King of Pride

Ana Huang is a USA Today, international, and No.1 Amazon bestselling author. Best known for her Twisted series, she writes New Adult and contemporary romance with deliciously alpha heroes, strong heroines, and plenty of steam, angst, and swoon sprinkled in. Her books have been sold to over two dozen foreign publishers for translation and featured in outlets such as NPR, Cosmopolitan, Financial Times, and Glamour UK. A self-professed travel enthusiast, she loves incorporating beautiful destinations into her stories and will never say no to a good chai latte. When she’s not reading or writing, Ana is busy daydreaming and scouring Yelp for her next favourite restaurant. By Ana Huang KINGS OF SIN A series of interconnected standalones King of Wrath King of Pride King of Greed TWISTED SERIES A series of interconnected standalones Twisted Love Twisted Games Twisted Hate Twisted Lies IF LOVE SERIES If We Ever Meet Again (Duet Book 1) If the Sun Never Sets (Duet Book 2) If Love Had a Price (Standalone) If We Were Perfect (Standalone) Copyright Published by Piatkus ISBN: 978-0-349-43634-0 All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2023 by Ana Huang The moral right of the author has been asserted. Editor: Becca Hensley Mysoor at the Fairy Plotmother, Amy Briggs at Briggs Consulting LLC Proofreader: Britt Tayler Cover Designer: Cat Imb, TRC Designs All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Piatkus Little, Brown Book Group Carmelite House 50 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DZ www.littlebrown.co.uk www.hachette.co.uk Contents About the Author Also by Ana Huang Copyright Dedication Playlist Content Notes Chapter 1: Isabella Chapter 2: Kai Chapter 3: Kai Chapter 4: Isabella Chapter 5: Kai Chapter 6: Isabella Chapter 7: Isabella Chapter 8: Kai Chapter 9: Isabella Chapter 10: Isabella Chapter 11: Kai Chapter 12: Kai Chapter 13: Isabella Chapter 14: Isabella Chapter 15: Isabella Chapter 16: Kai Chapter 17: Kai Chapter 18: Isabella Chapter 19: Kai Chapter 20: Isabella Chapter 21: Kai Chapter 22: Isabella Chapter 23: Kai Chapter 24: Kai Chapter 25: Isabella Chapter 26: Kai Chapter 27: Isabella Chapter 28: Isabella Chapter 29: Kai Chapter 30: Isabella Chapter 31: Kai Chapter 32: Isabella Chapter 33: Kai Chapter 34: Kai Chapter 35: Isabella Chapter 36: Kai Chapter 37: Isabella Chapter 38: Kai Chapter 39: Isabella Chapter 40: Isabella Chapter 41: Kai Chapter 42: Kai Epilogue Acknowledgments For all the girls who think smart is sexy. (And who know the quiet ones are the freakiest). I Knew You Were Trouble (Taylor’s Version) Taylor Swift You Put a Spell on Me Austin Giorgio Love You Like a Love Song Selena Gomez Body Electric Lana Del Rey Collide Justin Skye Middle of the Night Elley Duhé Shameless Camila Cabello You Say Lauren Daigle Bleeding Love Leona Lewis Be Without You Mary J. Blige CONTENT NOTES This story contains explicit sexual content, profanity, and topics that may be sensitive to some readers. For a detailed list, please visit anahuang.com/content-warnings CHAPTER 1 Isabella “So you didn’t use the glow-in-the-dark condoms I gave you?” “Nope. Sorry.” Tessa returned my crestfallen stare with an amused one of her own. “It was our first date. Where did you get those condoms anyway?” “At last month’s neon skate party.” I’d attended the party in hopes it would free me from my creeping life rut. It hadn’t, but it had supplied me with a bag of delightfully lurid party favors that I’d doled out to friends. Since I was suffering from a self-imposed man ban, I had to live vicariously through them, which was hard when said friends didn’t cooperate. Tessa’s brow wrinkled. “Why were they handing out condoms at a skate party?” “Because those parties always turn into giant orgies,” I explained. “I saw someone use one of those condoms right there in the middle of the ice rink.” “You’re kidding.” “Nope.” I restocked the garnishes, then turned to straighten the various glasses and tumblers. “Wild, right? It was fun, even if some of the things I witnessed traumatized me for a good week after…” I rambled on, only half paying attention to my movements. After a year of bartending at the Valhalla Club, an exclusive members-only society for the world’s rich and powerful, most of my work was muscle memory. It was six on a Monday evening—prime happy hour in other establishments but a dead zone at Valhalla. Tessa and I always used this time to gossip and catch each other up on our weekends. I was only here for the paycheck until I finished my book and became a published author, but it was nice to work with someone I actually liked. A majority of my previous coworkers had been creeps. “Did I tell you about the naked flag dude?” I said. “He was one of the ones who always participated in the orgies.” “Uh, Isa.” My name squeaked out in a decidedly un-Tessa-like manner, but I was on too much of a roll to stop. “Honestly, I never thought I’d see a glowing dick in—” A polite cough interrupted my spiel. A polite, masculine cough that very much did not belong to my favorite coworker. My movements ground to a screeching halt. Tessa let out another distressed squeak, which confirmed what my gut already suspected: the newcomer was a club member, not our laid-back manager or one of the security guards dropping by on their break. And they’d just overheard me talking about glowing dicks. Fuck. Flags of heat scorched my cheeks. Screw finishing my manuscript; what I wanted most now was for the earth to yawn and swallow me whole. Sadly, not a single tremor quaked beneath my feet, so