He needed a woman on his arm.
She wrote the rules that keep powerful men alive.

When Adrian’s name turns into the headline nobody wants to touch, his team doesn’t hire a girlfriend—they hire Mara: crisis strategist, narrative assassin, the woman you call when your life is bleeding out in public.

Her fix is ruthless in its simplicity: a clean public relationship, a controlled story, and a strict list of boundaries designed to make the world look away.

No touching on camera unless necessary.
No private intimacy.
No staying over.
No feelings.

Mara has done this before—just not with a man like Adrian.

Adrian doesn’t beg. He doesn’t panic. He doesn’t implode the way men do when the spotlight turns predatory. He watches. Calculates. Smiles at the exact wrong moments. And from the first second he sees Mara, he treats her less like a hired solution and more like a problem he intends to solve.

He follows her rules—then starts rewriting them with the smallest, most dangerous things:
a hand at her waist that lingers half a second too long,
a look meant for the cameras that lands like a private claim,
a quiet question in the car after an event that sounds like interest… and feels like a dare.

Mara knows reputations are made of perception. She knows the truth never matters as much as the version that sells. She knows that once you step into the story, you don’t get to decide what it costs.

And still—she didn’t account for what happens when pretending becomes practice.

Because the longer they play their roles, the more convincing the chemistry gets.
The more convincing it gets, the more people lean in.
Paparazzi. Investors. Enemies. The anonymous sources who don’t just want Adrian’s career—they want him destroyed.

And the worst part?

Mara is the one person close enough to him to finish the job.

She’s supposed to be his shield.
Instead, she becomes his weakness.
And he becomes hers.

Soon the scandal isn’t the biggest threat to Adrian’s future.

Mara is.

Because there’s a difference between being seen with a man…
and being wanted by one who’s used to owning every room he enters.

And if Mara breaks her own rules, she won’t just lose control of the narrative.

She’ll become the headline.

A smart, sensual, high-stakes contemporary romance packed with luxury, power, slow-burn heat, razor-sharp banter, and the kind of tension that snaps—perfect for readers who love scandal, control games, and a relationship that turns dangerous the moment it starts feeling real.