Ava Reed

Aurora Crestwood has been in love with her best friend Liam for ten years. Ten years of being his shoulder to cry on, his late-night phone call, his emotional support through every breakup. Ten years of watching him chase the same toxic woman who keeps breaking his heart.

When Selena Beaumont announces her engagement to someone else, Aurora thinks she's finally free. But Liam has other plans. He wants to crash the wedding, make one last desperate play for the woman who's never truly wanted him. And he wants Aurora to help him do it.

Against her better judgment, she agrees. What she doesn't expect is to meet Kian Vance.

Liam's estranged brother is everything Liam isn't—dangerous, direct, and completely uninterested in playing games. He's also friends with the groom, which makes him the biggest threat to their sabotage plan. But when Kian looks at Aurora, he doesn't see Liam's reliable best friend. He sees a woman who's been hiding her true self for far too long.

"I'm going to steal her from you," Kian tells his brother with cold certainty.

When Kian proposes a wager—if the wedding falls apart, Aurora belongs to him—she should walk away. She should focus on helping Liam win the woman he's obsessed with. She should stick to being the good girl she's always been.

Instead, she shakes hands with the devil himself.

Now Aurora is caught between two brothers, a wedding that might not happen, and a dangerous man who sees right through her carefully constructed walls. Kian promises to show her what it means to be truly wanted, but his interest comes with a price.

As the wedding weekend spirals toward chaos, Aurora must decide: will she keep playing it safe, or will she finally embrace the fire she's been hiding?


Claimed By The Wrong Brother

I watch Aurora from my bed as she moves around the room, gathering her clothes. There's a certain deliberate care to her movements, like she's trying to piece herself back together after our explosive encounter in the shower.


She slips on her underwear, back turned to me. The water from her damp hair trickles down her spine, following the curve of her back.


"Do you have any concealer?" she asks suddenly, turning to face me.


Aurora points to her neck, where my fingerprints have bloomed into purple bruises. "I can't go to work looking like I've been strangled."


"Why not? It's a good look on you," I smirk.


She rolls her eyes. "Not everyone works at a sex club, Kian. Some of us have corporate jobs with dress codes that don't include 'freshly fucked and choked.'"


I get up from the bed, not bothering to cover my nakedness. "Check the guest bathroom. Previous visitors have left things."


Afterglow and a Call for Chaos