Owned in the Shadows - Matli Unicorn

Owned In The Shadows (The Kallias Dynasty - Book 1): A Forbidden Best Friend's Dad Age-Gap Romance An elite, high-angst MM billionaire age-gap romance about past obsessions, dangerous secrets, and the line between protection and possession. Book 1 of The Kallias Dynasty Three years ago on the Spanish coast, a single night altered the trajectory of two lives. For Hero, penniless and drowning in the wreckage of his late father’s debts, the enigmatic stranger on the luxury yacht was an escape—a temporary reprieve from a crushing reality. For Maximilian Kallias, a shipping magnate who built an empire on cold precision and ruthless control, the quiet, captivating boy was a rare, dangerous lapse in judgment. Before the sun rose over Puerto Banús, Maximilian vanished, leaving Hero with nothing but a phantom memory and a quiet ache that time couldn't dull. Now twenty-two and rebuilding his life on a scholarship, Hero believes the past is buried. When his closest friend, Elias, invites him to spend the summer at the Kallias family’s private estate in the Hamptons, it feels like a glimpse into a world Hero was never meant to inhabit. Then a brutal coastal storm strays him off course, stranding him before he reaches the gates. And the man who steps out of the shadow to pull him from the deluge isn't a stranger. It’s Maximilian. Powerful, possessive, and wearing a platinum wedding band, the billionaire head of the Kallias empire isn't just Hero’s elusive host. He is his best friend's father—and the man who took his heart three years ago. Trapped together as state authorities shut down the roads, the forced proximity pulls old embers into a suffocating fire. To Maximilian, coincidences do not exist; suspicious of Hero's sudden presence in his son's life, his instinct is to protect his family at all costs. Yet the intense, dark gravity pulling him toward Hero remains untouched by time. Bound by duty, separated by age and wealth, and hunted by the secrets they keep, staying apart is the only logical choice. But in the quiet isolation of the storm, logic is the first thing to burn. OWNED IN THE SHADOWS is Book 1 of The Kallias Dynasty series. It is an ongoing sequential story featuring Hero and Maximilian. Their journey begins here and continues in Part 2. Intended for mature readers.