Cheated on and humiliated by her husband, Cara walked away with nothing but a broken heart. She never imagined the man she had loved for years would betray her so cruelly. On a rain-slick road, seconds away from death, she met him—Nicklaus. Desperate, she clung to him, begging for work. Instead, he offered her a job… to become his contract wife. After the divorce, her ex-husband called her a psychopath who loved too easily. But Nicklaus showed her what it meant to be cherished. Protected. Desired. For the first time, she wasn’t fighting to survive. She was treated like a queen. And she fell—for the man who made her feel more than she ever dreamed possible. Until she discovered the truth. Nicklaus Salvatore. Uncle to her ex-husband. The very man Jayden worshipped and feared. She had been announced to the world as his wife. Was she supposed to run now? After being treated like a princess? After finally feeling loved? Or would she stay—damning the consequences, even with the constant threats from her ex-husband? Was Nicklaus truly her savior… Or just another explosion waiting to destroy her?

On Christmas Eve, Odessa Rose is broke, exhausted and too stubborn to break when she stumbles upon a bleeding stranger in a frozen alley. She should walk away. She does not. One reckless act of kindness drags her into the orbit of Emerson Fox, a man whispered about in fear and a king in a kingdom built on blood. By dawn he is gone, leaving only money on her table and a mark on her fate. When Odessa is framed, arrested and abandoned on Christmas morning, it is Emerson who pays her bail and tears her world open. He offers her protection, power, a job she never asked for and a dangerous closeness she cannot ignore. Desire becomes a battlefield when secrets surface. Odessa is tied to the man who destroyed Emerson’s family. Betrayal cuts deep. Love hits harder. When war closes in, both must choose to walk away or burn the world down to keep each other.