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Dana's Desires, To Be Loved Is To Be Ruined

A girl on the edge. A man with a gaze too deep. A love that awakens, devours, and deceives.

After her mother’s death, eighteen-year-old Dana is left with almost nothing—an unfamiliar aunt who drinks through her grief, a house that smells like bleach and regret, and a silence so loud it aches. She doesn’t belong anywhere. Not at school. Not at home. Not even in her own skin.

Then she meets Rick.
Older. Mysterious. A reclusive artist who sees her like no one ever has.

In Rick’s gaze, Dana becomes something more—muse, masterpiece, obsession.
He draws her like he’s conjuring a truth she didn’t know she carried. And when he touches her, it’s like prayer—slow, reverent, terrifying.

But devotion is not the same as safety.
And beauty, Dana learns, is often just the bait.

As she’s pulled deeper into Rick’s orbit, others begin to circle.

Lena, Rick’s former muse and ex-lover, scorched and savage, sees the same pattern playing out—and warns Dana too late. Jealous, bitter, maybe broken, Lena is both a threat and a mirror.  She only wants Rick when someone else wants him.

Eric, a polished gallery owner with dead eyes and teeth behind every smile, sees Dana’s vulnerability as an opportunity. He doesn’t want to draw her—he wants to own her. His interest isn’t love. It’s leverage.

And then there’s Todd. Quiet. Steady. Just a bartender, just a stranger. But the first man who doesn’t ask anything from her. Who doesn’t try to reshape her. Who simply offers her space to breathe—and maybe, a way out.

Caught between the ache of being wanted and the slow realization of being used, Dana must untangle what’s real from what she’s been told to want.

Is Rick her sanctuary—or her captor?
Is Lena her rival—or her warning?
And is desire a doorway to power… or just another trap?

In a world where everyone sees her as something to claim, Dana has one choice left—become the canvas, or pick up the brush.