L J Shen

Parker S Huntington

She's his sweetest desire...and his darkest secret. From Wall Street Journal bestsellers Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen comes a tantalizing forbidden romance between a broken Prince Charming and a disgraced Cinderella. The task was simple. Sneak into Potomac's most heavily guarded manor. Steal back my pendant. Slip out. Problem number one? America's most unattainable bachelor caught me. Problem number two? He decided to keep me. As the help. Zachary Sun's winter may be the coldest I've ever felt, but he makes my skin burn. Reserved, calculated, and savagely cruel, he thrives on the weaknesses of others. Little does he know, he just met his match. He may be American royalty. But this peasant will rise to become Queen. Authors' Notes: My Dark Desire is a standalone double-grump romance between a broken billionaire and a feisty maid unafraid to fight back. It is set in the decadent Dark Prince Road world.

An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

My Dark Desire

Sophia

And then I saw it. A landscape rake pierced through his gut. Spearing him into the door. The jagged edge poked my stomach, grazing it. I sucked my belly in, struggling to breathe at the same time.

Dad’s eyes remained open, but I knew he wasn’t alive anymore. His soul had already drifted away. And I finally understood what he meant when he’d said souls were priceless.

My Little Octopus would fix me. The how didn’t matter.

I’d gotten used to witnessing her in this state—sweaty, sporting a bird’s nest on her scalp, her clothes peppered with bleached pigments.

She looked pitiful. The product of poverty and exhaustion. So opposite of me and my genteel guest.

And, I realized, for the very first time, so fucking beautiful I couldn’t breathe.

With her sharp features, golden hair, and sparkling blues. And those overgrown bangs—a little wavy and out of control—that made her look like a cool grunge girl on a double spread of Vogue.

Latching onto the steak knife, I leaned forward, leveling my eyes with Brett’s as I slammed the blade an inch from his pinky finger. He jumped back in his seat, gasping.

“I will say this once, and I will say it nicely—never, ever, under any circumstances, look, touch, talk, or breathe in this woman’s direction. Am I understood?”

I watched with painstaking stillness as Junior raised his hands, wiggled those sticky fingers, and stretched them out, aiming for her ass. He neared his destination, almost rounding the curve between the cheek and those toned legs that moved with graceful skill on the piste.

“Farrow.” The strain in my own voice surprised me. Junior’s hand froze midair.

Octi whipped her head around, blinking at me, surprised. “What?”

“Good.” I slid my knife out and tossed it right into Brett Junior’s outstretched hand.

Her delicate brows crashed together. “Make me, then.”

“Impossible. I have no sense of humor.”

“It’s not a fucking film roll, Farrow. It’s going to take more than a couple hours.”

“Why do you need me to laugh, anyway?”

Because I felt something inside my chest, and I am desperate to feel it again. It marked the first time since Dad had passed. And possibly the last. But I wanted to try.

We stood chest to chest now. Not touching, but close enough to do so if she tried. Which I wanted her to. Desperately.

Dad always said—Memories are a second heart. After you’re gone, they beat inside the people you’ve left behind.

She seemed completely content avoiding me, while I was on the verge of clawing my own skin off.

Why weren’t we talking? Teasing each other? Touching each other?

My Dark Desire quotes

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