I came back to Blackthorn Cove to rebuild my life, not destroy it.
The plan was simple: survive the summer, help my mother, keep my head down, and stay far away from the kind of trouble that had already cost me too much. What I did not plan for was him.
Julian Cross was always the man I should never have wanted.
My best friend''s father.
Older. Untouchable. Controlled to the point of cruelty.
The kind of man who wears authority like a second skin and makes even silence feel dangerous.
I spent years pretending he was only part of the background of my life — a voice at the head of the table, a distant presence in a house full of old money and sharp secrets, a man too forbidden to ever become real to me.
Then I came back grown, and he looked at me like I had become a problem he could no longer afford to ignore.
What begins as tension turns into something far more dangerous.
Stolen glances become private moments.
Private moments become lies.
And somewhere between desire and disgrace, I make the worst mistake of my life:
I fall in love with the one man who can ruin everything.
Because wanting Julian is not only forbidden — it is catastrophic. If the truth comes out, it will not just destroy us. It will shatter the one person neither of us can bear to betray.
And in a town like this, ruin always looks better on men like him.
His Beautiful Ruin is a steamy, emotionally intense forbidden romance featuring a best friend’s father, age gap tension, old-money secrets, mutual obsession, and a love that refuses to stay hidden.
The plan was simple: survive the summer, help my mother, keep my head down, and stay far away from the kind of trouble that had already cost me too much. What I did not plan for was him.
Julian Cross was always the man I should never have wanted.
My best friend''s father.
Older. Untouchable. Controlled to the point of cruelty.
The kind of man who wears authority like a second skin and makes even silence feel dangerous.
I spent years pretending he was only part of the background of my life — a voice at the head of the table, a distant presence in a house full of old money and sharp secrets, a man too forbidden to ever become real to me.
Then I came back grown, and he looked at me like I had become a problem he could no longer afford to ignore.
What begins as tension turns into something far more dangerous.
Stolen glances become private moments.
Private moments become lies.
And somewhere between desire and disgrace, I make the worst mistake of my life:
I fall in love with the one man who can ruin everything.
Because wanting Julian is not only forbidden — it is catastrophic. If the truth comes out, it will not just destroy us. It will shatter the one person neither of us can bear to betray.
And in a town like this, ruin always looks better on men like him.
His Beautiful Ruin is a steamy, emotionally intense forbidden romance featuring a best friend’s father, age gap tension, old-money secrets, mutual obsession, and a love that refuses to stay hidden.
Used availability for Christin Wales's His Beautiful Run