A Controlled Burn

Camille Roth never gives anyone leverage. Then Tamsin Reyes walks into her office.

At forty-seven, Camille has built Aureline Holdings-and her reputation-on absolute control. She reads every footnote, anticipates every weakness, and never lets anyone close enough to become one. But when leaked documents make her company look corrupt and a hostile takeover begins circling, immaculate authority is no longer enough.

Tamsin Reyes knows exactly what a bad story can destroy. The thirty-six-year-old founder of Reyes Advisory has made a career out of walking into impossible rooms, finding the truth beneath the spin, and telling powerful people what no one else is brave enough to say. Camille expects obedience. Tamsin offers judgment instead.

Their clashes are immediate. So is the attraction neither woman can afford.

As Tamsin digs deeper into the leak, inconsistencies point toward something far more dangerous than a public-relations disaster. Someone is manipulating Aureline from inside, turning confidential information into weapons and pushing the company toward a devastating financial crisis. Trusting Tamsin may be Camille's best chance of protecting everything she has built-but trust has always been the one risk Camille refuses to take.

Between Manhattan boardrooms, black-tie galas, rain-soaked nights, luxury penthouses, and emergency meetings across the Atlantic, professional friction becomes something private, consuming, and increasingly impossible to contain. Tamsin refuses to be treated as another variable Camille can manage. Camille refuses to pretend desire has made her careless.

But when the attack against Aureline becomes personal and both women's careers are placed on the line, the question is no longer whether they want each other.

It's whether two women who survived by needing no one can risk giving each other the power to matter.