Breaking New Ground. The Elevation Series, #2

Kingston Daley did the hardest thing a man can do: he bet on himself - and won. Two years after walking away from the corporation that spent a decade undervaluing him, his consulting firm is thriving. The contracts are coming. The respect is earned and real. For the first time in his adult life, Kingston is building something that cannot be taken from him. Then he meets Aaliyah Grant. A community organizer who builds futures for people the city overlooked, Aaliyah is warm, purposeful, and more honest than anyone Kingston has ever been close to.
She is not impressed by success. She is interested in him - who he was before the wins, what he believes, who he is at 2 a.m. when no one is watching. But Kingston Daley has been let down by too many people who looked trustworthy. And the walls he built to survive the old life are now keeping him out of the new one. Breaking New Ground is a story about the cost of protecting yourself too well - and the moment you realize that refusing to be loved is its own kind of failure.
Book 2 of The Elevation Series by Vivienne Ashcroft.