Prologue

Blair

“Get on your knees.”

I sink to the ground. As if under a spell, I can never seem to disobey Asher’s commands.

I look up at him. Heat floods my core.

I’ve spent years convincing myself I could live without him, that the ghost of him would fade from my mind. But now, kneeling here, facing the man who’s both broken and protected me, every lie I’ve told myself burns away.

There’s no forgetting Asher Stone.

He reaches out to grip my jaw. His dark hair hangs over his forehead, as dark as the tattoos that snake along every inch of his arms. He looks like he’s walked victorious out of a fight to the death—a dark, wild look in his eyes, his clothes streaked with dirt, his knuckles bruised and raw. He is everything dangerous, everything forbidden. And he’s here for me .

He’s the one who knows me, who’s seen every dark piece of me—and I’ve just spent a night doing things no one else would ever believe.

“Open your mouth, baby,” he commands.

I do as he says.

His gaze is locked on me, cold and unreadable, glinting like steel as he takes me in. My whole body feels like it’s on fire under that stare, and I don’t know if it’s fear or something darker. Something I still don’t want to name.

My body still aching from the night I’ve just endured—the brutal competition, the dares, the adrenaline and fear that pushed me past everything I thought I could survive.

But my body is also on fire. I need him. I need this.

Wes, the man my parents want me to marry, whimpers in the corner through the gag in his mouth and the tape restraining his hands.

How did I end up here?

With my lips around the cock of the man who broke my heart. In front of the man I’m supposed to marry. With my parents tied up in the basement.

And why don’t I care?

The night we’ve survived has changed us both, left us a mess of anger, desire, and the kind of betrayal that lingers like an open wound.

Asher’s thumb grazes my lips as he sinks deeper down my throat.

His eyes glint with something dark, and I know, in that moment, that whatever comes next, there’s no going back.