They were each other’s first love.Before the money, the success, and the years of resentment, there was just him and her. Young, hopelessly in love and certain they would have a future together.Until her parents tore it all apart.Determined to give their daughter the best life possible, her parents sent her abroad to study. She begged to stay. She fought them. But at that age, she had little power over the decisions made for her, and eventually, she was forced to leave the only boy she had ever loved.He never forgave her.Years later, she returns to New York—to the man she never stopped loving.Except the boy she left behind is gone.In his place is a successful, wealthy, powerful man who wants nothing to do with her.And somehow, she has just started working for his company.Now they are forced to see each other every day, pretending the past doesn't exist while every glance brings back everything they tried to forget. He believes she abandoned him the moment her life became bigger than theirs.But explaining that doesn't erase the years he spent believing she chose to leave him.Then he offers her a deal.No promises. No forgiveness. And certainly no love.She knows it isn't everything she wants from him.But she also knows she'll take it.Because if accepting his terms is the only way to stay close to him, she'll take whatever he is willing to give, even if it means settling for everything except the one thing she truly wants: his love.He refuses to forgive her.She refuses to give up on him.And as old feelings resurface and the walls between them begin to crack, she finds herself fighting for the man she lost years ago.But winning back the heart of the man she broke may be harder than she ever imagined.Because sometimes, loving someone isn't enough.Sometimes, you have to convince them that you won't leave again.And this time, she intends to stay.

He has an empire to claim. She has a family to save. Neither expected the other to become the price. Ace Sullivan is a man made of ice and ruthless ambition. Cold, arrogant and bitter. After a lifetime of loss, love is a liability he refuses to afford. At 31 years old, he has everything a man could want and a heart he has no intention of ever giving away. Ruby Barkley is everything he is not. A 22 year old bright, cheerful and struggling business student who is utterly unbothered by Ace’s terrifying aura. To save her parents’ struggling business, she takes a high-paying private caretaking job for the wealthy Sullivan matriarch. Their explosive first encounter is pure venom, a battle of wills between a man who commands total control and a woman who refuses to bow. When a sudden reading of the family trust lays down a cruel mandate, Ace is faced with an ultimatum that threatens to strip him of everything he has fought to protect. To claim his throne, he must marry the vibrant, headstrong woman he despises. Ruby needs the financial lifeline; Ace needs the empire. It should be a convenient arrangement. Bound by an ironclad marriage contract, they enter a marriage built on mutual disdain. Trapped under the same roof, their hatred morphs into something darker and more consuming. Beneath the cold vows and carefully drawn boundaries, what was meant to be a convenient arrangement soon becomes a dangerous obsession neither of them can escape. She moves through his life like sunlight finds a crack in stone, slowly thawing the ice he’d built around his heart. The woman who was meant to be a means to an end becomes the one temptation Ace can no longer resist. Ruby never saw it coming either. He was the opposite of everything she thought she wanted. And yet here she was, questioning everything she thought she knew about love, falling for a man who was everything she never imagined wanting and everything she could no longer imagine living without. Just as the lines between enemies and lovers blur and real feelings take root, a dark secret threatens to shatter their fragile bond. Can she really stay? Is love really enough? The man who has never begged for anything in his life, is about to discover how far he’ll go to win his wife back.