The House Guest

After her aunt and her aunt's billionaire husband die unexpectedly while traveling, the narrator is left alone in their mansion. She had been living with the couple, and with no plan for what comes next, she stays on in the empty estate and sets up a painting studio in the living room.

Then Dorian Vanderbilt arrives. He is the late billionaire's only son and sole heir, and he has lived on the other side of the country for years. The two have never met. He finds her mid-brushstroke, in a crop top, in a room he never expected to see turned over to art.

Dorian is cool toward her at first, and she is relieved simply not to be thrown out. They are opposites who keep to their own corners of the house, apart from late-night meetings in the kitchen and evenings that turn into easy company in the home theater.

Slowly the distance closes, and the chemistry between them proves hard to ignore. This is a contemporary romance told in the first person, and it stands alone. Just as she realizes she is falling for him, her footing gives way once more, and the man she loves may be the one she cannot keep.