Diamonds, Distance, and Dangerous Touch

Rica Faye Benitez never lost.

Not in boardrooms. Not in hostile takeovers. Not in negotiations. Not even in rooms full of men who mistook her silence for weakness.

She was the fierce CEO of Benitez Global Holdings, the woman whose name made rivals sweat and investors kneel.

Mark Philip Gonzales was everything she should have hated and everything her instincts warned her about. Brilliant. Arrogant. Infuriatingly charming. The CEO of the only company that had managed to stand toe-to-toe with hers for years.

When they meet at the country's most glittering fashion gala, one wrong introduction turns into one shared mistake, one stolen moment, and one impossible closeness neither of them can outrun.

He has spent years trying to beat her.

She has spent years refusing to need anyone.

But some rivalries are built on fire.

And some kisses begin like a war.