Dark Romance Romance Web Novels & Badboy Contract Marriage Stories

I’m Maya Klein, and five years ago, Kaelnino Nathaniel de Cruz made one thing painfully clear. I was good enough to sleep with. Just not good enough to stand beside him. According to Kael, women like me didn’t simply step into families like his. I didn’t have the money, the name, or the pedigree to become his girlfriend, much less anything more. I could stay his secret. His mistress. Just never his choice. Romantic, right? A few weeks after he humiliated me, I found out I was pregnant with his child. So I left. Kael never found out. And I intended to keep it that way. Five years later, I’m a divorce attorney in Manhattan, which feels appropriately poetic considering my history with terrible men and mistakes. Then one afternoon, a woman walks into my office asking me to end her marriage. Beautiful. Polished. Miserable. And well very familiar. Mrs. Kaelnino Nathaniel de Cruz. Yes. His wife. Somewhere, the universe is laughing its ass off. Now I’m supposed to sit across conference tables from the man who once treated me like a dirty little secret and professionally dismantle his marriage without letting him dismantle me first. That would already be complicated enough. Except Kael still doesn’t know my real life includes a four-year-old boy named Rafael Klein. A boy with his eyes, his frown, and far too much de Cruz stubbornness. I’ve kept Rafael hidden for five years. All I have to do is survive one divorce without Kael looking too closely at my life. Keeping my ex at a professional distance should be easy. Keeping him from discovering he has a four-year-old son? Not so much.

To save her critically ill mother from a life-threatening illness, Aatika Shah is forced to sign a secret marriage contract with Rayyan Malik—the cold, ruthless billionaire CEO of Malik Group. Rayyan needs a quiet, obedient wife to satisfy his family's inheritance condition and retain his throne, while Aatika desperately needs money to clear mounting hospital bills. ​Bound by strict rules and a secret non-disclosure agreement, Aatika enters the cold, treacherous world of the elite. But as hidden family secrets, dangerous corporate rivals, and unspoken emotions begin to surface, their fake marriage of convenience turns into a high-stakes game of passion and survival. Will they keep their hearts guarded, or will the prenuptial vows become real?

One night. One contract. Three hundred and sixty-five days in the hands of a man she should never have touched.* Mary Blackwood never planned to inherit a dying empire. But when her father's company collapses under crushing debt, salvation arrives wearing a price she can't refuse. Andrew De la Cruz, San Andreas' youngest, most feared mafia king, offers five hundred million dollars to keep the Blackwood name alive. His condition is simple. *She becomes his wife for three hundred and sixty-five days.* What he doesn't say is that their story didn't begin with the contract. It began with one night neither of them will name again, a night Andrew erased with four words: *"That night meant nothing."* Now bound to him in a marriage built on power and silence, Mary is pulled into a world where loyalty is currency, betrayal is survival, and love is the most dangerous weakness of all. Because Andrew De la Cruz is not just a kingpin. He's a man built from secrets, violence, and an obsession he refuses to name. And Mary is not just his wife. She's the one thing his world was never meant to ruin, or keep alive. *One night started it. One year will decide who survives it.*

Alessia never imagined that the people who were supposed to protect her would become her greatest enemies. After falling pregnant at a young age, Alessia loses her family's love and respect. Her parents blame her for their troubles, while her cruel sister, Victoria, never misses an opportunity to humiliate her. Now, with the family facing financial ruin, her parents make a shocking decision: Alessia must marry a wealthy billionaire to save their reputation, regardless of what it costs her. With her four-year-old daughter, Natalie, as her only source of happiness, Alessia has no choice but to obey. She signs a marriage contract, believing she is surrendering herself to a dangerous stranger. But on her wedding night, everything changes when Drake Whitmore, a powerful and mysterious billionaire, arrives to claim his bride. Drake is cold, commanding, and impossible to understand. He makes it clear that their marriage will follow his rules, leaving Alessia uncertain about the future that awaits her. Yet, beneath his intimidating presence lies a world of secrets that she has barely begun to uncover. Then Alessia encounters Enzo Whitmore, the man who once owned her heart and disappeared from her life years ago. He is also Natalie's biological father, though the little girl has no idea who he really is. Their unexpected reunion threatens to expose a past Alessia has desperately tried to bury. As Alessia struggles to protect her daughter and survive life inside the Whitmore mansion, old feelings, family rivalries, and dangerous secrets begin to collide. Victoria has her own ambitions, Drake guards his secrets, and Enzo's sudden return threatens to turn Alessia's already complicated life upside down. Caught between two powerful billionaire brothers, Alessia must discover whom she can trust before the secrets surrounding her marriage destroy everything she holds dear.

BLURB "Get rid of it." Six years later, those three words still echo in Valentina's chest every time she looks at her daughter's face. Mateo Castillo never wanted a child with the wife he never chose. So she buried the truth, built an empire in secret, and learned to survive on nothing but her own strength. Then he walks in carrying another woman's blood on his shirt, and asks Valentina to fix what he broke. "Who were you talking to?" he demands, eyes narrowed on the laptop she just slammed shut. "Nobody," she lies, hiding five years of secrets in one word. She wants out. He wants thirty days to make his affair look respectable first. She agrees, because she has nothing left to fight for in his world. But New York gives her back her name, her career, and a man who finally looks at her like she matters. "You deserve someone who sees you," Adrián whispers, and for the first time, Valentina lets herself believe it. Too late, Mateo realizes what he threw away. "She's mine," he breathes, staring at a little girl with his eyes. "She was never yours," Valentina snaps. "You made sure of that." Betrayal. Obsession. A conspiracy neither saw coming. And a love that has to break completely before it can finally become real. He lost her once. He will not survive losing her twice.

You know those tropes you love? Fake dating. Forbidden romance. One-night stand that comes back to bite you. Yeah. That's my life now. My ex cheated. I got drunk. I found the most beautiful man in the bar and asked him to erase my memory with his dick. One night. No names. No strings. Then I walked into my first class. And guess who's standing at the front of the room? My professor. Cold. Untouchable. The man who fucked me until I forgot my own name. Now he's pretending I don't exist. Until he shows up with a contract. Ten million dollars. A year of playing his fake fiancée. Separate rooms, he says. Professional, he says. Living together. Attending galas with his hand on my lower back. Playing the perfect couple while the tension between us is thick enough to choke on. We're supposed to keep our hands to ourselves. We're not very good at following rules. His family wants me gone. Everyone thinks I'm a gold digger. But when they try to buy me off, I don't take the money. Because he looks at his father and says, "I'll walk away from everything. I don't want your company. I want her." That's when I knew. This isn't just a contract anymore. This is real. This is reckless. This is ours. So if you want to watch a cold, controlled man burn his entire world down for the woman he never expected to love... Flip the page. I dare you to resist him. I couldn't.

Lucy Bennett is about to marry Adrian Vale as church doors close. The groom at the altar isn’t Adrian. It’s his estranged twin brother, Alexander. The Vale family reveals Adrian vanished after uncovering a conspiracy buried within their empire. If his disappearance becomes public before the wedding, the inheritance controlling the company will fall into the hands of those Adrian was trying to expose. Walking away would destroy Lucy’s father’s company, cost employees their jobs, and erase the evidence Adrian risked everything to uncover. So Lucy makes the choice. She marries the wrong brother. But Lucy refuses to become a bride. While the world celebrates their marriage, she investigates Adrian’s disappearance. Every clue leads into the Vale empire and closer to Alexander. Guarded and impossible to read, Alexander protects Lucy from dangers he refuses to explain. As they uncover the truth together, an attraction neither wanted begins to grow. Then Lucy discovers the truth. Alexander found Adrian after his disappearance. Adrian wasn’t hiding from Lucy. He was hiding from people enough to kill anyone who knew where he was including her. Before disappearing to gather evidence, Adrian forced Alexander to promise: keep Lucy alive, even if she hates him. Alexander kept his promise. Until protection became love. Now Adrian is back with proof that someone inside the Vale empire orchestrated his disappearance and is hunting Lucy for something she unknowingly possesses. Lucy isn’t choosing between two brothers. She’s choosing who to trust before the conspiracy claims another life. Because in the Vale family, every promise has a price and the lie Lucy ever believed was that she was the bride.