One week. No future. No past. No more. Alexandria Collins has one week to live carefree - no ghosts of her past or pressures of her future haunting her. Reinventing herself as "Charli", she is knocked off her feet by a sexy, mysterious man who brings her pleasure like she never imagined. With her heart at stake, she forgets that decisions made in the dark of night reappear in the bright light of day.

The first time I met Hudson Rothschild was at a wedding. I’d received an unexpected invitation to one of the swankiest venues in the city. Hudson was a groomsman and quite possibly the most gorgeous man I’d ever laid eyes on. He asked me to dance, and our chemistry was off the charts. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with him, considering the wedding I was at. But our connection was intense, and I was having a great time. Though the fun came to a screeching halt when Hudson figured out I wasn’t who I’d said I was.

Within the underbelly of one of America’s largest cities lives a world where a man’s word is either his most valuable tool or his most respected weapon. When my father ruled that world and that city, he promised me someone who would one day make my reign complete. Since that day long ago, Araneae McCrie has been mine. She just didn’t know. My father is now gone. The city and the underbelly are now mine. The time has come for me to collect who was promised to me, to shred her life of secrets and make her who she’s always been - mine.

To the world, I no longer exist. The life I live occurs outside the third dimension - a memory, a ghost, the boogeyman, or perhaps simply a figment of the imagination. When I’m passed on the street, there is no connection. No eye contact. I’m the one whose presence leaves a cold chill of uncertainty, quickly erased by minds who don’t want to acknowledge that men like me exist. On the dark web, I’m known as Kader, and for the right price, I will do what others can’t or won’t.

With danger lurking around every corner and my life turned upside down, I struggle with who to believe and who to trust. Can my heart convince my mind that what was bound long ago is where I’ll find love, safety, and security? Or are the memories simply an illusion?  

New Orleans belongs to me. You don't know my name, but I control everything you see - and all the things you don't. My reach knows no bounds, and my demands are always met. I didn't need to loan money to a failing family distillery, but it amuses me to have them in my debt. To have her in my debt. She doesn't know she caught my attention. She should've been more careful. I'm going to own her. Consume her. Maybe even keep her. It's time to collect what I'm owed.

Eleanor Grace is a naïve dreamer. Trusting and young, she believes her travel-loving boyfriend can save her when her freedom is snatched and sold. Squirrelled away to an island at dawn, delivered to a man even darkness won’t touch, she’s bound by a contract.  Sullivan Sinclair is the giver of fantasies. Any wish, any desire - he is the master at quenching even the filthiest appetites. His private paradise and perfectly trained goddesses are there for one purpose: to ensure every guest is extremely well satisfied. 

Men like us, we see things. We do things, things that make us unfeeling. That’s the price of power and money, of living la belle vie and running the French mafia. Then she came along like a pretty wildflower pushing through the cracks on a dirty pavement - fragile yet resilient, a breath of beauty among the filth. She was supposed to be just another job, a nameless person I was to pluck from her life and hand to my brother, nothing but a pawn in the gamble of our diamond business.

Men suck. They break you. Leave you. Take everything until there's nothing left. And frankly, I'm done allowing them to make me feel insignificant. So, forget men. I'll just throw myself into my job, because at least that never fails me. Jackson has other plans, though. I refuse to be impressed by his perfect body, the cute dimple on his cheek, or the rugged stubble on his face. Jackson Cole can be resisted. But, I'm only fooling myself. He's going to wear me down. I can feel it. In the end he'll prove that once again, I'm no one's beloved.

I’ve made my mark and proven my loyalty to a man, a city, and a way of life. That loyalty has provided me with all the spoils of success. For the longest time, that hasn’t included a woman at my side. There is only one beauty that can bring my untapped desire to life. I shouldn’t have opened the door. Cracking open the stone and striking the flint is my doing. What follows is hers. With something so intense, will this spark lead to a blazing inferno? Will we make it out of the ashes before everything I hold dear is ravaged?