Quiet Hunger

Ceras MacKenzie was raised to be silent.
In a city ruled by dock unions and quiet crime empires, daughters are bargaining chips, wives are ornamental, and power belongs to men who speak the loudest. She learned early to lower her gaze, hold her tongue, and endure.
Until the night she didn't.
When she breaks an engagement to a volatile heir from a rival family-and publicly threatens him with his own gun-Ceras doesn't just shatter a promise. She destabilizes a political alliance. Retaliation is inevitable.
There is only one man powerful enough to shield her.
Richie Caldera built his empire from the docks up-patient, controlled, untouchable. He has watched Ceras for years, long before she ever noticed him. He has wanted her longer than he will ever admit.
When she knocks on his door asking for protection, he gives her everything.
His name.
His resources.
His authority.
No strings attached.
Because Richie Caldera does not take what isn't freely given.
As Ceras steps into his world, she begins to realize that power doesn't have to cage her-it can stand beside her. Quietly, almost imperceptibly, Richie shifts the balance of the city to make room for her voice. And she begins to understand that the most dangerous thing in that room isn't the gun she once held steady.
It's the man who has been waiting.
In a world where loyalty is currency and desire is a weakness, their slow-burning hunger threatens to ignite something far more volatile than war between families.
It threatens to become love.