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He's her arrogant boss. She's his biggest headache. Neither expected to become family... or to fall this hard. Bridgette Hayes is on a mission-climb the corporate ladder, crush her goals, and definitely not fall for the insufferable CEO standing in her way. Rhysand Warner is cold, controlling, and the kind of man who doesn't take "no" for an answer-especially not from the fiery new exec shaking up his boardroom. But when a high-stakes merger throws them into close quarters-and an even bigger bombshell reveals their parents are about to say "I do"-their sizzling power struggle turns dangerously intimate. She can't stand him. He doesn't trust her. Too bad forbidden has never felt so right. Office tension turns into stolen kisses. Family dinners turn into secret glances. And just when they think it couldn't get more complicated-secrets unravel, and hearts are put on the line. Enemies. Step-siblings. Lovers? In this scandalously addictive grumpy boss, enemies-to-lovers romance, get ready for boardroom battles, slow-burn heat, and a forbidden love story that breaks all the rules. One bed. Zero boundaries. And absolutely no chance of coming out unscathed.
Bridgette's POV
"I'm getting married, Bridgette." My mother's sharp voice pierced the air as she walked into the room, her lips in a tight smile. The glass of scotch I'd been holding for a while slipped from my fingers as waves of shock spasmed through my body.
That's impossible.
"You don't mean it." I chuckled, staring at the mess beneath my feet, the amber liquid slowly slipping away. "You can't tell me you're getting married."
Her tone softened. "I really am, Bridgette."
The brutal truth was like ice water splashed hard on my face. I shook my head, my eyes twitching as I refused to accept her words. "You're not getting married."
"Bridgette!"
I pushed myself off the couch, almost bruising my feet with the broken shards of glass on the marble tiles. "I thought we already settled this." I yelled harshly. "You promised me you were never doing this again. You made me believe you."
"Why do you have to be so selfish, Bridgette?" Her raspy voice made my throat tighten. "Haven't I suffered enough to get my own happy ending?" She choked, her eyes brimming with tears as she took a step towards me.
I wasn't buying it.
Those tears weren't going to make me change my mind.
She was willing to stab me in the back for her own happiness.
She was willing to take a step to move on when I was still buried in my misery.
Tears pricked the corner of my eyes as I pushed her hands away. "A happy ending? You want a happy ending when I can't get those memories off my mind?"
I raked my hands through my hair, frustration sinking deep into my bones. "You've forgotten everything? All I....all I had to endure?"
"No." She said firmly. " I haven't forgotten, Bridgette. It still claws at my mind every time I think about it, darling," she approached me again, but I stretched my palm, my whole body trembling from rage. "Don't you dare touch me."
"I-I love him, Bridgette," She mumbled, her voice barely audible. "Let me be with him. Please."
"You can't be with him."
"I was only married once, Bridgette. Do I have to suffer for my whole life because of the past? I made a mistake, I know, but I did fight for you. I did."
I laughed again.
This time, it wasn't humorous.
"You fought for me? You were the cause of everything. You brought him into our home!"
"He made my life miserable too." Tears spilled down her cheeks as she pointed at her chest. "He punched me, tortured m-"
"I was only a child." I cut in. "but you couldn't stop him from doing it. Do you know how hard it was to live with myself? And now you think you deserve a second chance?"
"That's it, Bridgette!" My mother snapped, her voice rising to a higher octave. "I've had enough of your tantrums. I didn't come to live for you, I am your mother. You have no right to dictate my life!"
My eyes widened with horror. "Are you really doing this?"
"I have learned from my mistakes, honey." Her tone softened as she reached for me. "I've seen love with the right person. Let me be happy."
"Happy?" I spat. The familiar word was like a poison to my very being. "You think you can just chase happiness after what that monster did to me? To us?"
My mother's face tightened as she avoided my gaze.
She already made her decision.
She was going to get married.
"I can't believe this! You're going to make the past repeat itself. You promised to protect me."
"That's what I'm trying to do." She said desperately, holding onto my palm like the guilt was driving her insane.
"Aren't you worried that history might repeat itself?"
She shook her head. "I can't let fear control my life anymore. I deserve to be happy, Bridgette. We both do." She reached out and caressed my cheeks. "This is our chance to let go. I want you to heal, why won't you heal?!"
"Because it still hurts!" I snapped, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Because every time I think about it, It feels like I'm back there again. Trapped. Broken. Helpless. I don't want that to happen anymore."
"It won't." She said firmly, wiping my tears softly. Her lips trembled, and for a moment, she looked as though she might cry again. But instead, she pressed her forehead against mine. "I know it hurts," she whispered. "I know it feels like you'll never get past it. But we can't keep living in the shadow of what he did. We deserve more than that. You deserve more than that."
I pulled my hands away, stepping back as my chest heaved. "You don't understand," I spat. "You don't know what it's like to carry this... this thing inside you every day. To feel it consuming your whole being while you try to act like it isn't."
"Then tell me! Tell me what you're carrying, Bridgette. Help me understand."
But I couldn't.
The words were stuck in my throat, tangled with the memories I couldn't bear to face. Instead, I turned away, wrapping my arms around myself as if I could merge the broken pieces of me together.
"You'll hate me if I go through with this." My mother said after a long while. I couldn't bear to look at her, but she still continued. "I know you will. But Bridgette, I can't keep punishing myself for what he did. And I can't let you keep punishing yourself either."
Her words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.
For a moment, I thought about the way things used to be-before him, before everything fell apart. But those days felt like a lifetime ago, and the girl I was then didn't exist anymore.
"I need time." I said finally, my voice barely above a whisper. "I can't promise I'll ever be okay with this, but I need time to figure out how to live with this."
"Take all the time you need, Bridgette. Just promise me you'll try." I could tell she was crying with how soft her voice was, but I didn't respond to her last statement. Instead, I walked away, leaving her standing there with tears in her eyes and hope in her voice.
And for the first time in years, I let myself wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a way to move forward without being consumed by the past.
Cheated on by her husband. Betrayed by her sister. Stabbed in the back by her best friend. Alexis's world crashes down in a single heartbreaking week. With nowhere to turn, she makes a devil's bargain-a six-month marriage contract with her impossibly handsome, stone-cold boss, Nathan Cole. What she doesn't know? Nathan has secretly wanted her for years. As Alexis plots her revenge, something unexpected happens. The ice between them melts, revealing a burning passion neither expected. But just as she begins to trust again, the secrets start piling up: A pregnancy she never planned. Her sister's suspicious suicide. The shocking truth behind her parents' murder. And then there's Mira-Nathan's possessive friend who's determined to tear them apart at any cost. When their fragile relationship shatters and Nathan walks away, Alexis is left with a choice: surrender to the darkness or fight for the love that might just save them both. Some wounds cut too deep to heal... or do they?
"Marry me. Put on this ring, tomorrow you are going to tell the press that Bella cheated on me and we started dating, when Bella found out she tried to separate us and when she could not, she blackmailed you to upload this photo. This will make me hate you, but we have already reconciled," he explained. What the hell? How did I get myself into this sought of mess? **** Laura finds herself in a great dilemma when her mother is kidnapped. They ask her to post the photo of Eric Sloan the son of a multi-billionaire together with Damien Avery, the son of the prime minister and she should tag them as gay. To keep her mother alive she reluctantly posts it drawing the attention of the arrogant billionaire together with his powerful family and fans. To rectify her mistakes he asks her to marry him, thereby waving off the allegation of him being gay. He promises himself to make it his life mission to destroy her for what she did. As the truth unfolds, what started as a revenge turns into a dangerous obsession and all he wants to do is to protect her, to claim her, own her, and keep her within his dark abyss.
Her fiance and her best friend worked together and set her up. She lost everything and died in the street. However, she was reborn. The moment she opened her eyes, her husband was trying to strangle her. Luckily, she survived that. She signed the divorce agreement without hesitation and was ready for her miserable life. To her surprise, her mother in this life left her a great deal of money. She turned the tables and avenged herself. Everything went well in her career and love when her ex-husband came to her.
"You're mine, little puppy," Kylan growled against my neck. A soft gasp escaped my lips as his lips brushed my skin. My mind screamed at me to push him away-the Lycan Prince who had humiliated me again and again, but my body betrayed me, leaning into him before I could stop myself. He pressed his lips against mine, and his kiss grew more aggressive, more possessive as I felt my legs weaken. What was I doing? In a split-second, I pulled away and slapped him hard across the face. Kylan's eyes darkened, but the smirk on his lips exposed his amusement. "You and I both know we can't fight this, Violet," he said, gripping my wrist. "You're my mate." "And yet you don't want me," I replied. "You told me you were ashamed of me, that l'd never be your queen, that you'd never love me. So please, accept my rejection and let me go." "Never," he whispered, his grip tightening as he pulled me closer. "Soon enough, you'll be begging for me. and when you do-I'll use you as I see fit and then I'll reject you."
Belinda thought after divorce, they would part ways for good - he could live his life on his own terms, while she could indulge in the rest of hers. However, fate had other plans in store. "My darling, I was wrong. Would you please come back to me?" The man, whom she once loved deeply, lowered his once proud head humbly. "I beg you to return to me." Belinda coldly pushed away the bouquet of flowers he had offered her and coolly replied, "It's too late. The bridge has been burned, and the ashes have long since scattered to the wind!"
"Please trust me, I didn't do anything." "I don't believe you. I am rejecting you as my Queen and giving you the punishment of death." Alina was living outside her pack for five years. Her parents didn't try to contact her and always ignored her. Her best friend convinced her to go back to their pack and she agreed. But she had never imagined what was waiting there for her. She never thought she would meet her mate and had to face betrayal from everywhere. She had to pay for the crime which she never committed. Aaron Robertson is the king of Lycans. He is a very dominant and powerful King who not only rules Lycans but also rules other ranks of werewolves. Everyone is afraid of Lycans and he is the king of them. But who knew that he would get a mate who was just a simple Omega with no powers and strengths? He called her weak all the time but little did he know that his weak Omega would give him the biggest betrayal of his life for which he had to give her the sentence of death.
Trigger warning!!! Intended for mature readers who enjoy morally complex, slow-burn, poseesive, forbidden, dark romance that pushes boundaries. ***EXCERPT*** Blood everywhere. Trembling hands. "No!" My eyes blurred. His lifeless eyes stared back at me, his blood pooling at my feet. The man I loved-dead. Killed by the one person I could never escape - my stepbrother. *** Kasmine's life was never hers to begin with. Kester, her stepbrother, controlled and monitored her every move. At first, it was all sweet and brotherly until it began to turn into an obsession. Kester was the Alpha, and his word was law. No close friends. No boyfriends. No freedom. The only consolation Kasmine had was her twenty-first birthday, which was supposed to change everything. She dreamt of finding her mate, escaping the sickening control of Kester, and finally claiming her own life. But fate had other plans for her. On the night of her birthday, not only was she disappointed that she wasn't mated to the love of her life, but she found out that her mate was none other than him - Her tormentor. Her stepbrother. She'd rather die than be mated to a man whom she had known as her big brother all her life. A man who would do just anything to make sure she was his. But when love turns to obsession, and obsession turns to blood, how far can one girl run before she realizes there is nowhere else to run to?
Accused of murder, Sylvia Todd's mother was deemed a traitor by the entire pack, condeming Sylvia to live the rest of her life alone in humiliation as a lowly slave. All she wanted to do was to prove her mother's innocence somehow, but fate never seemed to be on the side of the traitor's daughter. Still, Sylvia never lost hope. As the future lycan king of all werewolves, Rufus Duncan possessed great power and status, but he had an inexplicable reputation for being cruel, bloodthirsty, and ruthless. Unbeknownst to everyone, he had been cursed long ago to transform into a killer monster on every full moon. Even though fate did not always look upon the two, it brought Sylvia and Rufus together as each other's destined mates. Will justice be served for Sylvia's mother? What about Rufus' secret? Can Sylvia and Rufus defy all societal norms and stay together? Will these two unlucky souls have their happy ending?