Meet Max Sterling

Max Sterling is used to being the most powerful man in the room.

As the head of Alpha Capital, he is calm under pressure, ruthless when he needs to be, and very good at getting what he wants. He understands money. He understands leverage.

Max did not become that man by accident.

He grew up in the Sterling family, where money came with expectations and reputation was everything. In his world, mistakes had consequences. His father sent him away to boarding school at a young age - which is still pretty common for the upper class in the UK. Max’s father wanted to make a man of him (and to increase his connections) and so sent Max to school in the US. That’s where he met Jason. 

At first glance they don’t look like they’d have anything in common. Jason is American, working class, there on a scholarship. But they were both seen as different and Max stuck up for Jason, which is why Jason’s later betrayal hurt all the more. 

After school, Max settled in the US wanting to build a name for himself that was independent of his inheritance. This both pleased and annoyed his father: “look at how successful my son is” but also “come back to London so I can show you off here”. 

So yes, Max is important and he is wealthy in his own right. And underneath that is a man who has learned not to rely on anyone. 

What Max does not understand, at least not at first, is Lauren Blake.

When he meets Lauren on the Central Line, she has no idea who he is. No title. No company. No billion-pound reputation. She has no reason to be impressed.

For once, Max is just a man helping a woman through a bad moment on a crowded Tube.

And for Max, that changes everything.

Because Lauren does not look at him as a solution. She does not want rescuing. She is not interested in being managed, protected or quietly overruled by a man who thinks he knows best. She has built her company, Liora, through grit, intelligence and sheer force of will, and she is not about to hand over control of her life because a billionaire walks in wearing a good suit.

That should make her difficult.

To Max, it makes her impossible to forget.

I loved writing Max because he is the kind of hero who appears completely in control from the outside, but underneath all that restraint is a man who is much less certain than he looks. He has money, power, influence and the ability to fix almost anything.

Max wants to protect Lauren and to make the path easier.

Max’s journey is about learning that love is not a takeover. It is not a deal to be managed or a risk to be contained. It is trust. Vulnerability. The willingness to stand beside someone without secretly deciding what is best for them.

And that is what makes Lauren so dangerous to him.

She sees the man beneath the control. The one who has been betrayed before. The one who does not like being blindsided.

If you love billionaire heroes who are powerful, protective, emotionally guarded and just a little too used to getting their own way, I think you will love Max Sterling.

You can meet Max in Empire of Sterling, book one in the Lords of London series.

PS Max’s family home is in Holland Park. For those that aren’t familiar with London, it’s a real place and one of the most expensive postcodes in the capital. I used to live a bit further west in Shepherd’s Bush (I’m still in London just a different area) and I always knew my billionaire heroes would be based in Holland Park.