"There is a desk between us right now, but we both know that by midnight, I’m going to have you pressed against it. HR be damned."

Madelyn Clarke moved to New York with a suitcase, a secret, and a desperate need to stay invisible. Landing a job at Torres International Holdings was supposed to be her fresh start—a way to secure a future for her sister and bury the past for good.

But Madelyn’s carefully reconstructed life is thrown into chaos on her first day. Her new boss, the formidable and piercingly handsome William Torres, isn't a stranger. He’s the man she shared an anonymous, high-heat night with just forty-eight hours ago.

Now, the man who controls her career also knows exactly how she tastes. William is a king of industry who always gets what he wants, and what he wants is Madelyn back in his bed. As they strike a dangerous deal to keep their "extracurricular" activities strictly uncomplicated, Madelyn realizes that the most dangerous place to be isn't the streets she ran from—it’s between the sheets of the most powerful man in Manhattan.

The first morning in Boston felt… calmer than it should have.


Maybe it was the sunlight—pale and diffused, spilling through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the suite like it belonged there more than we did. Or maybe it was the quiet: that soft, expensive silence hotels always had, the kind that made every moment feel deliberate. 


I slipped out of the bedroom early, careful not to make noises that could wake William as I took a shower and got ready. The suite was cool under my feet, all marble and muted gold fixtures. I found the little kitchenette and made myself a cup of tea, keeping everything as quiet as possible.


For a moment, it felt like a strange kind of normal, not work trip normal, but something else. Something I didn't have a name for.


I was reviewing the day's notes on my tablet when I heard the soft click of the bedroom door behind me.


Chapter 19 - Boston