Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
She doesn’t care.
Diana Steel has it all—a luxurious Denver penthouse, a limitless trust fund, and the job of her dreams at one of the city’s top architecture firms. Housing brooding Dragon Locke isn’t a priority, but when her sister asks, Diana relents.
Dragon knows what it means to fight for survival. Abandoned at eight and raised in the system, he’s been hardened by life’s brutal lessons. Addiction nearly destroyed him, and after a disastrous fall during his band’s European tour, he’s clawing his way back. Fresh out of rehab, he’s determined to rebuild on his own terms.
Diana’s offer of a place to stay should be the lifeline Dragon needs, but he hates charity, especially from someone like her. Yet when he steps into her world, the undeniable chemistry between them ignites something neither can control.
But Dragon is a man scarred by his past, with secrets so dark they threaten to consume him. He’s shared only fragments with his therapist and his closest friend—the rest he’s vowed to take to his grave. As Diana draws closer, she risks getting burned by the firestorm of pain and passion inside him. And Dragon isn’t sure he can let her in without dragging her into the depths of hell.
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Prologue
Dragon
For the first nine years of my life, there was light. There was love. There was kindness.
And then, in the course of one evening, that light was eclipsed forever.
Since then, I’ve lived in a chasm of darkness.
It hasn’t been all bad. Over the years, I’ve been able to escape some of the obscurity. I’ve learned to live my life in the dusk. I found my way to Jesse Pike, a man who not only saw the darkness in me but embraced it. He needed a drummer. I was a drummer. His band had no name. He liked my name, so he used it for the band.
But of course, I went and fucked that up.
Because of the darkness. The black cloud that follows me everywhere I go, perpetually wrapping me in a fog of rain and hail.
That night, the shadows overtook me. I chose to combat it with more darkness. A quick hit of black tar. I threw years of sobriety down the toilet, all because I couldn’t control the dark Dragon within me.
Because I am sin. I am the purest entity of evil. I must be.
Why else would my parents—?
No. I can’t think about that. Thinking like that is what caused my relapse.
But it’s true.
The Dragon was not born into it, but he will live his life in his own black smoke.
And that’s where he’ll die, too.
Chapter One
Diana
I let out an exasperated sigh. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea, Brianna.”
“I wouldn’t ask you if it weren’t so important to Jesse and me,” my younger sister, newly married to the man of her dreams—a rising rock star, no less—pleads. “He wants to be close to his rehab place in case he relapses.”
I bite my lip. “He was fine at your wedding. I didn’t see him take a drink at all, and he stood there solidly as Jesse’s best man.”
“Yes, exactly. He wants to stay fine.” Brianna sighs. “There won’t be any band business for the next several months, and he wants to be in Denver, close to his therapist and to the facility.”
I put the phone on speaker and set it on the counter. I rub both sides of my forehead, trying to think this through. I’m not one to turn down a person in need, but this is a lot to ask of anyone. House a recovering addict? A guy I hardly know? Sure, he’s the drummer for my brother-in-law’s band, but he and I have barely said ten words to each other.
Plus, I just moved into my plush penthouse here in downtown Denver. I’m about to begin the job of my dreams. Call me selfish, but I kind of want to focus on me at the moment.
“I’ll think about it. That’s all I’ll say.”
“Think fast, will you? He’s arriving in Denver tomorrow.”
I let out a huff as I say goodbye to my sister and end the call.
Today is Friday, and I begin as an associate architect with Lund & Lopez here in Denver on Monday. I completed an internship at a different firm, and they made me an offer, but the two Ls came in a little bit higher.
But that’s not the reason I went with L & L. I don’t need the money. I have a sizable trust fund from my rich family. I went with L & L because they just got a huge contract to build a new eco-resort on top of one of the highest peaks in the Rockies. It’s a project like no other, and I’m hoping I’ll get to be involved.
To win a spot on that team, I’ll have to show the higher-ups in the firm that I’m someone serious about my architecture career who’s ready to put in the time on this amazing project. That I’m not just some heiress trying to prove a point.
I need to be focused.
Letting a recovering addict live in my penthouse isn’t a good way to stay focused.
I look around. Do I even have the room?
Of course I do. I have three bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms.
But I only have one kitchen, one common area. One balcony with a view of the Rocky Mountains to the west.
I’ve lived alone since I was twenty-one. I’m nearly twenty-six now, and the thought of taking a roommate—especially one with so much baggage—kind of makes me want to hurl.
Brianna and Jesse offered to pay rent for him. I don’t need the extra income, of course, so I said no. He can pay his own damned rent.
His name is Dragon.
Yes, that’s really his name. Dragon Locke. He’s the drummer for Jesse’s rock band, Dragonlock. They liked his name so much they named the band after him.
I’ve spoken to him a few times at gatherings back home at my family’s ranch on the western slope of Colorado. Usually just small talk. The weather, the wedding decor, what the band’s working on.