I grew up on stories of his family's treachery, each one drilled into me like a brand. Dutiful daughter, estate claimant-me, the one who'd claw back our legacy from the brink. No room for weakness. No cracks in the armor.
Until that rival heir pinned me with a look across the fog-shrouded fields. Hate should have held me back. It didn't. He was forbidden ruin wrapped in muscle and guilt, the man whose touch promised everything my cold kin never gave: raw, unguarded skin hunger.
The abandoned barn reeked of damp hay and old grudges, lantern light dancing over splintered beams as he backed me against the wall. Our venomous glares shattered into gasps, limbs twisting in the golden straw. He took me there-fierce, unrelenting-pouring himself deep, chasing that impossible spark where loathing bled into craving. Sweat-slicked, heaving, we defied every line generations carved in stone.
Nights bled into archive vaults after, his fingers mapping faded estate deeds by candle flame, breaths hot and tangled in the close air. I arched under him again, whispering barbs that dissolved into pleas. "Hate me harder," I'd snap, even as my body clenched around the seed he planted-reckless, breeding fire no feud could douse.
Now my belly swells, a secret silhouette against gnarled oak roots at first light. My hard-won claim to these misty acres? One whisper of him inside me, and ruthless kin will strip it all bare. This new life pulses with his blood-bridge or bomb?
I need him to shatter me open, to feed the ache I've hidden too long. But can enemies like us forge a future from barn-straw sins, or will the child we made drag us under forever?
A full-length breeding pregnancy forbidden enemies-to-lovers erotic romance featuring a defiant estate heiress and her brooding rival protector.
