Exquisite Damage

He blackmailed me into a Venetian palazzo. Thirty days to forge a masterpiece. But the real crime? Falling for my captor. I was surviving, not living—hiding in Brooklyn, buried under three years of guilt after my mentor's death. Then Cassius Vale appeared at my door with evidence that could destroy me and an offer I couldn't refuse: create the perfect forgery or face Interpol. Thirty days. One crumbling palazzo in Venice. A dangerous man with storm-grey eyes who watches me like I'm a problem he's desperate to solve. He's controlled. Calculating. A broker of stolen art with secrets darker than mine. He says I'm just a tool—a means to trap the criminal who destroyed his sister. But the way he looks at me? That's not professional. That's obsession. As I recreate Caravaggio's masterpiece, I discover the original is a forgery—one my dead mentor created. Now I'm forging a copy of a fake for a man who kills anyone who threatens him, while falling impossibly hard for the captor who's been stalking me for three years. Cassius swears he'll protect me. But when his enemy corners us, when bullets fly and the trap springs, I realize the most dangerous thing in this palazzo isn't the criminal we're hunting. It's the man I can't stop wanting. The man who's made me feel alive for the first time since I learned to survive. The man who'll burn down everything—including himself—to keep me safe. He falls first. He falls harder. And he'll ruin anyone who tries to take me from him. Even if that person is me.