Malcolm Vale.
Reclusive. Controlled. Beautifully dangerous.
A man who learned long ago that vulnerability is weakness… and touch is power.
He tries to stay away from her.
But Alina awakens everything he's spent years burying—the hunger, the dominance, the need to claim someone who burns as intensely as he does. And Malcolm is not a man who resists temptation for long.
For Alina, Malcolm is both a warning and a promise.
There's a gravity to him—quiet, commanding, sensual—pulling her closer despite every instinct telling her to run. He reads her silence. He challenges her defenses. He makes her want things she's never dared to name.
What grows between them is not gentle.
Not safe.
It is raw, soul-deep chemistry—an intimate tension that coils tight every time their eyes meet, every time he steps too close, every time his voice dips low enough to unravel her.
But Raven Hollow is a place built on secrets, and both of them have enough buried desire and shame to burn a house down. As their passion intensifies—hotter, deeper, more consuming—the line between surrender and ruin begins to blur.
In a world where pain and pleasure walk hand-in-hand, love becomes the most dangerous seduction of all.
And in the end, only one truth remains:
Some flames purify.
Some destroy.
And some leave nothing behind…
but velvet ashes.