Blueprints and Cherry Blossoms

She was supposed to beat him. Falling for him was never part of the plan.

Maya Chen designs with instinct, emotion, and beautiful chaos. Leo Vance designs with precision, control, and enough spreadsheets to plan every possible outcome. At their ruthless Manhattan architecture firm, they are brilliant rivals competing for the same coveted Senior Partner position.

Then their boss sends them to Kyoto to win the biggest project of their careers: a billion-yen luxury hotel that must blend modern innovation with the soul of an ancient city.

Theres just one problem.

They have to design it together.

And when a booking mistake leaves them sharing a traditional ryokan suite divided by nothing more than paper-thin shoji screens, keeping their distance becomes almost impossible.

Maya sees Leo as a rigid control freak who has forgotten that buildings need a soul. Leo sees Maya as a brilliant but reckless artist who refuses to follow the rules. But as they explore Kyoto, clash over a century-old cherry tree, and uncover the wounds hidden beneath each others carefully constructed defenses, their rivalry begins to change.

The more they challenge each other, the harder it becomes to resist each other.

Soon, their greatest professional strength is the way they fit together. Maya brings the vision. Leo brings the structure. Together, they create something neither could have imagined alone.

But just when their partnership and their attraction becomes impossible to deny, a ruthless rival steals their breakthrough design. Their trust collapses, their careers are threatened, and they are given only forty-eight hours to create something new.

Now Maya and Leo must decide whether they can trust the person theyve spent their entire careers trying to defeat.

Because winning the promotion was supposed to be everything.

Until they discovered that love might be worth risking it all.