All Chapters of Forbidden Romance Tales: Chapter 1 - Chapter 3

The night had not been kind to Leana. The text message glowed on her screen, a neat little bullet point summarizing the collapse of her professional dignity.“After careful consideration, the position has been designated to Jameson Croft. Your dedication is valued…..”Leana didn’t read the rest. She let the phone clatter onto the polished surface of the bar, the sound swallowed by the low hum of conversation and soft jazz. Months of late nights, of sacrificed weekends, of swallowing her pride and smiling at clients who talked over her. For a valued pat on the head and a rival with half her talent but twice the entitlement stole the prize.So, when her friends dragged her out for the night, insisting she needed a distraction, she hadn’t argued. She’d dressed up, slipped into her heels, and let them pour her shots until the bitterness dulled. The liquor burned faintly on her tongue, but it wasn’t enough to erase the sting of the day.“Stop sulking,” her friend Andrea sang out from the b

The fine linen of the tablecloth felt impossibly stiff beneath her fingertips, though Leana barely noticed. Her pulse hammered in her ears louder than the soft classical music that floated through the restaurant. She barely breathed, barely moved, as if any wrong gesture would make the world collapse entirely.Across the table, Ryan’s stormy gray eyes locked on hers. His face, calm and unreadable, held that familiar smirk that tugged at her nerves in ways she had spent the entire cab ride trying to suppress. But there it was, just a fraction wider, just a flicker before his expression shuttered into cool neutrality again.No one else seemed to hear her whisper. Her mother was beaming at David. But Ryan heard.He then gestured to the man who had just tilted Leana’s axis off its foundation. “Leana, this is my brother, Ryan. He just flew in from the West Coast last night to finally meet everyone. Ryan, this is Julie’s daughter, Leana.”The formal introduction was a brutal piece of irony.