To escape the wedding of her backstabbing cousin and ex-boyfriend, Hazel Vance seeks oblivion at a masquerade ball. A passionate, anonymous encounter leaves her with a son, the only clue to his father a pair of striking, violet-blue eyes. Three years later, she becomes the executive assistant to Liam Sterling, an influential and notoriously difficult CEO whose gaze feels hauntingly familiar. But Liam wants nothing to do with his new assistant; he is obsessed with finding a woman who vanished into the night, the one ghost he can’t forget.

I sat across from Damian at our usual restaurant, laying out every detail of what happened with Hazel. His expression shifted from curiosity to complete disbelief.


"Wait, you're telling me she walked around the office with no underwear under that dress?" Damian's voice dropped to a whisper, his eyes wide with shock.


The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. I had left her completely exposed in that provocative little number. Any wrong move, any slight bend, and she'd be in a mortifying situation. The thought should have concerned me more, but I had destroyed her underwear in a moment of pure madness. Even if I hadn't, there was no way I would have returned it to her.


"This woman is going to be the death of me, Damian. Today she decided to declare war on my self-control."


"Don't act like the victim here, Liam. You fired the first shot. What exactly were you expecting?"


Chapter 18 - Chapter 18 - Strategic Counterattack