Cruel Grace

A Dark Stalker Romance (The Ashcombe Files Book 1)

By: Sloane James

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Author's note: This is not a blood-and-bruises dark romance. Simon Carew has never raised his hand to a woman in his life. He doesn't need to. His weapons are old money, patient obsession, and the kind of influence that makes your life fall apart so politely you thank him for catching you. If you want a knife at the throat, this isn't your book. If you want a man who will quietly dismantle your entire existence so you have nowhere to go but his arms... welcome to Ashcombe

I should have run the first time I caught him watching me.

I'm a cabaret dancer in Soho. I'm used to men watching. The ones with money think they own whatever they're looking at. I know the type. I've been dodging them since I was old enough to notice.

Simon Carew is not the type. Simon Carew is something else entirely.

A viscount. An heir. The golden boy of a family so old and powerful they don't need to threaten anyone — the world just bends. He's charming and beautiful and every woman in every room he walks into feels it in her chest before she's formed a single thought about him.

And he's been watching me for weeks.

He knows my schedule. My shifts. My morning runs. He knows I tuck my hair behind my left ear when I think no one's looking. He knows my rent just went up and my flatmate can't cover it.

He knows because he made it happen.

When my life collapses — the flat, the job, the money, all of it, all at once — he's the only one left with his hand out. A country estate. A thousand acres of moorland. No phone signal. No neighbours. No one who answers to anyone but him.

I tell myself I'll leave tomorrow.

Every morning I tell myself tomorrow.

Every night his hands find me in the dark and I stop pretending I want to go.

The most terrifying thing about Simon Carew isn't what he's done to my life.

It's what he's done to the part of me that used to want one.

Cruel Grace is a dark stalker romance set in the world of English aristocracy. If you love the psychological warfare of L.J. Shen, the slow-burn tension of Danielle Lori, and the elite obsession of Rina Kent, this is your next read.

• Stalker/obsession
• Calculated obsession — he engineered every coincidence
• Gilded cage captivity
• British aristocracy / Viscount hero
• Working class heroine
• He falls first and falls hard
• Possessive, morally dark hero who doesn't get redeemed
• Forced proximity — a thousand acres of moorland, no neighbours, no signal
• Cerebral slow-burn — the tension is in what he doesn't do
• His control is the most erotic thing about him
• Psychological manipulation — his weapons are wealth and patience
• Dubious consent — not in the bedroom, in every room around it
• Touch her and die
• Past trauma and abuse
• Class warfare — she's Deptford, he's old stone and older money
• Slow burn to scorching
• HEA guaranteed