For fourteen months, Katharine Elliott has perfected the art of professional distance. As Richard VanRyan’s executive assistant, she knows exactly how close she can get before it becomes a problem, because the company has a strict no-fraternization policy, and because the attraction between them isn’t a secret to either of them. It’s just something neither has ever been allowed to act on.

Richard VanRyan doesn’t need to be told what he wants. He’s built an empire on knowing exactly that, and going after it without apology. The one exception, for over a year, has been the woman two feet from his desk every single day.

Then his grandfather’s will hands him an ultimatum: marry within the year, or lose everything he’s built. A crucial merger needs the optics of a stable, settled CEO. And Richard has only ever trusted one person enough to ask.

Marry me. On paper. One year.

Katharine should say no, every rule she's followed for fourteen months tells her to. But saying yes means finally being allowed to stand this close to him in public. It means moving into his penthouse, wearing his ring, playing the part of the woman who has him completely.
The problem isn't pretending. The problem is how little pretending it actually takes.
With the board watching, a rival executive circling for any excuse to expose them, and a year-long attraction finally given room to breathe, Katharine and Richard are about to learn that the most dangerous rule isn't the one on the company handbook.
It's the one that says: never want something you can't have.

Too late.