Total Loss

One man preserves the dead for a living. The other buries the truth for a paycheck.Joe Harding's taxidermy studio is gone. Reduced to ash in a suspicious fire that took thirty years of work with it. He should be devastated. Instead, he feels a terrifying sense of relief. He was ready to walk away from the family legacy he secretly hated; the fire just gave him an excuse. Now, he just needs the insurance payout to disappear and start over.Patrick O'Donnell is the obstacle standing in his way.As a fraud investigator, Patrick has built a career on weaponized sunshine. He wears Italian suits like armor and uses a dazzling smile to charm secrets out of claimants before denying their payouts. He knows human nature, and he knows that when a man is happy his livelihood burned down, it's usually fraud.But Patrick's usual tricks don't work on Joe. Joe is prickly, uncharmed, and immune to the performance Patrick uses to keep the world at bay.What begins as a hostile investigation quickly turns into a visceral, scorching attraction. But as Patrick digs past the surface, he uncovers a threat far more dangerous than simple arson. Someone else is obsessed with Joe's legacy-someone who burned the studio to "save" it.Suddenly, the man who exposes lies for a living must make an impossible choice: finish the job and destroy Joe's future, or burn down his own career to protect the man who finally sees the real him. Aspen Hartley writes stories for those who dare to follow desire wherever it leads. Her work spans every orientation, every fetish, and every taboo, embracing the full spectrum of intimacy without judgment. Whether tender and romantic or dark and transgressive, her writing is an invitation to step beyond boundaries and discover pleasure in its rawest, most honest form.Aspen lives in a quiet corner of the UK, where the ordinary rhythms of daily life contrast beautifully with the secret, unspoken worlds she builds on the page. She writes with curiosity, compassion, and a fearless devotion to exploring the many ways we love, surrender, and transform through intimacy.When she isn't writing, Aspen enjoys long walks beneath open skies, the comfort of a good glass of wine, and the guilty thrill of staying up too late with a book she can't put down.For Aspen, erotica isn't just about sex-it's about truth, freedom, and connection. And she's always eager to share that journey with readers who are just as curious as she is.