The silent master

Jaxson Thorne: His arc is about finding a different kind of strength. He starts by thinking power is about being the loudest, biggest person in the room. He ends by realizing that true power is the choice to serve someone he loves. Elias Vance: His arc is about coming out of his shell. He has all the money but no one he can trust. Jax provides the safety he needs to finally stop hiding.

Chapters

Chapter 2

Elias's "office" wasn't a room; it was a cathedral of glass and humming servers at the heart of the estate. The temperature was precisely sixty-eight degrees.

Elias sat behind a desk made of a single slab of translucent obsidian. He didn't look up as Jax entered. He was typing with a rhythmic, frantic speed, his eyes reflecting the blue light of three floating monitors.

"Sit," Elias commanded. He didn't point to a chair.

Jax looked around. There were no chairs on his side of the desk. He remained standing, his arms crossed over his chest, his presence taking up enough space for three men. "I prefer to stand."

The typing stopped. Elias looked up, his grey eyes narrowed behind thin-rimmed glasses Jax hadn't seen earlier. "In this house, preference is a luxury you've forfeited. If I tell you to sit, you find a way to lower your center of gravity. However..." He leaned back, his slight frame disappearing into the shadows of his chair. "Since you're so fond of your height, let's discuss how you'll be using it."

Elias swiped a hand across the air, and a holographic display projected a list between them.

"The terms of your 'employment' are non-negotiable," Elias said. "Rule one: You are my shadow, but you are a silent one. You do not speak to my guests, my board, or my competitors unless I specifically address you. You are a ghost with a pulse."

Jax's jaw tightened so hard it ached. "You want a bodyguard. Just say it."

"I want an extension of my will," Elias corrected softly. "Rule two: Total accessibility. You sleep in the suite connected to mine. If I have a nightmare, if I have an idea at 3:00 AM, if I require a glass of water-you are there. You do not leave the grounds without my express permission."

"I'm an assistant, not a butler," Jax spat. "And I'm certainly not a servant."

Elias stood up. He walked around the obsidian desk, his movements fluid and strangely graceful for someone so fragile-looking. He stopped inches from Jax. The top of his head barely reached Jax's chin. The scent of sandalwood and something metallic-like a computer cooling system-wafted off him.

"You are whatever I need you to be, Jaxson," Elias whispered. "Forty-two million dollars buys a lot of 'whatever.' Rule three: Physical boundaries. You do not touch me. Not to guide me through a crowd, not to steady me, not for any reason unless my life is in immediate, verifiable danger. Do you understand?"

Jax looked down at him. From this close, he could see the slight tremor in Elias's fingers, hidden in the folds of his sweater. The man was a bundle of raw nerves wrapped in a billion-dollar ego.

"Understood," Jax gritted out.

"Good. Rule four: You will attend the solstice gala with me tomorrow night. You will wear the suit I've laid out for you. You will stand exactly two paces behind my left shoulder. You will look intimidating, you will stay silent, and you will not let anyone-anyone-get within three feet of me."

Elias turned his back, returning to his desk as if Jax had already ceased to exist. "Dismissed. Go find the kitchen. You look like you require a staggering amount of calories to maintain that much useless muscle."

Jax turned and walked out, the automatic glass doors hissing shut behind him. He made it halfway down the hallway before he slammed his fist into the reinforced wall. The sting in his knuckles was the only thing that felt real.

He had survived IEDs in the desert and hostile takeovers in Manhattan. But standing two paces behind a man who looked like a stiff breeze could break him?

That was going to be the hardest mission of his life.

Continue to next part

Aurora Sinclair thought she had closed the chapter on Damian Blackwood, the man she once loved, married, and walked away from. But when he unexpectedly comes back into her life, she realizes their story is far from over. Damian is the heir to Blackwood Enterprises, a corporate empire built on deceit, betrayal, and secrets darker than Aurora ever knew. For years, he obeyed his ruthless father's every demand, even marrying someone else to keep Aurora safe. But now, he's done playing by his father's rules. He's ready to reclaim the company his late mother built, expose the crimes that destroyed his family, and protect the woman he's never stopped loving. As old wounds reopen and dangerous enemies close in, Damian and Aurora are drawn together once more and bound by passion, loyalty, and a shared determination to end the nightmare once and for all. But with betrayal around every corner, they must face a chilling question: can they survive the past... and have a future together?

Billionaire Modern Romance

9.0

His Unwanted Wife Is A Dying Genius

9.0

The biopsy report slid across the cold metal desk, stamped with a brutal death sentence: advanced gastric cancer. Aretha had exactly ninety days left to live. It was her twenty-sixth birthday, but her phone only rang with a furious call from her husband, Anders. "Do you have any idea how much of a joke you made this family look like today? Post a public apology to Kelli right now." He had completely forgotten her birthday, only caring that she skipped her adopted sister's yacht party. When Aretha dragged her failing body back to the family estate, her biological mother slapped her across the face just for looking pale and embarrassing them in front of guests. Seeing Aretha wasn't submitting to the usual abuse, Kelli deliberately threw herself down the stairs, playing the innocent, depressed victim. Anders rushed in and shoved Aretha brutally against the wall to protect Kelli, while her biological father delivered his ultimate threat. "I am freezing your trust fund. Get on your knees and apologize to Kelli right now, or you won't see another dime." A massive, suffocating sense of absurdity washed over Aretha. She had spent six years lowering her head and begging for their approval, only to be treated like a disposable placeholder. Why should she spend her final days enduring this agonizing torture for people who didn't even care if she breathed? Aretha wiped the blood from her chin and laughed. She publicly severed all ties with her family, whipped the signed divorce papers directly at Anders's face, and walked out into the freezing storm—ready to fight for her own life.

Action Modern Romance

8.4

I Gave Up After Failing To Pull My Lover

8.4

On her twentieth birthday, a woman is forced to choose a husband between two brothers to secure an inheritance. After years of trying to draw the long straw for William, she cheats to marry him. A decade later, her husband has become a monster who lets her suffer a fatal asthma attack to avenge a lost love. Reborn at the moment of the draw, she realizes the game was rigged. Abandoning her obsession, she calmly accepts the short straw and chooses Austin instead.

Modern Mystery Romance

9.2

My Boyfriend Rejected Harvard Offer, I Rejected Him

9.2

After living to eighty-eight as a wealthy widow, the protagonist discovers her late husband, Felix, died in agony because she forced him into a life he never wanted. Having manipulated his path to Harvard and marriage, she realizes she was merely a side character in his tragic love story with another woman. Reborn on the day Felix rejects his Ivy League offer, she decides to stop interfering. Instead of dragging him toward success, she lets him chase his freedom while she finally prioritizes her own future.

Billionaire Fantasy Modern Romance Young Adult

9.3

My Mate Rejected Me While I Was in Labor

9.3

At 11:42 p.m. under the Blood Moon, her water breaks—and the mate bond snaps into place, not with warmth, but with Gideon's icy disdain. He commands every healer away, leaving her to deliver alone on the cold floor, bleeding, after five years of living as his pack's voiceless shadow. Her wolf won't submit, clawing against his Alpha order with feral defiance. She rises, swearing no tears—only the rage that's been simmering beneath, ready to ignite.

Action Modern Romance Werewolf

8.0

Nowhere To Run From The Cold-Hearted CEO's Obsession

8.0

Aurora didn't cry when Grayson dumped her; she vanished after his line, "Wherever I am, you can't show up." Three years on, she returned as the city's star anchor; he watched nightly, haunted. Five years on, free of his family's leash, he staged a dinner to win her back. She met him like a stranger and refused. Learning she was engaged to his nephew, he dropped restraint. By any means, he would reclaim her. As she walked away, his voice shook. "Until I die, I won't let go." In college she'd chased him, not knowing he was a Rockefeller-until his father's snub proved the gulf she'd never cross. Whether it was five years ago or now, they were never meant to be, she thought.

Billionaire Horror Modern

The silent master

Chapter 2

You may also like