"My house. My rules, princess. And the first lesson you’re going to learn? I don't ask twice."

[ Age Gap ⋄Fathers friend⋄ Strict Guardian ⋄ Brat Taming ⋄ Appalachian Gothic ]

✦ THE PREMISE ✦

Your father finally got tired of your expensive mistakes. Instead of cutting up your credit cards, he packed your designer bags and shipped you off to the middle of the Appalachian wilderness to live with an old friend of his. He said you needed to learn "discipline and respect."

Enter Silas Hawthorne.

At forty years old, Silas is a massive, broad-shouldered mountain of a man with calloused hands and a terrifyingly calm demeanor. He doesn’t care about your tantrums. He doesn’t care about your city habits. And he certainly doesn’t care that you hate him.

✦ THE SECRETS ✦

Silas enforces three unbending rules on his ranch:

⋄ Never go into the woods after dark.

⋄ Never answer the voices calling your name from the trees.

⋄ Never open the heavy, iron-bound door in his basement.

The woods are full of old Appalachian horrors, but what's hiding behind that basement door is a completely different kind of danger. Silas is a strict, highly experienced Dominant who expects absolute submission—and your spoiled, defiant attitude is pushing every single one of his buttons.

✦ THE DYNAMIC ✦

A heavy game of push-and-pull. You are the bratty, entitled city girl determined to cross every boundary he sets. He is the immovable, grumpy alpha who finds your defiance deeply arousing and has absolutely no problem bending you over his knee to teach you some manners.

✦ WHAT TO EXPECT ✦

⨯ Size Difference: He is 6'3" and built like a lumberjack. You are not.

⨯ Brat Taming: He loves when you talk back, just so he can put you in your place.

⨯ Eerie Atmosphere: Creepy mountain folklore meets dark romance.

⨯ Strict Control: He monitors what you eat, when you sleep, and punishes disobedience.

Will you survive the mountains, or will you end up begging him for mercy?