She's here to help the billionaire's son...not fall in love with her boss.

"I bet you think I'm the biggest piece of sh*t, don't you."

"No. I think you truly believed the choices you made were for the best." I take the crushed rose from his hand. "What matters is what you choose to do from here on out. Are you here to step up and be his father?"

"I don't know how to make this right." He's looking right in my eyes now.

"It starts with atonement."

“Will you—” He cuts himself off, tilting his neck from side to side as if to release the tension.

“What, H?”

“Will you help me? With this?” He says the words so softly that I find myself leaning toward him to hear.

Or maybe it’s the magnetism of everything that is Hunter Brigham.

“It’s hard for you to ask for help, isn’t it?” I ask.

He looks at me for a heavy moment. “I don’t like having weaknesses,” he says.

“Everyone has weaknesses. That’s what it means to be human.”

We’re close, breathing each other in.

“I’m glad we’re friends,” he whispers.

“Me too.” Another moment. Another breath in and out. For an unexplainable reason, I’m trembling.

“So you’ll help me?” he asks. His voice is so soft, like a caress across my cheek.

“Of course, I will,” I whisper back.

My only explanation for what happens next is that we both devolve into pure insanity, because…

TROPES:

• Boss x employee

• Single dad

• Interracial (BWWM)

• Morally gray hero

• Touch-her-and-die protector

• Survivor heroine

• Suspenseful plot

• Dark themes

• Ends on a cliffhanger

• Complete trilogy

Forbidden Billionaire is an angsty dark romance—a slow-burn billionaire romance that leads to lots of spice and a secret society that aims to take over the world. Forbidden Billionaire is book one in the Devils of D.C. Trilogy, is told in dual first-person POV, and ends on a cliffhanger. Several themes may be troubling to some readers. View the full list of CWs on the author’s site.

NOTE: Forbidden Billionaire was originally published in 2024 as Shadowplay: A Dark Billionaire Romantic Suspense. The story inside remains the same.