State of Affairs ⚖︎ "You missed a talking point on page four, Governor," I said, sliding the briefing file across his heavy mahogany desk. Tennyson didn't look at the file. His dark eyes stayed locked on my mouth, completely devoid of the golden-man charm he'd just fed to a crowd of thousands. "Lock the door, Milan," he murmured, his voice low and exhausted. "You have a press briefing in ten minutes, sir. And your wife is waiting in the lobby." He stepped around the desk, invading my space until the scent of cedar and expensive bourbon swallowed me whole. His hand brushed my waist, his thumb pressing possessively against my hip. "I don't care," he breathed, his flawless facade finally shattering. "Lock the damn door." 🏛️ To the world, 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬 is untouchable. He is the state's golden man, a charismatic leader, a devoted husband, and a man with a spotless reputation. Everyone worships the ground he walks on. Everyone except his executive assistant, 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐚. Milan has a strict two-year plan: survive the Governor's temper, secure her recommendation letter, and catch a one-way flight to Washington, D.C. Her job description: hand him his black coffee, fix his crooked ties, and treat the most powerful man in the state like a normal human being. But her immunity is exactly what breaks him. Behind the heavy oak doors of his office, Tennyson sheds his perfect mask. He is cynical, ruthless, and spiraling into a dark, desperate obsession with the only woman who doesn't want anything from him. He becomes addicted to her warmth and slowly to her. As late nights at the office blur into a secret arrangement, Milan thinks she has the situation under control. But she doesn't know that Tennyson's public life is a PR lie. She doesn't know he hates everyone but her. And she doesn't know that the Governor has absolutely no intention of lettin

If someone offers to pay off your student loans in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement and moving into the middle of nowhere, you should probably ask more questions. I didn't. I was a broke grad student desperate for a lifeline, and the contract offered by the elusive billionaire was too good to pass up. My job was simple: live in a sprawling, heavily fortified glass mansion in the mountains, teach his eight-year-old daughter French and mathematics, and never, ever go into the West Wing of the house. I thought my new boss was just an eccentric, reclusive tech genius. He is devastatingly handsome, entirely silent, and moves through the mansion like a predatory ghost. He watches me with cold, pale eyes that make my pulse race for all the wrong reasons, but he is a devoted father, and the paychecks clear every week. I thought I was safe in his snowbound sanctuary. Until the night I accidentally wake up, walk into the wrong room, and see my quiet, eccentric boss standing over a man bleeding out on a plastic tarp, holding a suppressed pistol with the casual grace of a reaper. He isn't a tech genius. He is the head of the most ruthless Russo-American syndicate on the continent, and I have just seen exactly what he does in the dark. I know too much. I am a liability. I should be dead. But as the Don of the syndicate wipes the blood from his hands and locks the heavy steel doors of the mansion, trapping me inside with him, I realize that dying might have been the easier option. Because he doesn't want to silence me. He wants to keep me.

Klaus Dietrich is a professional menace in red velvet and murder. He leaves candy canes at crime scenes, licks lollipops during interrogations, and kills with the flair of a man choreographing his own funeral. The world calls him a psychopath. He prefers "romantic." Dr. Morgana Cruz is a brilliant, black woman, licensed therapist for high-profile criminals, and the only one brave (or foolish) enough to take him on. What begins as a favour to a friend turns into a high-stakes dance of power, seduction, and sanity. He flirts through bloodshed. She sets boundaries with surgical precision. But when obsession turns personal, and therapy turns into foreplay, the lines between patient and predator blur. She's the first person who's ever seen Klaus - really seen him - and that makes her the most dangerous person of all. Because Klaus isn't looking to be saved. He's looking to be loved. And he'll kill for it.

She's a true crime podcaster. He's the subject of her latest investigation. When their paths collide-violently-she doesn't get murdered. Instead, she gets a bodyguard with a gun, a temper, and a terrifying laugh. He was supposed to silence her. Instead, he subscribed and now he can't stop thinking about her.

After a long shift, all Belle wants is to ignore the doorbell, drink coffee, and avoid her emotionally unavailable boyfriend and her emotionally violent boss. But when a strange caller threatens her life on Halloween night, she's too exhausted to care. "Back door's open. If you're going to kill me, make yourself useful." He does. What follows is a night of confusion, coffee, questionable bonding, and a whole lot of sarcasm. He's here to kill her. She just wants help handing out candy. Things... get complicated. A story about accidental comfort, emotional whiplash, and falling for someone you absolutely, definitely shouldn't.