Ruthless Terms (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798176473407)

A contract requires a counterparty. A home requires a foundation. A life requires both, or it requires neither.

Julian Vance has spent twelve years building an impenetrable life, running a four-billion-dollar empire with ruthless efficiency and zero emotional attachments. But when his late grandfather's trust mandates he must be legally married for 180 days to retain control of his company, Julian needs a wife. He doesn't want romance. He wants a transaction.

Clara Hensley restores 130-year-old Brooklyn brownstones for a living, pouring her heart into buildings that have outlasted generations. But a predatory lien threatens to tear her family's historic home away in just 81 days. When Julian Vance stands on her dusty stoop with a two-million-dollar proposal, the math is impossible to ignore.

The terms are strict: Separate quarters. Convincing public appearances. A clean exit when the clock runs out.

But as Clara's warmth and fierce independence begin to bleed into Julian's sterile, highly structured world, the clean lines of their business arrangement blur. When a hostile corporate takeover threatens to expose the true price tag of their marriage to the financial press, Julian and Clara must decide if they are willing to risk everything for a foundation built on more than just arithmetic.

Ruthless Terms is a high-stakes, slow-burn contemporary romance about the friction between rigid power structures and vulnerable human connection.