I've clawed through dusty ledgers and forgotten scrolls for years, hunting the proof of my royal blood that everyone denies exists. A bastard heir, rootless and raging against the void gnawing at my gut. I needed belonging like air, but vulnerability? That was a luxury for men with thrones already won.
Then she appeared in the shadowed vaults of the royal archives, her fingers tracing ancient seals like they held her own secrets. The keeper of the crown's silence, oath-bound and untouchable. Our first glance stretched into stunned quiet, breaths mingling inches apart in the dim glow, her caution fraying against my desperate pull. I shouldn't have touched her. But rootless men don't beg for mercy.
One impulsive surrender led to sweat-slicked skin cooling in the aftermath, palace shadows cloaking our raw whispers of trust. Her body yielded where her vows wouldn't, every heated clash defying the treason we courted. She cracked me open, spilling my terror of forever drifting alone. Yet her loyalty dangles by the thinnest thread, one leaked word from shattering her world.
Now my claim surges forward, alliances teetering on fragile edges, but losing her touch would unmake everything I've chased. Her fire exposed fractures I hid even from myself. Can I seize my birthright without turning the woman who unlocked me into collateral ruin?
A full-length secret royalty scandal erotic romance featuring a haunted heir claimant and an oath-sworn archivist. Includes themes of forbidden royal passion and filthy treasonous surrender.
