Vegas Duncan

She died fat, broken, and unloved, but she came back ready to burn it all down. Catherine Vale has one memory seared into her soul from her past life: the feeling of her mother-in-law's hands draining the life from her body while her new husband pretended not to hear her screams. Reborn on her wedding day, Catherine knows that marrying Anderson Vale means death. So she does the unthinkable, she runs from the altar in her wedding dress and boards the honeymoon jet alone. Her destination is Las Vegas and her plan is to get drunk and forget everything. What she gets instead is waking up married to Davis McFanger, the most powerful hybrid alive and her runaway groom's father. Davis doesn't believe in coincidences, and he's convinced Catherine is another trap sent by his manipulative ex-wife to destroy him. But the mating bond doesn't lie, and neither does the heat that forces them together night after night, even when he can barely look at her come morning. Catherine is hiding secrets even she doesn't understand. The pills she's been taking for seven years to keep her stable might be poison designed to suppress her powers. Her so-called mental illness might be a lie fed to her by the same people who killed her and the power trying to claw its way out of her skin, burning her from the inside out might be exactly what they murdered her to steal. As her phoenix abilities violently awaken, Catherine faces an impossible choice: trust the cold, ruthless man who claims her desperately in the dark but refuses to acknowledge her in the light, or face her killers alone and risk dying a third time.

Cinco años después de mi matrimonio con el Don, Ives Moretti, me dejó a mi suerte para morir durante un tiroteo, todo para poner a salvo a su amante, Isabella. Desperté tres días después en la habitación de un hospital privado. Sin disculpas. Ives se mostró frío. —Eres mi esposa. Conocías los riesgos. Deja de ser tan dramática —luego, añadió—: Isabella es diferente. Es frágil. Ella me necesitaba. A aquello le siguieron tres meses de la ley del hielo. Como siempre, él esperaba que yo fuera la que cediera, la que regresara gateando suplicando perdón. Tres meses después, le entregué el trato con los irlandeses a Isabella en bandeja de plata. El gran negocio que yo misma había pasado medio año construyendo. Ives pensó que era una ofrenda de paz. Sonrió, algo raro y genuino en él estos días. —Sabía que entrarías en razón. Como recompensa, iremos a Las Vegas. Sé que siempre has querido ir. Al día siguiente, Isabella se quejó de estar aburrida y él rompió su promesa. Se la llevó a ella a Las Vegas en su lugar. Me dijo que era un "asunto familiar urgente". Esta vez, no lloré. No hice una escena. Ives estaba complacido de que yo fuera tan comprensiva. No tenía idea de que yo ya estaba cortando todos los lazos con la familia Moretti. Que él ya había firmado los papeles del divorcio sin saberlo. Yo era libre.

“You’re mine, June.” “I’m not yours, Mr. Macaulay.” “You’re mine. Mine alone. Every inch of you belongs to me. I will not have another man touch you, ever,” he growls through gritted teeth. “I’m not yours. Not until you claim me,” I fire back. “Until then, I’m just a woman who warms your bed… just like I’ll warm other men’s beds too.” His pupils dilate as his grip tightens around my arm. “Do not test me, June,” he says, voice low and deadly. “I swear on my life, any man who so much as lays a hand on you… I’ll rip his fingers off and feed them to my dogs.” _________________ June Fontaine had always loved her boyfriend too deeply, giving him her heart even when it tore her apart. For three years, she lived in the shadow of his ex, a relationship that slowly swallowed her. Until one night changed everything, and she broke up with him. Fueled by heartbreak and the bitter sight of her ex moving on like she never mattered, June made a dangerous, impulsive choice that threw her into the arms of a stranger she could not forget—even after she ran from him. Two weeks later, she saw the stranger again—now richer and more powerful than she could have imagined. In a city like Las Vegas, men like him do not chase. They own. And he wants her. Obsession becomes possession. Desire becomes dangerous. He cannot let her go. She cannot stay away. While he falls for her in a way that feels almost forbidden, he holds back, haunted by a past that refuses to let him claim her. But she refuses to be hidden. She refuses to be just another secret in a powerful man’s world.

Durante a cerimônia de premiação da Competição Internacional de Design de Joias, a minha meia-irmã recebeu o grande prêmio, só que usando os designs que havia roubado de mim. E qual era o grande prêmio? Tornar-se a noiva do principal patrocinador da premiação, Jude Moretti, o Padrinho da família Moretti. Ele era um homem cruel e ambicioso, mas que acabou atingido por uma grande explosão e por isso diziam que ele não podia ter filhos. Naquela noite, os homens de Moretti, vestidos com seus paletós pretos, traziam um contrato de casamento todo cravejado a ouro. Eles buscavam a "artesã extraordinária". Meu noivo, Marco, entrou em pânico e fugiu com a Sandra às pressas para Vegas, eles se casaram naquela noite e ela foi salva. Com o ato consumado, Sandra retornou usando o meu vestido de seda, o pescoço cheio de marcas e exibindo um anel brilhante em seu dedo. — Agora, o Marco é meu. — Ela disse em tom de deboche. — O que você vai fazer, Odessa? O padrinho te deu apenas um dia para decidir. Se você não se casar, a Família vai pedir uma compensação e você terá que trabalhar em algum cortiço qualquer, ou quem sabe eles não te vendem para algum maluco com fetiches estranhos. Ela estava enganada, eu não tinha escolha. Mais cedo, eu encontrei meu pai e minha madrasta tendo dificuldades para lidar com aquele contrato. — Eu faço isso! — Eu disse. — Eu me caso com o Padrinho.