I never planned to surrender my pleasure to the man who signs my paychecks, yet here I am in the glass and steel hush after midnight, letting Pierce Knightley bring me to the brink over and over with nothing more than his stern command and the weight of his body against mine. The records room door has barely clicked shut before his fingers find me, and every time he pulls away at the exact moment my hips begin to move, I taste the fear that this control is only temporary, the same fear that has followed me since my parents left.

Our marriage of convenience promises stability through the merger, but it cannot promise that he will stay once I have given him everything. Every night he takes me to the edge and leaves me there, and I let him. Will I still want his denial when the vows are spoken and there is no crisis left to bind us?