Maintenance Unrequired

I was laid off. Having reached middle age and lacking any special skills, I could only work as a warehouse manager in a private company. On the first day of work, I saw a large, dusty object in the corner. An imported precision instrument worth four million dollars sat there as scrap metal. My new colleague scoffed. "Stop looking. The boss spent a fortune on it. Even ten experts couldn't handle it. It's just a decoration." I walked up and touched the familiar body of the machine. "I can fix this." The entire workshop fell silent. My boss came upon hearing the news. He looked at me with contempt. "If you can fix it, I'll give you half of my shares. If not, you'll pay with your life."

WARNING: This book is for mature readers only. Content is dark, strongly 18+, Readers Discretion is adviced. "Four months, babe. And I'm promising you the best life..." The nerve of him to call me 'babe' on our first date. This man is damn straightforward. "Best sex, I'd make your fantasies come true." He brought his hand to be exposed thigh. "Ohh yeah?" He nodded. "You're catching up quickly. So, what do you say, babe? Let's get on with the contract." I wiped my mouth with the napkin on the table, standing up slowly. "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, Mr Whatever Your Name Is. I'm not a whore. Go find yourself one to fulfill what ever sick fantasies you have in your brain." "Wait..." "Don't touch me. I'm done with this conversation." **************** Evelyn's four months vacation turns into a four months contract no strings relationship with a wealthy billionaire, Killian. As their relationship progresses, Evelyn slowly falls in love with Killian. Killian on the other hand feels his guarded heart melting away by Evelyn's genuine affection. But, what then happens when their no strings relationship ends with their hearts still yearning for each other?

"Ms. Smith, a complaint has been filed with HR. You have been accused of misusing your personal vehicle for unauthorized commercial activity." The administrative manager dropped a printed copy of the so-called joint complaint onto the desk, a faint, knowing smile on her lips. The company had decided to issue me a fine, placed a formal warning on my record, and revoked my performance bonus for this quarter. I stared at the handwriting on the complaint, then let out a short, incredulous laugh. I recognized it instantly. It was Selena Rogers. The same coworker who had been hitching rides with me to and from work every day for the past three years. It was all because of last night's storm. She had insisted I take a long detour to drive her to the mall so she could pick up her boyfriend, and I had said no. Then, in the break room, Selena's voice carried loud and clear. "Jennifer, I didn't have a choice. "We have to keep work and personal matters separate. The transportation stipend from the company isn't for you to make extra money." Around us, coworkers glanced over, whispering and pointing, as if they had completely forgotten how eager they once were to ask for a ride home. I took a slow breath. "Fine. I accept the company's decision." Then I pulled out my phone and made a call. "Mr. Wallace, I won't be renewing the lease on those two vans. "Yes. The ones that have been picking up and dropping off the admin and sales teams every day, free of charge." For three years, I had been the easygoing one, paying out of my own pocket every month to lease those vehicles so my coworkers could treat it as a perk. If that was now considered unauthorized business activity, then from this day on, everyone could figure out their own way to get to work.

For three years, I worked for my coworkers for free—designing, covering for their mistakes, cleaning up their messes. They used my work to get promoted, to win awards, even to run side jobs on the sly, and I never took a cent for any of it. Then I single-handedly landed the hardest client project the company had ever taken on and walked away with a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus. That was the day everyone lost their minds. The same people who'd leeched off me the hardest led the charge, cornering me at my desk and tearing into me in front of the whole office. "The whole concept for that project was a team effort. What gives you the right to keep the bonus for yourself?" "Your work has always been garbage. That free labor of yours was never worth anything anyway!" Worse, they spent the whole night digging up old grievances, stitching together every minor slip-up they could find, and spreading rumors through the entire company—that I'd stalled projects, that my work was worthless, that I'd tanked the department's numbers. Finally, they gave me an ultimatum. "Either split the entire bonus with the department, or pay us two hundred thousand dollars for our trouble. Take your pick." Even the department manager tried to smooth things over, telling me, "We're all colleagues here. You've already got a big bonus—taking a small loss won't kill you. Don't be so difficult about it." Wonderful. So three years of quietly covering for everyone had just produced a pack of lazy, credit-stealing backstabbers. Since they wanted to gang up on the one person who'd always played fair, fine. I was going to lay out three years of original files, timestamps, and proof of exactly who'd done the work—all of it, all at once. And what none of them knew was that the special project behind my bonus was an AI system built to replace every single one of them.

Contract marriage. (No string attached) Setting_ Los Angeles. Modern billionaire Romance. Proloque. Aryan Mahir, the CEO of A&M investment company who's produce the best quality brands in the whole Los Angeles, he can be describe to be cold hearted, grumpy, proud and egocentric. In order to maintain his status in the business world, he was to get married immediately, in order to get the biggest contract his rival companies are eyeing. He was set to find a wife as soon as possible. * Mia Johnson, a pity poor lady who suffered to make ends meet, she goes above and beyond just to send her only surviving brother to school, she lost her parents in a car accident, she grew up having almost everything in life, she lived a comfortable life until the world crashed around her and her parents was involved in a car accident that took thier lives, her uncle snatched away everything her parents owned leaving them with no money, and not even a shelter to live in. Everything gets worse when her brother fall very ill and needed an urgent brain tumor surgery, having no money, she tried to begged her uncle to at least help her brother but he threw her out of his house. Wandering around the lonely Street of Los Angeles, she bumped into a billionaire who happened to change her life forever. What happened when Aryan Mahir asked Mia to marry him for four months. For her to save her brother, she had to agree to the contract marriage, loveless marriage to a complete arrogant jerk. Will they love each other or their marriage will end immediately after the contract expires. *

Vanessa’s life was falling apart. Her marriage has failed, her company made her redundant and the lease on her apartment is up and the landlord plans to sell. Fed up, miserable and alone, she buys a country manor and vows to start a new life. When she arrives, she discovers a house almost in the same condition as her life. The roof needs fixing, the plumbing is older than some countries and the draft blowing up her skirt seems to be the only thing brave enough to go near her lady parts for years. Then comes Clay. Gorgeous with smouldering green eyes and a V that can make any girl forget the rest of the alphabet, but 15 years younger than herself. Clay seems to be the handyman she needs to get everything sorted, including between the sheets. But with the town gossip ladies against them due to the age difference and Vanessa’s ex dead set on destroying her, could handyman Clay be the fresh start her heart desperately craves?