(Kingmaker Series, #1)
Publication date: March 12th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

I’m not the sort of girl you take home to meet your parents.

But our marriage of convenience is the perfect revenge…

I find Darren Walker drowning himself in expensive whiskey. Young, handsome, and educated, he’s the playboy son of a U.S. Senator, and his father’s sudden death has hit him harder than expected.

When he offers me millions of dollars to marry him, I want to tell him that I can’t be bought.

But of course, that’s not true, and Darren is prepared to play dirty.

He’s made it his life’s mission to squander his potential in order to avoid living in his father’s shadow. But if he wants to see even one cent of his trust fund, he needs a wife. And not just any wife will do.

Ours will purely be a marriage of convenience, and I’m going to be his final, perfect revenge.

My name is Evangeline Bowen, and I’m an escort to the rich and powerful. But soon I’ll be the wife of a Senator’s son, who thinks he knows all my dark secrets.

All of them, except for one…

King of Nothing is the first book in The Kingmaker trilogy, a steamy marriage of convenience romance full of political scandal. The books must be read in order for the best reader experience.

Excerpt

The tilt of her head causes fine pieces of hair to caress the side of her neck, and I want to run my finger over the arch, across her shoulder, and push the strap of her dress down so I can kiss the top of it, but I don’t. Instead, I hold my breath, wondering what she’s thinking, because her silence is killing me… and every moment she breathes instead of speaks causes a painful beat of my heart.

“It’s Emerson,” I say, stepping forward to stand next to her.

“I know,” she says with a hint of humor.

“You don’t like it?” I ask. “Because we can go back if you…”

“Shut up, Darren.”

I do as I’m told, shoving my hands in my pockets and rocking back on my heels. She looks at the photograph as if she’s memorizing every detail, and I find myself jealous of her attention to something other than me.

When I can’t stand the silence anymore, I ask, “He’s not a particularly good-looking gentleman is he?”

The profile accentuates his large nose and prominent chin. I realize I’ve never studied what Emerson looked like, only his words. But now, scrutinizing his picture, I can see why.

“It’s not just about someone’s physical appearance,” she says without looking away from the photograph, “it’s his words; what’s in his heart, and how he lives his life,” she continues. “I think he’s kind of beautiful.”

The way she talks about Emerson is hypnotizing – describing what’s below skin and muscle to one’s soul is the true meaning of beauty.

The piece of Emerson I used to hate belonged to my father – self-righteous and hypocritical. She strips away all the awful parts, allowing me to see a new version of him. Just as she threatens to make me fall in love with him, I begin to wonder.

“Who made you fall in love with Emerson?” I ask, and she finally turns to face me, her wide blue eyes filled with trepidation, and I feel as though my question has hit the vulnerable muscle between bone and tendon like the piercing of an arrow.

“Who says I’m in love with Emerson?” she asks, and it’s not lost on me that she’s evading my question, but I’m too distracted by the way her body moves and the red silk of her dress that leaves little to the imagination to keep hold of my thoughts.

“No love can be bound by oath or covenant to secure it against a higher love,” I provide her with a particularly lovely quote by Emerson.

“Nobody talks like that anymore,” she says, a romanticism in her eyes and her voice that makes me sad, because I’ve lost that innocence—or maybe I never had it to begin with—but I want a piece of it. I want to sink my teeth into it and shiver from its sweetness.

“It’s a dead language, like Latin,” I muse.

“Not dead. Just lost.”

I sniff, loosening my bowtie and spinning around the room to look at all of the other framed photographs and paintings. “Have you ever had a client recite poetry to you in bed?” I ask. “Is that a kink?”

“That’s a vulgar question.”

“I’m a vulgar man.”

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About the Author

Paula Dombrowiak grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois but currently lives in Arizona. She is the author of Blood and Bone, her first adult romance novel which combines her love of music and imperfect relationships. Paula is a lifelong music junkie, whose wardrobe consists of band T-shirts and leggings which are perpetually covered in pet hair. She is a sucker for a redeemable villain, bad boys, and the tragically flawed. Music inspires her storytelling.

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