Proximity Without Permission
Adrian Vale is powerful, successful, and untouchable.
At twenty nine, she is the CEO of Vale Noir Group, admired for her intelligence, respected for her leadership, and protected by a family no one dares to cross. Adrian is kind, warm, and loyal, even as powerful men orbit her world, each drawn to her for different reasons.
A brilliant lawyer who challenges her mind and tempts her restraint.
A businessman from her past who knows the woman she used to be.
A dangerous connection she never fully escaped.
But danger does not always arrive openly.
Celeste Ashford is charming, helpful, and always close. A friend who smiles easily and listens carefully. When envy turns into entitlement, proximity becomes a weapon, and betrayal sets off a chain of events Adrian never sees coming.
Whispers turn into threats.
Threats turn into violence.
And a reward is placed on Adrian Vale.
Forced to confront the cost of being desired and the danger of being known, Adrian must decide who truly deserves her trust and how far she is willing to go to survive.
This is not a story about a woman waiting to be saved.
It is a story about power, desire, loyalty, and what happens when the wrong person gets too close.
อ่าน
Chapter: Chapter 16Adrian noticed the feeling before she noticed anything else. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t panic. It was awareness — the same instinct that told her when a meeting was about to turn, when a deal was about to sour, when someone across the table was withholding information. She felt it as she stepped out of her building. The air was ordinary. The street busy enough to feel anonymous. Nothing looked out of place. Still, something tightened low in her chest, a quiet insistence she couldn’t ignore. She slowed her steps without realizing it. Her phone was in her hand, keys threaded between her fingers, posture relaxed by habit. Years of navigating public spaces had taught her how to look unbothered even when she was anything but. She scanned reflections instead of faces — car windows, storefront glass, the dark surface of a parked SUV. Movement registered, but nothing lingered long enough to confirm her suspicion. You’re imagining it, she told herself. But the feeling didn’t fade. Adri
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-14
Chapter: Chapter 15Celeste didn’t believe in surprises. She believed in variables. Surprises implied chaos. Variables implied control — or at least the illusion of it. She preferred to know what could shift, even if she couldn’t yet predict how. That was why the name Marcus lingered in her thoughts longer than it should have. She’d heard it in passing. Not recently. Not directly. Just enough to remember it belonged to someone who existed on the edges of Adrian’s world — a figure from a life Adrian rarely spoke about. Celeste sat at her desk, fingers steepled, gaze unfocused as she replayed the day’s interactions. Elliot’s questions. Adrian’s restraint. The faint tightening in the air she’d felt walking through the lobby. Something had entered the equation. Celeste didn’t like unknowns. She opened her laptop and pulled up information she hadn’t looked at in years. Nothing explicit. Nothing damning. Just fragments. Associations. Overlaps. Patterns. Marcus didn’t fit neatly into Adrian’s curre
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
Chapter: Chapter 14Elliot noticed the car before he noticed the man. It was idling too long. Not illegally. Not suspicious enough to warrant attention on its own. Just… lingering. The kind of presence most people filtered out without thinking twice. Elliot didn’t. He slowed his pace slightly as he exited the building, phone pressed to his ear though the call had ended moments ago. Adrian had already left. That should have eased the tension sitting between his shoulders. It didn’t. The man leaned against the hood, posture loose, eyes hidden behind dark lenses. He wasn’t looking at Elliot. He wasn’t looking at anyone in particular. He was waiting. Elliot felt it immediately — the instinctive tightening that came when something didn’t belong but hadn’t broken any rules yet. Their gazes met. Just for a second. That was all it took. The man didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away too quickly. Didn’t stare long enough to challenge him either. It was controlled. Measured. Like someone used to being observed
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
Chapter: Chapter 13Marcus hadn’t planned on seeing Adrian that day. He told himself that as he leaned against the hood of his car across the street from the building she worked in, sunglasses shielding his eyes more out of habit than necessity. The truth was simpler — he always knew where she was. Not because he followed her obsessively, but because certain people stayed anchored in your awareness whether you meant them to or not. Adrian was one of those people. He checked his phone, scrolling through messages from people who expected things from him. Brothers. Associates. Names that came with obligations he couldn’t ignore even if he wanted to. Family wasn’t something you chose. It was something that pulled at you whether you liked it or not. “Still out here?” a voice asked. Marcus glanced up as Leon approached, lighting a cigarette. Leon had been around long enough to know when not to ask questions. “For now,” Marcus replied. Leon followed his gaze toward the building. “That her?” Marcus didn’
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
Chapter: Chapter 12Adrian noticed it first in the smallest ways. The way conversations seemed to pause when she entered a room. Not stop — just hesitate. As if people were recalibrating, choosing their words more carefully than usual. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t even discomfort. It was awareness. She didn’t mention it to anyone. There was nothing concrete to point to, and Adrian didn’t believe in reacting to instincts without structure. Still, she logged the feeling away, the same way she did everything else that mattered. For later. Her day unfolded as expected. Meetings stacked neatly into one another, decisions made quickly, efficiently. She was praised for her focus, her clarity. No one would have guessed that part of her attention was elsewhere, quietly scanning for inconsistencies. During a mid-morning briefing, Celeste slipped into the seat beside her without comment. Adrian registered the presence automatically — familiar, expected — then realized she hadn’t known Celeste would be there. “Y
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
Chapter: Chapter 11Celeste Ashford believed most people misunderstood intention. They thought intention had to be sharp. Obvious. Loud enough to defend itself. In her experience, the most effective intentions were quiet ones — the kind that looked like care, loyalty, presence. She preferred those. Celeste sat at her kitchen island, phone resting beside her coffee, untouched for several minutes. Adrian’s reply replayed in her mind, not the words themselves, but the space around them. The pause before responding. The restraint. Just a long week. Celeste smiled faintly. Everyone was tired lately. That was normal. What mattered was who noticed, and who stepped in when others pulled back. She took a sip of her coffee and opened her laptop, scanning her calendar for the day. Meetings she didn’t technically need to attend. Conversations she could excuse herself into. All harmless. All reasonable. Access didn’t need to be requested when it felt earned. Celeste prided herself on that. She had
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
The Cost Of Surrender
Antonio has ruled the underworld for decades.
A feared mafia boss with a trillion dollar empire, he operates between legitimacy and bloodshed, respected by allies and hunted by enemies. Violence is his language. Control is his law. Love has never been part of the equation except for his nine year old daughter, Ava, the only weakness he allows himself.
When Ava is injured in a simple accident, Antonio brings her to a hospital in the States where he meets Dr. Minah Williams.
Minah is everything his world isn’t: calm, brilliant, compassionate. A doctor in the middle of a brutal divorce, she’s spent years surviving an abusive marriage to a powerful AI specialist who discarded her for a famous model only to become dangerously obsessed when she finally begins to move on.
Unlike everyone else, Minah speaks to Antonio without fear.
And unlike anyone before her, Antonio listens.
As an instant yet restrained connection forms, two dangerous worlds collide. Antonio’s enemies begin to circle. Minah’s ex hires investigators, stalking her from the shadows, unable to accept that another man one far more powerful has entered her life.
Protection turns possessive. Desire turns deadly.
And Minah is forced to confront the truth:
Surrendering to Antonio may cost her the life she built…
but refusing him could cost her everything.
Because loving a demon always comes with a price.
อ่าน
Chapter: Chapter 13Antonio did not rush retaliation. That was what separated him from men who burned bright and died quickly. He sat in the quiet of his overseas office as information came in piece by piece. Nico spoke in measured tones. Robert filtered noise from fact. Names surfaced. Routes were traced. Decisions were made without raising voices. The attempted takeover had been ambitious. Quiet. Almost respectful in its execution. Almost. “They thought you were distracted,” Nico said. “They moved while you were split between continents.” Antonio’s fingers rested lightly on the desk. “They mistook division for weakness.” “They’re consolidating,” Robert added. “Trying to hold ground.” Antonio stood slowly. “Then they believe ground matters.” It didn’t. That afternoon, Antonio walked through his residence as if nothing had changed. He ate. He answered messages. He checked in on Ava through Joseph’s updates. He spoke to Minah briefly, asking about her shift, listening more than he talked. When
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-14
Chapter: Chapter 12Morning came quietly overseas. Antonio stood in the kitchen of his residence, jacket back on now, coffee untouched on the counter as he listened to Robert through his earpiece. The city beyond the windows moved with polite indifference. Traffic flowed. Shops opened. Life continued as if nothing had shifted. But something had. “No change overnight,” Robert said. “Luca’s still sedated. Stable for now.” Antonio nodded once. “Good.” “Nico’s narrowing it down,” Robert continued. “Two possible groups. Neither close enough to touch Luca without confidence.” Antonio turned slightly, resting his hand on the counter. “Confidence comes from access.” “Yes.” “And access comes from someone talking.” Robert was silent for a beat. “Agreed.” “Keep pressure light,” Antonio said. “I don’t want panic. I want mistakes.” He ended the call and finally lifted the coffee, taking a slow sip. Violence demanded patience. Rage could wait. Across the ocean, Minah moved through her morning r
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-14
Chapter: Chapter 11Antonio’s overseas residence was silent in the way only power could afford. The office lights were low, casting a warm glow over dark wood shelves lined with leather bound ledgers and framed maps that charted territories most men only whispered about. Floor to ceiling windows looked out over a foreign city, its lights distant and orderly below, unaware of the decisions being made above it. Antonio sat behind his desk, jacket folded neatly over the back of the chair, sleeves rolled to his forearms. Papers were spread in front of him. Contracts. Shipping manifests. Handwritten notes from the earlier meeting that afternoon. He reviewed them slowly, pen tapping once against the desk as he reread a clause that would require revision. The meeting had gone as expected. Cooperative. Respectful. Profitable. That was why the phone ringing cut so sharply through the quiet. Antonio glanced at the screen. Robert. He answered without hesitation. “Speak,” he said. Robert didn’t waste time.
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-14
Chapter: Chapter 10Her phone buzzed once more. Minah didn’t look at it. She had learned the difference between urgency and noise, and this felt like the latter. Instead, she focused on the day ahead. On Ava’s follow up already complete. On the reassurance she had given. On the choices she had made and the ones she was still standing by. The hospital moved around her as it always did. Nurses passing. Monitors chiming. Someone laughing too loudly down the hall. Life continuing in a rhythm that didn’t pause for anyone’s personal wars. She slipped her phone into her pocket and headed toward the next patient. Somewhere between departure gates and closed door meetings, Antonio boarded his flight. The private terminal was quiet, security seamless. Robert briefed him one last time while Joseph confirmed final details. Antonio listened, absorbed, responded with the kind of precision that reminded everyone why his presence was required in person. “This won’t take long,” Robert said. “It never does
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-13
Chapter: Chapter 9Antonio took the call as the sun rose. The estate was still, the kind of quiet that existed only in places built for privacy. He stood near the window, phone pressed to his ear, listening as voices from three different time zones filtered through the line. Shipping routes. Regulatory pressure. A delayed transfer in Europe that required his presence. “Yes,” Antonio said calmly. “I will handle it in person.” A pause followed. “Tonight,” he added. When the call ended, he remained where he was, watching the light spill across the grounds. Business required movement. Presence. Authority. Some things could not be delegated. Ava sat at the kitchen island, carefully spreading jam across toast with the concentration of someone determined to do it right. “You’re leaving,” she said without looking up. Antonio turned. “Yes.” “For long.” “Not long,” he replied. “A few days.” Ava frowned. “Can I come.” He crossed the room and knelt beside her. “That depends.” “On what.” “On how you fe
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-07
Chapter: Chapter 8Minah drove home in silence. The city blurred past her windshield, lights stretching into soft lines as exhaustion settled deep into her bones. The adrenaline that had carried her through the day finally drained away, leaving behind a heaviness she could feel in her chest. Sirens echoed faintly in the distance, distant reminders of a world that never truly slowed. She pulled into her driveway and sat there longer than necessary, hands resting on the steering wheel. The house was dark. Quiet. Empty in a way that felt deliberate. Her phone buzzed. Coffee. She didn’t answer. Inside, she dropped her bag by the door and kicked off her shoes, the sound unnaturally loud in the stillness. She poured herself a glass of water but didn’t drink it. Instead, she sat at the kitchen table and finally picked up her phone. She typed carefully. I didn’t agree to your revised terms. I’m not signing unless my conditions are met. She paused, then continued. Ten million. The house we purchased
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-01-04
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