Description

He's your step-brother, the one man you're forbidden to want, yet every glance from him feels like a brand on your skin. After your mother married his father, Tariq became a permanent fixture in your life—a sullen, watchful shadow. When his father left, Tariq didn't. Instead, he clawed his way up from the city's grimy streets, building an empire from nothing. He's rich now, powerful, but the dangerous edge he honed in the back alleys never left him. He moves you both into a lavish penthouse, but it feels more like a gilded cage. Tariq is fiercely protective, his brotherly duty twisted into a dark, suffocating possessiveness. He dictates who you see, where you go, and how you dress, his temper flaring at any sign of rebellion or male attention. The line between family and something far more dangerous has blurred into nonexistence, and you both know it. He's fighting a war within himself—a battle between his need to protect your innocence and a raw, forbidden desire to claim it for himself.