KNEEL by Victor P. Watts

I don't take orders. Not from my father, not from the board, and definitely not from the infuriating, impossible man who just became my boss. Danielle Kelly clawed her way out of a childhood spent under her father's thumb, and she swore the day she left his house that no one would ever tell her who to be again. She's spent seven years becoming un-controllable — independent, exacting, allergic to authority in any form. Landing the lead architect seat on the most ambitious build of her career should feel like victory. It would, if the seat didn't come with Julian Cross standing over it. Julian built his firm — and himself — on discipline. Every emotion contained, every impulse leashed, every want denied until it's earned. He has exactly one place where he lets that control go somewhere else entirely, and the moment Danielle Kelly walks into his boardroom, sharp-tongued and unimpressed by his money or his name, he knows exactly what he wants to do with her. He also knows exactly why he shouldn't. He broke someone once, by wanting too much. He's not supposed to want like this again. What starts as friction over blueprints and deadlines turns into something neither of them has language for — a pull that has nothing to do with the org chart and everything to do with the parts of themselves they've never shown anyone. Danielle has never wanted to hand over control. Julian has never trusted himself enough to ask for it. Between them, they're going to have to figure out which terrifies them more: losing themselves, or being fully seen. Some blueprints aren't meant to be followed. Some are meant to be redrawn. Tropes: Boss/Employee Romance, Dominant Hero/Sub Awakening, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Guarded Heroine, Alpha Billionaire, Slow Burn to High Heat Steamy, emotionally intense, and unapologetically possessive — a workplace romance that turns the power dynamic all the way up.