Royal Desire (The Manor)

Angsty second-chance romance with a twist...

I ran away from Winslet years ago with a broken heart, a shattered future, and the knowledge I could never return.
Not for my family.
Not for the memories.
And definitely not for Payne Deacon, the boy who owned my heart.
He was my childhood best friend. My safe place. My first love. My everything. He knew every ugly piece of me and loved me anyway—right up until I destroyed us and didn’t look back.
Now I’m home and trying to outrun the dangerous mess I left behind in New York.
What I didn’t expect was the force of Payne.
The sweet, loyal friend I grew to love is gone, replaced by a man who looks at me like I'm the biggest regret of his life. He’s cold and powerful, with sharp whiskey eyes, a brutal mouth, and enough resentment to make every room feel small.
He’s infuriating, devastatingly handsome, and somehow still capable of making my pulse race with a single look.
The problem? I never got over him. And avoiding each other in a small town is impossible.
Every argument feels like foreplay.
Every touch feels like a second chance.
Payne doesn’t know the truth about why I ran. And if the demons chasing me finally catch up, it won’t just destroy me.
It would take him and everyone else I love down too.
Losing him once nearly ended me.
I won’t survive it twice.