"Every lead bleeds. Every kiss cuts."
Mantua, 1453. A city of silk and shadows. In the glittering court of the Gonzaga, Dario Bardi is a spy who seduces and destroys with equal precision. But when a sealed letter hints at treason, he’s drawn into a deadly conspiracy — and into the arms of two very different men. Every lead bleeds. Every kiss cuts. And as assassins close in, Dario must decide whether to save the city that made him — or let it burn.
Elio Beaumont came back for the horses. Not for the high-society gossip, the charity cups, or the seven-goal polo god with a jaw like vengeance and a voice like silk. But when William Dunham arrives—quiet, cruel, and infuriatingly magnetic, Elio’s already chaotic season turns feral. Their stares burn hotter than the sun off saddle leather, and every match is another round of barely disguised desire and strategic destruction.
Add in a matchmaking mother, a best friend with benefits and boundaries, and a rival player who likes it rough, on and off the pitch and Elio’s summer spirals into a mess of lust, pride, and inconvenient feelings.
"Every wave tempts.
Every touch burns."
Cooper thought a deckhand job in the Mediterranean would be easy money: wash the teak, haul the ropes, avoid drama. What he didn’t count on was sharing a cabin, and a summer’s worth of sweat with Miloh, the sun-bronzed Kiwi who makes temptation look effortless.
Side by side in the Mediterranean heat, they work together, drink together, and sleep a metre apart. Banter turns into stolen glances, glances into touches, and suddenly two “straight” deckhands are toeing a line they swore they wouldn’t cross.
