The Read Ledger

The Read Ledger

One billion pounds. One impossible debt. One woman Lucas Read has already decided is his.

Elaine Smith has spent years perfecting the art of being indispensable.

Efficient. Immaculate. Professional. Untouchable.

Then her father steals £1 billion from the wrong man.

Lucas Read could destroy him with a signature. He could take the company, the family fortune, and every last scrap of the life Elaine has fought to hold together.

Instead, he offers her a deal.

The debt disappears.

Her father walks free.

And Elaine belongs to Lucas.

Not as his assistant.

Not as his mistress.

As his.

Lucas has watched Elaine for years. He knows every mask she wears, every carefully controlled expression, every piece of herself she keeps locked behind professional perfection. Now that he finally has her within reach, he intends to strip those defences away one by one.

But possession proves more complicated than Lucas expected.

Because beneath Elaine's fear is defiance.

Beneath her obedience is a brat who discovers she rather enjoys testing the limits of the most controlled man she has ever met.

And somewhere between the boardroom and the collar around her throat, the rules begin to change.

What starts as a debt becomes obsession.

What begins as ownership becomes protection.

And the collar Elaine once considered a shackle slowly becomes something Lucas can no longer force her to wear.

Because when the debt is finally gone, Elaine will have to make the only choice that matters:

Walk away free...

or stay because she wants to belong to him.