DEBT OF DESIRE

KAI

I've built my life on control.

Every deal, every dollar, every person who walks through my casino answers to structure-even if they don't realize it. The Royal Meridian isn't just a business. It's power. It's order. It's mine.

People think they understand me. They don't.

They see the wealth, the reputation, the silence I keep around me, and assume there's nothing underneath it worth reading. That's how I prefer it.

No attachments. No distractions. No mistakes.

At least, that's how it was supposed to stay.

Until her.

Rainee Jacobs wasn't part of any plan I made. She wasn't supposed to matter. But she walked into my world carrying a problem that wasn't hers-and suddenly, control didn't feel as absolute as it used to.

...

RAINEE

I'm used to fixing things that are already broken.

Bills. Shifts. A home that never stays stable for long. A life that keeps demanding more from me than I feel ready to give.

I've learned how to keep moving anyway.

But nothing prepares you for the moment everything shifts from "barely manageable" to completely out of your hands.

My father's debt is what does it.

One phone call drags me into a place I don't belong-into a world that feels too polished, too powerful, too expensive to survive in. The Royal Meridian Casino isn't just a building. It's a reminder that there are people who play by different rules.

And I'm standing in the middle of it with none.

Then comes Kai Tucker.

He offers me a deal: one year working for him to erase what my father owes. A year of my life traded for survival.

I should say no.
But survival doesn't leave much room for choice.