"You are a cold-blooded psycho! Get your filthy, bloodstained hands off me!" Through clenched teeth, Irma shrieked as she battled to liberate herself from the man's barbarous hold. His eyes were a refulgent inferno. They held an insidious fire of lust as they thrived deeper into her debilitated ones. "How flattering!" The man sneered, and Irma froze. A ripple of both ice and fire skint in her nerves at the man's vexatious riposte. Before she could amass any little bravery left in her, the man spoke again in a hoarse tremor, erupting a chill down her spinal tube. "But if you don't watch your sweet, dirty mouth, you snoopy, pesky brat, my third leg will shut it for you! Or maybe," he wavered, and fixed his dangerous, lascivious gazes on hers, gently stroking her hair as if petting his sweet, wild pet, "that is what you want, little dove?" A freelance journalist, flaming with ardent desires to unveil the secrets behind the series of mysterious disappearances happening in the city. Her hunch points her to the dark underworld of the mafia, and unfortunately, she crashes into LUCCA DE'MATTHEW-the other name for terror! Their encounter will evoke a catastrophe that only they can solve. But how, if their mere beingness is a menace to each other?
The Big Bucks Casino!!!
I am utterly rustled by an overwhelming sense of dread as we go in, but my desire to learn the menacing secrets encoded here propels me on.
"So, what exactly are we doing here, Irma?" Mary quizzes in a hushed tone as we enter the club.
My eyes get restless as we search for a table. My sister's voice is fervently echoing in my thoughts, beseeching me not to give up on this mission. My eyes fail to pick up anything strange, as always, and we finally settle down in the middle of this God-cursed casino.
She was last spotted here in this casino on the ill-fated night she vanished two weeks ago. She was the last of the thirty females to be victimized by the unidentified creature - the evil that has been roaming in this city for months now.
Nobody knows this monster, and if there is, then they are too scared to the core to even whisper the monster's name even in their sleep. But I am daring to unmask every single secret just to find my sister.
"You know why we are here, Mary," I say, still restlessly cruising my eyes around the place.
"Yes. But I don't get it, Irma. Why do you keep coming here even when you know that no single soul is willing to say anything to you?" Mary speaks again.
Yeah. No one is willing to talk. Underline that. Because I believe she put it just right...they don't want to talk. But there is surely something dubious about this place.
"That is the point, Mary. The workers here are scared to hell the minute you bring up this issue. One thing is clear - something is fishy." I respond.
"How long, though, do you intend to continue doing this, Irma? I mean, coming here every day and getting nothing at the end of it. Why don't you reroute your search somewhere else?" Mary again, and she is beginning to aggravate my demons.
I lean on the table, ready to send this friend of mine back home if she does not want to help me, but I restrain myself when two glasses of wine are brought down in front of us.
We have not ordered anything, as far as I can recall.
I raise my head, and I don't have to struggle so much as a male figure perches on the third seat around our table.
"I would listen to your friend if I were you." My ears are tickled by Don Emilio's irritating hush grumble.
Him? Here at our table?
He is the owner of this damn casino as far as I know, and he is supposedly busier than a bee. None of my exertions to speak to him have bore any fruits. I was only allowed to speak to some futile security fools who were just but a total waste of time. And now, the mountain just moved itself to Mohamed? Just like that, and with some trash of alcohol as what? A token of sympathy, or a peace offering?
And what's that he said again?
I am aware that there is no link whatsoever between any of the other girls' abductions and that of my sister. The sole connection among these disappearances is that none of the victims come from prominent families. They come from middle-class and poor backgrounds and are all girls of various ages. They all vanished from different locations.
My sister, however, disappeared from here. This was her last spot before she went missing. From this dreadful club, she placed her last call informing me that she was being hunted. Her line was cut before she could finish what she was saying, and that was the last time I heard from her. So, if not here, where else should I focus my search?
"I heard they call you the Don, so, pleasure to meet you, Don Emilio!" I remark bluntly because his facial idioms suggest that he is not here for anything good.
"Unfortunately, I can't say the same about you." He responds in a harsh tone full of loathing.
More than his unnerving tone, I detest the iciness in his ugly eyes and his cold countenance. It's like he is trying to scare me out of here or something.
"In our very first encounter, Mr. Don, why so much detest?" I query, fixing my eyes in his cold ones.
He leans across the table, our faces coming so close as he bleeds his unnerving aura on me. "Your frequent visit to my club is beginning to piss me off, young woman. I came to offer you your first and last drink in my club. Don't come back if you know what's good for you!" His baritone is despotic, the tremor in it adding more fear, but I ain't just giving up.
Is that a threat or what? Am I supposed to be scared? "I have not caused any trouble, Don. The club is open to all, right? So, why forbid only me from coming here? Are you scared that I might uncover something?" I speak, refusing to submit to his dominant gaze.
"It is already trouble enough having you here. Since this is my casino, I have the authority to determine who is and is not permitted entry. And I say that you are not allowed in here anymore." He says, his ears and eyes starting to flush with redness.
Why is he getting so worked up by me being here if there is nothing they are hiding? There sure is something I can get in here to fuel my search. My hunch cannot be wrong. It probably is no coincidence that my sister was right here when she made that call and disappeared. This place holds a secret that can help me find my sister and I am not backing down from knowing what it is.
"When I was begging for even just a minute of your time, you refused to spare me even a second. But today you didn't even let me ask for you. That speaks volumes to me, Don." I state.
"I had, and still have absolutely nothing to say to you, Miss Irma. I offered you the best help that I could, though. If it wasn't enough, then that is not my problem. Stop obsessing over my casino!"
Obsession? It is the life of my sister at stake here and he calls this an obsession?
"Maybe I am obsessing over this because there indeed is some clue here, and your actions prove me right, Mr. Don Emilio. I don't see why my presence would bother you if you are not hiding something." I affirm, and I can feel my rage rising up. I am shaking with range.
I spent years cleaning up a man. We were in love, or should I better say, I was in love, because in the end, that is what that shit felt. After all that I did for him, he heartlessly broke my heart. Found him in bed with our wedding planner two weeks to our wedding. And he had the balls to take pleasure in my pains. I almost became a murderer that night. Almost killed a man. I put the very first stain on my family's spotless name. My father could not take it. He distanced himself from me and stood a safe distance to watch the whole world rise against me. But in all these difficult and trying moments, one thing remained my solace and my beacon of all the good vibes that I yearned for-Joe Fredrick Montana. My stepbrother. And before we knew it, the connection bloomed into something we both never anticipated. It is wrong, yet so strong! It is forbidden, yet irresistible. For a while, none of us seemed to care about the consequences of our steamy undercover affairs, until something that threatens to tear everything between us and beyond happens. This, is our story!
Her grave sin was her spellbinding allure that blurred the blood-tie line for him, and his grave mistake was obsessing over a girl he was supposed to exterminate. The vicious King of Evil, the one who didn't have a heart, now finds himself trapped between vengeance, and the irresistible burning desires for the only remaining enemy he has left - and she, oblivious of the abysm of the evil he exudes, is determined to liberate herself from the cage of the monster at all costs. But her desires are inconceivable. Absurd! invalid dreams- or so did everyone thought, until things started taking a turn. What transpires when the vicious heartless monster finds himself at the feet of his culprit? What more miseries await Ella when the truth of her connection with the monster and the mystery besieging her get revealed?
Betrayed by her fiance and her family, Ellie thought, for a fleeting moment, that being tied down to a ghost she had never known was the only option. But that was until a wild thought banged her head. "Run, Ellie!" Her mind screamed. The heart is always right, they say, and at that point in her life, Ellie had no one to trust but her shattered heart. She ran into a new city, and as if fate had chosen to compensate her for all the sufferings she had gone through, she crashed with someone who swept her off her feet on their very first encounter. But months later, a call came through from home: "Ellie, my child. You need to come ASAP! Your father has been seriously ill. Your father needs you now more than ever." The voice of her nanny echoed through the line. The following morning, Ellie was once again packing her bags and saying goodbye to the love she had found. Finding her father on his sick bed and with a swam of doctors surrounding him broke Ellie's heart into a million pieces. And then came her father's plea in his sick bed. "My dear, I am giving you a choice out of this, but on one condition: that you have to meet your betrothed even just this once. Whatever you decide after that, I, your father, will respect your decision." This was what Ellie had always wished for, but given the situation, she knew she could not upset her father. She had to concede. But the moment her supposed ghost betrothed walked in, Ellie realized one thing: she had never known the face of betrayal until that particular moment!
“You are a cold-blooded psycho! Get your filthy-blood-stained hands off me!” Through clenched teeth, Irma shrieked as she battled to liberate herself from the man's barbarous hold. His eyes were a refulgent inferno. They held an insidious fire of lust as they thrived deeper into her debilitated ones. "How flattering!” The man sneered, and Irma froze. A ripple of both ice and fire skint in her nerves at the man’s vexatious riposte. Before she could amass any little bravery left in her, the man spoke again in a hoarse tremor, erupting a chill down her spinal tube. “But if you don't watch your sweet-dirty-mouth, you snoopy, pesky brat, my third leg will shut it for you! Or maybe," he wavered, and fixed his dangerous lascivious gazes on hers, gently stroking her hair as if petting his sweet wild pet, “Is that what you want, huh, little kitten?” A freelance journalist, flaming with ardent desires to unveil the secrets behind the series of mysterious disappearances happening in the city. Her hunch points her to the dark underworld of the mafia, and unfortunately, she crashes into LUCCA DE’MATTHEW - the other name for terror! Their encounter will evoke a catastrophe that only they can solve. But how, if their mere beingness is a menace to each other?
She got pregnant by the man she loved, but he left her. To protect the image of their family, Ayana Salma De’Mario was grounded and hidden like a bad omen, together with her child. Five years later, she knows only the walls of her room, her sweet five-year-old girl, her paintings, the young student she is teaching, and this mysterious ghost lover whom she has never met. But a tragedy strikes their family empire. In need of a savior, her family decided to trade the black sheep of the family to save their company. And in the picture enters the cold-hearted Adam Stone De'Leon, the most notorious heartbreaker the city has ever had. A proud womanizer who parades his sins as if they are crowns. But the moment he meets Ayana, something changes—something that leaves his walls in shambles. His heart starts beating for Ayana in ways he never imagined. He would go to any extreme to have her. Can she really resist him, or will she also make it to the list of uncountable women he has knacked and tossed aside like trash?
She was all alone, wallowing in divine grief and lamenting her losses. She had nothing to call her own, and all her wounds had refused to heal. She yearned for just one thing now—to disconnect from the cruel world. In the darkness, she closed her eyes, hoping to awaken in a place of tranquility—in heaven, surrounded by the beautiful souls she had lost. But to her bewilder, she found herself in bed the next morning with someone she would never have anticipated seeing again, especially in the darkest moment of her life—Liam Morgan Adams. Her ex. And he came with his own overflowing bucket of surprisal and sorrows that, for reasons best known to him, only Lynn could help him carry. "Bear me a child, Lynn. The price is yours to name.” He spoke, and everything in Lynn froze. A child! Her head spun some degrees, and when it settled, she squinted as the raw memories of her past pains surged in, fused with the memories of what they once had. And his constant, desperate plea left her between a rock and a hard place. Can she do this? Can this be her redemption? And Liam, why would a filthy, married billionaire ask for a child out of wedlock? And why Lynn, of all people?
Sequel to chasing my estranged wife; I want you back. ******** " You promised me!'' I screamed. "You promised that you wouldn't hurt me, you made the vows that you would stand beside me, Ryan, and what did you do? You broke me into smithereens. I don't want anything to do with you anymore. When I said we were done. I meant it!" Falling in love with him had come in a whirlwind, she couldn't account for how exactly it had happened but what she knew was that she didn't want to let go once she was in. For Ryan, when he made a vow, he had meant it, but nothing had told him about marriage, that it wasn't just a bed of roses, but it had thorns in it as well. When secrets piled up between them and vows broken, they had no choice but to let go of each other, but years later, he wanted her back. Like the air he breathed, he chased after her, but she was gone. Left with the remnants of his actions, he is torn between getting her back and damning all consequences or letting go of her and his children, which would it be?
Corinne devoted three years of her life to her boyfriend, only for it to all go to waste. He saw her as nothing more than a country bumpkin and left her at the altar to be with his true love. After getting jilted, Corinne reclaimed her identity as the granddaughter of the town’s richest man, inherited a billion-dollar fortune, and ultimately rose to the top. But her success attracted the envy of others, and people constantly tried to bring her down. As she dealt with these troublemakers one by one, Mr. Hopkins, notorious for his ruthlessness, stood by and cheered her on. “Way to go, honey!”
On the day of their wedding anniversary, Joshua's mistress drugged Alicia, and she ended up in a stranger's bed. In one night, Alicia lost her innocence, while Joshua's mistress carried his child in her womb. Heartbroken and humiliated, Alicia demanded a divorce, but Joshua saw it as yet another tantrum. When they finally parted ways, she went on to become a renowned artist, sought out and admired by everyone. Consumed by regret, Joshua darkened her doorstep in hopes of reconciliation, only to find her in the arms of a powerful tycoon. "Say hello to your sister-in-law."
Janice, the long-forgotten legitimate heiress, made her way back to her family, pouring her heart into winning their hearts. Yet, she had to relinquish her very identity, her academic credentials, and her creative works to her foster sister. In return for her sacrifices, she found no warmth, only deeper neglect. Resolute, Janice vowed to cut off all emotional bonds. Transformed, she now stood as a master of martial arts, adept in eight languages, an esteemed medical expert, and a celebrated designer. With newfound resolve, she declared, "From this day forward, no one in this family shall cross me."
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."
After three loveless years, Neil's betrayal deeply wounded Katelyn. She wasted no time in getting rid of that scoundrel! After the divorce, she devoted herself to career pursuits. Rising to prominence as a top designer, skilled doctor, and brilliant hacker, she became a revered icon. Neil, realizing his grave mistake, tried in vain to win her back, only to witness her magnificent wedding to another. As their vows were broadcast on the world's largest billboard, Vincent slid a ring onto Katelyn's finger and declared, "Katelyn is now my wife, a priceless treasure. Let all who covet her beware!"