His Twisted Game, My Dangerous Love

Grand Hotel was an opulent cage

less like haute couture and more like a second skin. Beside her, Julian Sterling-her husband of three years-ent

ouched her in th

mpire. Julian possessed all the pedigree of old money, but none of its fire. In private, his gaze remained glacial, re

s fingers pinching the curve of her elbow hard enough to leave a phantom bruise b

. Desperate to wash the metallic taste of humiliati

ut the second left a peculiar, chemica

orld began to list vi

lly. Her vision blurred; the dazzling chandeliers overhead fractured into dizzying streaks of gold. Her knees tr

xit, desperate to escape before Julian or his as

e marble floor seemed to fall away beneath

al impact of stone,

act nev

atching her effortlessly against a towering

ead

ly, and vibrating with an authority so absolute i

black bespoke three-piece suit without a single imperfection, a platinum Audemars Piguet glinting beneath his cuff. His jawline was sharp as

lian's circle. He looked dangerous. Like a man who

ed, her feverish hands clutching inst

n starved of human warmth, and the contrast between her drugged, burning flesh

completely rigid b

violent psychological revulsion toward physical intimacy, this tre

t of crushed rain and sweet vanilla invaded his senses, igniting an exp

demanded, his voice dropping

d higher, ruthlessly stripping away every scrap of her restraint. Her hips arched in

rded muscles in his neck s

s arms, kicking open the heavy steel door

led with a pressurized hiss, and the elevator began its sile

ed cab, the fragi

nds bracketing her head. His pupils were blown wide, tracking her flushe

rd," he warned, his baritone rough and ragged. "Touc

er blood. Reaching up, her trembling fingers tangled in the dark hair at the

ad of his com

growl, his mouth

ge. Starvin

iked champagne and her breathless surrender. Every broken whimper she yie

the delicate zipper fract

thouse seventy floors above Manhattan. Floor-to-ceiling glass framed the

suite, he stripped the ruined dress from her body, lettin

ousand-thread-count Egyptian cotton. In second

. But as he turned to discard his cuffs, her eyes caught his back-a vicious, jagged white scar ran

heavy thighs parting he

g against the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs. When his long fingers brushed

voice dripping with dark, possessive hunger as he stroked her

leaded, arching off the mat

s flashed with

d against her lips. "Know

th agonizing, deliberate pressure, he pushed forward, slowly stretching her

asp broke fro

tretching invasion that obliterated three ye

r neck, his breath searing her skin as her wet heat

with the brutal effort of holding back.

e rhyth

, deep, and

nce that echoed through the quiet suite. The contrast of his scarred dominance and the blinding p

ails digging into the hard expanse of his back, raking

elerating into a punishing, breathless cadence that dro

-I'm goi

d, his voice raw against h

ld deto

in violent, desperate pulses. The stranger let out a guttural roar, driving home th

inst the damp sheets, his ragged breaths slowly subsiding as the m

*

istered when consciousness

ess. The kind of silence that existed only seventy floors in the sky, behind triple-paned

ing she felt

vy fullness between her thighs. She tried to open her eyes, but the thin sliver of morning light piercing the blackou

bly soft Egyptian cotton, far superior to anything i

she was

haze. Vesper froze, her lungs burning with the effort to quie

t, a man l

sculpted shoulders that tapered down to a lean waist. The muscles of his back shifted slightly with each deep respir

not J

ds and an even softer spine. T

After three years of enduring a sterile, loveless prison, she had allowed a lethal stra

ad to

n sounded like a gunshot in the tomb-like suite. Placing her bare feet onto

rip. Gathering her scattered undergarments, she retrieved a solitary safety pin from her evening clutch, using it to hold the back of

. Before those predatory, storm-col

tstand, her hand brushed against a heavy leat

ped to the em

erling

seized. Her bloo

rlin

me. The very name stamped

A ruthless relative returned from the European branch of the family? Julian

ders. No, he bore no resemblance to the pampered, effete men wh

in silent desperation. *He could simply be a

s man held ties to Julian, her discov

wallet. Inside, a crisp stack of one-hundre

sive impulse igni

wife who had compromised herself in a mo

a patron. It severed the intimacy, transforming a mortal sin into a cold commercial exchange. And if he were m

esper extracted three bil

tinum watch and a crystal tumbler of meltin

ain pen, she scrawled a hurried

rvice. Keep

paper down ben

she confirmed he had not stirred. He was a phantom. A d

doors and fled into the corridor, not daring to exhale until t

he waking city, Damon S

llow hitch of her breath, feeling the shift of t

the empty space beside him, he found the sheets still carrying her

y physical proximity with a woman-an event so rare it bordered on the miraculous-he would be

mind. No sickness. No panic. Only an

ut to the

the crisp currency left beside his watch. The face of

undred

t. It was a dark, rusty sound; he could not reme

f the Manhattan skyline, a man whose personal ledger held more zero

b brushing the sharp, hurrie

he ser

hin his fist. His storm-grey eyes narrowed to ra

e receiver and pressed a

ld menace. "A woman just vacated my suite. Check the

's voice wavered in

bed like a gathering storm. "I don't care how