On the morning she first sees her wedding dress, Sophia Von Berg understands that silk can be as suffocating as iron. To the world, she is the privileged heiress who will soon marry powerful businessman Victor Vance and save her family from ruin. Behind the walls of the magnificent city villa, however, every polished surface and priceless heirloom reminds her of a truth she cannot escape: this wedding is a transaction, and she is the price.
When Lucian Thorne, a stoic bodyguard from the elite security firm GUARD, is assigned to protect Sophia from supposed paparazzi, he expects another routine assignment-discretion, distance, no entanglements. But beneath the glittering façade of high society, he quickly senses a different danger: the quiet despair in Sophia's eyes, the subtle cruelty in Victor's voice, and a tension that has nothing to do with the press.
Exiled to an isolated lakeside estate until the wedding, Sophia and Lucian are forced into a closeness neither of them sought. Between creaking floorboards, whispered confidences, and stolen glances, duty collides with desire-and the boundaries between protector and protected begin to blur. Three weeks. One impossible promise. And a choice that could shatter reputations.or set two hearts free.
On the morning she first sees her wedding dress, Sophia Von Berg understands that silk can be as suffocating as iron. To the world, she is the privileged heiress who will soon marry powerful businessman Victor Vance and save her family from ruin. Behind the walls of the magnificent city villa, however, every polished surface and priceless heirloom reminds her of a truth she cannot escape: this wedding is a transaction, and she is the price.
When Lucian Thorne, a stoic bodyguard from the elite security firm GUARD, is assigned to protect Sophia from supposed paparazzi, he expects another routine assignment-discretion, distance, no entanglements. But beneath the glittering façade of high society, he quickly senses a different danger: the quiet despair in Sophia's eyes, the subtle cruelty in Victor's voice, and a tension that has nothing to do with the press.
Exiled to an isolated lakeside estate until the wedding, Sophia and Lucian are forced into a closeness neither of them sought. Between creaking floorboards, whispered confidences, and stolen glances, duty collides with desire-and the boundaries between protector and protected begin to blur. Three weeks. One impossible promise. And a choice that could shatter reputations.or set two hearts free.
