Protecting the Billionaire’s Daughter
Aria Kingsley had been kissed before. But never like this. Not against the cold wall of her father’s mansion. Not by the one man sworn to guard her body, not steal it.
Aria has been raised like a jewel in a glass box—perfect, untouchable, and suffocated by her father’s power. When a threat against her life surfaces, Damon Cross, a brooding ex-special forces soldier with scars he doesn’t talk about, is hired as her personal bodyguard.
Aria hates his rules. Damon hates her defiance. But the more they clash, the hotter the tension burns. Every stolen glance, every forbidden touch threatens to destroy the walls between them.
Yet Damon’s past is as dangerous as Aria’s future. Enemies close in, secrets unravel, and passion becomes a risk neither can afford. In a world where loyalty can be bought and betrayal is inevitable, one question remains—
Can Aria survive falling in love with the one man she was never meant to have?
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Chapter: The Birthday SnubAria’s POVThe silence of a neighborhood group chat is a specific kind of violence.I sat at the kitchen island, the marble countertop cool against my forearms, staring at my phone until the screen timed out. I tapped it awake again. The blue bubbles of my sent messages—bright, hopeful, and containing a digital flyer with two watercolor elephants—remained suspended in a vacuum.“Lyra and Elara are turning Two! Join us for a ‘Two-Wild’ Safari Brunch this Sunday at 10:00 AM. 🎈🦁”Delivered. Read by Sarah at 9:14 AM. Read by Chloe at 9:16 AM. Read by Bianca, the undisputed architect of the cul-de-sac’s social hierarchy, at 9:20 AM.It was now 2:45 PM.In the living room, the twins were engaged in a high-stakes negotiation over a single, slightly chewed-on wooden block. Lyra, the firebrand, had her hand firmly clamped on one side, her brow furrowed
Last Updated: 2026-02-23
Chapter: The Sunday ServiceAria's POVThe three days following the clinic were a descent into a kind of silence I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Our house, once a place of celebration and new beginnings, felt like it was holding its breath. Noah hadn't eaten. He hadn't showered. He just sat in the guest room, staring at the wall, a hollowed-out version of the vibrant guy who had arrived two weeks ago.Next door, the Pastor’s house was a tomb of high-gloss brick. We saw the "private nurse" arrive and leave. We saw Timon leave for his mid-week Bible study, his head held high, waving to neighbors as if he hadn't just orchestrated a kidnapping and a forced procedure.I felt a cold, sharp rage every time I saw his silhouette through the window. It wasn't just anger; it was a fundamental shift in my soul. I had spent my life trying to be "good," trying to be the person who took the high road. But as I watched Noah wither away, I realized the high ro
Last Updated: 2026-02-22
Chapter: The Judas KissAria's POVThe silence that followed Lynn’s announcement didn't last. It shattered."Abortion."The word didn't come from Noah, and it didn't come from me. It came from Timon. He said it with the same clinical, detached tone he used to quote scripture during a lukewarm sermon. He sat back, his hands folded over his knee, his eyes as cold as two stones at the bottom of a well."Timon!" I gasped, the air leaving my lungs. "You cannot be serious. You’re a man of God.""I am a man of my legacy," Timon countered, his voice rising, gaining that rhythmic, booming quality that usually held hundreds of people in thrall. "I am the shepherd of this community. Do you have any idea what this does? A bastard child? Born to the Pastor’s 'pure' daughter and a... a drifter with no name? This is not a child, Aria. This is a weapon. A weapon that will be used to dismantle thirty years of ministry."
Last Updated: 2026-02-21
Chapter: Noah in TroubleThe air in our living room was so thick with tension I felt like I was breathing through a wet blanket. Noah sat on the edge of the velvet armchair, his face buried in his hands, his body vibrating with a frantic, restless energy. Beside him, Lynn looked like a porcelain doll that had been shattered and glued back together too many times. Her backpack—the one containing her entire life and those three life-altering strips of plastic—sat at her feet like a ticking bomb.I stood by the window, my eyes scanning the dark driveway next door. The Pastor’s house was a silent silhouette against the moon, oblivious to the fact that its foundation had just turned to dust.Then, I heard the heavy, familiar tread of Damon’s boots on the hardwood.My heart hammered against my ribs. Damon had been the rock I clung to through every storm of the last year. We had finally reached the shore. We had finally found peace.
Last Updated: 2026-02-20
Chapter: The Double LineThe air in the Blackwood house had been thick with a weird, uneasy tension for a week, but I had been too caught up in the high of my secret life to really feel the ground shifting under my feet. For fourteen days, Lynn and I had played a game of suburban roulette, and every time the chamber clicked empty, we just got bolder.I thought I was the one in control. I thought I was the hero, the escape artist, the guy who was going to walk away from this two-month stay with a girl on his arm and a clean slate.Then came the text that made the world stop spinning.I was in my room, staring at a map on my phone, trying to figure out where I could take Lynn when my time here was up. The burner phone vibrated against my thigh.“Noah. I’m scared. I’m late. Like, ten days late.”I stared at the screen until the words blurred. My heart didn't just race; it felt like it was trying to punch it
Last Updated: 2026-02-19
Chapter: The Addictive Edge of ForbiddenThey say you shouldn’t play with fire, but they never tell you how warm it feels right before you get burned.For two weeks, I had been living a double life that would make a spy sweat. By day, I was the helpful cousin, the volunteer at the community center, the guy washing his car and giving the neighborhood girls a polite nod. But every other hour of the day, my mind was thirty feet to the right, locked inside a brick house with a girl who was becoming my entire world.The tension was peaking. Every vibration of the burner phone in my pocket felt like an electric shock.“She saw it,” the text had come in three days ago. “The mark on my chest. She saw the hickey when I was changing for bed.”My heart had nearly stopped. “What did you tell her?”“I told her it was a spider bite. An insect from the garden. She stared at it for ten minutes, Noah. She didn't
Last Updated: 2026-02-18
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