Karen Preston, an ambitious gallery owner who doesn't believe in love or making sacrifices for nothing, has her life turned upside down thanks to an accident caused by the reckless driving of Taylor Grey, a billionaire socialite. Born into an average, middle-class family, Karen has struggled all her life to rise above her station and make a name for herself. She is a driven, independent woman who loathes to depend or rely on anyone. Now unable to work and with pending debts to investors and artists, Karen finds herself in a compromising position – lose all she has worked for or seek help from the one person who cannot refuse, the person who jeopardized her future – Taylor Grey. Under the insistence of his controlling father, Marshal Grey, Taylor must help Karen but Marshal Grey has specific demands of his own: to keep the details of the accident out of the public eye, Karen and Taylor are to live together in a remote estate owned by the Grey family until Karen is fully healed. Neither Karen nor Taylor wants this arrangement. Karen resents Taylor's presence and rejects his every attempt to help, while Taylor, guilt-ridden and angry, feels equally trapped by his father's demands. Can the independent Karen stay locked down and can the carefree Taylor restrain himself from breaking his father's commands? What will happen when these two very different people make their stand? Will these imposed restraints break them, or set them free?
"Hey Karen, how are you doing?"
"Hi Marcy, I'm all right. Is everything set?"
"Yes, it's all set. We're just waiting for you to show up!"
"Okay, I'm on my way. There's no traffic...It just finished raining, so I'm not driving too fast. I can see from my navigation app that I'll be there in under twenty minutes."
"Okay. Great! We're all waiting for you."
Karen hung up using the button on her car's dashboard, as she continued to drive to the gallery opening.
It was her third opening for the year and the last two had been very successful. For this one, she just had to check the final placements and positions of the artworks, confirm that the arrangements were how she needed them to be, and, with any luck, the gallery would sell more paintings this time.
She was running late and she checked the clock on her phone clipped beside the steering wheel, navigation running, showing her the time to her destination.
As she turned the corner, taking a sharp bend, she was startled by a car coming from the opposite direction.
It was a large vehicle, driving at full speed, way too fast for a bend, with headlights on full blast.
She slowed down, but the car suddenly came at her, swerving into her own lane.
Desperate to avoid the oncoming vehicle, Karen turned the wheel sharply to the left. The oncoming driver also swerved, but in the panic of the situation, made a wrong decision and swerved to the right, causing a direct impact.
Karen's smaller sedan could not take the impact from the larger GMC truck and was thrown across the road, tumbling three times before landing upright on its wheels and spinning to a grinding halt.
Karen was knocked unconscious, pressed between the dislodged back seat and the airbag from the steering wheel, covered in blood and broken glass.
The driver's side door of the silver GMC truck opened slowly and the driver stumbled out.
One headlight of the truck was broken and the other was still on, in full force, illuminating Karen's unconscious body and her mangled navy-blue sedan.
Blood dripped from Karen's head and her right arm; her arm appeared to be terribly broken. The driver from the GMC truck, approached Karen's vehicle, fumbling in his pockets for his phone as he wiped a trail of blood from his forehead.
His eyes were unfocused, his body stumbling, swaying from side to side from the impact and the shock of the accident, as he tried to get to the driver of the sedan.
Through the shattered windshield, he saw a mass of tangled brown hair matted with blood, and he tried to walk faster.
There was a lot of blood on the car, the driver, and the road.
The man approached the wrecked sedan, desperately trying to hurry but unable to do so. The pain from the accident ripped through his body, slowing him down. He worked frantically to pull out his phone as he moved forward.
The tall, square-jawed man, finally extracted his device from his pocket and immediately dialed the emergency number, his blue eyes squinting from pain. He knew something was broken but he didn't know what or where. His only thought was to get to the slender woman covered in blood and broken glass.
The road was still damp from the rain that had fallen earlier that evening and the weather was cool, but the man was sweating profusely, his heart beating rapidly, gasping to catch his breath.
As soon as he reached the driver's side of the sedan, he placed the index and middle fingers of his left hand on her neck to check for a pulse, calming his nerves and holding his breath as he did so.
Her skin was cold to the touch at first, and he felt a crazed panic rising within him. He pulled his hand away, took a deep shaky breath, and tried again.
As he waited to feel her heartbeat, his heart sinking with every passing moment, he suddenly felt it and sighed with relief, there it is, he thought, his heart skipping a beat, she's not dead! Thank God, she's not dead!
He stumbled away from the near-crumpled vehicle and sat on the roadside, waiting for the ambulance to arrive, his right arm cradled in his left, rocking back and forth, biting on the nail of his left thumb.
The emergency room was bright and rowdy, several injured people were on benches and gurneys. Karen was surrounded by two doctors and three nurses, and the man who collided with her sedan was being attended to at a nurse's station.
"Her vitals are fading, we need to get her into an operating room, stat!" yelled one of the doctors in the team working on Karen.
"Yes doctor," a nurse responded, hurrying off to the intercom to book a room for an emergency operation.
The man, much calmer now, looked around at all the patients and then his attention rested on Karen on the gurney. He remembered the moment of impact and shook his head, turning away.
"We have one," the nurse who made the call for the operating room said as she rushed back to the team on Karen.
"Let's move," the doctor said as they all rushed Karen out of the emergency room and to the operating room.
The man stood to follow, but the nurse working on him held him back, "They are going in for surgery, I'll let you know where the room is. For now, hold on while I have a doctor look at this arm," she said in a gentle, matronly voice. He sat back down with a nod and shortly after, a doctor came over to look at his injured left arm.
The wound on his head had since stopped bleeding. It was a surface wound and not too serious.
The paramedics on arrival at the scene, had already commented to him that he was lucky to get away from such an accident with so few injuries.
As the doctor worked on his arm, the man reflected on what he had heard the doctors say when they were looking Karen over.
From what he had gathered, she had a deep cut on her forehead, her right arm was in danger of being amputated, and several ribs had been broken. There was internal bleeding and one of her legs had been broken in three places.
What am I going to do?
What is my father going to do? The man thought in despair.
Fate! Chance! A terrible accident changes the course of Karen's life. Thrown into the world of enigmatic billionaires Taylor Grey and his father Marshal Grey, she must find her way out of the cage presented to her by their family. Karen thought Taylor Grey was offering a helping hand after causing the accident that took away her livelihood, but she soon discovered that his father had other plans for her that she could never have imagined. Forced to play a role she never wanted, can she escape before it's too late for her to return to her own life? Torn between two very different men, who will she turn to for the freedom she desperately seeks? Will Karen find redemption or stay trapped by a family that will do anything to have their way?
Sam thought she knew where her loyalties lay until she uncovered a devastating secret: her real family was murdered by the same mafia gang that raised her. Preston, once her closest ally, now stands between her and the sinister leader of their mafia family, Xavier; a lover of diabolical games. Torn between love, loyalty, and revenge, Sam faces the ultimate test of faith when she learns that Preston has plans for their gang that could destroy everyone she's ever known and that she is more than a victim of circumstance. In the world of the mafia where loyalty is deadly and betrayal is the ultimate weapon, will she stand by her ally or trade everything for vengeance?
Fate! Chance! A terrible accident changes the course of Karen's life. Thrown into the world of enigmatic billionaire Taylor, she must now find her way out of the cage presented to her by the Grey family. Unable and unwilling to trust, Karen and Taylor must learn to work together to defeat their demons. What unfolds is a battle of wills as passion and duty collide. Will they find redemption or stay trapped in the shadows created by their pasts?
Marcia and Jullian were inseparable in college; they were like two halves of one whole. Everyone thought they were a forever couple. On the day of their graduation, Jullian vanished without a trace, and Marcia's world came crashing down. Five years later, after rebuilding her life abroad, Marcia is back home, fully focused on her new company, the new love of her life. Just as things are falling into place, Jullian suddenly reappears, still as captivating as ever. His reason for coming back? To "help" Marcia and to "correct" his past mistakes. Jullian has a proposal – one that feels more like a challenge – sell your company to me and let me take care of you the way I should have years ago. What follows is a battle of wills. Will Marcia hold on to the independence she fought so hard to achieve, or will Jullian's return and his offer of security be too much to resist? It's a showdown between the woman who craves freedom and the one who once let her go.
For two years, Ashton had poured his heart into his marriage, yet Emalee's heart remained cold. Despite his dedication, Emalee presented him with divorce papers. She bluntly stated she could not remain married to a man whose net worth was less than a million dollars. Ashton signed the papers, closing one chapter of his life and stepping into a new beginning. Then, Ashton revealed his secret identities: a music mogul, a medical expert, and a martial arts master—each persona impressive enough to stun the world. As Ashton’s true capabilities came to light, Emalee was overwhelmed with deep regret.
On her wedding day, Khloe’s sister connived with her groom, framing her for a crime she didn’t commit. She was sentenced to three years in prison, where she endured much suffering. When Khloe was finally released, her evil sister used their mother to coerce Khloe into an indecent liaison with an elderly man. As fate would have it, Khloe crossed paths with Henrik, the dashing yet ruthless mobster who sought to alter the course of her life. Despite Henrik’s cold exterior, he cherished Khloe like no other. He helped her take retribution from her tormentors and kept her from being bullied again.
Everyone thought Lorenzo truly loved Gracie, until the day of their daughter’s heart surgery. To Gracie’s utter shock, Lorenzo gave the precious organ needed by their child to another woman. Devastated, Gracie opted for a divorce. Fueled by her need for revenge, Gracie joined hands with Lorenzo’s uncle, Waylon, and orchestrated Lorenzo’s downfall. In the end, Lorenzo was left with nothing and consumed by remorse. He pleaded for a reconciliation. Gracie thought she was free to move on with her life, but Waylon held her back in a death grip. “Did you think you can just walk out on me?”
After three secretive years of marriage, Eliana never met her enigmatic husband until she was served with divorce papers and learned of his extravagant pursuit of another. She snapped back to reality and secured a divorce. Thereafter, Eliana unveiled her various personas: an esteemed doctor, legendary secret agent, master hacker, celebrated designer, adept race car driver, and distinguished scientist. As her diverse talents became known, her ex-husband was consumed by remorse. Desperately, he pleaded, "Eliana, give me another chance! All my properties, even my life, are yours."
"It was just one night stand, and now I'm pregnant with triplets? Gosh!" Josephine Jade never thought that she would have to run away from her own family while pregnant. She was alone, without money, without connections, with three fetuses in her stomach. How can she survive? However, Josephine couldn't give up now, until she managed to reclaim her arbitrarily seized property and get back at everyone who tried to get rid of her. A sick child, a past crush that comes back, a mysterious eccentric man, and a family that hates her, will weave together the journey of Josephine Jade's new life. "You have no right to separate me from my children, you bastard! I will survive and you will submit to me. Just watch!"
They don't know I'm a girl. They all look at me and see a boy. A prince. Their kind purchase humans like me for their lustful desires. And, when they stormed into our kingdom to buy my sister, I intervened to protect her. I made them take me too. The plan was to escape with my sister whenever we found a chance. How was I to know our prison would be the most fortified place in their kingdom? I was supposed to be on the sidelines. The one they had no real use for. The one they never meant to buy. But then, the most important person in their savage land-their ruthless beast king-took an interest in the "pretty little prince." How do we survive in this brutal kingdom, where everyone hates our kind and shows us no mercy? And how does someone, with a secret like mine, become a lust slave? . AUTHOR'S NOTE. This is a dark romance-dark, mature content. Highly rated 18+ Expect triggers, expect hardcore. If you're a seasoned reader of this genre, looking for something different, prepared to go in blindly not knowing what to expect at every turn, but eager to know more anyway, then dive in! . From the author of the international bestselling book: "The Alpha King's Hated Slave."