Make You Mine

This outstanding, unabashedly sexy sequel to Mine to Take, continuing a series about a quartet of misfit billionaires, pulls out all the stops for emotional drama and exquisite passion. When playboy Alex St. James obtains an invitation to the legendary Apocalypse poker game at the Four Horsemen club in Monte Carlo, he knows he must play—not for money, but for a chance at revenge against the man who sexually abused him. He convinces Katya Ivanova, his icy, virginal bodyguard, to pretend to be his lover in exchange for extracting her fiancé from Chechnya. Katya refuses to tolerate Alex’s self-protective arrogance, breaking down his defenses with the skill of a martial artist, but their burgeoning romance puts them both at risk. Ashenden plays on the romantic trope of the sexy billionaire, but the core of the novel is a vivid story of how those who have been betrayed by family construct new connections for their sanity and survival. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary. (May)