Nicole Fox

What's more embarrassing than a butt dial? Butt dialing your boss... And leaving a dirty voicemail when you're uhh... "thinking" about them. Working as Ruslan Oryolov's personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire's every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that's exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole who's ruining my life. That's fine-because of all Ruslan's many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous. Tonight, fantasies of him are just what I need to push me over the edge. But when I look down at my phone squished next to me, There it is. A voicemail for 7 minutes and 32 seconds... Sent to Ruslan Oryolov. I panic and throw my phone across the room. But there is no undoing the damage done by my very vocal O. So what can I do? My plan was to just avoid him and act like it never happened. Besides, no one that busy checks their voicemails, right? But when he schedules a one-on-one meeting with me for exactly 7 minutes and 32 seconds, One thing is for certain: He. Heard. Everything.

When is the worst time to tell someone he's going to be a father? Probably the day of the wedding... When he is getting married to someone else. Well, that is exactly what I did. But my hands were tied. Literally. Matvey Groza is a dangerous man. And nine months ago, he strolled into my shop looking for a custom suit. But when I accidentally walked in on him in the changing room, *I* was the one that ended up needing a new set of clothes. It was a one-time mistake. After that... good riddance. But the pregnancy test I took a month later had other plans. I kept it a secret from everyone. Or so I thought. But when Matvey's enemies learned that I was pregnant with his child, they kidnapped me and held me hostage. Until I broke free and ran as fast as I could. And I had no one else to turn to but the devil himself. What better time for me to enter the church... ... than as the pastor says, "Speak now or forever hold your peace"?

I crashed a wedding. Got caught by the best man. Now, I'm pregnant with his baby... It's Katya's fault. (As per usual.) My BFF despises her ex and wants to hate-watch him marry the woman he left her for. Problem is, she didn't fill me in on that plan... Until we arrive at the ceremony. As soon as I find out, I run. Hop on the elevator and smash the Doors Close button like the Energizer Bunny on a sugar rush. But right before they shut... A hand comes shooting through. And attached to that hand, unfortunately for me, is the most stunning human specimen I've ever seen. Tall. Dark. Handsome. Dangerous. Also... the best man. He takes one look at me and knows I don't belong. "Who let you in here, little bird?" he growls. I gulp. Tremble. Open my mouth to lie... And then the elevator stops.

My new boss is gorgeous, arrogant, and filthy rich. The only problem? He doesn't know he's also the father of my baby. Six years ago, I was supposed to get married. But the night before the wedding, my groom-to-be showed me sides of himself I'd never seen before. I might've died in that hotel room... If Mikhail Novikov hadn't burst in to save me. Handsome, strong, capable knight in shining armor-sign me up, right? WRONG. Because Mikhail wasn't just the hero I never knew I needed... He was also way more dangerous than I ever could've known. But for one night, I let myself do something I never should've done. It was worth it-several times over, if you catch my drift. In the morning, though, I did the reasonable I RAN. For six years, I keep running. Until I walk into work one day, and find my new boss waiting in my office. Guess who? And guess what he does when finds out about our baby?

I tried to quit. My boss said no. When you work for billionaire restaurateur Bastian Hale, every day is an exercise in endurance. He screams at you in front of half the staff? Endure. He tears your work to bits and tells you to start again? Endure. He surprises you shirtless in the office late one night? Endure... then go home and die of embarrassment. I've endured six years of Bastian Hale. I can endure anything. ... Until my doctor tells me I'm going blind in ninety days. Suddenly, enduring isn't the goal anymore. Living is. Seeing everything I can before the lights go out forever. And that means one thing: quitting the job that's consumed my entire adult life. There's just one problem: Bastian doesn't accept my resignation. Instead, he shreds my letter to pieces... Offers me a million dollars to stay... And vows to make my last ninety days of sight worth remembering. The man is arrogant. Brutal. Cold as the walk-in freezer. But his hands are warm. And in the dark, he teaches me things my eyes never could. I wanted one last look at the light. I got a taste of the dark instead.

A mafia billionaire single dad romance. I just discovered the don's darkest secret. Wait 'til he finds out mine... The Bratva don and I made a deal: Spare my father. Take me instead. But Dmitry Tsezar wasn't satisfied with my body. He wanted everything else, too. My obedience. My submission. My heart. My soul. And when that still wasn't enough, he came to take my life. But then I found something. Something twisted. Something wrong. Something hidden in a locked room of his mansion, in a wing he warned me never, ever to wander near. When I opened the door and discovered Dmitry's secret... Everything changed forever.

I walked into the wrong hotel room... To a naked man fresh out of the shower. Now, I'm pregnant with his baby. I should've left as soon as I saw him. He was too beautiful to be real. I got halfway to the door... And then he saw exactly what I was trying to hide. "Who hurt you?" he said when he glimpsed the bruises. "Let me fix it." I should've said no. But honestly? I deserve a little luck from the universe. And if it wants to provide that luck in the form of a gorgeous, six-foot angel of darkness... Well, I won't turn my nose up at that. But nothing in this life comes without strings attached. My angel gives me a night from heaven... When morning comes, though, he turns into a devil. And not just any devil. This devil knows where I'm from. Who I am. What I've done. And he's determined to make me pay for all of it.

My gorgeous neighbor just found my box of "personal toys." And my mission to steal them back... Ended in his bed. It was supposed to be a Give my best friend raunchy toys for her bridal shower and embarrass her in front of her family. But when my package is wrongly delivered to my gorgeous, mysterious neighbor, I'm the one who ends up mortified. I sneak over to his place to try stealing it back before he finds it. The problem is, I get caught mid-heist... And then he makes me stay for dinner. Dinner leads to dessert and dessert leads to... other dessert, if you get my drift. Several courses of sweet, sinful temptation. In my defense, he's even more gorgeous up close than he is from my bedroom window. When I finally get back home the next morning, I open my stolen prize. But it seems I grabbed the wrong package. And the violent mess I find inside will change my life forever. Turns out my hot neighbor is a Russian Bratva boss, with some deep, dark secrets. Turns out he got me pregnant, too.

I got pregnant from a one-night-stand. I wasn't going to tell the father... Until I walked into the office and found out he's my new boss. Here's some advice: Don't sleep with your boss. Here's some more: Don't sleep with your married boss. And while I'm at it: Don't sleep with your married, dangerous, billionaire, completely-incapable-of-feeling boss, because all he's going to do is break your heart and your body and leave you to cry in the ashes. But I've never been good at taking my own advice. In my defense, I didn't know that Nikolai Zhukova was any of those things when we met. I just thought he was the gray-eyed sinner in first class. And when I started having a panic attack at the sudden turbulence, I thought he was the kind soul calming me down. But Nikolai is the farthest thing from kind. He's cruel, he's powerful, he's arrogant. And now, according to the test in my hand... He's the father of my baby.

One wardrobe malfunction. Two people who don't belong together. Three awful "Be my wife." Everyone else is at this party to marry the host. I'm only here until I can get a ride home. When my dress rips in the world's worst-timed wardrobe malfunction, I go find somewhere quiet to fix it. So I'm standing there in nothing but my heels when, As my luck would have it, the door opens... And the man of the hour walks in. I wish I could say I played it cool. But it's been a looong time since anyone has seen me in my birthday suit... Much less the hottest man I've ever laid eyes on. All I want to do is fix my dress, click my heels three times, and be back on my couch in fuzzy slippers. But Ivan has other ideas. He's decided who he's taking to the altar... And I don't have a choice but to say "I do."

I walked in on my fiancé sleeping with my maid of honor... On the day of our wedding. I did what anyone would do: Threw my ring in his face and found somewhere quiet to cry. But then something else happened. Something unexpected. In that quiet place... Someone found me. Anton Stepanov is like something out of a dream. Scratch that: out of a nightmare. He's rich as sin, arrogant as heck, and way too handsome for his own good. He's also way too handsome for mine. So when he offers me his hand and a way out of the worst day of my life, I do the only thing I can do: I say yes. That's how I ended up on his yacht. That's how I ended up in his bed. That's how I ended up pregnant with his baby.

It's the first look on my wedding day. I turn... but my husband isn't there. Instead, I see the stranger who ruined my life. Here's the story: Six years ago, I was on the worst first date in history. A blind date with some jerk who wouldn't take no for an answer. The handsome stranger swooped in. Saved me. And sat down to finish the date. I thought it was crazy. But we had insane chemistry. We got to talking, one thing led to another, we ended up in the restaurant bathroom, and... You know. I got pregnant. He disappeared. Life: ruined. I tried to move on. For six years, I thought I succeeded. But now, out of nowhere, he's back--on my wedding day, of all days. Saying things that don't make any sense. "Your fiancé isn't who you thought he was... I'm not letting you marry him..." And, worst of all... "You're marrying me instead."

This is my story of how to lose a mob boss in ten days. I have a I've been arranged to marry a monster. Run away? Good idea. Tried that. Didn't work. Because in my family, my father makes the rules. And he says this wedding is happening . But he still has a soft spot for me, his last remaining daughter. So he offers me a deal. Take ten days. Get to know Sasha. See if you change your mind. Yeah, right. Sasha Ozerov is a beast in Brioni. He's ruthless, flawless, utterly unconcerned with mortals like me. All he wants is what our marriage would bring My family's power and the city in the palm of his hand. But maybe, if I can make him back out of the deal... I'll keep my freedom. So I set out to do everything I can to drive him crazy. I have ten days to make my husband hate me. What happens if I start to love him instead?

I spent the night with a stranger... Who got me pregnant... And turned out to be my boss... Whoops, sorry, did I say "boss"? I meant a MOB boss. To be fair, I didn't know he was my boss when I slept with him. I thought he was just the kind stranger offering me a place to stay. But one night in Misha Orlov's hotel room got me way more than I bargained for. It got me champagne that tasted like starlight. Satin sheets as soft as a dream. And a man with silver eyes who showed me how it felt to come undone. And then, in the morning... He was gone. That's I needed to get my life together anyway. After all, my ex-not-quite-husband (it's a long story) just emptied all our bank accounts and disappeared, taking my home and my money and my job with him. So I'm starting from a blank slate. I find myself a new apartment. A new job. And I put both Misha and my husband behind me. At least, I thought I did. Until Day 1 of orientation. When I learn that Misha Orlov is my new boss. That's bad enough. What's worse is what came next. A car crash. A doctor's appointment. And two pieces of unsettling news. Congratulations, the doctor says. You're pregnant. Congratulations, Misha says. You and I are getting married.

I was three days away from marrying the Underboss of the Fazio crime family when I unlocked his burner phone. The screen glowed toxic bright in the dark next to my sleeping fiancé. A message from a contact saved as 'Little Trouble' read: "She is just a statue, Dante. Come back to bed." Attached was a photo of a woman lying in the sheets of his private office, wearing his shirt. My heart didn't break; it simply stopped. For eight years, I believed Dante was the hero who pulled me from a burning opera house. I played the perfect, loyal Mafia Princess for him. But heroes don't give their mistresses rare pink diamonds while giving their fiancées cubic zirconia replicas. He didn't just cheat. He humiliated me. He defended his mistress over his own soldiers in public. He even abandoned me on the side of the road on my birthday because she faked a pregnancy emergency. He thought I was weak. He thought I would accept the fake ring and the disrespect because I was just a political pawn. He was wrong. I didn't cry. Tears are for women who have options. I had a strategy. I walked into the bathroom and dialed a number I hadn't dared to call in a decade. "Speak," a voice like gravel growled on the other end. Lorenzo Moretti. The Capo of the rival family. The man my father called the Devil. "The wedding is off," I whispered, staring at my reflection. "I want an alliance with you, Enzo. And I want the Fazio family burned to the ground."

On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up. As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress. The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me. The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one. With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered. I chose the one man they never expected. I chose his father, the Don himself.

I stood outside my husband's study, the perfect mafia wife, only to hear him mocking me as an "ice sculpture" while he entertained his mistress, Aria. But the betrayal went deeper than infidelity. A week later, my saddle snapped mid-jump, leaving me with a shattered leg. Lying in the hospital bed, I overheard the conversation that killed the last of my love. My husband, Alessandro, knew Aria had sabotaged my gear. He knew she could have killed me. Yet, he told his men to let it go. He called my near-death experience a "lesson" because I had bruised his mistress's ego. He humiliated me publicly, freezing my accounts to buy family heirlooms for her. He stood by while she threatened to leak our private tapes to the press. He destroyed my dignity to play the hero for a woman he thought was a helpless orphan. He had no idea she was a fraud. He didn't know I had installed micro-cameras throughout the estate while he was busy pampering her. He didn't know I had hours of footage showing his "innocent" Aria sleeping with his guards, his rivals, and even his staff, laughing about how easy he was to manipulate. At the annual charity gala, in front of the entire crime family, Alessandro demanded I apologize to her. I didn't beg. I didn't cry. I simply connected my drive to the main projector and pressed play.

My marriage to Joshua Caldwell was a prison sentence. I was a Hartman trophy, sold to the powerful family who had destroyed mine. Then I discovered he was cheating. His mistress was pregnant with the child he denied me, and he was stealing my secret song lyrics to build her career. When I confronted him, he called me a spineless liability and threatened to destroy what was left of my family. To make matters worse, a one-night stand with a stranger turned out to be with my husband's brother, Anthony Caldwell-the Don of the city. He knew all of Joshua's secrets and used them to trap me in a twisted game, seeing me as nothing more than an asset. They both thought I was a broken doll they could control. I wrote a song for his mistress, a beautiful execution with a single, impossible note I knew would destroy her voice. She sang it, and now her career is over. Now the Don has summoned me to Chicago, not knowing the woman he thinks is his asset is the one who just burned his brother's world to the ground.

The moment I saw my husband massaging his dead brother's pregnant mistress's feet, I knew my marriage was over. He moved her into our home under the guise of "family duty," forcing me to watch as he prioritized her comfort over our vows. The final betrayal came when she stole and deliberately broke my mother's priceless necklace. When I slapped her for the desecration, my husband struck me across the face to defend her. He had violated a sacred honor code by putting his hands on the daughter of another Don-an act of war. I looked him in the eye and swore on my mother's grave that I would bring a bloody revenge upon his entire family. Then I made one phone call to my father, and the demolition of his empire began.

For seven years, I was the architect of my fiancé's criminal empire and the strategist behind his every move. I was Dante Gallo’s unofficial Consigliere, his partner in everything but name. Tomorrow, I was finally supposed to marry him and take my place as the queen to his throne. But on the eve of our wedding, a single text message sent by mistake detonated my life. It was a photo from Dante, showing a platinum wedding band on his hand. The message read: “Married this morning. She’s safe now.” My gaze fell to the engagement ring on my own finger. It was the identical band, just smaller. The engraved initials ‘D.I.’ didn’t stand for Dante and I. They stood for Dante and Isabella—his childhood sweetheart. My entire relationship was a lie; I was just a shield to protect his one true love. He dismissed my discovery as a "tantrum." Then, his new bride began taunting me, sending a picture of them tangled in bedsheets with the caption: "Loser." They expected me to break. They thought I would shatter. They were about to find out just how wrong they were. I forwarded the picture to Isabella’s fiancé, a man far more dangerous than Dante. "Your fiancée is in Suite 8808 at the Grand Hyatt," I told him. "I'll meet you downstairs. We're going to crash their party."

Julieta thought a quiet night might finally bring some warmth to her cold marriage with Denver Kensington. But his mistress, Aisha, shattered that illusion by staging a fake fall down the grand staircase and framing Julieta for the miscarriage. Denver didn't listen to a single word of Julieta's defense. Instead, Aisha trapped Julieta on the terrace, shoved her over the stone railing, and screamed to the staff that Julieta was committing suicide. Severely injured from the fall and secretly pregnant herself, Julieta woke up in a private clinic only to face Denver's absolute disgust. He refused to believe the child was his. "You will terminate this pregnancy immediately." Denver left her locked inside with a rogue doctor, who quickly pinned Julieta to the floor with a lethal syringe aimed at her neck. As she fought desperately for her baby's life on the cold tiles, Julieta's heart completely shattered. How could the man she loved be so maliciously blind, willingly allowing his mistress to slaughter his legitimate wife and unborn heir? Just as the deadly needle descended, the clinic door was violently kicked off its hinges by the powerful Kensington Patriarch. Saved and granted absolute authority over the main estate, Julieta watched Denver storm away, silently vowing to build her own empire and make them pay.

Three years ago, I used my family's tech empire to marry Damien Moretti, a ruthless mafia Underboss. I naively thought my devotion could melt his frozen heart. But a year ago, he paraded his mistress at our family gala just because she had the face of his dead ex. When my pathetic jealousy boiled over and I stabbed him with a letter opener, he didn't kill me. Instead, he banished me to the freezing, decaying West Wing of his estate. For a whole year, I was locked away like a ghost. He flaunted his mistress, orchestrated a hostile takeover of my family's company, and let his maids treat me like garbage. When I knelt outside his door begging for a divorce, he just gripped my jaw and delivered a death sentence. "The only way you leave this family is in a coffin." The naive girl who begged for his love died in that cold room. I finally realized I was nothing but a profitable ledger entry to him. When he finally opened my door again, expecting to see a broken prisoner, I slapped him across his bleeding face. "The deal is done. I want a divorce." I walked straight out into the freezing Chicago rain, secretly swallowed a bottle of emergency contraceptives to kill any chance of carrying his heir, and prepared to tear up his mafia rules myself.

I was the perfect Mafia wife, my dowry the foundation of my husband's ambition. I paid for his Yale degree, his tailored suits, and the very mansion he called his own. My reward? He paraded his mistress into my bedroom and declared her his second wife, expecting me to silently finance their affair. They thought they had broken a merchant's daughter. They forgot I was raised by wolves. Armed with a blood chit—a life debt owed to my family by the most feared man in Chicago—I walked into the lion's den. I went to Damien 'The Wraith' Falcone, the Dark Don who rules the Outfit with an iron fist, to demand a simple annulment. But the King of Chicago isn't interested in simple transactions. He saw the steel beneath my silk, the vendetta burning in my eyes. He granted me my freedom, but at a price: my allegiance. Now, I'm a pawn in his lethal game of thrones, caught between a treacherous husband I swore to destroy and a ruthless Don who looks at me with a terrifying, possessive hunger. In a city built on loyalty and betrayal, I'm about to teach them all that a queen's wrath is the deadliest weapon of all.

I was five months pregnant and the top underground surgeon for the Chicago mafia. On Christmas Eve, I was called in to perform an off-the-books C-section on a VIP patient. But through the operating room glass, I saw my mafia boss husband, Julian. He wasn't there for me. He was slamming his fists against the door, screaming in desperation for the bleeding mistress on my table. "I swear on my life I will marry you, Lyla. Just hold on." I delivered his illegitimate son while he completely ignored my existence, kissing her knuckles with a reverence I thought was mine alone. The nightmare didn't end there. When I returned to our cold penthouse, I had my prenatal vitamins tested. They were laced with black-market hormones designed to cause severe fetal deformities and force a late-term miscarriage. Julian, the man who once took a bullet for me and swore a blood oath to protect me, had been secretly poisoning our unborn child. His entire family had been covering up his four-year affair, praising the mistress while using me as a convenient shield. How could the fiercely protective husband I loved be the very monster plotting to destroy me from the inside out? The last shred of my affection for the Capo instantly turned to ash. I calmly booked a discreet termination, drafted ironclad annulment papers, and walked out to build my own empire. ---