Only a cold-hearted villain would destroy an innocent bride’s special day over a business deal gone bad…

Which is why I choose this precise moment to disrupt New York High Society’s most anticipated wedding of the season.

As I am Luc Manwarring, II, billionaire heir to one of the most powerful families in the country, no one is brave enough to stop me.

My revenge plan is deceptively simple: humiliate the groom, then blackmail the bride’s family into coercing the bride into marrying me instead.

My ruthless calculations do not anticipate my reluctant bride having so much fight and fire in her.

At every opportunity, she resists my dominance and control, even going so far as trying to escape my dark plans for her.

She is only supposed to be a means to an end, an unwilling player in my game of revenge.

But the more she challenges me, the more I begin to wonder… who is playing who?

This was my first read by this author pairing – it was good – a dark billionaire / arranged marriage / forced proximity / enemies to lovers read.

An explosive start where Luc storms into the middle Amelia’s marriage with his business rival – Luc has done his homework on Amelia’s family and found all the dirty secrets on them – and proceeds to blackmail her mother into aborting the marriage in favour of Luc.

Luc is billionaire, used to getting what he wants when he wants, answering only to his father in business, nothing is out of his reach, and Amelia’s marriage was not in the best interest of his family’s business, so he decided he would have her instead. Poor Amelia! She has been brought up as a high society daughter knowing a loving marriage was not on the cards but that it would be a business deal for her family, when Luc swoops in and everything changes. But Luc soon finds out that Amelia is anything but a docile and submissive woman….

Amelia has fire and sass and doesn’t take well to Luc ordering her about. Luc is a domineering alpha, a cold alphahole, expecting Amelia to just conform to his whims – boy does he have a fight on his hands!

I enjoyed Luc’s character development as he got to know Amelia and started to like spending time with her. Both family’s parents are a nasty piece of work – Amelia’s mother has been cruel and abusive towards her all her life, so Amelia finds it quite a shock that Luc stands up to her mother for her. Luc’s father is just business orienteered, nothing else matters.

There are some hot, dirty and steamy scenes in this, some of it raw, animalistic and violent, with some non con / dub-con and spanking in there as well, so be warned.

I did feel sorry for Amelia, being forced into situations by everyone around her, but she knew her own mind and stood up for herself. I liked that when she’d had enough that was it! A good read.