Chapter 1

Juno

In the spacious, dimly lit performance room, I gripped the spinning pole and danced, shedding my clothes one piece at a time until they lay scattered across the floor.

By the time the last garment fell, I wore nothing but a set of seductive lace lingerie, the amber light casting an alluring softness across my pale skin. I bit gently on my lower lip, letting my eyes settle on Leo with a bewitching gaze.

His breathing had turned sharp and ragged. The large hand gripping the armrest of his chair strained until the veins stood out, and his eyes burned with restrained desire.

I was the most famous stripper in this city, and I had been Leo's kept mistress for the past year. Pleasing him was the only way I had to survive.

"Juno, come here."

Leo's voice was hoarse as he patted his thigh. I could tell he was aroused.

I let go of the pole and moved toward him on my long, slender legs, step by step, until I settled into his lap. His hand drifted to my chest as if on autopilot, kneading until the flesh yielded and reshaped beneath his fingers.

"Leo, you can do anything you want to me now…"

I leaned close to his ear, listening to his uneven breaths, and worked my body against his all the more eagerly. I slid my hand into his trousers, and only after considerable effort did I coax any response from him.

Leo was already fifty—not impatient and quick to the edge the way younger men were.

Through the thin lace of my underwear, I left a wet stain on his lap as I sat there, letting him grope and explore my body. My head tilted back, and my suppressed yet enticing gasps filled the entire room with a lurid, heavy air.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sudden rapping at the door doused the tent Leo had finally managed to raise.

"Dad, come out quick—my brother's hurt."

Outside came the anxious voice of a boy. That was Orion, Leo's second son.

Orion was eighteen this year, a college freshman, a quiet and obedient child. But this obedient child was rather a killjoy. This was already the second time today that Orion had interrupted my plans with Leo.

The first time, he'd claimed the bathroom pipe had broken. It was the sort of thing any plumber could have fixed, yet he'd hurriedly called Leo away from my bed. And now again.

Leo's body stiffened, the searing heat draining away in an instant, and I climbed off his thigh.

"Juno, let me go check first."

I rose obediently and gathered my clothes from the floor, slipping them back on one by one. I was only Leo's mistress; I had never dreamed of usurping the place of his two sons.

Once we had both straightened our clothing, we left the performance room.

On the sofa sat the older boy, a wound on his forehead. He lifted his eyes to me—those irises a clear, limpid sapphire blue.

Caleb was nineteen this year, already a sophomore. Both he and Orion had been born to Leo's late wife. The two boys seemed well-behaved and gentle, but only in front of Leo. Caleb's hostility toward me ran deeper, perhaps, than I could imagine.

"What happened?" Leo looked at his eldest son with concern.

For an instant Caleb pulled his gaze away from me. His voice, already broken into a man's, was low and firm, cold and without warmth.

"Roughhousing with a friend. Got hurt by accident."

I stood off to the side, hands folded respectfully in front of me, and shook my head with feigned regret.

"How awful. That wound needs tending to right away."

I liked to think that, ever since Leo had taken me in, I had behaved with the utmost meekness. I had no ambition, never plotted against the two brothers, Caleb and Orion, and had never once asked Leo for a title. There was only one thing I wanted: money.

Yet no matter how low a profile I kept, the moment I finished speaking Caleb's gaze snapped to me, brimming with disgust—as if the very act of my speaking were a crime.

Just then, Leo stepped aside to take a phone call. It seemed to be company business; his expression darkened, and when he returned his tone had dropped considerably.

"Juno, tend to Caleb's wound. Something's come up and I have to go to the office."

I nodded my agreement, and Caleb and Orion answered with the same well-behaved air.

But once Leo was gone and I returned to Caleb's side with the first-aid kit, his expression changed completely. Those deep-blue eyes locked onto me like a viper lying in wait in the dead of night—dangerous, deadly.

I pretended not to notice. I picked up a cotton ball soaked in alcohol, but the moment it was about to touch Caleb's forehead, he jerked his head aside to avoid it.

"Get away. Don't touch me."

His voice was noticeably lower than before, his contempt undisguised. Away from Leo's presence, Caleb was like a beast slipping free of its restraints. He sat on the sofa looking down at me, like the king of the forest sneering at some weakling of a lesser species.

Barely of age, and already Caleb carried himself with such an air—truly, he took after Leo. But in my eyes, he was still just a child.

I showed none of the fear Caleb had expected. I only curved my lips into a smile, sat down beside him, and held him firmly in place as I disinfected the wound.

"Caleb, don't be so tense. We aren't enemies."

My voice was soft and gentle, without a trace of threat. Even Caleb's wary eyes eased a little. The sting of the alcohol made him draw a sharp breath, his nerves tightening again.

He knit his brows and looked at me. "You've been at the Cavendish estate a full year now, haven't you?"

My hand paused. I gave a soft murmur of assent. I knew what Caleb meant.

After their mother's death, Leo's lovers had been beyond counting; before me, countless women had moved into this estate. But without exception, they lasted only a few months before Leo tired of them and found someone new. The longest had lasted just half a year. And I had lasted a full year—twice as long as any of them.

Perhaps Caleb thought I'd used some scheme, that I meant to become the lady of the Cavendish estate. But all I had done was be obedient enough.

After that Caleb at least stopped dodging, letting me finish dressing the wound.

Then I left the mansion. Though I was Leo's mistress, I wasn't allowed to live in the house reserved for the three of them. I stayed with the estate's servants in the servants' quarters across the way, only coming over when I was needed.

Back in my room, I saw a message on my phone. It was a debt collector.

When I was young, my father's business had gone bankrupt, saddling the family with an enormous debt. My father took his own life, my mother died of illness, and the debt fell to me alone.

I checked the balance on my bank card—not even enough to cover this month's payment. As Leo's mistress, I earned a salary of a hundred thousand dollars a month, but that was barely enough to make a single month's payment. Today was payday, yet the money hadn't come in.

I still didn't know when Leo would be home. Maybe I could go wait in his room. There was only Caleb and Orion in the mansion. Orion was a good boy, but I had no wish to run into Caleb.

I picked up a pair of binoculars and looked out the window toward the building across from mine.

In Orion's window, he sat at his desk, dutifully doing his homework. I shifted my gaze to the right, and Caleb's face—beautiful in a fiercely aggressive way—appeared in the lens.

The two buildings stood dozens of feet apart, yet Caleb's eyes fixed on me with perfect precision, as if he could see straight through the binoculars and into my thoughts.

Had he been watching me this whole time?