ISBN:  Unavailable

Category: Fiction / Fantasy / Romance

Page count: 192

<p>She will have the man, but I have his monster. And in a strange, twisted way, I know I have the better part of him. (Ch: The Acceptance)</p><p><br></p><p>Nicole Sterling had built a fortress around her heart, calling it discipline when it was truly fear. From the 47th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper, she was a queen in her corporate kingdom—a sharp, untouchable single mother who had traded passion for the clean, predictable lines of success. She believed she was complete, that her life, with her daughter and her career, needed nothing more. She had convinced herself that the faint, lonely ache deep inside her was just the phantom pain of a life she no longer wanted.</p><p>Then came Kevin. Younger, brilliant, and engaged to be married, he was supposed to be safe territory. He was her subordinate, a rising star on her team whose talent she respected and whose personal life she professionally ignored. But he saw something others didn't. He saw the cracks in the fortress walls, the woman beneath the armor. And in the heady, intoxicating glow of a career-defining victory, he didn't see a barrier; he saw an invitation.</p><p>It was supposed to be one night of celebration. But as the crowd thinned and the expensive whiskey worked its magic, the air between them grew thick with unspoken words. The corporate armor melted away, leaving only the raw, undeniable pull of a man and a woman. It was a conversation spoken in stolen glances across a fire pit, a silent, mutual agreement that the carefully drawn lines of their world were about to be irrevocably blurred. They both knew the rules, and they both knew they were about to break every single one of them.</p><p>What began in that haze soon bled into the daylight, becoming a dangerous game played in stolen moments in empty stairwells and the charged silence of the elevator. To the world, she was his boss, the woman in control. In the shadows, he was her undoing, the one who could unravel her with a single, knowing look. Their affair became an addiction, a secret language of shared risk where the taste of his mouth was more potent than any success, and the scent of her perfume on his collar was a promise of the ruin to come.</p><p>That night was supposed to be an exception, a singular lapse in judgment. But when there are no barriers, you don’t just let someone in; you let them see everything. They didn't just break the rules—they broke each other open, discovering a raw, desperate hunger that threatened to consume their careers, his engagement, and her carefully constructed life. Because once you know what it feels like to be truly seen by someone, putting the walls back up is no longer an option.</p><p><br></p><p>Contents:</p><p>The Fortress—1</p><p>The Victory—19</p><p>The Celebration—39</p><p>The Point of No Return—59</p><p>The Transgression—77</p><p>The Morning After—99</p><p>The Relapse—119</p><p>The New Dynamic—139</p><p>Raw and Unfiltered—161</p><p>The Acceptance—179</p>