Boardroom
Ruin

When Lila Wellington steps into the opulent lobby of the Montecito Grand to pitch her fintech startup to the famously reclusive and ruthless billionaire James Ashford, she expects a cold, dismissive meeting. She doesn't expect the way his dark eyes devour her, the clipped impatience of his questions, or the spark of mutual, instant loathing that ignites between them. The 'meeting' ends barely three minutes later with James's hand clamped around her wrist, dragging her into a private executive suite. What follows is nothing short of a claiming—rough, punishing, and desperate on top of his sprawling obsidian desk. He takes her like he's trying to ruin her for anyone else, and the terrifying, thrilling truth is: he might have. Now Lila is caught in James's world of billion-dollar deals and brutal control, where their 'business arrangement' is just a thin cover for a dark, obsessive affair that blurs every line between hatred and raw, insatiable need. She's a source of chaos he can't afford, and he's the storm she knows she should run from, but in the wreckage of their first encounter, a far more dangerous game has just begun.