Shady Nook Picnic Area

“I am married, Mateo, you need..” He grabbed my hair aggressively and claimed my lips. “I don't care.. I still want you. You are mine!” He pinned me against the wall and grabbed my ass. “Mateo, we are in my matrimonial home..” “Fuck that” Astrid, a 30-year-old woman, and Mateo, a 22-year-old dude, got into a secret and dangerous love affair, but is it genuine from both sides and how long can they keep it a secret???

Blue Pierce, freshly eighteen, was well-aware her quiet New York neighbors cared for money, but not much else. What she hadn’t realized, were the lengths her own parents would take to get it. Sold off into a marriage with a man she’d hardly met, Blue has one escape: a clandestine affair with Vincent Carmichael. Her father’s boss. Dark. Brooding. Hot as a bitch in heat… and twice her age.

They call it Area Alpha 101. It doesn’t appear on the world map or the satellites, but it’s rumoured to be there. It’s unofficially the largest continent on Earth, but the humans aren’t educated on it. Only the top shots in the governments and monarchies know about it, but have kept it a secret from everyone else. No-one answers questions regarding it. People have been quoted saying that they tried to get in, but they only hit a barrier. This barrier is said to be invisible, yet you can’t see what’s on the other side. For centuries, no-one has been able to get past the barrier, and those who try, come away ‘bewitched’, or so it has been reported. You know what the funny part about this is? There are literally signs that say “NO HUMANS ALLOWED” just a distance away from the ‘barrier’. You can imagine the insane theories that the human civilization has come up with in regards to what they imagine could be behind the barrier. The biggest guess as you yourself would probably guess is aliens; but that’s just it – NO-ONE knows what’s behind the barrier. Except me that is. Or so I thought.

"I ask you one more time, Ally Shale, who sent you?" He moved closer to me and fired his interrogatory knives through me. Despite the fury in his eyes, I only felt one thing: his iciness. His words were as cold as he is. He terrorised me just with a stare. Was this the same man who had put his hot lips on me back at the club? Ice and fire don't mix very well. Every breath of the man on me sends fear rushing through my veins. I know he is capable of murder, as every mafia member is. He seized my chin and looked at me all over as if trying to find the answer on my body. "I can't name my employers," my teeth chattered as I spoke. I addressed him just as Kevin's man had. "Sir Tyler, I just... I didn't mean to intrude into your personal conversation… I was trying to just get close to you…." All of a sudden, I felt incapable of lying. It dawned upon me what I had just been injected with. But despite being unable to lie, I was still able to resist naming who I worked for. Lies and secrets were, after all, two different matters. Could I have been injected with the infamous truth serum? I questioned myself in fear. "Your resistance to the serum is strong, my little prisoner." He laughed coldly at me, but the next moment, his lips curled into an indescribable and yet amorous smile.

During the New Year’s, on the highway back home to our hometown, my younger brother pestered us to stop for a bathroom break. My mother nudged both my older sister and me. “The next rest stop is quite far from here. You should head to the washroom; otherwise, you’ll regret it later. “Be quick; don’t dilly-dally!” Just as I jumped out, my family’s car pulled away and started driving away. The temperature was close to the freezing point, but my parents left me behind at an unmanned rest stop. I could only rush over and yell after them, “Dad! Mom!”

To the outside world, Emma's life was perfect. She was married to the most powerful man in New York, she was the envy of many ladies, everyone wanted to be in her shoes because she had it all. Or so they thought. What people didn't know was that Emma had been sold off to Jeff as a result of her parents debts, they were the perfect couple outside but secretly, Emma was miserable. A unexpected pregnancy turns Emma's life upside down and when Jeff discovers that the pregnancy isn't his, he goes ahead and divorces her causing Emma to leave New York. Four years later, Emma returned to the city that was both her home and haunted her, now accompanied by her twins. Yet, New York was no longer the sanctuary she had hoped for. Jeff, still powerful and relentless, set his sights on reclaiming her. As if fate itself toyed with her emotions, the father of her children, Sam, reentered her life, bringing with him a second chance at love and happiness. Emma now has to choose between reigniting the flames of her past with Jeff or forging a new path with Sam, Emma faced her most daunting choice yet, one that would redefine not just her future, but the lives of her children as well.