He pays for her time. She's stealing his heart.
Sloane Mercer is a master of the illusion. For twenty-five hundred dollars a night, she transforms into the perfect companion for New York's elite: polished, attentive, and entirely untouchable. She has strict rules, ironclad boundaries, and absolutely no room in her life for real feelings.
Then she meets Callum Vale.
Callum is a brilliant, silver-haired architect who spends his days saving historic buildings and his nights drowning in the grief of losing his wife. He doesn't want a performance. He wants the one thing Sloane refuses to give: the real woman underneath the armor. He remembers her drink order, reads her favorite books, and looks at her with a quiet, devastating intensity that makes her want to break every rule she's ever made.
What starts as a transaction quickly becomes a lifeline for them both. But outside the safe, candlelit walls of their hotel suite, the real world is waiting. Sloane built her career on walking away, and Callum is a man who preserves things meant to last. When the lines between business and pleasure shatter, Sloane must decide if she's brave enough to take off the mask for good—or if trusting a client with her heart is the one structural flaw that will bring her whole world crashing down.
A steamy, emotional, slow-burn contemporary romance featuring a brooding widower, a fiercely independent heroine, and a love story that proves the strongest foundations are built when the walls come down.
