Can I Read Booth By Karen Joy Fowler Online For Free?

“We’re friends,” I said, voice barely steady. Aaron’s lips curled, slow and cruel. “No, we’re not.” “Friendship’s too pure for this.” His hand slid to my waist, hot and claiming as he yanked me flush against him. “Do friends kiss like this?” He kissed me. Hard. Possessive. “Or grab each other like this?” A squeeze to my ass. A gasp. “Or think filthy little thoughts?” His breath burned against my ear. “Touch themselves to it?” My cheeks flamed. My body betrayed me. “Stop lying, Venus.” His voice was a growl. “I feel it. Every time I’m near you.” I whispered, “But you don’t even like me.” His smile was pure sin. “I don’t have to like you to fuck you.” Then the offer: “Let’s get it out of our system. No lies. No strings. Just truth.” He grabbed my chin, eyes lit with hunger. “Say the word, princess.” A whisper against my lips— “I’ll ruin you.” And God help me… I wanted him to. --------- Aaron Sinclair needs a bride to claim his inheritance. Venus Astor needs a miracle to save her dying mother. What begins as a cold contract marriage spirals into a dangerous game of buried trauma, stolen identities, and forbidden attachment. He’s ruthless, closed off, and refuses to love. She’s resilient, lost, and refuses to stay unloved. But when secrets unravel revealing a stolen childhood, a tragic past, and a vengeful stepmother, their fake marriage is the only thing standing between them and destruction. In a world ruled by power and silence, will love dare to speak first or break them both instead?

"Marry me. I would rather spend one lifetime with you – than face all the ages of this world without you," said a green-eyed, six-year-old boy before her. "Liam, why do you want to marry me?" Scarlett asked the young boy. "I want someone to be there for me," Liam answered. "To put me to bed, bring me to school, and someone to play with when daddy is away. I want someone to make me and my daddy smile. I want someone to love me and love my daddy, too.” The boy sighed and added, "I want my daddy to be happy too.” Liam gazed up at Scarlett and asked, "Miss Scarlett, will you give me a brother and a sister too?” "Wait. Wait. It sounded more to me like… you want me to marry your daddy," Scarlett said, bemused. The boy's eyes sparkled. He replied, "Why, Miss Scarlett, I like your proposal. I'll go tell Daddy.” Scarlett, “???” *** Scarlett Barnes was abandoned by her parents and shamed by her childhood friend and lover. Being labeled as the bitter ex, she yearned for her well-deserved revenge. What better way to have it than to be in the arms of another man, one that genuinely loved her? Her future love life and happiness were supposed to be her vengeance, but after a year, her surprise marriage proposal came from a six-year-old boy. Was this her chance at happiness? Scarlett soon found out that the boy's father was a smoking hot billionaire heir to the Wright Diamond Corporation in Braeton City, Kaleb Wright. Just when she thought the boy had won her heart, will she… fall for his daddy too? *** Book 5 of the Wright Family Series. This story can be read as a standalone. Search Author_LiLhyz on IG & FB.

Nora Ellison has spent her whole life not knowing where she came from. Adopted as a baby, and raised by her grandmother Ruth. Until Ruth dies and leaves behind a tin box containing a birth certificate she has never seen, a letter and a photograph of a woman she does not recognise with the words Chiang Mai, 1998 written on the back. She flies to Thailand to find answers. On her first night she locks herself out of her rented cottage, falls into a fertilizer trench in the dark, and ends up stranded on a deserted road in a soaked sundress with nowhere to go. A car passes by and stops. “What the actual hell do you think you are doing out here looking like that?” Arlo Reeves is arrogant, sarcastic, and impossibly handsome. She is convinced she hates him. He takes her in for the night anyway. What Nora does not know is that Arlo was partly sent to Chiang Mai to keep an eye on the cottage she is renting. What neither of them knows is that the secret buried in that cottage is the same secret Nora came to Thailand to find. As Nora starts her investigation, she and Arlo keep ending up in the same places. But the closer Nora gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes. When she finally finds it and as the pieces start to fall into place, a hard slap cuts across her face before she can say a word. “You think you belong here? You were given away. You were never wanted then and you are not wanted now.” The slap stings and tears fall as she hears those words. Meanwhile across the city, Arlo Reeves has a choice to make.

In one devastating day, Wisdom Weisz lost everything—her home reduced to ash, her marriage shattered by betrayal. While she stood in the ruins of her life, her husband was tangled in sheets with her best friend at the same day, showing not an ounce of remorse. Broke, heartbroken, and with nothing left to lose, Wisdom finds herself drowning her sorrows at the bar of a luxury hotel. There, fate throws her into the path of a man she’s crossed before—mysterious, powerful, and impossibly wealthy. He makes her an outrageous offer: become his wife... for hire. No love. No strings. Just a business arrangement—and a hundred thousand dollars deposited in her account with a single word of agreement. Desperate for a fresh start—and a perfect chance to strike back at her ex—Wisdom says yes. But nothing about this arrangement is simple. What begins as a cold contract soon blurs into something dangerously intimate. As secrets surface and emotions tangle, Wisdom realizes one terrifying truth: She may have agreed to be his wife on paper. But her heart? That’s a whole different deal.

For fifteen years, Gemma Black sacrificed everything for her family, believing love meant giving without expecting anything in return. But her world shatters when she discovers her husband is having an affair with her best friend... and her teenage son has been hiding the truth from her. Heartbroken and done being taken for granted, Gemma walks away with one vow: never to give her heart to anyone again. Determined to give her ex-husband a parting gift he'll never forget, she approaches Julian Ferguson—his ruthless billionaire boss—with a proposal that could destroy his long-awaited promotion. Instead, Julian offers her a deal of his own. One night. No strings attached. Gemma believes it's only a temporary escape from heartbreak. Julian knows it's only the beginning. As her ex-husband is consumed by regret and desperate to win her back, Gemma must choose between the family that shattered her and the man determined to show her what it truly means to be loved.

I thought my life was finally turning around. Hope was just within my reach. But when my dad's life hung in the balance, fate dragged me back to the edge. To save the person I love the most, I agreed to marry my cold-hearted, arrogant boss-a man who made one thing painfully clear: this is just a contract. There's no room for love. After a childhood filled with the pain and loss of my mom, my dad was my anchor, I couldn't afford to lose him. So I entered into a loveless marriage, bound to a man who buried his pain beneath a hardened shell. But as the days passed, I saw glimpses of his loneliness, his hidden vulnerability. Against my will, I started to fall for him, breaking the one rule he'd made: Never fall in love. Now, I face an impossible choice. If I give in to these forbidden feelings, I risk not only my heart but everything—my dad, my freedom, and the fragile connection we've begun to build. Can love survive when breaking the rules could shatter us both?