Touch Me Not: (Noir Edition) (Malaya Duet) Paperback – July 18, 2025

You can't break something you can't touch.My name is Malaya. It means "freedom," like some cruel joke. I escaped one cage only to crawl into the jaws of another.Alessandro didn’t save me. He took advantage of my desperation. He wrapped it in a mask of mercy, a marriage to his nephew. Papers signed in silence. A roof over my head. Outside, it looks like paradise, but to me, it’s hell.Every word out of his lips is a lie wrapped in expensive gifts. His praise is poison. I was never family. I was a house fixture locked in his fortress.I’m his delicate doll. Untouched. Unsullied. As if a single breath would ruin the fantasy he’s built in his head. He watches me like I’m already his. Every inch. His. An unwrapped possession.He confesses his sins to me like I would absolve him of them. Before he bids me good night, he sheds his gloves like a ritual. With hands that have killed, they brush my skin, gentle and wrong. His lips find the back of my hands. Like a prayer, he begs for my obedience.He tells me it’s to protect me. That I’m better this way, but I see the hunger in his eyes. The trepidation. He’s not afraid I’ll break. He’s afraid he will.But Is this all I’ll measure up to? I won’t let the dust settle on this doll. He’s built his world out of rules and lies. Me?I will set every one of them on fire. Read more