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CAPTIVE: Empire of Desire — Book One
She came to his table expecting threats. He offered her a deal instead.
Lea Rousseau is twenty-three years old, working three jobs, finishing her master's thesis, and slowly drowning alongside a father whose gambling debts have reached the wrong people. She doesn't scare easily — fear has been the background hum of her life for so long she's stopped hearing it.
Damien Kavinsky is the kind of man rooms rearrange themselves around. Billionaire. Calculated. Five years of keeping every relationship transactional, every door locked from the inside.
Then a cocktail waitress spills Scotch on his shirt and offers — with trembling hands and a balance of $300 — to pay for it.
He finds her the next morning. The offer is three months as his public partner, attending galas and board dinners, convincing his investors he's the kind of man who stays. In exchange, her father's $152,000 disappears.
She signs.
He rewrites the terms.
Now she's living in his penthouse, sleeping down the hall from a man who reads her thesis abstracts at 2 AM, who notices when her desk height is wrong, who looks at her like she's the one variable in his empire he didn't account for.
Lea knows exactly what this is. She's too smart not to.
The problem is — so does he.
A slow-burn forbidden contract romance set in Montreal.
Lea Rousseau is twenty-three years old, working three jobs, finishing her master's thesis, and slowly drowning alongside a father whose gambling debts have reached the wrong people. She doesn't scare easily — fear has been the background hum of her life for so long she's stopped hearing it.
Damien Kavinsky is the kind of man rooms rearrange themselves around. Billionaire. Calculated. Five years of keeping every relationship transactional, every door locked from the inside.
Then a cocktail waitress spills Scotch on his shirt and offers — with trembling hands and a balance of $300 — to pay for it.
He finds her the next morning. The offer is three months as his public partner, attending galas and board dinners, convincing his investors he's the kind of man who stays. In exchange, her father's $152,000 disappears.
She signs.
He rewrites the terms.
Now she's living in his penthouse, sleeping down the hall from a man who reads her thesis abstracts at 2 AM, who notices when her desk height is wrong, who looks at her like she's the one variable in his empire he didn't account for.
Lea knows exactly what this is. She's too smart not to.
The problem is — so does he.
A slow-burn forbidden contract romance set in Montreal.
- GenresAmazon
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 1, 2026
Did not like Book Don't Waste Your Time!
This was a very Disappointing book. I did finish it but it was a very real struggle.
The writing was so stilted and formal that the characters had absolutely no personality. Zip, Zero, Zilch
I disliked the FMC, Lea, so much. She thought herself so much smarter than everyone else and she didn't hesitate to let them know that. There were things she was researching and discovering that were total unrealistic. There was no way on this earth that she could have found access to that kind of information without being in the Dark Web, which she wasn't. She was researching for a college thesis paper for crying out loud!! If she was supposed to come across as a strong female lead it failed miserably. She was pushy and self important.
The MMC, Damien, was supposed to be this alpha male but she walked all over him. His character came across as weak.
The worse thing was that it ended on a cliffhanger and no where did it say that this was multiple books. I am definitely NOT wasting any more time on this story. The story was so boring I couldn't care less about how it ends.
I'm just glad this book was a freebie and I didn't pay good money for it!
This was a very Disappointing book. I did finish it but it was a very real struggle.
The writing was so stilted and formal that the characters had absolutely no personality. Zip, Zero, Zilch
I disliked the FMC, Lea, so much. She thought herself so much smarter than everyone else and she didn't hesitate to let them know that. There were things she was researching and discovering that were total unrealistic. There was no way on this earth that she could have found access to that kind of information without being in the Dark Web, which she wasn't. She was researching for a college thesis paper for crying out loud!! If she was supposed to come across as a strong female lead it failed miserably. She was pushy and self important.
The MMC, Damien, was supposed to be this alpha male but she walked all over him. His character came across as weak.
The worse thing was that it ended on a cliffhanger and no where did it say that this was multiple books. I am definitely NOT wasting any more time on this story. The story was so boring I couldn't care less about how it ends.
I'm just glad this book was a freebie and I didn't pay good money for it!
February 28, 2026
Good story. One spoiler.
Damien and Lea join forces to bring down a Russian mob. Lea is strategic and doesn't tolerate it when Damien thinks he's protecting her when he doesn't tell her things she should know right away. There are action and steamy scenes. There are twists in the I did not like it when Lea rearranged Damien's books on his shelf.
Damien and Lea join forces to bring down a Russian mob. Lea is strategic and doesn't tolerate it when Damien thinks he's protecting her when he doesn't tell her things she should know right away. There are action and steamy scenes. There are twists in the I did not like it when Lea rearranged Damien's books on his shelf.
March 4, 2026
unique
It was a romance story with a lot of extras. I enjoyed the brilliance of Lea and how she broke through a complex problem. It also wasn’t so graphic and was enjoyable to read.
It was a romance story with a lot of extras. I enjoyed the brilliance of Lea and how she broke through a complex problem. It also wasn’t so graphic and was enjoyable to read.
March 20, 2026
My kind of book\story.
Three pages in, I am hooked. The writing, characters, the setting, the tension....all are fantastic. I sit and read until book one is done. Wow.... everything I love. !!! And More
Three pages in, I am hooked. The writing, characters, the setting, the tension....all are fantastic. I sit and read until book one is done. Wow.... everything I love. !!! And More
March 21, 2026
While the plot was good, there was too much self-reflection for me. The book's formatting made it difficult to follow. Will not be continuing with the series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews