Book excerpt: From beloved, RITA-award-winning author Kennedy Ryan comes the first in her gripping All the King's Men duology. In a world of haves and have-nots, Maxim Cade's family and their oil empire have it all...and he wants nothing to do with it. At odds with his mogul father, he's determined to build his own empire, even if it means traveling far from home, painted as the black sheep. Lennix Hunter is the exception to every one of Maxim's rules. At a protest for the oil pipeline that threatens to mar her ancestral land forever, they meet in a flurry of stars and sparks, and that one moment changes everything. But Maxim's family is the one stealing from hers, and his father is the man she hates most. He has to lie in order to have her once, and despite the truth, he'll do anything to keep her. Even though Lennix tries to hate Maxim, too, their hearts are pointed in the same direction. The inexorable pull between them, across miles and years, will not be denied. And neither will Maxim.