marriage of convenience, of course.

When Lionel Tyson defaults on a gambling debt and offers his most prized possession as collateral, Austin Hawthorne is underwhelmed. But in desperate need of a housekeeper and permanent childminder, he knows he’d be an idiot to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, against his better judgment, he accepts an offer he should absolutely refuse.

Marybeth Tyson is horrified to learn that not only is her father wanted by loan sharks, but he has also sold her off to a mafia boss. Bound by duty and pushed by guilt, she agrees to give Austin Hawthorne one year of her life, despite common sense screaming at her to run the other way. After all, how hard can pretending to be madly in love with someone be?

It’s all fun and games until playing pretend becomes all too real, and an earth-shattering secret from Austin’s past comes to light, threatening to destroy his second chance at love as he launches a dogged pursuit of answers. Betrayal, especially at the hands of his older brother, Blake, and longtime friend, Andrei Ivanov, is a bitter pill to swallow for Austin. Letting them off scot-free is not an option. Driven by his unquenchable thirst for revenge, Austin will stop at nothing to get to the truth, even if it means destroying decade-old friendships and fragile ties to The Corporation.

2022 Val Sims. All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author and publishers.

"F*ck...please..."
His mouth against my skin sends a shiver through my entire body. My back arches against the wall as his touch leaves me breathless.
"Look at you," he whispers. "Already falling apart for me."
I should push him away.
Instead, I melt into his arms, forgetting everything except the way he makes me feel.
The night I caught my fiancé cheating, something inside me broke.
I cried.
I screamed.
Then I drove into the rain, into nowhere, and straight into him.
Cassian Cross.
A stranger with storm-gray eyes, a sinful smile, and a touch that made me forget my heartbreak.
One reckless night was all it took.
I thought I'd never see him again.
Until he showed up at my mom's wedding...
As my new stepbrother.
Now Cassian won't stay away.
He corners me in empty hallways, whispers things he shouldn't, and looks at me like our one night together was never meant to end.
But there's something he never told me.
He already belongs to someone else.
A fiancée bound to him by a contract and a secret that could destroy us both.
He's dangerous.
He's forbidden.
He's promised to another.
And God help me...
I still can't stop wanting him.

"Who are you, really?" Lewis, the ruthless Mafia Godfather, cornered me in the elevator, his eyes filled with a twisted obsession as his fingers grazed the black butterfly tattoo on my collarbone.

He is completely addicted to my new face, my coldness, and my ruthless Wall Street tactics.

He is even willing to kick his beloved mistress out of the boardroom just to keep my attention.

If only he knew that beneath this flawless skin lies a map of scars—melted by the boiling soup he personally poured over my head.

If only he knew that I am his "dead" wife. The naive woman he threw into a sub-zero freezer to rot in agony, just to inherit his father's inheritance.

Instead of panicking, I grab his tie, pulling him close with a mocking smile. "I'm your worst nightmare, Lewis."

I survived the ice and thirty-five surgeries just to return from hell.

He thinks he is hunting a dangerous new prey, but I came back to strip him of his empire and his life.

“Stealing from me wasn't the problem. Leaving before I could wake up wasn't what almost drove me insane,” he whispered, kissing my neck while thrusting slowly inside me.

“Then what did?” I moaned out, loving every bit of his firm, slow thrusts. “Why did you search for me so hard?”

“Because I missed you so much, baby. After that night, I lost my mind. All I could think of was seeing you again, holding you again, making love to you again. Kissing you….”

“Stop. Don't tell me such things,” I said between tears and moans. “Don't make me think you're in love with me.”

“But I am. I am in love with you, Lacy.” he declared, staring deep into my eyes. I froze.

He can't mean that. He doesn't mean that. He's my best friend's father. And he's a billionaire, a man way out of my league. He can't and shouldn't be in love with me. I'm a pack of ugly and dirty secrets. I've got demonstration haunting my life every day. He's only gonna get caught up in my mess. They're gonna haunt him too. They'll ruin his reputation. They'll ruin him entirely. He shouldn't be in love with me. And I shouldn't be either.

But how can I keep my heart from falling for the one man that's proven again and again that he doesn't wanna let me go? That he's willing to burn the world for me? How can I not fall for a man who comes back every time I push him away?

How do I stay away from a man like CRISTIAN ANDERSON?