"Cassandra run!" That's all my life has been about- running. Trying to escape one problem or the other, yet never completely evading it. This was my life. A life which was such a mess of secrets and pain, making it impossible for me to live like a normal teenage girl. Now, I'm leaving the only people who never left my side, no matter what. I feel horrible and I hate myself but try as I must I can't turn back. I'm running without really caring where I was going, my legs taking me to god-knows-where. And that's how I ended up here. In a forest. What was I thinking? Easy, I wasn't. That night, in that forest was were my life changed forever...

All Dane Salvius Lancaster wanted was control over his empire, his family, and his carefully curated life. But someone has begun pulling threads in the shadows, and for the first time, he doesn't know what's coming. Valentina Debrow, a rising heiress with a sharp mind and a hidden agenda, has made it her mission to challenge everything he stands for. She doesn't fear him, she doesn't trust him, and she certainly doesn't plan to fall in love... even if fate seems to have other ideas. Enemies by design, rivals by nature, and now forced together in a world where power and desire collide will their battle end in victory, or in a dangerous attraction neither can escape?

'𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝐼'𝑚 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑑𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝' ************* 𝘼𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙨. She is the picture of perfection. She has an image to uphold, to make sure she is always the perfect princess in the eyes of the public. Except no one can be perfect all the time, even after all these years the past still haunts her, taunting her. Nobody outside of her family can know the truth about what happened. ************* 𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙖𝙨 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙬𝙨. He has been fighting his whole life, trying to protect the ones that he loves. After leaving the military, he became a bodyguard for high-profile clients. What happens when he reconnects with someone he thought he would never see again?

"Ruthless isn't heartless-it's honest."