Vanessa barely survived Daniel Carter. The scars he left aren't all visible, and after years of confusing pain with passion she's done with men who mistake control for love. She's in Zurich for a conference, alone by choice, and absolutely not looking for anything that resembles what she left behind.
Mark Monroe knows Vanessa. He knew her when she worked as his assistant, when she belonged to Daniel, when his own marriage was quietly disintegrating around him. He's spent months since Lena left burying himself in encounters that feel like nothing, with women he forgets by morning. Then he walks into a hotel bar and finds the one woman he never let himself want.
One drink becomes one night. One night becomes a weekend neither of them planned for. What starts as two broken people using each other to feel something real slowly becomes something neither of them has a rule for - because Mark doesn't want to break Vanessa. He wants to be the man who puts her back together. And Vanessa isn't surrendering out of habit or fear. For the first time, she's choosing.
They were both wrecked by the same storm. Turns out they might also be each other's way through it.
Broken Rules is book three of The Carter Dynasty series - an emotionally charged second chance romance about healing, trust, and what happens when two people who should stay away from each other are exactly what the other needs. Contains explicit content, daddy dynamic, and an ending that will wreck you in the best possible way.
Vanessa:
Everyone who knows what Daniel Carter did to me would say walking into a hotel bar in Zurich and finding Mark Monroe was the universe's idea of a sick joke. Mark was my boss before he was my cautionary tale - the powerful, controlled CEO whose wife I watched fall apart, whose life I watched Daniel dismantle from the inside. I know exactly who Mark Monroe is and what men like him want. I told myself one drink was fine. I told myself I was in control. I've been lying to myself for years so I'm quite good at it by now.
Mark:
I knew Vanessa when she worked for me, when she was Daniel's and I was pretending not to notice her, when my marriage was already dying and I was too proud to admit it. I've thought about her more than I should have in the months since everything fell apart. Finding her in that bar felt less like coincidence and more like something I wasn't ready for. She looks like someone who's been surviving instead of living, and I recognize that because I've been doing the same thing. I told her one night. I meant it when I said it.
Two people wrecked by the same storm, finding out they might be each other's way through it.
