**She came to steal a plant. She left utterly destroyed and completely his**

Aria Chen is a woman who wears many masks: brilliant hacker, underground artist, medical prodigy. But none of those identities can save her dying mother from a rare disease with only one cure a nearly extinct medicinal plant called Vitalis Radix, cultivated exclusively on the private estate of billionaire CEO Damien Blackwood.
Desperate and running out of time, Aria does the unthinkable: she infiltrates his fortress-like mansion as a maid under a false identity, planning to steal the plant and vanish before anyone discovers the truth.
The plan is simple. "Get in. Get the plant. Get out." 
Until she meets him.
Damien Blackwood is power incarnate ruthlessly intelligent, devastatingly handsome, and dangerously observant. From their first encounter, the attraction between them is explosive, undeniable, and completely forbidden. When he makes her his personal maid, Aria thinks she's been given the perfect access to complete her mission.
She has no idea he's been waiting for her.
He knows exactly who she is. And he's going to make her pay.
But his punishment won't come in the form of police or prosecution. It comes in whispered commands in the darkness. In his hands claiming every inch of her virgin body. In the way he teaches her that pleasure and control are two sides of the same coin.
"You're mine now. Every hole. Every moan. Every desperate whimper when you beg me to let you come."

Aria is a virgin who's never experienced desire, never understood her own body's capacity for pleasure. Damien becomes her sexual awakening and her complete undoing. He introduces her to a world of dark eroticism she never knew existed remote-controlled vibrators she must wear while serving his dinner guests, sex in his office while he's on business calls, punishments that leave her marked and aching and desperate for more.
She becomes addicted. To his touch. To his dominance. To the way he makes her body sing with pleasures she didn't know were possible.
Every encounter pushes her boundaries further. Every night in his bed pulls her deeper into obsession. He's possessive to the point of madness, jealous of every man who looks at her, determined to own not just her body but her very soul.
"When I'm done with you, you won't remember your own name. You'll only remember mine."
As Aria falls deeper into Damien's web of dominance and desire, her mission becomes impossible to separate from her feelings. Her mother is dying. Time is running out. But every night in his arms makes her question what she's willing to sacrifice.

When he finally catches her in the greenhouse, hands covered in soil and guilt written across her face, the confrontation is explosive.
"Did you really think I didn't know? That I haven't been ten steps ahead this entire time? You played your game, Aria. Now it's time for mine."
Betrayal. Rage. Raw, punishing sex that blurs the line between fury and passion.

READER WARNING:
This is a DARK EROTIC ROMANCE with explicit sexual content including:
** Virgin heroine's complete sexual awakening
** Dominant alpha hero with possessive/obsessive tendencies
** Power dynamics and consensual control (employer/employee)
** Public sexual situations and exhibitionism elements
**Use of sex toys for control and pleasure
** Punishment scenarios (spanking, discipline)
** Intense jealousy and possessiveness
** Morally gray characters who make questionable choices
** Explicit language and graphic sexual scenes
** Pushed boundaries (always consensual)
** Emotional intensity and angst
This book contains a GUARANTEED HEA but the journey is dark, twisted, and absolutely filthy. If you want safe and sweet, this isn't your book. If you want a billionaire who plays dirty and a heroine who learns to crave it, 
 "Welcome to Blackwood Estate. where every rule is meant to be broken, every boundary is meant to be pushed, and love is the most dangerous game of all."

Aria sat beside her mother's hospital bed, holding Mei's hand and trying to smile like everything was fine.


"Stop pretending," Mei said, her voice stronger than it had been in months. The treatment was working miracles. "I can see right through you, baby girl."


"I'm not pretending. I'm just....I'm tired, Mama."


"You're heartbroken. There's a difference." Mei squeezed her hand. "Talk to me. Really talk to me. Tell me what's going on in that head of yours."


"Start with how you're feeling. Right now. This moment."


Aria was quiet for a long time, trying to find words for the emptiness inside her. "I feel like I'm drowning. Like I'm underwater and I can see the surface but I can't reach it. Every day I wake up and think maybe today will hurt less. But it doesn't. It hurts the same. Or worse. And I don't know how to make it stop."


The question caught her off guard. "What?"


Chapter 81 - Chapter 80: ''Stop Pretending Aria''