His Favourite Little Lie

"You still like the things you loved at twenty-two."

Landing a creative director role at Vale & Mercer was supposed to be Scarlett Hayes’s financial salvation. Surviving on stale crackers and eighty dollars in her checking account, she couldn't afford a single misstep. Then she spills scalding coffee down her blouse and trades venom with an arrogant stranger in the lobby elevator, only to discover seconds later that the man in the bespoke three-piece suit is Damian Vale, her reclusive, billionaire CEO. He is ruthless, untouchable, and impossibly controlled. In their first meeting, he hands her the company's most coveted eight-figure campaign without looking her in the eye. That evening, the first matte-black box appears outside her apartment door. Inside is an antique French perfume she mentioned wanting once, five years ago, in a private conversation with her roommate. Next comes a first-edition childhood novel she read by flashlight in a locked closet. Then a vintage silk gown tailored to her exact measurements down to the quarter-inch. No return address. Only handwritten notes in razor-sharp silver ink. Someone hasn't just looked up her address. Someone has been watching her every move, mapping the contours of her grief and tracking her through the city long before she ever set foot in his skyscraper. And while Damian watches her through sixty feet of smoked glass with a terrifying, glacial jealousy, Scarlett realizes the most dangerous predator in Manhattan isn't hiding in the shadows. He's signing her paychecks. When her locked apartment is breached and corporate enemies close in, the boundary between predator and protector detonates. Damian Vale didn't just hire her. He built a fortress around her soul. And he will burn the entire city to ash before he lets anyone take what belongs to him.