The Salt Fix

He's sugar. She's spice. Together, they will never work. She has done the impossible. Working for the country's most difficult boss for seven years. Rosaline Carter's work life is fueled by her love for spicy food, a fat paycheck, and dreams of sending her brother to Harvard. She's sworn off love completely. Until that fateful monday morning. "I need a fiancée, Miss Carter. And I need one who at least knows my favourite brand of coffee." A contract marriage to her boss, the impossible and difficult Alaric Sylvester? Rosaline never even saw him as a man to begin with. But for five billion dollars? She would propose to Mr Ice king and plan the wedding alone. Alaric Sylvester hates his assistant. With her sensible shoes, horn rimmed glasses, and perfectly polite way of speaking, she never fails to get on his nerves. She's the last person he wants for a wife, or even a romantic figure. Yet she's the best option. No one knows his schedule by heart, or his love for sweets. It's just three years. And he'll never see her again. With his inheritance on the line, the board of directors hounding him for being too antisocial, and rumours starting to stir...he will do anything to save his reputation. Including marrying his cold hearted assistant. And with her hatred for sweets, he's sure he'll never like her. It's only a marriage agreement. The terms were simple. But simple doesn't always equal easy. And the human heart is a traitorous beast.

Abandoned, betrayed and sold by the people she called family, Alexandra’s life is a nightmare. When she is sold to the man who she believes killed her parents and brother she swears to take revenge. But what happens when a more powerful emotion overshadows her hatred for him? Kieran battles with his dark secret but things look hopeful when the remedy shows up. The problem? The cure is unwilling and secretly plots his death!

Chase Grimm's aide-de-camp sent me a screenshot of an Instagram Live status. Guess who it came from. His new secretary. She was showing off a meticulously prepared lunch from a lunchbox. My handiwork, no less. I made it for him. The caption read: [He's a dark, cold CEO… and a shiny knight who saved a hungry princess with a gastric problem from eating mac 'n' cheese again!] Chase almost never posted on Instagram. Yet there he was, sharing a photo of a cup of ridiculously spicy mac 'n' cheese, captioned: [I have missed this.] The nerve of this prick. Then my mother-in-law sent an entirely unsolicited text: [What the heck were you doing?! You're supposed to make him a proper lunch! He can't stand spicy food!] After all that, I decided to call a supermarket. "Hi! I'd like to order 100 cups of instant super-spicy mac 'n' cheese and have them delivered to Grimm Co. Please and thank you." "Ain't I generous?"

BLURB For two years, Suzan Roland Sterling was nothing more than the unwanted wife of New York's most powerful billionaire. Forced into a marriage she never chose, she endured cold indifference, endless humiliation, and a husband who believed every lie told about her. The cruelest part? The only night he ever held her, he whispered another woman's name. So she walked away. Five years later, Suzan is no longer the broken bride he discarded. She is a celebrated pharmaceutical scientist, a devoted single mother, and the brilliant mind behind a medical breakthrough that could save the Sterling empire from the biggest scandal in its history. Draven Alexander Sterling never expected the woman holding the antidote to his family's ruin to be the ex-wife he never truly knew. As they are forced to work side by side, he discovers shocking truths one after another: the little girl who once saved his life... the mysterious woman he fell for behind a masquerade mask... the mother of his daughter... and the woman he has spent years searching for... ...have always been the same person. But some betrayals leave scars that love alone cannot heal. Now Draven must prove that the antidote to his collapsing empire may also be his only chance at redemption, if the woman he destroyed is willing to risk her heart one final time.

I finally managed to score a dream tutoring gig that paid an incredible $500 an hour. Nevertheless, looking at the family portrait sitting in my employer’s house, I saw my own supposedly honest, simple mother. In the photograph, she was leaning affectionately against a wealthy, tailor-suited sugar daddy, who was holding a 5 or 6-year-old boy in his arms. Her smile was even warmer and more tender than the day she sent me off to college. My mind went entirely blank. I whipped out my phone, ready to start a video call with my dad to catch her in the act. Suddenly, a rough hand firmly clamped down on mine. It was my mom. She dragged me into a blind spot out of sight, lowering her voice to a desperate plea. "Sweetheart, please don't tell your dad! His dialysis treatments can't be interrupted! This man is loaded, and he's more than willing to give me cash. I'm just bleeding him dry to pay for your tuition and keep your dad alive!" The corner of my mouth twitched into a bitter smirk as I set the family portrait right back where it belonged. "Mom, do you actually believe your own lies?" Her face turned deathly pale in an instant. I didn't press her any further, though. Instead, I reached out and thoughtfully wiped a speck of dust off the glass frame. "Fine. Make sure you do a good job then."

Chase Olympus: Her name was Lucy Roshid. Or Salt, as she was popularly known as, at Davenport. The brothel she worked at. She was never meant to matter. Just another transaction. Another body. Until my father touched her and something in me snapped. The Olia cult marked her for death. So I took her instead. Claimed her. Hid her. Now she’s mine. My kitten. I expected obedience. She demanded her freedom. What I got is obsession. She’s a risk I shouldn’t take. A line I shouldn’t cross. But walking away from her means losing more than control. It means losing the only thing that’s ever felt like mine. In my world, that choice starts a war. And I’ve already made mine. I keep Lucy. Or I die trying.