Beautiful Monsters

Beautiful monsters wear the most alluring disguises... and the deadliest one just walked into my gallery. As a successful gallery owner in Boston, I thought I knew who I was. Then Nikolai Ivanov walked into my life, and everything changed. Dangerous, magnetic, and impossibly controlling, he awakens something dark within me. His obsession should terrify me—the cameras hidden in my apartment, the way he appears exactly when I need him, how he seems to know my every move. Instead, I find myself drawn deeper into his world of power and control. But Nikolai isn't the only one with secrets.

I've always prided myself on seeing through people's bullshit. But Dmitri Ivanov? He's a puzzle I can't solve. Sure, Boston's elite sees the perfect businessman—all devastating smiles and Armani suits. I see the monster beneath, the darkness he tries so hard to hide. The way he watches me like he wants to devour me whole. I hate how he gets under my skin. Hate how my body betrays me every time he corners me, how his touch sets me on fire even as his arrogance makes me want to scream.

I've made a career of being invisible. Until I met him. Alexei Ivanov. The "Ghost" of the dark web. Digital prince of the Ivanov crime empire. Brilliant. Volatile. Irresistible. Breaking into his systems was supposed to be revenge. Instead, I found an addiction. Each taunt deliberate—digital breadcrumbs leading him straight to me. He thinks he's hunting me, but I've been hunting him all along. As our game spills from screens into reality, the electricity between us becomes impossible to ignore. The line between predator and prey blurs with every encounter.