Falling for My Best Friend's Brother
Avery Nash had two lives and one rule. Keep them completely separate.
By day she was the captain of the Crestwood University cheer squad and a Business Management student holding onto her scholarship by her fingernails.
By night she was Scarlett, masked and wigged and untouchable, dancing at Velvet Underground to cover the gap between what her scholarship paid and what her mother's deadbeat boyfriend kept taking from them.
On the night her boyfriend cheated on her with her biggest rival, Avery made one reckless decision. She followed a brooding stranger back to his motel room and gave him the one thing she had been saving.
Her virginity.
"Take off the mask. I want to see you." He had said.
"A little mystery never hurt anyone, did it?" she replied.
She slipped out before dawn, telling herself she would never see him again.
Then she rang her best friend, Jade's doorbell and he answered the door.
Liam Harrington was Jade's new stepbrother, who she hated, the transfer quarterback every girl on campus was already talking about, and the boy sitting three seats away from her in every Business Management lecture.
He was also the only person in the world who knew what Avery felt like without her armour on. He just did not know her real face.
Now Avery was living three lives at once. The captain, the stripper, and the girl quietly falling for the one man she was absolutely forbidden to want.
And the secret that started as one reckless birthday night was growing into something big enough to burn everything she had built.
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Chapter: 404: FINALSAvery's POVThe days between the semi final and the championship went faster than any week had gone all year, practice stacking on practice, the whole squad and team moving toward giving their best that day Vega ran us through full routines every day, not letting up, and by Thursday, even Mia admitted she was starting to feel the nerves kick in even though she was just the cheerleader."I keep running the formations in my head at night," she said, stretching out her calves after practice."Same," I said. "I woke up at three this morning convinced I had forgotten the third transition.""Had you?" she asked in partial panic."No," I said. "I just needed to check."We laughed about it. "I can only imagine the nerves the guys are having right now," she said. "Training like their lives depend on it."“I really hope they win though.” I added."Do you feel bad for Colton, about him being stripped off his captain patch? You know he was once your man," she asked."A little," I said. "But most
Last Updated: 2026-07-31
Chapter: 403: Coach's decisionLiam's POVI took the screenshots to Coach Reyes in the morning, laying them out on his desk one at a time, the account, the post, the timestamp that placed Brandon Cole exactly where the messages had come from. Reyes did not say anything at first, just picked up each printout in order, reading them the way you read something you knew was damaging and did not want it to be true."This is the account that sent Avery those messages," I said. "Back when the videos of her at that club were still coming apart in pieces. Brandon has no connection to her at all. Colton does. And we both know who Brandon is loyal to."Reyes studied the screenshots without saying anything, turning each one over slowly."You are telling me Colton used Brandon to go after your girlfriend," he said."Yes coach. That's what I believe." I said. "He has humiliated her several times because she is also his ex-girlfriend.""And the plays," Reyes said. "Last week's game. The ones that nearly cost us the win, you also
Last Updated: 2026-07-31
Chapter: 402: Whatever it takesAvery's POVI met Jade for coffee on Sunday, and she talked for ten straight minutes about Carter, about how strange it still was to actually like spending time with him. She was telling me about a conversation they had had over breakfast that morning that had made her laugh.She looked really happy and excited to be talking about him."I think I am actually glad my mom married him," she said, sounding faintly surprised at her own words. "I did not expect to ever say that out loud in my entire life about any man.""I am glad you finally accepted him," I replied smiling."It took long enough," she said. "But I think that is fine. Some things are supposed to take a while.""Does your mom know how far you have come with him," I asked."I told her last week," Jade said. "She cried a little. I think she had been waiting a long time to hear it.""That is sweet," I said."It is," Jade said. "I am glad I finally got there."I saw my mom that evening, home early from her second bookkeeping cla
Last Updated: 2026-07-31
Chapter: 401: An ordinary weekAvery's POVA new day started with the alarm going off at seven, and I lay in my bed briefly before getting up, appreciating the luxury of a morning that did not begin with dread already sitting in my chest, just the ordinary weight of a day that needed nothing more from me than showing up and doing the things already on my list.I went to the athletics office for my shift at nine, and Denise had a new set of posts waiting for me, something about the upcoming basketball fixtures. I spent the morning drafting captions and scheduling them properly, the work settling into a rhythm now that felt entirely mine. Owen had brought biscuits, unprompted, and left three on my desk without saying anything about it, which was a clear sign of a healthy working environment."You are getting faster," Denise said, checking my drafts. "Barely any corrections needed today.""I am starting to actually understand what you want," I said."That is usually how it works," she said. "Give it another month and
Last Updated: 2026-07-31
Chapter: 400: She's leavingAvery's POVLiam and I started doing things together again as boyfriend and girlfriend. At dinner on a certain night, he mentioned something random very casually.It was just the two of us and a takeaway we had not bothered to plate properly, the kind of evening that had become normal between us over the past few days. Carter, his dad, was out somewhere with Linda, Jade's mom, and my mom was out with a few friends. We were home alone."Zoey is transferring," he said, not looking up from his food, saying it the way you mentioned something that had stopped mattering to you."When did you hear that?" I asked."She told me herself, actually," he said. "I ran into her outside the library yesterday. She said it simply, no drama attached to it, like she was done being obsessed with trying to get me back. She is leaving at the end of the semester, and moving somewhere closer to her family. She said it had been on her mind for a while, even before any of this.""How did that feel," I asked. "k
Last Updated: 2026-07-31
Chapter: 399: A little normalAvery's POVI wasn't happy about the way Jade barged in and laid accusations on me. I really missed my best friend and I was working towards making things work again between us. Despite that, I understood her pain. She used to always be the first to know everything that happened in my life, but now is seemed like I kept a lot of things to myself. I decided to give her some space again, knowing fully well that we can't stay apart from each other for too long. She came back to my house on the fourth evening. We had an awkward cheerleading practice just that afternoon and I guess she could not bear the silence anymore.I heard the knock and opened the door and she was standing there looking like someone who had come over to vent."I hate that I cannot stay angry at you," she said immediately as I opened the door. "I tried. I gave it four days. I meant every word I said, and I still mean most of it. But I do not have it in me to keep this up any longer, and I am tired of pretending I d
Last Updated: 2026-07-30
A Contract With My Billionaire Ex
Anastasia's perfect marriage shattered on a snowy winter day when she caught her husband making love with her cousin. Kicked out with papers that proved her marriage was never legal, and on the verge of losing her business, a bakery passed on to her by her mother, she felt utterly broken.
When Leon Hart, the cold billionaire rival from her college days and the man she once rejected, walked into her bakery, she didn't expect mercy. Instead, he offered a deal. Pretend to be his fiancée for Christmas, and he would clear her debts and save her bakery.
But what Anastasia doesn’t know is that the contract she signs is a trap, filled with devastating fine print and fueled by Leon’s hidden agenda.
As fake feelings turn dangerously real, dark truths come to light, including Leon’s shocking connection to the accident that killed her parents. Trapped between a past that broke her and a future built on lies, Anastasia must decide how much she’s willing to lose.
When her ex-husband suddenly wants her back, she’s forced to choose.
The man who destroyed her… or the billionaire who might destroy her all over again.
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Chapter: 089: The waiting roomLeon's POVThe waiting area had metal chairs in a shade of blue that had faded to almost nothing and overhead lights that buzzed faintly and made everyone in the room look like they had not slept in several days. The floor was that particular shade of grey that hospitals always seemed to settle on, scuffed near the doors and worn smooth in front of the chairs. I stood beside the row of chairs nearest the door and could not make myself sit down.James arrived twenty minutes after I called him. He came through the entrance in his coat, still buttoned because he had not had time to deal with it on the way in. He looked at me standing next to the chairs and said, "Sit down, Leon." It was not a suggestion. I sat down.Anastasia had gone to find coffee. She came back with two cups from the machine at the end of the hall and put one in my hand and sat down on my left. I held the cup. I did not drink it. The coffee smelled burnt and faintly chemical and I was grateful to have something to hol
Last Updated: 2026-05-02
Chapter: 088: Eleanor collapsesAnastasia's POVI saw it before it happened.Eleanor was standing at the drawing room sideboard, telling the housekeeper where to put a vase. She had been moving it back and forth all day, an inch this way, an inch that way, and I was sitting on the arm of the sofa watching her with the particular kind of tired patience you develop for the people you love."No, a little to the left," Eleanor said, tilting her head. "Yes. No, wait — back again."The housekeeper shifted the vase without a word, the way someone does when they have learned that objecting will only add more rounds to the process."There." Eleanor pointed. "Right — "She stopped.Not paused. Stopped. The way a song stops when someone pulls the power cord out of the wall.Her hand, the one that had been pointing, moved slowly to the edge of the sideboard instead. Her fingers found the wood and gripped it. I watched her head drop forward a little, just a fraction, like something inside her was losing its balance before the re
Last Updated: 2026-04-13
Chapter: 087: Christmas morningLeon's POVMargaret met me at the door when I arrived at the Hart mansion at nine in the morning and told me that my grandma had been up since before 6 AM."She rearranged the drawing room twice," Margaret said. She had the expression of a woman who had seen many things in sixteen years of working for Eleanor Hart and had learned to measure which things were worth mentioning. She was mentioning this one. "She also called the caterer again.""On Christmas morning?""At seven forty-five." Margaret took my coat with the practiced efficiency of someone who had been doing it for a long time. "She told them she wanted to confirm the rehearsal dinner delivery time." She paused just long enough. "It was already confirmed."I thanked her and went to find Eleanor. I found her in the hallway adjusting the angle of a framed photograph on the wall by small increments, stepping back to assess it, then stepping forward to move it again. She was fully dressed, her hair done, jewellery on, moving with
Last Updated: 2026-04-07
Chapter: 086: Christmas EveAnastasia's POV The Hart estate on Christmas Eve felt like a breath being held.Everything was finished. Every wreath was hung, every candle set, every arrangement confirmed and signed off and placed exactly where it needed to be. There was no reason left to adjust anything but Leon's grandma Eleanor was adjusting things anyway. When I arrived at half past nine she was in the hallway asking the housekeeper to move a small vase two inches to the left. When I came back through twenty minutes later the vase was two inches to the right. Eleanor was on the phone with the florist behind me, asking about the delivery window for the wedding ceremony flowers that had been confirmed three times already that week.Leon was already there when I arrived. He was in the kitchen drinking coffee and looking at Eleanor through the doorway with an expression I recognised from the previous afternoon, the one where he was watching her carefully and keeping his concern off his face because Eleanor would n
Last Updated: 2026-04-05
Chapter: 085: Two days before ChristmasLeon's POVEleanor called me at eight in the morning to say she needed my opinion on the table arrangement for the rehearsal dinner.I had been coming to this house my entire life and I knew what Eleanor needing my opinion actually meant. It meant she had woken up early, found the house too quiet, and wanted someone there who belonged in it. I told her I would be there by ten. I said it without hesitation because there was no version of Eleanor asking me to come and me finding a reason not to.The estate looked different in the days just before Christmas. The decorations were finished and everything was exactly where it was supposed to be and there was nothing left to do, which meant my grandma had found other things to do. The caterer's first delivery of the week was coming through the kitchen when I arrived, and she was standing in the hallway directing two staff members on the placement of something that had clearly already been placed and then moved and then placed again. The tree
Last Updated: 2026-04-04
Chapter: 084: JenniferAnastasia's POVI stayed at the bakery until late that night.It wasn't the orders that kept me there. The morning prep was done in an hour and I had no real reason to keep measuring flour and reorganising the cold shelf except that the kitchen was where I went when I had too much in my head and needed to move my hands. I turned the radio on low and worked and thought about the planning session and the wedding coordinator's colour-coded checklist and the way Leon had answered me when I asked him if there was anything I didn't know.He had said no. But his face was obviously saying yes. He had always been a terrible liar and I could see right through him, and the fact that he had looked at the table for half a second too long before answering told me more than the answer itself did. I didn't bother pressing him for the truth though.I also thought about Jennifer's calls.She had called very recently, three days ago, in the evening, while I was closing up. She had used the warm voice, t
Last Updated: 2026-04-03
The Alpha's Regret: Divorced Luna Crowned Queen
As the only heir to the legendary Ruffo bloodline, Diana Ruffo is destined to inherit the powerful Moon Crown and her family's vast fortune. Believing Alpha heir Ian Fletcher is her fated mate, she marries him, unaware that he and his secret lover, Brielle Turner, only want her wealth and the ancient crown.
After exposing Ian's betrayal, Diana publicly divorces him, becoming the first Luna in generations to reject her Alpha mate. Determined to reclaim her life, she is stunned when fate grants her a second chance mate, Ian's uncle, Travis Fletcher.
While Ian is consumed by regret, Diana discovers the Fletcher family's plot against her bloodline runs far deeper than she imagined. As Travis proves he has loved her since high school and never desired her fortune, Diana must decide whether to trust the man fate has chosen or protect her heart from another Fletcher.
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Chapter: 023: Two FiresTravis' POV"Twelve," Dale called out, jogging back toward me. "Twelve fighters still standing here who aren't already tending wounded or hauling water.""That's it? Out of how many we started with tonight?""Started with thirty. The rest are down, hurt, or still fighting the depot fire.""Split them. Six stay here to finish containment and start the inventory sweep. Six come with me to the grain stores.""Six won't be enough if that fire's spreading the way this one did.""It's what we've got. Move.""You should call the main house. Get reinforcements out here instead of running on half strength.""There's no time. Every minute we wait, that fire spreads. Get the six loaded up, now."We loaded into two trucks, tires spitting gravel as we tore down the access road toward the east border. My hands were still raw from the bucket line, blistered skin cracking against the steering wheel, but there wasn't time to think about that. The radio crackled with half-finished reports from other un
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 022: Smoke on the borderTravis' POVThe war room still smelled like the last Alpha who used it, cedar and old paper, a smell I never managed to shake in a few days of sitting behind that desk. I couldn't tell if the smell was permanent or if Ian never used the room in the three years he was married to Diana.Dale Webb sat across from me now, a broad-shouldered warrior pushing sixty with a scar cutting through one eyebrow, the kind of man who trained half the fighters currently on patrol and answered to nobody easily. Two council members flanked him, Halvard and Odette, both silent so far, both watching me with the same flat, assessing expression."You want to move patrol rotations to a six hour cycle." Dale tossed the schedule back across the table at me. "That's going to burn through the border unit faster than the threats we're trying to prevent.""Eight hours is too long in that heat. Men make mistakes on hour seven.""Men who've run this patrol for fifteen years know their own limits better than someone
Last Updated: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 021: Earn itJames' POVThe question sat between us for a long moment before I answered it. "None," I said finally. "I don't have any audacity to think that. You don't owe me trust. You've never met me, and the only thing you know about me is a last name that's given you plenty of reasons to hang up already.""Fair enough," she said, tone still cold. "At least you're not pretending otherwise.""So why are you still on the line?""Because you care about Diana more than you care about being right about me. That's the only reason you're still on this call with me and I'm not giving up because I know you want what's best for her."It was a gamble, saying it that directly, but something told me flattery or apology wouldn't get me anywhere with her.Sussy didn't answer right away, and I took the silence as permission to keep going. "I'm not asking you to trust me because I say so. I know that's worthless. What I'm asking is for you to let me prove it, on your terms, not mine. Tell me what that looks lik
Last Updated: 2026-08-17
Chapter: 020: ContactJames' POVI stared at the number Travis gave me for longer than I wanted to admit before I actually called it, turning the phone over in my hand more than once. There was something strange about reaching out to a stranger under the pretense of protecting someone who had no idea she needed protecting, and I ran through the conversation in my head three separate times before I worked up the nerve to dial. Diana's safety wasn't something I was willing to get wrong because I'd been too nervous to make a phone call.She picked up on the second ring."This is Sussy.""Hi. My name is James Turner. Travis gave me your number." I kept my voice even, the way I did when I briefed patrol shifts, all business and no room for hesitation. "He said you'd be expecting my call."There was a pause on the other end, long enough that I thought the line dropped. "Turner? As in Brielle Turner's elder brother?""That's right."I heard something shift on her end of the line, like she'd sat up straighter."Yo
Last Updated: 2026-08-15
Chapter: 019: ArchivesDiana's POVThe pack archives smelled like dust and old paper, the kind of smell that clung to the back of my throat no matter how many times I visited over the years. I used to find it comforting as a child, proof that some things in Oakwood never changed no matter how much everything else did.Mrs. Halloway, the pack registrar, called me down that morning with a list of documents that needed updating now that I was legally Travis' wife. My name change, my new status filings, the property records that still listed me under Ian's name in three different places."It shouldn't take more than an hour," she told me, setting a thin folder on the long table in the reading room. "Most of it just needs your signature. I'll be at the front desk if you need anything.""Thank you," I said. "I appreciate you fitting me in today.""It's no trouble at all, dear. These things are easier handled quickly."I nodded and sat down, grateful for the quiet. Since the wedding, since the doctor's office, I r
Last Updated: 2026-08-15
Chapter: 018: What's leftIan's POVThe numbers on the screen didn't move no matter how many times I refreshed the page, like staring hard enough might change what my accountant already confirmed twice over the phone that morning. Two calls in one morning, both times the same careful, apologetic tone people used when they were about to tell you something you didn't want to hear. I sat at the same desk for over an hour, the coffee beside me gone cold, still hoping one more refresh might change something that was already decided weeks ago in a courtroom. Everything I'd built over a decade, gone in the time it took a judge to sign a piece of paper."You're doing that thing again," Brielle said from the doorway, arms crossed, watching me hunch over my laptop like it owed me something."What thing?""The thing where you stare at money that isn't coming back."I closed the laptop harder than I meant to. "I'm trying to figure out how bad it actually is.""And?""Bad." I rubbed my eyes, the numbers still burning behi
Last Updated: 2026-08-12
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