VAEDREN

by Rhea Ashcroft

At Obsidian, pleasure keeps the owners alive.

For Vaedren, desire is sustenance.

For me, desire is evidence that cannot be trusted.

ADELA

I make a living separating facts from excuses. Powerful men call their affairs inevitable, their pursuit passion, and their choices mistakes. I call them what they are.

Then I choose Vaedren Saye.

He is an incubus who feeds on desire and can heighten everything I already feel. One night with him should be a controlled indulgence. Instead, his refusal to accept anything less than a clear yes leaves me craving the one man whose touch could make me question my own choices.

When a former companion accuses him of manipulating her consent, Obsidian hires me to contain the scandal. The evidence carries traces of Vaedren’s magic. The woman’s memories have been altered. And someone is threatening to expose every intimate secret the club has sworn to protect.

To uncover the truth, I must decide whether Vaedren is the victim of an elaborate trap or exactly the predator everyone believes him to be.

VAEDREN

I have spent centuries becoming whatever others desire. Adela is the first woman who looks beneath my glamour and demands that the man she finds there answer for himself.

I want her before she selects me. I fall for her while she is still deciding whether anything between us can be real.

When someone uses my power to frame me, I allow The Order to bind the gift that keeps me alive. Without it, I starve. With it, Adela may never trust that her hunger for me is truly her own.

The binding is killing me, our enemy is closing in, and Adela may be the only person capable of proving my innocence.

To keep her, I must prove I never stole her choice.

To save her, I may have to unleash the creature she has every reason to fear.

The Inner Circle Series

Series Blurb:

At Obsidian, pleasure does more than satisfy. It keeps the owners alive.

Seven supernatural men rule the city’s most exclusive private club, feeding only from guests who understand exactly what they offer. Desire, surrender, dreams, adrenaline, confession, trust, and blood each answer a different hunger. The rules protect everyone: consent is absolute, boundaries are honored, and no member of The Order becomes emotionally involved.

For centuries, the arrangement has worked.

Then the right lovers walk through Obsidian’s doors, and survival is no longer enough.