Playing with Fire

DANIELLE

​"I was a good wife until the night I invited a monster into my husband’s bed." ​At twenty-seven, Emily Thorne is living inside a gilded cage. To the corporate world, she’s a quiet, polished professional. To her husband, Christian, she’s just another piece of property to own and control. But when the feds drag Christian away in handcuffs, his suffocating shadow finally lifts—leaving Emily alone, starved for adrenaline, and drowning in the quiet silence of an empty house. ​Then, she crosses a line she can never un-cross. She sends a single, late-night message to her husband’s estranged cousin. ​Marcus Vance. ​Cold, ruthless, and covered in black ink, Marcus is an untouchable ghost in the city’s underground. He doesn't do sweet promises, and he doesn't play by anyone's rules. What begins as a risky digital game quickly devolves into an intense, lawless obsession. Marcus doesn't just touch Emily—he claims her, dismantles her innocence, and teaches her what it feels like to burn. ​But the real game begins when the prison gates open early. ​Christian is coming home to claim his house and his wife, completely unaware that his own blood spent the last three weeks carving his name into Emily's skin. Meanwhile, a brilliant federal agent is closing in, using Emily’s corporate access to dismantle the Vance empire once and for all. ​Caught in a violent crossfire between a husband out for blood, an FBI task force on the hunt, and a possessive anti-hero who would burn the world down before letting her go, Emily faces one final choice: ​Step back into the light... or take the throne in the dark