Seventeen Ages

For five years, Elena Frost endured a loveless marriage, sacrificing her billionaire heiress identity to become the shadow wife of Marcus Thorne, the man who only married her because she resembled his dead fiancée. She played the role perfectly, quiet, obedient, invisible. She watched him grieve another woman while sleeping beside her. She forgave his coldness, his distance, his cruelty. Until the night she discovered the truth: His “dead” fiancée, Isabelle, wasn’t dead at all. She’d faked her death, married a dying tycoon for his fortune, and now she was back, ready to reclaim Marcus and destroy Elena in the process. The final betrayal comes wrapped in humiliation: a sadistic contract orchestrated by Isabelle and five powerful men, designed to break Elena’s spirit and prove she was never worthy of Marcus. When Elena uncovers the conspiracy and realizes her husband orchestrated her degradation, she vanishes into the rain-soaked night, leaving behind the meek woman Marcus thought he knew. But Marcus Thorne has no idea what he’s unleashed. Because Elena Frost is actually Elena Vittoria Frost-Accardi, the hidden princess of the Accardi Empire, the world’s most powerful crime syndicate masquerading as a legitimate business conglomerate. Her five brothers are legends whispered in fear across continents. Her father is a king who toppled governments before breakfast. And Dante Accardi, the Don who has watched Elena from the shadows since she was seventeen, is done waiting. After one explosive night of vengeance and passion, Dante makes his intentions clear: Elena belongs to him now. He’ll burn down anyone who hurt her, starting with Marcus Thorne.

"He's my stepfather. Technically. But we have history from high school. He was my first love. My first everything." I stare at my hands because I can't look at her face while I say this. "Now he's forcing me to pole dance for him while he watches." "Watches?" "Yes." The word sticks in my throat. "He watches, touches himself and then he... marks me. Without touching me anywhere else. Just watching and then claiming me like I'm his territory." Three weeks ago, I walked out on my husband. Eleven months of rejection, of wondering what was wrong with me, of lighting candles for a man who was saving himself for my best friend. When I finally heard the truth from his own mouth, I packed one bag and I left. I thought I was starting over. Instead, I drove straight into my mother's mess. Gloria, the woman who raised chaos and called it motherhood, married a billionaire, cleaned out forty-seven million dollars from his accounts and disappeared without a word to me. Now his lawyers are at my door and I am the only thing she left behind worth collecting. My new employer is Richard Moore. Billionaire. Tycoon. The most dangerous man I have ever met. He is also the boy who took my virginity at seventeen and broke my heart in the same breath. He wants a year of service. Pole dancing, forced proximity, and all the dark things written in fine print I didn't have a lawyer to read for me. He wants to punish my mother and I'm the only punishment available. I hate him. I want to survive him. I want to get through this year with my mind and my heart intact. But what happens when surviving starts to feel a lot like wanting?

“You think I'm going to force you to take my seed?” he growled, angry at the mere insinuation of it. “I… I thought…” “Look here bambi,” he bent down to my level, gray eyes weakening me, “I am many wicked things but nothing will ever make me force a woman into my bed. In fact,” he stood up and headed towards the door before turning to look at me again, “for this, I have decided you're going to be the one to beg me to fuck your virgin cunt. I won't give you what you need until you're on your knees, desperately begging for my cock.” I nearly rolled my eyes but he was still looking at me but deep in my mind, I was sticking my tongue out to him. If he thinks I'm going to let him touch me, beg him to, he's a joker. *** Maya has survived seventeen years of being unwanted. Her birth killed her mother and her father has never failed to remind her how much he hates her existence. Rejected by her mate on her eighteenth birthday and sold to a stranger by the same evening — she has nothing left to lose. Except her pride. And Caden Rhyndar, the most feared Alpha in the West, has decided that's exactly what he wants. He won't force her to have his child or his cock. He doesn't need to. He'll just wait, while doing wicked things that leave her body begging for more, never out loud though. But surviving forced proximity to a man built like a weapon, who looks at her like she's the only thing worth conquering, that's a war Maya isn't sure her body will let her win. She swore she'd never beg. He's never lost a battle in his life.