And he wants herâwithout mercy.
Isla Maren curates perfectionâdevoted wife, celebrated interior designer, a life arranged in clean lines and locked doors. Then Damon vanishes on a year-long assignment and the structure cracks. Lucien Thorn steps through. Cold. Brilliant. Devastatingly commanding. He builds empires; she builds rooms that make men kneel. When he offers a private commission in his penthouse, the contract binds more than her talent. It binds her pulse to his rules.
The tension climbs in quiet rooms and mirrored elevatorsâlooks that last too long, a touch that lingers too lowâuntil professionalism surrenders to possession. She should run. Instead she signs, and the cage feels like freedom. But Lucienâs power is paid for in secrets carved deeper than his scars, and Damon isnât as far away as she believes. In a city where power is currency and pleasure is control, love becomes a weaponâand someone will bleed for it.
A dark, high-steam billionaire/workplace obsession with romantic-suspense bite: obsessive possessive hero, married-woman forbidden desire, morally gray power dynamic, psychological seduction, and a hard-won chance at redemption. For readers 18+.