"I still fucking hate you." I gasped, even as my back hit the wall.Nikolai’s hand was around my throat but not tight enough to bruise, but firm enough to make my pulse hammer against his palm. He squeezed just right, sending a rush straight between my legs.“Good,” he growled. “Keep hating me while I fuck the attitude out of you.”Two thick fingers thrust inside me without warning, curling hard against that spot that made my vision blur. I moaned into his mouth, hating how perfectly he read my body like he’d been fantasizing about breaking it for years.“Still hate me?” he rasped, pumping his fingers faster while his hand stayed locked around my throat.“Yes,” I gasped, chasing the pleasure I despised him for giving me. “I hate you so much.”Nikolai chuckled. “Good. Because I’m nowhere near done ruining you.”Josephine Brooks needs a husband, and fast. Without an inheritance, the foster foundation she built for over a hundred children will collapse.Her only solution is a one-year contract marriage to the last man on earth she should ever touch: Nikolai Jacobs—her father’s wealthy, dangerous best friend.Nikolai needs a stable image for an impending custody battle. Josephine needs his name, his billions, and his cooperation. He agrees to the arrangement on one agonizing condition: Josephine has to matchmake him and find him an actual, permanent wife before their year is up.It should be easy. But under the strict watch of a conservative trust fund board, they are forced to constantly play the part of a deeply in love couple. Parading flawless women in front of her legal husband becomes a torture session as Josephine begins studying his habits, his smile, and the dark, lingering way his eyes follow her when the cameras are off.As the fake lines blur into terrifyingly real passion, Josephine is caught in a trap of her own making. Can she successfully hand him off to another woman and walk away? Or will Nikolai's lethal secret life drag them both under before the contract ever expires?