Step Darkly

When Emilia Connor returns to face the man she ran away from five years earlier, she's determined to cut him out of her life for good but things have changed. This time Joshua Darkly is holding all of the cards and he's got other plans.JOSHUA DARKLYEmilia is a spoiled brat who's had life handed to her on a silver platter and she takes everything I worked hard to earn for granted.Living off of daddy's dime, her free ride is about to come to a screeching halt. She's heading back here, to the place she should have never run away from, to settle her father's estate.She's confident she is the sole heir to all of her father's possessions, including the company I worked my ass off to help build over the last seven years, but I have a surprise for her. Not only am I the new owner of Connor Realty, but I'm also her mentor and guardian for the period of one year.I never asked to own her but now that I do, I'm not sure I can ever let her go.She's feisty, she has a lot of anger in her and I'm patiently waiting for her to test her boundaries with me. She'll try her luck one too many times and I can't wait to show her how dark my beast has become.EMILIA CONNOROur past always has a way of catching up to us.I left home five years ago and never looked back. I always thought I had more time to make amends with my father and come home but my time ran out when he died of a sudden heart attack.Now I'm back to settle his estate and face my demons. Well, one demon in particular; Joshua Darkly, the reason I left in the first place.Because of a stipulation in my father's will, it looks like I'm here to stay for awhile. I've been declared Joshua's ward for a period of one year and if I don't complete my time, I'll lose everything.I'll swallow my pride and serve my sentence but I'm not going down without a fight. I'll challenge his patience every chance I get without getting too close to him.Even now, after everything, I still feel drawn to him and it's something I need to face head on and cut out of my life before it consumes me whole.