Chase Sterling always felt like furniture. The kind you don't notice, the kind that's easy to shove in a corner and forget. He was used to it: people looked right through him, brushed him off like lint. But it only takes one phone call to erase a lifetime of being overlooked. When his estranged family meets a tragic end, Chase suddenly finds himself in charge of the sprawling Sterling fortune. Turns out, riches aren't the only thing the family left him. There's a curse running through his blood, warping love into something hungry and dangerous, impossible to escape.

Vivian Ashford never set out to blow Chase's life to smithereens. Just one decision (a sharp, ruthless move at graduation) was all it took to set their worlds spinning out of control. While Vivian soaks up the Hollywood limelight and collects red-carpet headlines, Chase slips into his new role as Manhattan's most intimidating heir. But no matter how far they run, something keeps yanking them back together, like a stitch in an old wound that refuses to heal.

Working with Vivian is not what I expected, which is a statement that requires clarification, because the expectation was not that it would be bad, I've always known she's exceptional, but the specific quality of working with her rather than against her or around her or in the complicated middle space we've been occupying for four years is different in kind rather than just degree.


She arrives at the strategy sessions with preparation. This is the first thing, the specific preparation of someone who has understood what the session requires and has done the work before showing up for it, not the general preparation of intelligence brought to bear but the specific preparation of someone who has read the relevant materials and formed opinions about them and is ready to argue those opinions if they encounter resistance.


Chapter 212 - "The Alliance"