The Bullet Was The Icebreaker

Boun Guntachai has killed men for less than a bad date.

He was born into Arakkha, a secret syndicate older than most systems of law. Its Blades eliminate the guilty no court can touch. Its Healers keep their people alive. No one joins. No one leaves. And nothing matters more than preserving the bloodlines that have kept the organization hidden for centuries.

Boun is the deadliest Blade in the American division.

Prem is the youngest chief the Healers have ever produced-brilliant, mercilessly precise, and an androgyne man: outwardly male, but born with the anatomy to conceive and carry a child.

The Elders believe combining them will produce the perfect marriage-and an unstoppable heir.

Boun believes taking a bullet would be less painful.

He only asks his little brother for a harmless shoulder graze.

Santa has never been good at harmless.

Now Boun is bleeding out on Prem's operating table, and Prem knows exactly why he was shot. Worse, he isn't offended.

He's unimpressed.

Boun and Prem agree on exactly one thing: being ordered to want each other is reason enough not to.

Attraction can be dismissed. Lust can be explained. Even respect can be survived.

But wanting someone beside you on an ordinary Tuesday?

That is where the real trouble begins.

Because if they fall in love, the Elders will believe they were right.

And what if they are?