Smoldering

Fifteen years of abuse at the hands of her high school sweetheart has left Ruby Flame entirely bored and confused. With the ashes of her former captor - and later victim - scattered at sea, it’s time to move on. But it won’t be easy: Not with the secrets that plague her. Two weeks of watching the man she both loved and loathed burn in an incinerator messes with a girl’s head. She understands that truth.

After four years of allowing the dust to settle, Ruby can no longer deny the flicker of curiosity that comes with tempting danger again. She refuses to deny the burning pleasure that once came at the unyielding hands of a sick, sick man.

She knows now what she must do to feel alive again: It is in a club where wealthy men go to have one-night stands with submissive women where she finally faces it all. In his hands now, Ruby cannot resist Secret Liaisons’ owner Nathan Holloway. The feeling is mutual. Set on the curvy woman with aqua eyes and a claim that she will never allow herself to be broken again, Nate is not one to turn down a challenge.

Indeed, sparks will fly.

But even in the brightest of fires is a darkness. And Holloway has secrets too. For starters, he’s the man who molds younger girls into shady patrons’ tools. No one knows about his basement, where he brings the naughty ones with pouty bottom lips and attitudes like Ruby’s. It’s been six months. But they will again soon.

That is, she will.

He will throw everything he knows at it and her. He won’t lose. He understands this truth: To tame the wildest of fires, you must know it from its very source. You must contain it too. It will start with the cellar, a cage, and an unraveling of secrets so shadowy, someone is bound to get burned....